The Pacific Islands.

Manawatu Herald, 2 August 1894, Page 3

The Pacific Islands.

* Again we are indebted to the British Resident for much curious and interesting information concerning the inhabitants of the Cook Group of Pacific Islands and the new departure they are making in their mode of life. It appears that the natives understood a kind of divorce law which considering how closely the different islands lay together got simply perplexing, and to make such severances valid the parliament has passed an . Aat to legalise certain divorces, stat~*ing in a kind of preamble " whereas certain inhabitants of the different islands of the Federation have been divorced in other than the islands to which they severally belong, and it is desirable to prevent any doubt as to the validity of suoh divorces : It is hereby enacted by the British Resident and the Parliament of the Cook "Wands: — 1. That the persons named in the Sohedule hereto have been and are legally divorced, and that the re-marriage of any of the Mid perionj was and ii valid and

legal." Then follows the names of fifty ill-assorted couples. The London Missionary Society is about erecting a school al Raratonga for the teaching and training of boys and girls, including the teaching of English, and the Government undertake to assist by the payment of §20 yearly for each pupil, not however to exceed ijj>i,OOd in iny ohe year; Tho Bishop of Magare, Vicar Apostolic of the Roman Catholic Church at Tahiti has also stated that he intends to establish a mission in Rarotonga. A school, at which English will be taught is also to be connected with the mission, and will be under the charge of two English or Irish ladies. A house and land have been purchased, and the mission was to have been opened last April. The British Resident has been working hard to get the chiefs to pay the judges and constables a salary instead of allowing them to receive the fines they inflicted. Pie ii muck satisfied with his success. The otfences of which these police took cognisance were almost exclusively against the moral law. A very wide field is not only thus opened for their exactions, " but," says Mr Moss, and it would be well if the present Govei'nment of this colony would take heed of his remarks " the moral sense of the whole people is blunted by unceasing espionage." He also says that among the police themselves were a large number that required quite as much looking after as the people in whose affairs they bo actively meddled. Dr Andrews, R.N., has reported on the health of the inhabitants and it appears most favourable, and he mentions that the island of Raro • tonga appears to be singularly free from malarial poison, He met with numerous cases of rheumatism amongst the older people, but he was surprised not to meet with more cases considering how much time the people spend in the water. He believes the climate of Raratonga one which would prove beneficial to any one suffering from rheumatic aflfec-* tions. Writing about the diseases of the larynx, Dr Andrews says it is frequently met with— in fact, it is rare to meet with a native whose voice is not hoarse, or peculiarly harsh and strident. It is a common thing on the death of an important personage for the young people to sing from eight o'clock in the evening till six o'clock the next morning with ouly short intermissions, during which they take such refreshments as tea, cocoanut-water, or orange-beer, and biscuits. These sing-sings, or as they call them, hymenies, are kept up for several nights. But singing and dancing are not confined to obsequies ceremonies ; they are carried on more or less every evening, and thus are the poor natives throats tried and, perchance, their neighbours' patience. The character given of the Rarotongians is, they are naturally a very clean people, abhorring dirt about the person.