Happy islands in the South Seas.

Manawatu Herald, 25 May 1899, Page 2

Happy islands in the South Seas.

■9 ■ ' A romantic story of "some ' unsuspected isles in far-off eeas," i md of ihe way they come trader our ! Empire, is told in the " English ! Illustrated " for Jularch. One ! hundred and ninety miles to the i aouth of Java lies Christmas Island, and three days' steaming beyound will bring you to the Cocoa-Keeling group, a horseshoe archipelago of coral island?, The latter was di«. covered by William Keeling in the beginning of the ce.ntury. A Sottih Dynasty. But in 1825, the islands being still unoccupied, a Scotch sailor named Uos3, sprung from an old Jacobito family, landed and took possession, [n 1854 he died, and was succeeded by his sen, who in turn passed on he islands to bis son, Georga Clunies Eos?, the present King of i-he C )COS-Kceling group and ' monarch of all he surveys " It is, interesting to note that he was educated in Querns y, and ia married to a ooco9 woman who does • not pp?ak English. Hia brother Charlep, who is viceroy in his ib*enoe was trained at St Andrew 3 University. A third brother graduated in a lank in Baavia. A fourth is in New Zjahnd. A fifth, educated Edinburgh, commanded the family ■ichooner (forty tons) in which two >f the fimily sailed round the world. This Scottish dynasty elected to ad.jpt the British Qaeen as overlord and since 1857 the group has bean under the Union Jack. In 1887 it was formally annexed to the Straits Settlement?. The population numbers now 600, 400 being Cocos.born, 200 coming from Bantam. An Eabthly Pabadise — OhrUtmia Island, discovered in 1666, remained unappropriated until 1888 when Andrew O. Ross, brother of the,Cjcos king, landed with thirteen companions. The population is now 40. The writer •ays — The climate during the greater part of the year resembles a very hot English summer tempered with *ea breezes. For a time the only meat of the settlers was provided by ! the birds which swarm all over the island, and are extraordinarily tame. A Government official from the Straits Settlement who visited Christmas Island in 1891 declares that he caught a little thrush with a butterfly net, and " shot ten pigeons >n one tree, one after the other, without one of them attempting to fly away." Coffee can be cultivated with profit on the island. A high point of civilisation has been reached among Mr Ross's sub* jects, although it is not quite British for English ia nob taught in the me school that is situated in the (Jocus-Reeling group, and conducted by a native-islander, who was trained it Singapore. Indeed, some memherß of tb« Ross family themselves speak little or no English. Yet vaccination is carried on. —But for Rats ano Cats 1 Oo the other hand, the rats of Western civilisation are a great pest. They were once landed from a ship, md the cats that were imported to kill them have overrun the island and become a perfect nuisance themselves by killing birds, most of which were brought to the islands to destroy the cocoonut- beetle. But the islands are happy in a series of negatives. There is No Jail, No Policemen, No Opium, No Chinamen. The Rosses themselves *i do sorts of works ; they are excel- * lent mechanics and carpenters, and made their little schooner.