FANNING ISLAND.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1296, 12 September 1914, Page 3

FANNING ISLAND.

DONEDY ISDET OF THE PACIFIC.

A unit of the America Islands, Fanning Island is a typical Pacific Island situated about 250 miles north of the equator about the 160th meridian W. The group derives its name from the fact that it has been for many years frequented for guano by traders from the United States. The largest of the group is Christmas I Island, which is probably the largest of all in the Pacific, being 90 miles in circumference ; it was discovered by Captain Cook in 1777. The islands were annexed by Great Britain in 188 S in view of the laying of the Pacific cable. The greatest length of Fanning Island is miles, and its width about four miles. It is merely a strip of land, surrounding a lagoon. The highest parts of the land do not exceed nft, the soil being composed chiefly of coral, and some mould brought Irom the Hawaiin and other islands. The guano industry has been superseded by the production of copra, in which indentured natives from the Gilbert Islands and Mauahiki are employed, both on Fanning Island and Washington Island. Several people have, in turn, owned the freehold of Fanning Island. It is now in the hands of a company called the Fanning Island Ltd., with the exception of an area of about 30 acres owned by the Pacific Cable BoardThe only ship entrance to the lagoon is at English Harbour, on the south-west side, and at this point the only settlement on the island remained until the establishment of the Pacific cable. The cable station is at Whaler’s Anchorage, three miles further north, and formerly the guano shipping centre. This remote islet lies so far from the regular tracks of ocean-going steamers that a subsidy was formerly paid to induce the Canadian * Australian line to make a call at it once in every two months. That arrangement was terminated about three years ago, and a schooner, the Kestrel, makes a trip every two months from Honolulu to the island. The station is also visited once a year by the steamer Iris.