SOLOMON ISLANDS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 564, 22 June 1933, Page 7

SOLOMON ISLANDS

UNSPOILED .. CHILDREN COMPLACENT ACCEPTANCE BY NATIVES OF MODERN WONDERS. ! ' EASILY AMUSED. ^ ' 3 To most people the Solomon Archipelago is a mere dot on the map, though' these islands* have ta place in literature and iri the history of voyages, adventures, and science, writes a correspondent of The Times (London). In the Solomons there are the most fascinating lagoons sprinkled with tiny islands; there are winding waterways of deepest blue between P'atches of coral reef, studded with minute fragments of living igreen. Perhaps in no other island group is there such beauty in miniature'. A steamer passes every six weeks. She brings mail, stores (mostly rice), and tourists, and takes away copra and fever-bitten residents seeking a change in a more temperate climate. Lately another steamer has found the group in her commercial wanderings — a German freighter offer'ng better facilities for the disposal of copra. Some of the old residents, planters and traders, are appfehensive of this rush. No Need to Starve. The heginning and end of life in th'e Solomons is copra. Other Pacific islands exporfc ia variety of products. In the Solomons the outside world seems to he less interested. During the last few years the p'lanters and traders have been on' the bread line, or, rather, the cocoanut line, and there is no dole. But as banaras and. pineapples are abundant 'enough and! the sea teems with fish, no one need starve. Even th'e wireless seems to miss us, at least for weeks in the year. From D'ecember to April the atmospherics smother everything. Most of the residents who ha.ve radio sets strive to get the Sydney market prices on a certain night each week, mainly for hearing the price of copra on th'e London market. The listener .sits with the 'phones glued to his ears, and a torture of concentration on hiis face. All the tim'ei the announcer is wading through the celery and hlack eurrants the reeeption is good. Quiite often, just as h'ecomes to the copra there is a scream from a lost soul, and by the time the necessary adjustment is made he has got on to som'e1 triviality. The nlatives (are amused 'at this plaything of the white man's and have begun to assume an attitude of complacent acceptance to all these marvels. Sometimes the radio does quite well and good music from Sydney or Wellington comes through. White Man's Magic. One night a local enthusiast was listening to a description of some outdoor function, and round about the loudspeaker was a circle of a.dmdring natives. The announcer said: "The rain has come on, proceedings have ceas'ed in the meantime." Just at that moment the roar of a tropical downpour came swaftly across the jungle. They are not greatly concerned about band music coming over from Sydney in such amazing fashion, but that the white man can send rain as quickly as it takes to tell does rather indicate' big magic. What will happen if an aeroplane comes will be interesting to see. Only on one occasion has soch' a thiing happened in this part of the world, but the strange visitor was seen hy very few. What does amuse them to some purpose is some freak of nature or some peeuliarity about things with which „ they are familiar. On one occasion the whole of th'e popailation of a large village was agog with excitement. ; Through bursts of laughter they hegan to explain the reason to a white visitor. It was a cocoanut. The white man must see this wonderful cocoanut. It had falleu, from th'e tree and had lodged on some hard surface. The cocoanut had sprouted and, not content with that, had sent out its secondary growth and had produced a tiny suathe with fruit hndc cnmnlpf.p anrl

the whole thing was not more than a foot high. The precocity of this cocoanut seemed to amuse them more than many of the wonders of the white man. They are as children yet unpsoilbut they may not remain so much longer.