ISLAND QUEEN

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 326, 6 January 1937, Page 6

ISLAND QUEEN

WOMAN’S ESTATE. Life In Tropical Copra Plantation. Sydney, December 24. An • Australian woman, after a brief visit to Sydney, ha® returned to her island home in the Pacific, where she lives almost like a queen. She is the only white person on the island, and her virtual subjects, who are also employees, companions, and friends, are hundreds of-natives and a Chinese carpenter. She is Mrs J. C. Cruickshank, who settled with her husband on the island of Parolang, in the Shortuand Group, near the Solomon Islands, 25 years ago. For the last 14 years, since her husband’s death, she has had the sole management of an estate of nearly 500 acres, producing copra and other goods. Mrs Cruickshank was born in the Camden (Neiw South Wales) district about 62 years- ago. Her husband inherited the island estate from his great-aunt, a white woman born in Samoa, who> became known in the Shortland. Group as “Queen Emma,’’ and who up the land and laid out the plantation. The early* days of Mr and. Mrs Cruickshank on the island of Parolang were filled with adventure and work in developing the plantation. The natives were afraid Of Europeans, and labour was scarce, but gradually friendly relations were established. Sometimes the young couple were aiway for weeks travelling in other islands, recruiting native “boys” for work on the plantation. The island is a veritable Eden, where flowers and tropical fruits including bapaJias, paw-paws, pineapples, mangoes, and other varieties grow luxuriantly. She possesses cat-tle,-sheep, goats, pigs, and poultry. Turtles are also numerous. More than 40 natives are employed regularly oh the plantation and in attending to Mrs -Cruickshank’s motor-launches. Mrs Cruickshank is not entirely without white companionship, for Europeans who. have settled on neigh* bearing- islands visit her occasionally, and on one. island about 12 miles: away is- a plantation belonging to Burns, Philiiip and Coimpany, Ltd., where a white manager and his wife live. Another island contains a ! church and convent. Visitors sometimes travel from. Talagi, the chief port in the.islands, which is about 100 miles from Mrs Cruickshank’s home.