AT THE SOLOMONS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 15, 11 February 1909, Page 4

AT THE SOLOMONS

KANAKAS AND COCOANUTS. SAVAGES RECLAIMED l!Y MISSION. Visi'ting Wellington at present is Dr. Northcote Deck, who is engaged in missionary work 011 Malayta. the least civilised and most dangerous island i7i the Solomon Croup, which really means the most unsafe island in the Pacific. In the course of an interview Dr. Deck said:

"The Solomon Islands lie stretched across the sea for some 601) miles, close up to the Equator, and four days' steam of New Guinea. The two staple industries of these islands, where our mission is working, are Kanakas aud cocoa nuts'.

TRADE TN" KANAKAS. 'Tor alwnt thirty years a strewn of vessels ha.s set out from more civilised lands looking for men who can work in the tropical sun. Some,, the largest fioet, came from far-away Queensland, which cried aloud for workers, the cane brako under a vertical sum being no place for whites. Others sailed south from Fiji and carried o/T hundreds to work the world's sugar there. Other vessels again Hew the tricolor of France, and hailed from New Caledonia, which, though a convict settlement of oldworld castaways has vast areas to be cultivated. Tin* fleets from over the sea converged in two main streams, one upon the Hebrides, further south', and one upon the Solomons, nearer the Line, to return laden with cheering Kanakas lining the yanb and bulwarks. There were some almsos in the early days, but these were soon righted, and all boats carried a <loveriiment agent to see that the traffic was carried on with justice and kindness Hut. this export, of Kanakas has been gradually restricted. First Australia shut them out. and all in that country were returned to their islam! homes. Since then Ihe Commiv siomr at Tulagi, the capital of the Solomons. has forbidden natives being tarried out. of the group, either to Xew Caledonia or to Fiji. The reason of this is that the growing plantations in the Solomons themselves require all the labor obtainable, -and so the export of Kanakas has ended. WEALTH TX.COCOAXrTS.

"With cocoanuts it is different. Vast ureas bought from natives, who were not occupying the ground, are being cleared as fast as labor can be obtained, to be planted \\ith eoeoanuts, the ground between being sown with >;iveet potatoes to keep down the grass, which springs up directly the forest is cleared. These plantations will not hear for several years yet. seven, years being the tin* a eocoannt -Valves before the milform. Meanwhile. planters, to kee/> things going, send round traders in shin? to buy up all the native nuts on the islands around for calico, beads, or tobacco. As a rule, each plantation has a M-hoonei. which cruise* from island lo island recruiting'boys* and buying nuts. Most of the labur comes from Malayta —an island so warlike, inhabited by a people so bloodthirsty and treacherous that for hundreds of miles anmnd areas of land have been depopulated by head-hunting expeditions in war canoes. Hut the very (putlilies which make Milayta. people so fierce and their island dreaded make lliem the best workmen and the finest, Christians when won. In consequence most of the labor Comes from Malayfa; but, on the other hand, all the. cocoauuts exported coitte from Hie other ishnnL of the group, the Malayans having lieeu too busily engaged in lighting to have had time to plant many eoeoanuls. However, the export of eoeoanuls, which are essential in the process of soap-making. continues to increase raJpidly. and settlement in the group on nil islands by Malayta goes on apace.

PLANTING THE COS PEL. "To know how our mission came, to begin work in Malavta, you must go back twenty-three years. At that time there were thousands of Kanakas in Queensland, but no Christian work was being done amongst them. On my uncle's plantation. Fairymead. there were hundred* employed', and Miss You?ijg. my aunt. felt impelled to attempt something. Disregarding educational work, she began with the simple story of the Old Gospel. Somehow it seemed to meet a. need In the men's hearts, and their lives began to be eliairbed, and within a few years planter* who had ridiculed the idea id* Kanakas having souls began to ask for the Chris* lian "boy*/ linding them better workmen. And so the work grew steadily year after year, spreading like a giant .•rceper all over Queensland, till the faraway northern plantation* were reached and won, and in every plantation and sugar district in Queensland reverent uroups' of one-time savages met morning ; and night to worship ihe one true Oo;l, and to wait for His Son from Heaven. For twenty-one veal's the work grew and multiplied till tihere were nineteen white missionaries employed in Queeus-la.nd.-and -4M men and women had been baptised after evidence of a changed life. Then, came the great exodus, when Australia cast out the Kanakas, and these thousands of Christians \ V erc forced back intc savagery. About half of tln'in belonged to the New Hebrides, where there is a strong Presbyterian mission working, and on arrival in the islands {lie "boys' were taken charge, of by ilvat mission.

STRENTOUS XATIYK Cllli IKTIAXS. '•The other half mostly from the single island of Malayta, in the Solomon group. "No trader can live on this i.-Vand. life is so unsafe. The coast, is fairly quiet for missionaries, but inland ilicrc i> a surging, seething mass of murderers and cannibals, and no white man has ever yet crossed the island. Here, then, 'the returning Christians from Queensland fell like a deluge. Many went inland, and for the present have been lost sight of, hut all round the coast groups eoilecTeiT here and in villages, built- churches, and began to teach. In all then- are about forty of theso schools, all taught by native Christians, none «f whom are paid. They | work iu their gardens by day and teach iin the school night and morning. In | addition to these we have thren stations for white missionaries, with European houses, nine white missionaries and the auxiliary mission schooner Kvangcfl, on which I have iived tile last eight months. 1 visiting constantly round the island churches. We also have stations on the islands of Ouiulaleanar and San (thrMoval. manned by native Christians." ' ..»•