To the Kermadecs and Niue With a Tape-recorder

New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 523, 1 July 1949, Page 16

To the Kermadecs and Niue

With a Tape-recorder

P to a few weeks ago the unsophisticated natives of Niue Island knew little about radio and nothing at all of the motion-picture industry. But now they have seen and heard. both a tape-recorder-‘"funny little box that takes our voices away and gives them back. again"’-and Clark Gable and Greer Garson in romantic excursions on the talkie screen. The effects of these two products of civilisation on a people whose small home so little deserves its alternative name of Savage Island, were observed recently by Bryan O’Brien, who had been assigned by the Commercial Division of the NZBS to visit the Kermadecs and Niue, and compite information for a new series of Sunday night programmes. Only a short stay was made at the Kermadecs, but three nights and four days were put in on Niue Island, about 1350. milés north east of New Zealand. Niue has a population of 4,300 natives, of Polynesian and Melanesian stock, and 30 Europeans, who look after public

works and administration for the New Zealand Government. Here Bryan O’Brien recorded descriptions of the native way of life, its customs and its music. He also induced several of the natives to let their voices be recorded, and once they lost their initial shyness, they talked as freely as housewives over a cup of tea. Films in the Jungle All interest at the time was centred in the picture theatre-simply a clearing in the’ jungle with walls of sacking strung from poles, a 16 mm. projector, and a screen measuring 10ft. by 10ft. "All through the screenings an interpreter went flat out, raising his voice in competition with the screen characters, and explaining the plot," Mr. O’Brien told The Listener. "Though the natives had no idea what an American melodrama was all about they were still enchanted with what was to them the magic of it all." The visitors were entertained in island style, and treated to such dishes as fish baked in coconut cream, To drink

they had non-alcoholic otai, made from ti-root and coconut milk. ~ Islanders with stronger tastes brew bush beer in secret, but on detection receive a term of imprisonment served

in a gaol which is just a very pleasant sort of farm building. Imprisonment seems to consist of little more than lazing in the sun-and singing home-made hymns. (continued on next page)

: »feontinued from previous page) The language of the Niue Islanders coritains many words closely akin to Maori, and village life there centres round the church, which is the largest and most important building in the settlement. A Bad Start . Originally two members of the NZBS set sail from Auckland on May 12, in the 94ft. ketch New Golden Hind, commanded by Captain A. Cole. The ship ran int# bad weather and the technician, H. H. Taylor} who was to have operated the tape-recorder, became seriously ill the day before they reached Raoul Island, im the Kermadecs. He rapidly became worse and the captain decided

to radio for medical advice. An Auckland d tor set a time-limit 24 hours to get Taylor into hospital. A Catalina fiying-boat | was sent from New Zealand, 600 miles away, and after circling seven of eight times, was put down near the vessel which was anchored off Raotil Island, It took 20 minutes to get the patient to the Catalina by dinghy and during the transhipping one of the flying boat’s crew had to be rescued from the shark-infested sea. The swells were estimated at between four and five feet high and the Catalina had a bumpy takeoff before becoming airborne. The patient reached Auckland with 10 minutes to spare and incidentally the Catalina delivered the first air-mail to New Zealand from the Kermadecs. As one man could not direct the recording and work the tape-machine at the same time, Captain Cole closed down the ship’s radio while she was at anchor so that the

operator, Ken Windsor, could assist. For two hours before the Catalina arrived, Taylor, though in great pain, gave Windsor tuition in operating the tape, so that it could be used throughout the stay both at Raoul Island and. Niue Island. The trip back to Auckland was just as rough as the outward journey and the New Golden Hind arrived back in port on June 3, with the ZB man 10Ib, lighter in weight than when he started. All this and more, including descriptions of the flora and fauna of Niue, will be heard in the programmes which Bryan O’Brien is now preparing. The series will be called Isles of Romance. --