ONLY WOMEN WORK.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLII, Issue 9601, 8 September 1921, Page 7

ONLY WOMEN WORK.

MEN SLEEP AND EAT. Rapa — or, Rap a Iti, to give its full name — an island about 700 miles south of Tahiti, untouched hy the corrosive blight of civilisation, whose natives live m a state of primitive simplicity, is described as " undefined by Paris fashions or high-heeled shoes." Indeed, they have no fashions at all, except such of a cast-off nature as may be supplied at very rare intervals by the good people of Tahiti when the missionary schooner chances* to be going that way. Rapa would be the ideal resort for the tired .business man. It is a place where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary aaay find, rest if he be of the masculine gender. In Rapa the women do all the work — tilling the fields, preparing the meals, and even feeding their lords and masters. All the men have to do is to go out on an occasional fishing expedition, and the rest of the time they sleep. When dinner time arrives they are awakened, and the women of the house feed them by rolling the food m little morsels and tossing them into their mouths. The only effort the men are obliged to make is the act of chewing, and when this wearies them they resume their slumbers until the next meal time. Unfortunately, Rapa is remote and inaccessible. There is no direct communication from Tahiti, except when the French gunboat makes a voyage that way-^-once a year or so — or the missionary schooner makes its rounds even less often. Being well out of the tropics, the cocoanut tree does not thrive there, the only product of any commercial value being coffee. This is not, however, worth going; after, as sufficient coffee is raised on Tahiti and the nearby islands to supply the demand. Scientists are interested m Rapa on account of some massive stone works situated on the hills that look like fortifications. Who built them and for what purpose are problems yet unsolved. „ Representatives from the. Bishop Museum of Honolulu now m these islands are endeavouring to get to Rapa m order to study these remains and to solve the mystery of the builders.