WALLIS ISLAND.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 24, 28 January 1911, Page 10

WALLIS ISLAND.

CONDITION OF THE NATIVES; Captain J*- M. Cliffe, Auckland, writing to us with reference to certain reports which have been published in the Australian Press relative to the state of affairs on WaiHis Island, states:—"l "was very . much surprised to read of the condition *"■ of ailaiVs at AVallis Island. I really think there is a groat deal of exaggeration in , these reports. To start with, I was trading to Kotumah Fotuna, Wallis Ellice, and the Gilbert Islands for a-good •while, and on my last trip to Wallis Island, I was 1" days-in port. In ithe first place tlie people are no more imorant than, say, the Gilbert or Ellice Islanders. They mostly can read or write,-and in all tilings ar c "well treated by- the Catholic priests, in fact, I would say !tKey '.aft. just .as" well treated by the priests as the Gilbert Islanders or EUiee Islanders are treated by the Protestant .missionaries. Of course the priests, like other missionaries, are very strenuous in their endeavours to keep ithe people . sober, temperate and moral, -and in these efforts they are ably seconded by a noble band of women, •who have left civilisation and its comforts to minister to the moral and spiritual welfare of itihese possibly ungrateful lslnmlors. As for the natives dropping ' ''v ; r knees when a priest a-pproa-'-l '■• reference to Wallis i. Island, i- ;. -s I have on many occasions ;t. ;i ;;-. rn-pany, riding and wulking, with the pnrsts, and have met, as you may be sure, many natives, and they did not kneel to the pr : .-s.ts-<as "they ■passed. In fact, I was particularly struck with the air of comradeship that seemed .' to exist between the priests and natives. If it had been said that the Rjians knelt to the Protestant missionaries, I would have agreed with it, as I have actually seen this happen in Levuka, and also with the Rotumah men in Ratumah; but the Wallis Islanders, no; he is wayward, • ii ™w2d, and of a thieving nalture, in most eases; and I do not thing the sort of native to bend the knee to any Than. In fact, I can only say this much: That whiat I have seen of the Catholic priests and . nuns in WaMis Island is all t-rf ,'theii credit,.';and their ; behaviour could , only 1 one to-admiration: In conclusio;n, »I»jw>-idS emphasise- the fact that I ■■am "' a.'tstauSch always have ,Be&, l* arid'iljlFays walL'be';iibui ,'ih this' 'oase I ; must tell ithe .truth,, and Shame the devil."