TINY ATOLL JUMPS TO FAME.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 170, 20 July 1935, Page 8 (Supplement)

TINY ATOLL JUMPS TO FAME.

Airline Base In Mid-Pacific.

(From a Special Correspondent.)

SAN FRANCISCO, June 22. A little island away in the North Pacific Ocean has com© to unthought-of fame. It has been selected, as a base in the new trans-Pacific air route from America to the East; and in a little while, it seems, the machines of PanAmerican Airways will bo regular callers to that tiny atoll, situated about 20 degrees north latitude and about 107 degrees east latitude. This hitherto barren atoll, Wake Island', which for more than a century has menaced navigation on the Pacific and resisted the efforts of man to live on its sun-parelied soil, will never be the same again. Those who come here in Pan-American Airways clipper 'planes a few months hence can pause at a comfortable hotel in their flight between continents and admire the brightly coloured fish, the

strange under-water life and the delicate tints of sea and sky. But they will never realise the days and nights of gruelling toil necessary to make this spot habitable.

Unforeseen Obstacles. Unforeseen obstacles met at the three ! islands, Wake, Wilkes and Peale, have brought two important changes in the airways expedition's plans as laid down before the steamship North Haven left San Francisco ,to establish bases for the projected American-Asia air line. Firstly, the base for the Wake Island group will be installed at Peale Island instead of Wilkes, owing to changes that have occurred since the original naval survey of the islands 30 years ago. Secondly, the expedition may not continue on to Manila before starting back to the United States. If the necessary supplies and enough fuel oil to make the return voyage to the Pacific Coast can be obtained at Guam, that island will be the turning point. Permanent construction has already been started on Peale Island. The materials unloaded from the North Haven and piled under tarpaulins on Wilkes Island, are steadily being barged across the lagoon between the two isles.

Wilkes Island, only a quarter-mile wide, now has a railroad half-way across its slender waist. While possibly not the smallest railroad in the world, so far as mileage is concerned, certainly no smaller speck of land in the world boasts such modern transportation.

What Was Done in a Week. A week ago the roadway, as well as an acre of land where the material is piled on Wilkes Island, was an impenetrable jungle. Squat trees, with trunks two feet in diameter, had branches so interwoven and tangled that even the birds were unable to find places for nests. the agile tree-climbing rats and rattling hermit crabs, each carrying a sea shell on its back, were able to leap nimbly from limb to limb and crawl over the coral boulders beneath. Years ago Japanese fishermen built a house in one corner of what is now the cleared field, but winds scattered the sheets of tin roof, the weather rotted the boards and the jungle reclaimed the ground. Men swinging machetes cleared a way through the tangle and axes cut down the trees. Then the largest of the boulders covering the ground were broken with sledges and dynamite blasts, the hollows were filled with broken ystones and a nine-ton tractor, dragging heavilyloaded sleds, served as a lawn roller. Though the tractor is able to drag anything within reach, it cannot work at the same time on two islands separated by a mile-wide lagoon. It has been busy pulling the cargo being unloaded from the North Haven to the material dump on Wilkes Island, but when the tractor takes a barge ride across the lagoon to Peale, these 2000 tons of material must also be barged across the lagoon and so must first be handled by man power on Wilkes. That's why the railroad is necessary.

Anticipating some such possible emergency, second-hand rails had been taken aboard the North Haven, enough to lay a mile of track. Another broad path was cut to the lagoon shore, and two more days of juggling rocks made a fairly

strip to their waists and toil uncomplainingly on the most inhospitable spot of land that human beings ever tried to make habitable. But they know that in a day or two they will enjoy movies and all the comforts of home.—N.A.N.A.

AMERICA'S FLYING LINK WITH THE EAST.

level roadbed. Instead of ties two by eight planks were used, while long wire nailg took the place of ordinary spikes.

Getting the rolling stock required similar ingenuity. The emergency equipment included two pair of automobile wheels which, without tyres, fit the rails. Only one axle for the four wheels could be located. But that problem was solved. From a piece of pipe and other odds and ends the necessary second axle was welded.

A couple of carpenters put the finishing touches on the one-car railroad, and it was then ready to receive freight. Meantime another gang extended the tracks fanshape through the piles of material. Others, using logs sawed from poles and carrying more coral, built a pier on the Wilkes side of the lagoon. A similar pier on Peale Island makes three which have been built before work could be started to make this desolate atoll habitable.

Either due to engineering calculations or to Nature's foresight when she grudgingly stuck this meagre ring of coral up in the centre of the ocean, the railroad has a gentle downgrade to the new pier at the lagoon's edge. No pushing is required to get a heavy carload lot to the barge, though strong backs are needed to lift the lialf-ton cratcs on to the car. Site For Future Hotel. A load of big creosoted blocks, for the

foundation of a refrigeration plant, inaugurated the railroad service. A squad of carpenters, diggers and jungle clearers accompanied the blocks to the barge, ready to start work immediately. The section of Peale selected for the airways base has already been survyed. and the site of each building, and also of three radio units and an eventual hotel overlooking the lagoon, staked out. All efforts are being concentrated on erecting the refrigeration plant, including a windmill to furnish its required, water, as that will determine when the North Haven is able to continue westward to Guam and possibly to Manila. As anticipated, the water well dug in Peale Island, while slightly brackish, is still drinkable. The comfortable tent city, where the men live, will continue to be used for the time being. The expedition ship North Haven is now empty of everything destined for this air base except meats, eggs and other perishable foods that cannot be unloaded until the regrigerator plant is completed. Most of the cargo was unloaded on Wilkes Island and must be loaded on barges again and. ferried across the lagoon to Pealo Island—which gives a slight idea of the magnitude of

the task of making this island outcast of Nature habitable. Pealo Island looks vastly different to-day to what it did before it lost its sunless jungle about two weeks ago, when an engineer couldn't find the ocean except by climbing a tree, though the island is less than a quarter of a mile wide. Straight paths now form a gridiron on the island from the lagoon to the ocean. There are broad roads where .a tractor has trampled down everything, leading to clearings where, in a few more weeks, buildings will stand. At least one of these clearings is already taking form. A two-pole radio station has been erected, with its own wooden house, and sent its first message direct to San Francisco Tuesday morning. This message went through the air more than 4000 miles from the world's newest station. Tents, each with a board floor and cots for two to eight men, neatly line the company street, with electric lights in the centre. Farther along is the mess tent, with oilcloth-covered tables set for 50 men, and nearby is the cook's tent and piles of food supplies under tarpaulins. Still farther on are rapidly growing hills of materials being dragged by tractor from the shore. The unloading of stores does not halt even during a rainstorm, for the men

Ihese men were allowed to choose between immediate execution and a month in prison coupled with an entirely free-of-salt diet. Jf, at the end of that time, they still lived they might go free.

But man cannot live without salt. Except for a few cases, the victims succumbed—far more miserably than if they had met death boldly by the headsman's axe.

Tortured In Mines. Down through the ages the bloodstained romance of salt has slowly been weaved. To this day men are being tortured to death in the African salt mines of Argorgon. Stranded in a desert from which escape is impossible, these wretched slaves, incredibly shrivelled and old, labour day after day with only the barest supply of water. With rasping, salt-laden skins, sore eyes, and utterly miserable, they sink gladly into early graves—killed by the very salt without which they could not live. Yet in other parts of Africa salt is so scarce and so highly prized men have sold their wives and families for a moderate supply. Children will cast away their sugar-canes in order to seize eagerly on a grain or two of salt. In such places murder has been done for a bag of salt.

But if we move to yet another part of Africa among the Arabs, to cat of a man's salt is to form a most sacred and honoured bond between guest and host. Salt, here, is a not-to-be-dislion-oured symbol. The use of salt as a symbol of a contract or covenant that must not be dishonoured is very old. It is mentioned in the Bible in this connection in Numbers, xviii, 19: "A covenant of salt for

ever .. ." A similar quotation may be found in 2 Chronicles, xiii, 5. Sacred promises, these—not to be broken. Salt was—and to some extent still is —an emblem of purity. It was used by Romans, Greeks and Jews in their sacrifices. In the New Testament, Matthew V.. 13, Christ tells his disciples they arc "the salt of the earth . . at the same time warning them not to fall from grace, for ". . . if the salt has lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted?"

Even now, because Satan is supposed to hate and fear its purity, salt is sometimes put into a coffin.

Salary nowadays means a fixed periodical payment in return for certain services. Originally, however, the word meant salt rations, and is derived from a Latin word meaning salt. Ancient Roman soldiers and civil servants \Vere served rations of salt and other necessaries, the whole lot going by the general name of "salt." Later on, when money was substituted for the actual rations, the old name stuck.

In parts of New Guinea salt is used as money in the payment of salary. When pay day comes round, large lumps of salt are placed in the outstretched hands of the natives. And so the amazing story goes on. Good and evil. Health and sickness. Cruelty, honour, greed, purity, murder. The salt of life—and death. *