VALUABLE DATA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 1, 2 January 1937, Page 7

VALUABLE DATA.

AIDING AVIATION. I WORK OF BOY -COLONISTS." —: — . • WEATHER REPORTS SUPPLIED —- i (From Our Own Correspondent.) SAN FRANCISCO, December 2. Unable to secure the customaiy weather reports from ships at sea because American vessels on the Pacific are held in port by a strike, the United States Weather Bureau at Honolulu has called upon American schoolboy "colonists," stationed on three isolated little islands, to supply daily observations by radio. These reports, in turn, are relayed to Pan-American Airways to enable .'their meteorologists to make the' necessary weather maps for pilots flying between Honolulu and Manila. ' The boys stationed at Jarvis, Baker and Howland Islands in the mid-Pacific, by the United States Department of Commerce, to record weather observations in preparation for the anticipated air service to Auckland and Australia, have - 'been supplied with short-wave radio sets. Within a few hours after being called into such emergency service, the youths had begun reporting their valuable data. They will continue to work., until steamers again travel the Pacific in sufficient numbers to satisfy the Weather Bureau officials in Honolulu. - "..*'.. "While we had no anticipated such an emergency, we are prepared to handle the requests and will continue to cooperate so long, as necessary," said Richard Black,." united ; States Department of Commerce representative at Honolulu in charge of the three little islands. .'■■"■■.-.^ 1 Adventure ranks with algebra on the curriculum of the Kamehameba Boys' School, a preparatory school.. for Hawaiian youths in Honolulu. Fifteen boys are enrolled in this adventure "class,": in which the grades incidentally are almost constantly "A.'l Selected

for intelligence as well as physical strength, the boys have been made American colonisers in the South Pacific on Baker, Howland and Jarvis Islands, which to aviation experts are potential bases on a sky route to Australia. The first members of Kamehameha's adventure < class, modern Robinson Crusoes, • were taken to these islands aboard the US. Coastguard cutter Itasca nearly two years ago. They made detailed weather observations and collected specimens of marine and island life for the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, celebrated for its Polynesian collections. The boys are replaced every six months. At present there are four on each of the three islands and three more at Wake, one of the bases alonp Pan-American Airways' route from Sai> Francisco* to Manila. On Baker, How land and Jarvis Islands the boys ar< doing everything from grading uji.'

! planting trees to developing vital water : supplies. Dr. Homer F. Barnes, principal of ' Kamehameha, where a youth must be at least one-eighth Hawaiian before he can seek entrance, emphasises that the 1 adventure course is one of the most important on the schedule. "It is 1 necessary that boys get the romance and thrill of some kind of adventure," Dr. Barnes said. "It challenges, the capacities of boys and puts them in the position of having something they want to do. Modern life has taken much of the physical adventure away from boys. There is far less horseback riding, hiking; conquering nearby mountains and that, sort of thing than in other generations. I think that is one reason why juvenile delinquency has risen to such an. extent. Gangsters ire in many instances but boys whose, •-•earning for adventure in' an automobile machine age lead?, them astray." L—*--——«„„.—