LIFE ON AN ATOLL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 31, 6 February 1937, Page 1 (Supplement)

LIFE ON AN ATOLL.

NEW ZEALAND TERRITORY. XHE PALMERSTON ISLANDS.

(Bγ K. 11. KXIGHT.)

The Palmerston Islands, situated some 1700 miles away from Xew Zealand, rise out of the coral reef like splashes of jam on a doughnut. Inside the reef in an amazingly blue lagoon; outeide is the sea. The islands, only one of which is inhabited, are fringed irith coconut palms. There is always an abundance of fish and sunshine. At the present time there is little else. A few coconuts survived the hurricane that desolated the island, there is a little taro. Apart from this fare the 00 natives who live on this theoretically romantic island are on the

Somewhere in the middle of the last century two white men landed on the island." One of them brought with him tliree native women. One was his -wife. He had three families, and from these people the inhabitants are descended. The island is divided, socially, into three—that which is occupied 'by the middle family, legitimate descendants of William Marsters; the east family and the west family. The present William Markers is the only living memier of the second generation of Marsters —a fine old man of SO years, with the ivliite beard and hair of a patriarch, and showing no trace of dark blood in his reins. Second Storm Disastrous. Before the palms had fully grown again, about two years ago another storm came, leaving utter desolation in its wake. To-day there are no matches, cloth, kerosene, flour, soap or any of the necessities of life on the island." Fires are kindled by the primitive method of rubbing sticks together. If anyone doubts that fish, pumpkin and taro might pall a little as a diet, let him think what it is like when the taro runs short, for as yet the patches where the taro will grow are few.

There is no soil on the island. To grow a breadfruit tree soil was shipped from Karotonga. There 13 only sand and so that the taro will grow it is necessary to dig a pit down to the rocky foundation, ahout eight or ten feet, and make a bed of mixed leave-; and sand. This is what the children do the week they do not attend school—they have one week at school and the next one making the soil ready for the. taro root?. Men and women alike work making the earth ready to receive tho taro—it is their hope of salvation.

Before the storm, came there were hundreds of pigs and chickens, hut they had to be killed. Xow there are two pigs, and about as many chickens. Livestock were fed on coconut, and of these there are now none to spare. When the palms grow again, and unless another devastating storm comes to the little island, the pigs and the chickens will bo allowed to multiply and replenish the earth. It is to be hoped that in the meantime nothing untoward overtakes these potential Adams and Eve* Religious Observances. They are a very religious people, these hardy folks. Twice daily the old bell—relic of a wreck—calk them to worship. They assemble in their separate homes and recite the Lord's prayer and sing hymns. Three services are held in the church on Sundays—long services, replete with sermon. Certainly they arc sometimes strange sermons", as when the noble chief. William Marsters, attempted to make a sermon out of a verse of the Bible repeated one hundred times, and changed ever so slightly each time for the sake of novelty. But to people who had been 14 months without news when the last ship called upon them; who he'd their usual seven-day birthday celebration of feasting, dancing, playing games and singing for George V. long after he was dead; who have practically no communication with the outside world and are virtually starving, such a sermon might hold no terrors.

'Xhc highest mountain peak on Palmerston Island is about ten to fifteen feet above sea level. It is called "Refugee Hill," and to this haven the people rush when storms come upon them. The island is so flat, so little above sea level that during a. storm the waves wash right over \C But fortunately the storms come but seldom. Although there is a good rainfall, there is plenty of sunshine —and time to fish.

There Is more than one way of catching breakfast on the island. Sometimes when a school of fish is sighted they are driven up into the shallow water and speared. Treading on the sand between the sharp and treacherous coral the natives stalk their prey, catching sometimes as much a; -100 and r>oo pounds of fish in half an hour. .Some is eaten fresh and more is salted and exported to some of the other islands where fish is not so abundant—if there happens to be a schooner to take it away. Pometimes the flying fish are lured' at night, ty light of coconut torches, to leave their happy waters. Sharks are caught, and porpoises, too. In all cases it is lappy hunting, 'for men only. The women do not fish. They make hats and mats, and the men fish". They may meet over the taro patch, in the kitchen conking the meal, or under the coconut palms; lint never in the milliner's shop, or on the fishing grounds. Everybody Danced. The dances held in the old house with the thick walls are strange affairs. When Envin Weber, said to lie the only person ever to take a boat inside the lagoon, sailed the Farys through the 12ft pass, he was a guest of honour on the island. The fatted chicken—not Adam or Evewas killed for him, and food was eaten with knives and forks. A dance was held. The old lamps that had been burning coconut oil, smelling and smoking as they went, were emptied out and filled with kerosene from the Fans' store. Every unmarried person from the age of five to fifty attended. Little boys about five danced with tall young women; young giants of men took a-s their partners tiny '.'iris. N. p one thought there was anything odd about it. The orchestra was one ukulele and one guitar, and everyone who was ljot dancing was singin.'. Between the European dances, learned from the one gramophone on the island, native dances were given. Everyone was verv happv. And so they live—these people who are 60 far away from civilisation, and all but starving-: They iish. they dance, they sing, tiiey make hats, and they wrest taro froni the unkind sand. When visitors come, which is but seldom now that no trade can be made with them, they treat them royally. They are a generous and kindly people, keeping death at, bay with a fishing spear and a spade. In another three or four years, if no more storms come to break their coconuts and their hopes, they mav have enough money to buy >iim; food. Then ships will call again', moved to friendly concern over the possibility of a little trade.