TROPICAL TAHITI

Press, Volume L, Issue 14987, 6 June 1914, Page 8

TROPICAL TAHITI

A DAY IN PAPEETE

WHERE EVERY PROSPECT PLEASES.

(By Geo. F. Inglis)

Every passenger between New Zealand and San Francisco heartily approves of the arrangement by which the Union Company's steamers have to spend a full 24 hours at Papeete, the capital and port of Tahiti. They show their appreciation by stampeding ashore the moment the gangway is put up and returning in a hurry tho next day .*» the third whistle goes. The day proves all too short for gathering information about the place, but it is amply sufficient to givo many vivid and indelible impressions of strange life in a strange land. Unfortunately "travellers' tales" are not all reserved for the benefit of tho stay-at-home folk. They abound [n their rankest form among travellers themselves. There aro always many people who have not taught their tongues to say "I do not know." That >s what makes it so difficult to get information of any value at short notice. "What is this pretty little island in the foreground?"'you ask, as you stand looking over from Papeete wharf towards Moorea. "That," says the man with the untaught tongue, "is the lepei station." Curiosity is immediately aroused. "Aro thore many on it?" someone enquires. "Well, no one knows. Eighty-five were put on it originally, but it is not known how many are loft now." "No one is allowed to visit them, of course?" "Of course not.- You see that little jetty? Food is left for them there every day, and one of them comes out and gets it after the boat has gone." "How do they, bury their dead? Do they put them.in the sea?" "Oh. no! They *.g £«*«* tor them on tho'island there." so on. Tho next day perhaps you . ia 1 into conversation with an American resident of Papeete, and make some reference to tue leper island. *°}°°** surprised. "That is the ordinary quarantine station," he tolls jou. '■Very seldom used. There is a compound for lepers, but it is about six or seven miles away, round .the coast road." Or you meet a very intelligent native chauffeur, speaking perfect American as well as six or seven other languages, and you think hero chance to find out something. lne population of Tahiti, he assures you, is 150 000 (about half of them Chinamen), and of Moorea ,50,000. When you learn afterwards that the 19101. census gave tho total population of lahiti as II.oUU, you try to forget as soon as possible the rest of tho information you got

from that driver. But if information is scarce, impressions are not, and on tho whole they are the moro interesting of the two. Papeete is an exquisitely beautiful spot. There can bo no two opinions about that. No ono who has seen it will ever forget the foliago of tho palms and tropical trees that line the narrow streets, covering them with a cool, grateful shade and hiding all but the largest buildings behind their varied hues of green. "Every prospect pleases." Theother half of the quotation is equally applicable. A British citizen can hardly avoid meditating with some pride on the evident differences between British rule on Rarotonga and French rule on Tahiti. The idea of protecting the natives by prohibiting tho,sale of liquor "to them, for instance, is peculiarly British, and could hardly be expected from any other European nation. It must be allowed to the French, however, that most of the streots in Papeete are excellently formed of concrete; that the roads are almost ideally smooth for motoring; that tho town is well supplied with electric light, with telephones and With water taps; but that pretty well exhausts the catalogue of evident virtues that can be attributed to th-i Government. Though the climate is tropical, the matter of drainage does not seem to have entered any official head, and. tho shops and houses send their refuse into the foul, stagnant little ditches that flank the streets on either side.

Nearly all the small shops—and all the shops in Papeete are small—are in tho hands of keen, alert, little Chinamen, who serve you Behind tho counter, sometimes clad in nothing more than a pair of light blue dungarees. The bargaining customs are essentially Oriental. "How much for this pair of white pants?" you ask. "One dollar 20 tents." "Too much! Too much." "Well, how, much you pay?" blandly returns tho salesman. •'One dollar." "All li." And you go away with your bargain, wondering what "John" would have said if you had offered half a dollar.

The undisguised dislike and contempt which the natives have for Chinamen ha-? no apparent effect on the stoical Celestials, and does not seem to 6tay the influx from China in the slightest. The Tahiti'took over 150 more on her last trip, and it seems now quite safe to say that Chinese form half the population of Tahiti. Their shops aro open till late at night, and again in tho early morning before daylight many of their places may be seen brightly lighted up, with an expectant little Chinaman waiting for business at the counter. From 11 a.m. till about 1 there is a pause in business on account of the heat. Many of the shopkeepers—men, women, and children—drag mattresses and rugs out on to the little, narrow, uneven verandah-footpaths, and lie down in heaps to dozo and sleep through the noonday he:.'?.

French, American, and English coinages arq all in current use in' Papeete, and the effect is decidedly confusing. You pay out a dollar and' get '60 centimes in change, or you hand over half a crown and receive hack two dimes and a nickel. As it is nutorrxirr to charge for the same article, either a quarter dollar, a shilling, or a. franc, tho wisest nlan seems to t>e to provide yourself with a sunnly of francs as the least valuable of the three coins. The purser will readily change money for you as you require. There are two newsr-anors published— —one in French and the other in the native language—hut their advertising department is not hijrhlv developed. The usual way to reach the ear of'the public is to nail up copies of the notice on the trees in the streets. Here' aro posted the bills of the picture shows at the Casino. Here you will find applications for water rights from one of the streams with which the island abounds, or notice of intention to construct a depot for petrol and carbide, and at the present time there are many proclamations about the 14th of July. The anniversary of the fall of the Bastille is the great day of the year in Papeete, and preparations for the elaborate celebrations that will then take place were going on as far back as March. In one notice the Government informs the population that the armed cruiser Montcalm will, remain at Papeete from July 11th to August Ist, and specially hivites the natives to take part in the public rejoicings at that timo. "Th 6 Government hopes that by their dances and songs they "will greatly contrihntea en relever l'eclat." Another placard sets out a draft sports programme for the National Fete. For the Venetian Fete six prizes are offered, ranging from 75 francs to 30 francs. The first prizes lor the dancing contests are 150 francs and for the singing -500 francs. Win-

fners of the various horse races receive ' from 200, to SCO francs. I In., iahiti the _»rench undoubtedly havo an exceedingly choice and valuable little possession, and Papeete harbour is not,the least important of its assets. It has very deep water right alongside the wharf, although this has not been built out into the sea,, but along the shore. An extraordinary fact about the port is that it has no tides. Whether there" is" any tidal movement that can be detected .by mathematical or not there is certainly nono visible to tho eye. Consequently tho queer little' native out-rigger dugouts can bo pulled up on the coral beach at any hour, and left just at-tho water's edge . There.is no fear that they will bo either washed away or left stranded far from tho water. No explanation is offered of this natural phenomenon, but it is said that as the distance increases from Tahiti

the tides are more and more marked on

the other islands of the group. The French Government intends still further to improvo the harbour shortly, and it should have,little difficulty.in making it rank as a really first-class port for vessels of any draught. The importance of this will be speedily obvious when once the Panama Canal is in full use.

Everyone who has a day in Papeete, should tako a motor rido. There are plenty of good cars for hire, and tho charge of four dollars an hour for five people must bo considered fairly reasonable. The swift motion of the car gives the effect of a delightful cool breeze. The luxuriantly growing trees spread their branches till they meet overhead. You drive beneath a bower of feathery foliage. Every bend of the road brings into view fresh scenes of beauty and fresh aspects of native lifo and ways. One of the sights of tho town is its fresh-water bathing holes. Ono of these, with a roof buried in greenery, is just off Quai dv» Commerce, in the Post Offico grounds. Here in the evening you may see a row of pants hanging on tho iron railing, and the splashing and shouting from inside.indicate that some of the natives aro enjoying an evening dip.

\ery few of the people in Papeete speak English, and a little knowledge of trench is almost indispensable, though here and there you come across a nativo who speaks broken English. Tho attempts to understand and be understood are often the best part of tho day s amusement for visitors. There is something delightfully ludicrous in the spectacle of a Scotchman endeavouring to locate a Monsieur Joubert by demanding of astonished. natives in tho broadest accent, "Whaur dis Maister Jew-bert bide?" and then wondering at tho dullness of the inhabitants. | All visitors are expected to see tho Papeete market, which opens' in the centre of the town every morning punctually at 6 o'clock. The market is divided into three sections—for fish, fruit and vegetables, and meat. The fish are of the gayest tropical hues, some of them extremely beautiful, if hardly wholesome-looking. The fruits aro in such variety that very few, even among experienced travellers, can find the correct.name for more than' half of them. The meat is very dear, but that end of the market at least is kopt scrupulously clean. Much of the produce is brought from a long distance, and the owners, with their families, sleep all night beside-it in the market. A busy characteristic scene follows the ringing of .tho .big-bell at 6 a.m., but the ovoning is really tho time to see Papeete alive and.awakei Then tho people come out to enjoy themselves, according to the customs and morals of the place. The centres of attraction aro the Casino, where pictures are varied by boxing matches and 'the dancing saloons. The morals of.the place are distinctly tropical. Competent authorities variously estimate t' c sufferers .from venereal disease in Tahiti at a very high percentage of the population. After an evening in the town one wonders who the small remnant can be, and whether, perchance, there are any Europeans among the eccentric minority. It was surely after a visit to such a. place as this that Mark Twain evolved the sentiment, "Be virtuous and you will be eccentric'? ■ ,'. , -;• ■' -■"• " ■ •. - • •- .

Some recent writers havo ventured to express the opinion that the native Tahitians have not yet been spoiled by white contacts These writers must have gone to bed before, dark. The "aggressive confidence with : which . ".la , belle Tahitienne" presses her; embarrassing attentions upon any male visitors from the boat speaks volumes-fqr the morals which most Europeans assnmo when they reach this tronical paradise There are times when one feels that'it is a distinct advantage "not to- understand the language that /is Beiri - spoken at hint. No. it is questionable ..whether any' of • the Ten Commandments' are known now in Tahiti; but, certainly, the seventh'is" not. '' >

Yes, 24 hours in Tahiti are an education. It gives a never-to-be-forgot-ten glimpse • into many fascinating phases of a life' quite distinct from that lived in any other part of the world.