deterioration of a PACIFIC PARADISE

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28542, 22 March 1958, Page 3

deterioration of a PACIFIC PARADISE

[Reviewed by

A.R.

Forgotten Islands of the South Seas. By Bengrt Danielsson. Allen and Unwin. 204 pp.

Most people have read “The Kon-tiki Expedition.’’ The latest advertisement for it states that o ver a million copies have been aold and that it is- still selling hundreds of copies a week. Readers of Thor Heyerdahl’s great adventure story will recall that the five Norwegian members of the crew of the Kon-tiki raft were joined by a Stfede, Bengt Emmerik Danielsson, the ethnologist, whose flaming red beard looked >s if it "had burned his face and scorched his hair thin.” That beard, which could not hide the placid nature and gay good humour of its owner, so resembled the red beard which the artist painted on the legendary Kon-tiki on the sail of the raft that for two months Danielsson was known to dock-workers at Callao as “Senor Kon-Tiki.” It was perhaps only to be expected that, after the expedition was over, the ethnologist should stay longest in the South Pacific. Tn any case. Dr. Danielsson has written no fewer than four books on the islands of the south-east Pacific. Of these, his “Work and Life on Raroia” is a serious and icholarly anthropological 'study of the lives of the people on that unspoilt island on which the Kontiki raft was wrecked. Danielsson spent over a year on this island with his wife and, later, a shorter period to check, up on some of his facts. His other books are lighter, more popular works, which the scholar may dismiss as “pot boilers” but which the general reader will enjoy for their easy chatty style and their entertaining stories. Of these, “Love m the South Seas” and “The Happy Island” have been published for some time. The former, in particular, has excited much interest and has had choice fragments, with appropriate published in Australian and American magazines.

Dr. Danielsson’s latest book, translated by F. H. Lye*, is ‘Forgotten Islands of the South Seas.” It is another light or popular work. Indeed, in many respects, it may be best described as the entertaining travel book of an observant man, who is also a trained anthropologist. It deals at some length with the personal experiences of Danielsson and his wife in the Marquesas Islands, the 10 lonely and almost “forgotten islands of the South Seas,” which lie about 600 miles north-east of Tahiti. This is the first book for quite a long time—and it may well be the last for an even longer lime —to describe life and conditions in the Marquesas, since the French administration has done very little there of which it can be proud. New Zealand’s record in the Cook Islands has recently been subject to adverse comment, most notably -in an editorial of the “Manchester Guardian.” But those who know something about the New Zealand administration will, after reading this book, be able to com-, pare it very favourably with the French in the Marquesas. “It is not surprising that the Marquesans do not like white

experience of them thJi? v uniformly bad; indeed, their lives have been one long «~. wn out . suffering since they first came into contact with our ™ ea f er “ civilisation.” “Civilised to death’ is the title which Dr. ?J‘t^r SSOn o. gives to his chapter detailing the general history of ,7. Ur ? Pea relations in the Marquesas. Although the book is entertaining and informative, the picture given of the native Polynesians is a most depressing one. population, which was ?S?!SS ted at between 50,000 and 100,000 at the end of the eighteenth century and given as 20.000 in 1842, the year of the French occupation, had dropped to 2303 at the time of the last proper census. While this decline may, in part, be attributed to the ignorance and superstition of the natives, to their laziness, dirtiness or other habits which Europeans scornfully condemn, it is clear that the sad drop in numbers is primarily due to the destruction of the old society with its taboos and protective customs and to the introduction of European diseases and vices.

The author is not so much concerned to account for his depopulation as to give his own impressions and a quite delightful account of his own experiences, but he mentions enough in passing to arouse real concern for the future of the native Marquesans. A few examples must suffice. “Uncontrolled drunkenness began and still exists on an alarming scale.” “Nowadays even little children smoke.” “Venereal diseases, previously unknown, had already been introduced by the Spaniards, but did not spread till prostitution became universal.” “Tuberculosis, influenza, smallpox and other epidemic diseases swept over the islands with the swiftness of a grass fire. As the Marquesans had no remedies for them or immunity against them, they died by hundreds and thousands.” Tuberculosis and elephantiasis would appear to be the worst of the diseases today and they are now endemic.

In Uapou, however, an energetic missionary took stern measures to combat disease and drunkenness. These measures were so effective that, the total population of Uapou actually increased from 272 to 685 in the same period. A neyr and healthier generation appears to have sprung up in. Uapou and the population gives promise of doubling itself within 15 years at the present rate of increase.

Father Simeon, the missionary in question, believed that most of the islanders’ troubles came from visiting schooners and he . therefore stopped the natives going on board. “As soon as a boat was approaching he rang the bell, and when the villagers obediently assembled he locked them all into the church.” He also did everything possible to make the natives teetotallers, which was easier than it would have been on some islands as the coconut palm does not thrive Uapou. But this island is not typical. Neither, apparently, was Father Simeon.

One chapter, “The Crazy Painter,” gives some well-known facts and some fresh details concerning Paul Gaugin, who spent the last years of his life in Atuona on the island of Hivaoa. Photographs of Gaugin’s daughter and his grave add interest to this chapter. Another story, which will be of interest to readers of Herman Melville’s classic account of the idyllic life of the natives in “Typee,” is Danielsson’s account of the same valley today. Taipivai, as it is called today, is geographically much as it was in Melville’s day, when he was a deserter .from an American whaler over one hundred years ago, but in all other respects it is different. The original population died out about 50 years ago. Most of the 300 inhabitants of today work for a French company. “The main street was flanked by* the same dirty tumbledown houses as one sees everywhere in this group of islands; here and there a few Marquesans were sitting apathetically on the steps of their houses or hanging round a shop. Nothing was to be seen of the merry, charming, children of nature described by Melville.” This review has admittedly dwelt on the more sombre side of Danielsson’s story but, despite the amusing and diverting aspects of thi£ book, this serious side is by far the most important. In other words, while there is still much that is attractive in the Marquesas, the theory that they constitute a paradise in the South. Seas is nothing more than a myth. To that myth the fact that the author and his wife had to leave in order to recover from elephantiasis gives the final knock-out blow.