IN THE SOLOMONS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 7, 8 July 1909, Page 7

IN THE SOLOMONS.

THE GOOD OLD NATIVE WAY. SAVED BY SOAP! AN INTERESTING INTERVIEW. The Rev. W. G. Ivens, who is a missionary in the Solomon Islands, arrived by the Ulimaroa last evening. He is accompanied by Mrs. Ivens, and will be in New Zealand for about a year. Mr. and Mrs. Ivens are stationed on Malaita, or Mala as the natives call it. They are attached to the Melanesian Mission — a New Zealand mission, by the way. In the course of an interview with a representative of The Post, Mir. Ivens bad many interesting things to s>ay about life in the Solomons. "Lonely ? We never "reel lonely there," he said. "We haven't time. There is always a lot to do. Climate? Well it not agreeable at times ; but we aie well, but sholl, no doubt, be much benefitted by our stay in New Zealand." Upon the dangers of life in the Solomons Mi. Ivens would not speak, but there was that underlying his silence showing that considerable risk was attendant upon residence on Malaita, and gieat privation, too. Reference was made to the repatriated natives, who had been sent from the Queensland sugar plantations. Mr. Ivens was asked what had become of them? "They have been absorbed,' 1 his said. "In an alimentary sense?" "JJ-no ; not exactly that. You see, many of them had committed murders, and the Queensland labour ships offered them a means of escape. But the murders were not forgotten. When they returned to the scenes of their crimes the friends of the survivors were waiting to give them a hearty reception. Yes ; many were murdered — that is, those, who had committed murder, and were not landed at their own requests at other islands. Of course all were not in fear of the vendetta. They had no occasion to be." "Did their residence in Queensland have any civilising effect upon the island natives ?"' "Not in the least. They were, as I said, absorbed. They went back to the old island ways. They had to. You see it was like this. When they landed their boxes and luggage on the beach — " "There was the Customs?" GOODS IN BOND. "Well, yes and no. Not Customs officers ; but ancient customs. The chiefs gave orders that no man's box was to be opened until he himself arrived. When he went down to the beach, the boxes and packages of the returned labourers were opened. The chief helped himself first. He took what he fancied most, and as much of the gear as he pleased. Then the next people in authority helped themselves, and after that the unfortunate man's relatives. Dear me, it was astonishing how many relatives he had — cousins, aunts, uncles, sisters, or others, came in shoals. They all had a dip in the poor man's boxes, j and left them empty. They even took the man's clothes off him and he stood in puris naturalibus. Beautiful sewing" phonographs, and things like that were left rotting on the beach. The ! people had no use for them. The man might secure a loin clotl» at the most,. Yes ; the returned labourers have become absorbed. All is now quiet. The people are great traders. It is chiefly in barter. Fish is exchanged by the lowlander and beach people for the produce of the hill people. The women do the tiading, and the men stand by with guns." "To complete the bargain?" "Yes." COMMERCIAL PROSPECTS. The commercial future of the Solqmons is great. There will soon be enough soap made from Solomon Island copra to wash the world. Mr. Ivens thinks the copra and its finished product — soap — will save the Solomons in a commercial manner of speaking. Levers, the Sunlight Soap people, have secured vast interests in the Group. They are planting cocoanuts extensively, all for copra. They bought one man out. for £40,000; but this was only a single transaction; there were others. The Solomons were to be linked up with other islands in the Pacific by the Marconi wireless telegraphy. So great had become the Lever and other industries that quick communication of this sort was absolutely necessary. There are no minerals in the Solomons, so far as Mr. Ivens knows — at least, attempts to find them had "proved fruitless. As for the pearl shell industry, that was diminishing. The shell deposits had been wiped out. There was abundant beche-deimer. LANGUAGE DIFFICULTIES. "We have great difficulties with the language — there are four distinct languages on Mataita," said Mr. Ivens; " and from them are derived many dialects. I have completed the New Testament in one of these languages. It will reach about 4000 out of the 30,000 to 40.000 people upon Mataita alone. I have already translated the four Gospels and the. Acts in one other language. We have prayer books and hymnals in the vernacular, too. The British and Foreign Bible Society have helped us much." It came out that Mr. Ivens's work was not all preaching and teaching. He was his own builder, architect, navvy, carpenter, plumber, and glazier. He has built churches and his own house. The lime was burned locally. It was made from coral. CHRISTIAN NATIVES. As for the grip of the elements of Christian doctrine, Mr. Iv6ns had no doubt whatever about the natives who had become regular communicants having got that. They were submitted to much testing and long preparation before admission to chuich membership. They stood the tests remarkably well. Their faith was most reireshing to behold. They had a native way of doing things— a native way of thinking. /They were intelligent people, with plenty of sound common - sense. Acquaintance with their vernacular and their mode of thought was essential to rightly understand them.