TALL STORIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 131, 6 June 1938, Page 8

TALL STORIES

PET SHARKS IN PACIFIC

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

SYDNEY, May 27. Tall stories of the Pacific were told by Captain L. C. P. Tudway, of H.M.S. Leith, of the New Zealand Station, in a luncheon address to members of the United Service Institution. "There is an island in the Malaita group where the natives have a tame shark," he said. "It is a big fellow, about 2501b in all, and they call him up by smacking paddles on the water. We saw them do this, but the Bishop told us more. He said that the children play with him, and in the early morning they can be seen riding on the shark's back. "In the Solomons there are two islands, one of which has an excess of males and the other a surplus of females. When they marry, the girls have to paddle across to the other island, and they are not allowed to return home. One girl returned home, so the natives appealed to the Bishop. He asked the girl how she got back, and she said, 'I swam,' but the Bishop had his doubts, <js the distance was 18 j miles, the current very Strong, and the waters shark-infested. "'ls that true?' he pressed her, and she said, 'Well, I rested on the way sometimes,. as I had my shark with me, and I slen,t on his back.' "That," said the captain, 'is what the Bishop said."