OUR FIRST “COLONY”

Evening Star, Issue 17319, 6 April 1920, Page 3

OUR FIRST “COLONY”

RAROTOKCA VISITED. 'AN ISLAND OF BEAUTY. [By A. E. Clarke, Special Commissioner for the ‘ Evening Star.’] Something of the isolation of the Pacific Islands and of the remoteness of many from the centre of civilisation struck the * parliamentary party aboard the Mokoia before they got their- first sight of land. For six and ■ a-half days the steamer ploughed her way along before a glimpse of her initial calling-place, Rarotonga, was picked up, and this comparatively long voyage, combined with the rapidly-rising thermometer, brought home to members tp© fact that, though the Cook Group is a part of the Dominion, it is physically '©ry far apart_ from it, thus postulating different conditions of life and work. The group is something of a" luxury ©o far as New Zealand is concerned. It • is costing the Dominion £7,500 a year Ajy er , an d above the revenue raised locally, that isnot a big sura in proportion to the .treasures outgoings, but the questions arise whether value is being got for the * rnoney, and whether there is any real need for this subsidy. Rarotonga is an island . immense fertility; it has been a Doimmon possession for nearly 19 years, and •It has been costing them something every year. Certainly it has better local facili.ties than my island of its size in the Bout-h Pacific, but its resources are such that it should have been made self-support-ang long ere this. All through the Islands, there is a very strong tendency among the native population to rely on the white man for all social amenities, «nd if there is any authority outside the bounds of their possessions they expect that authority to foot the bill. While there may be justification for this in Hie earty developmental stages, there should be some limit to its duration, and Rarotonga should by now be in a position to stand on its own feet. • Mokoia’s party first sighted the island on the morning of February 23, but Ji. Y a /L not V 1 * °’ c l°ck in the afternoon that the anchor was dropped off the Ava•rua settlement. For a ‘couple of hours the Mokoia had skirted its palm-fringed shores, the_ legislative passengers scanning i oJ»° Ve J with high curiosity. For 1,800 solid miles they had voyaged to reach this objective, and perhaps the most immediate impression gained was one of fcurpnse at its comparatively tiny extent, ■the island of Rarotonga is a rough oblononly 21 miles in periphery, is vet capable of supporting m comfort and plenty a population of over 3,000 natives and “nearly a couple or hundred whites. This with as yet only partial development- of its resources .and with a transport service to the outer • markets still in its embryonic stage. The island is the result of some mighty volcanic upheaval of past ages, and its nidged interior consists of rocky hill formations which will for ever defy the hand of the cultivator. But around the sea coast extending inland for a mile or two, and for greater distances in the valleys, the soil washed down from the central backbone is of marvellous productivity. Rarotonga has a rainfall which is so regular.and plentiful as to satisfy the demands of every form of vegetation. Manures are little used; oranges are not cultivated at all, but grow wild: the cocoanut almost ■ looks after itself once it , has been planted; and altogether the life of the producer, apart from the difficulty ' j-A ea , n 8 markets, is one neither of difficulty nor anxiety. The size of the island apart, the voyagers found plenty to’ interest them as tney neared their haven. The reef rampart which defies the attack of the mighty Pacific, and ensures safety ashore even in the heaviest gale—there* are no hurricanes here—competed attention first A creamy ribbon of surf broke all round the whole 20 miles save where the outflow of the creeks had, by putting the polyt out of action, caused short gaps in the iron girdle. Standing guard at anything from a few yards to nearly three “miles from shore the reef encloses a lagoon of almost tepid water, safe, from the shark and other hyenas of the deep', where the eaters of the lotus may bask for hours in a comfort beyond the dream of the hustler of the temperate zone: . When the Mokoia anchored off Avarua it was intended to keep the passengers the ship until ner return from Mangaia, a day and a-half away. But the islanders willed it otherwise. They had killed 500 fowls; nearly a hundred porkers had paid the supreme sacrifice; hundredweights of knmaras, taros, and had been cooked; enough plum pudding to load a ship and enough fruit salad to float her had been prepared by the natives, and they wanted the tables cleared. Some task for 71 men, but they were game enough ,to attempt it, and, embarking in surf boats, they were towed by a fussy little launch to the wharf, where a couple of thousand natives and practically all the whites in the island were drawn up to welcome them. It was the middle of the rainy season, but the fates were kind, and no rain fell during the afternoon. The visitors marched in something of an irregular procession J to the Govemment offices at- the head of the wharf, where they were welcomed to the croup with enthusiastic hospitality bv the Arikis and the lesser chiefs, mataiapos. The greetings were necessarily brief, for a return to the ship had to he made bv nightfall, but they were clothed in .that beauty of phrase with which all the Maori races of the Pacific put their white brothers to shame. After Sir James Allen had briefly acknowledged tfielr hospitality, an adjourn-, ment was made to the grounds of Makea Ariki’s_ palace, where the welcome was made jn traditional native style in dance and song. THE HOPE OF THE FUTURE. The first welcome, by right, came from the school children of the island. The 500 pupils from the three schools were drawn up in front of a temporary stand, under their teachers, and here they bade the guardians of their destiny welcome bv very sweetly singing in English the Hundredth Psalm, a grand old Puritan anthem, followed by a song from the children of the Catholic school; the one phrase of which stuck being a reference to the “ Blrria which are blooming in the dell.” Then came the National Anthem, sung with a fervor and verve that indicated how deeply feelings of loyalty to the Crown had been inculcated by their teachers. The sight of these hundreds of brightlooking, if dark-skinned, youngsters brought home to the assembled legislators a grave sense of their responsibility towards them, and when the Minister responding to a request for further aid to education among the group by the Rev. Bcrn4 J&med, the Ixmdon Missionary Socioty’B representative, promised that‘their requests would not be forgotten, he received the instant and emphatic support of the whole party, This ended, the adults had their opportunity of greeting the manuhiri from behind the sky-line in old-time fashion. ftQre dance of welcome is one of the first (haraed arte of all the hospitable folk who the Pacific’s thousand islands, but nowhere has it reached a greater witch of perfection than among the Maoris w, Rpxitonga. Naturally there is a close Spationehip with the dances of New Zea!;fepd> hut hare, perhaps through the eye ,m novelty, there seems rt be more charm abandon about' the work ,of the The dancers avail themselves ■<" the riot of color with which Batur© has endowed their tropic isle, and Miere was a barbaric splendor about their WUre which formed a fitting frame to a iemarkahle picture. Though the schisms of the school disturbed them not, and fbe yorticist is to them the same as the pre-Raphaelite, they ha've a natural taste to a choice of color schemes harmonise "wonderfully and which pattern scenes of startling beauty. Many (Jyere enwreathed in sou toned leaves, |hadmg from deep red through a hundred (tints to dark brown, qthcis wore plated as the\ call their costumes of green yellow foct-long leaves, blending to jeye of any artist. Others, again, wore ■ - {Dials of.blue and green, and always the ■>“ that would captivate the

tout ensemble was one of complete satisfaction. When they danced they threw their whole souls into the expression of their ideas, 'hnd every movement was ideographic. Dramas in movement, they all were, each depicting some phase of the travellers’ voyage, or indicative of the delight produced by their safe arrival, filled out with a promise of entertainment and, the expectation of happy days. They were the real old-time dancers, just such as welcomed back the canoes which returned from Ao-te-roa centuries ago. With a thermometer bubbling Up into the eighties, it was marvellous to see the energy which the brown-skinned dancers threw into their task.. Their precision was wonderful. Not. a man was half a beat behind his leader, not a woman but swayed with rhythmic movement of back, hip, and side that a contortionist might have envied, in absolute .accord with every other of her sex in the troupe. The taiaha plays an important part in some of the dances, and as the natives circled and swung, stick struck stick with a unison that gave forth but one sound. Drums were the only music, perhaps a round score of them, kicking up enough row to wake the dead. They were here in all sizes, from great hollowed tree trunks covered with goatskins, and borne by two men on long poles, to kettle-drums and the hollowed wooden tube drums of the islanders, each striking'a different key, but each booming forth ,to a tenth of 'a second. The brawny islanders put every ounce of beef into the banging of the big drums, welting them till the sweat dropped, but never failing to keep time and rhythm perfect. The visitors 'agreed that the dancing was beautiful, and after dong their little bit towards disposing of the poultry,, pork, and the rest of the catalogue, they returned to the ship thoroughly pleased with their first brief glimpse of their island possession. . As soon as all were embarked the anchor was rattled up to the hawse-pipe, and a course was shaped for Mangaia. the most southerly outlier of the Cook Group.