PROBLEM FOR PACIFIC ISLES

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 28 April 1934, Page 11

PROBLEM FOR PACIFIC ISLES

rpHE white man in the' South Seas is 1 probably worse off to-dav than, he ha;s ever been in the history of th'e Pacific, writes M. T. Green in “Current. History.” The ranks of the beachcombers:, depleted until a few years ago, are swelling because many are. becoming .tropical derelicts, picturesque in all but reality. Most of these individuals are the South Seas equivalent of the thousands in America and Europe whose “happy days” are but a poignant memory as they stand in the breadline. •More- than one formerly prosperous trader who has been driven into bankruptcy, or planter who could no longer sell what he produced, is to be found among the beachcomber,s.

The various island administrations are extending spme aid, especially to those who once held some official position, but there is nothing for the majority, who cannot escape; from the "islands if they would. And so there -are coming to be, those of whom you will iteax it said/in the various ports,

Growing Ranks of Beachcombers

“He’.s gone, bush,” which means that the unfortunate has disappeared from the ken of the other Euro-pea ns to take up some kind: of abode in the tou%h, existing no one can say how. In' the islands of the Western [Pacific, the New Hebrides, New Guinea 1 , the numberless adjacent isles, and on many a scattered 1 atoll, while men—British, German, Frenieh, Dutch —have foT many years been braving a hostile 'clijtnflte and, in some cases, even more hostile natives, in the hope of accumulating enough money to enable them to return home and spend their latter years in comparative ease. iSome, indeed, left before the troubles came, but more have fallen upon .evil days, losing everything, their businesses bankrupt, their holdings unsaleable. Now money is lacking to go 'home; the climate has sapped, their vitality; they are “down and out” on. a tropical beach. Perhaps nowhere in the world to-day, with all its woes, are there men in- more grievous and pitiable estate. Of all the problems of the Pacific islands none is more eryingly acute.