MOST DISTRESSING GROUP

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXVIII, Issue LXXVIII, 25 July 1919, Page 5

MOST DISTRESSING GROUP

AMERICAN ON NEW HEBRIDES

CONDOMINIUM CONDEMNED

The most depressing group in the whole Pacific is the New Hebrides according to Dr Grace Peckham Murray, wno recently returned to Sydney from a visit there (reports the Sydney Morning Herald). . Dr Murray, whose home is in New xork, has been to almost all the principal island groups—Papua, the Bismarck Archipelago, the .Solomons, -biji, Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands, lahiti, Hawaii, thev Tuamotu group, lubuai, and Hapa—and is therefore entitled to speak on the' subject with some authority.. The New Hebrides are depressing tor a variety of reasons, she says. The natives were dying ofi more rapidiy than in most of the other islands The majority of the Europeans she met hatl had malaria, and all looked "thin and yellow," Almost wherever .sh« called she saw monuments or memorials to martyred missionaries, or was shown some place where at one time or .another people had been mastered. There was much evidence of destruction wrought by volcanic agency or by There were to be seen scores of natives whose arms had been blown off by dynamite used ±0 kill fish. . At Epi, Tonga, and other .neighboring islands the .cocoainut .trees had been .affected by a blight, and the planters were very much worried in consequence. .Cannibalism was still practised -in some of the islands, and Jin certain localities the .natives .wane somewhat truculent. Altogether there was a gloom about the place that gave one .a fit of the blues. It was a joy to travel in some of tha other Pacific pervaded by a, sunny cheerfulness, but the New Hebrides were as dismal as could be. and only an incurable hypochondriac would want to live there for good It seemed to her that of all the islands the New Hebrides were the least prepared by nature for man's .occupancy. Volcanic action .was .still going on, and the erosion from the mountains, which brought down fertile soil, had not yet taken place. "I think it is wicked the way people write up the New Hebrides, and say it is .a place to .make money," Dr .Murray said. "Some people may do well there, but very few, J am sure: and certainly no one stays if he can help it." " Dr Murray did not hear one good word for the Condominium, and had not one to .say herself. "It pleases no one, "she stated. "To have two .dif- ' ferent governments, with two different sets of postage stamps, in .a place where the .European population is fewer than a thousand, is an .absurdity.. The sooner this foolish experiment is ended the better foreveryone concerned. The group, can never make any headway as things .are. The ..prevailing opinion is .that it .will soon become. & French possession. The British people down there cling to the liope that Britain will get the islands, 'but I do not know .what they base their hopes .an.. The J'rench y.ery largely outnumber the British, and. display more .enterprise.. New houses are being built for French officials; and it struck me .as being very curious that practically .all the-timber required for house building in the group should be brought from Sydney. They must hay© suitable timber in the .New Hebrides., but they have no sawmill. The Condominium, instead of being a, means &£ pr.bmo.ting good feeling, has had the. reverse effect, and .altogether is detrimental to progress. The jealousy between the British and the French is very, imarked." Dr Murray,was not much .attracted by the New Hehrideans. They had none of the gaiety of the Polynesians. They were rather sullen and morose. There were constant feuds ibetween the bushnaen .and the "salt-water" men, as the tribes on the coast were called. Cotton grew wery well, and so did coffee; but many planters had given up the latter <©n acoou-nt of the scarcity of labor, which, as in the ; other islands, was one of the chief i ! difficulties. In the southern islands j there were grassy lands on which sheep did very well. Nowhere did she see eocoanut plantations that equalled any of those on the Solomon Islands.