NAURU PHOSPHATES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 343, 10 March 1922, Page 3

NAURU PHOSPHATES.

NATIVES AND THEIR MONEY

Ono or Iwo Iminorous incidents arc connected with the early development of the Nauru phosphate trade. It is known that the natives of the island, receive royalties on the cargoes, and when they received (heir first payments in money they were quite at a loss to know what to do with the precious metal, but, recognising that it had considerable value, they eventually deposited it in the bank. Their feelings for a short time were not reassuring, and the day after making the deposits they drew all the money out again to see il ii was all right and none had disappeared. The idea of carting away the phosphates seemed to them at first to - he absmd. In their simple island home they could see nothing of the outside world except a wide expanse of ocean, and the steamers that occasionally came to tnem From places tar beyond the sea. These steamers they thought must have come ttorn some very small Island, and wore taking away Nauru j„ make their own. homelands a little harder. Before- 'they became accustomed to the sight .of loading I lie steamers and seeing them steam away, each with its little cargo, they used to laugh heartily id the id;pa. Nothing In il„. grey <liisi made from the rock appeared le them to be particularly valuable.