Ellice Islands Ruled by One Man

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 184, 7 August 1939, Page 9

Ellice Islands Ruled by One Man

KEEN ANTHROPOLOGIST The islands of tho Pacific aro in the news almost every week-end, and a glance at a map somewhere near the meridian of ISOdeg. and about Sdeg.. south of tho Equator shows tho Ellice Islands. There are nine islands in the group of coral atolls—Nanumea, Nanumaga, Niutao, Nui, Vaitupu, Nukufetau, Funafuti, Nukulaelae, and Nurukita. This little kingdom of 4,300 South Sea Islanders, remote, isolated, and fat removed from the world’s activities, ii ruled by one whito man, Mr Donald G. Kennedy, the British Administrative Officer. He is the only whito man there, and ho says that he speaks English so seldom that he finds difficulty in becoming fluent again on returning to civilisation. Air Kennedy has under liis care the entire population of 4,300, scattered over the nine islands. The mail boat calls three time a year, when he has a chance to talk with the captain. Once a year a naval sloop from New Zealand looks in. This is Mr Kennedy’s great occasion. But he does not find tho life lonely. He has been 15 years on the Ellice Islands, and he has written a learned work on one of them, "The Culture of Waitupu.” Now ho has gone to England, and is going to Oxford to study anthropology—tho study of man—for a year.

Mr Kennedy has been studying tho brown man in Ellico Islands for 15 years, but to understand his studies he has gone home to Oxford.