POLYNESIAN THOUGHT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20560, 10 May 1930, Page 1 (Supplement)

POLYNESIAN THOUGHT.

BY F.W.Co

THE ISLAND OF. MANGAIA.

tlx If.W.Vil TV, Let another hand tend and water This little tree. May it grow green. And put forth bud and blossom Full fair to see. and fruitfully. As the Yellow Hibiscus of tho seashore— May Mangaia go forward and prosper more and more. —A Song of Farewell. A few score sea miles only off the main beaten track of tho mail steamers, speeding on their monthly race from Wellington to San Francisco, and yet remote enough to preserve its picturesqueness, tho fino bloom of its native life as yet unsmirched by the dust of the chariot wheels of the white man's civilisation, lies the lovely isle of Mangaia. Its ancient name was Te A'ua'u, " The Many Terraced," which was recently adopted by a novelist of florid fancy as the sotting for a grim story of treasure-hunters and murderous mutineers, entitled " The Island of the Stairs." Mangaia is only some one hundred and twenty miles S.S.E. of Avarua, tho port of entry to Rarotonga. It is some eighteen miles in circumference, of mingled limestone and basaltic formation, and surrounded by a formidable fringing reef, broken only by two or three precarious channels. These have not yet been rendered fully practicable for boat passages by the use of dynamite—a measure needful to expedite the output of fruit consignments, The natives are fearless and highly-skilled canoe-men, and the usual method of landing is to wait for a very high wave, and then to come in with a rush on the crest of it as it spends its strength in the shallow pools of the coralflats. Thence the adventurous passenger is conveyed pick-ap-ick ashore on the shoulders of a nut-brown Hercules, none the worse for a slight wetting, and the richer by a novel and highly-thrilling experience. Beyond the Government flagstaff above the landing-place stretches the Atea, a level, broad, grass lawn, where native schoolgirls play basketball, and the boys play cricket on most afternoons, followed by soccer football in the cool of the evening. At tho back one descries the lofty roof of the local native teacher's house, embowered in a tangle of brilliant crotons from New Guinea. Close by, overshadowed by the delicate, dark-green drooping tresses of tall casuarina or ironwood tree 3, stands the century-old native church, with wonderfully-carved pews and pillars of the same durable material, an abiding witness to the industry and technical skill of early native converts. Just beyond, along the Taveanga and Ivirua Road, is the Government Native School, a white, spacious, cool and airy building, where English is taught with excellent resultsi MilUneyy, Behind the beach-road, backed with aisles of stately coco palms towering high above the native bush and masses of creeping vines, one catches sight of imposing clumps or a giant hartstongue fern, locally called Kotaa, It is the Otaha of Tahiti, and from its mid-rib the village girls of that lovely island strip off dark-brown, silky filaments to mi* with their sugar-cane, bamboo and pandanusplait. in making their dainty and _ beautiful hats for local marketing, and even for export from Pape-ete to Paris. Further back still, behind the palms, looms up the rugged, bluish-grey scarp of the Maka-tea or huge limestone bluff, that, at a height varying from seventy to over two hundred feet above sea-level, broken' here and there by artificial stairways cut in the rock, runs right round the island, ehcircling the fertile valleys of the interior. This inner district, shaped like a vast cup, is full of swampy land, planted out in beds of taro, irrigated by a number of small brooks, springing out of the basaltic rock of the central hill of RangiMotia (about five hundred and fifty feet above sea-level). Thero tiny threads of water, where* tbey meet the inner side of the circling limestone wall, sink underground and reappear, bubbling up through the coral bottom, into the salt waters of the shallow lagoon. Mangaia has at least three charming little fresh-water lakes. Science and Commerce. All the inner valleys shut in by the great circling limestone wall are fidl of imperfectly developed orange groves, producing, nevertheless, quantities of enormous fruit, of thin skin and most delicate flavour. These, if properly collected, graded and packed, and promptly shipped, find a ready market in Auckland and Wellington. As things are now, these magnificent fruits are suffered to lie about in their thousands and tens of thousands, a food for wandering pigs, or to decay unheeded in the sun and the rains—a prodigal and simply wicked waste of Nature's golden gifts. Given improved industrial organisation and better shipping facilities, there are great possibilities in citrus fruit cultivation for Mangaia. The same applies to her coffee production, once so flourishing and lucrative an 'industry, which only needs a little private enterprise to revive it and make it a very profitable concern. Mangaia has many scenic beauties of great attraction to the botanist, the photographer and to the ordinary tourist, seeking, even for a short period, escape from the ever-increasing rigour of our New Zealand winters. Her limestone grottos aro of unsurpassing beauty. "Tho Cave of the White Tern." at Ivirua in particular abounds in v.-onderful stalactites (Ko'atu-Kurukuru), which sparkle like glittering alabaster to the torchlight. An Island Eden. The scenery round Lake Tiria'ra is also rich in beauty. A good carriage road runs from Oneroa north to Ivirua (about seven miles), and south to Tamarua (some five and a-half miles), A horse and buggy and native driver can bo hired at a reasonable rate; likewise a saddle-horso to cross the Makatea by the Morikau Stairway, if it is desired to visit tho beautiful Veitatei lowlands on the inner side of the great circling bluff. Ihe intending visitor should avoid tho season of squalls and rains, which from December to March. Should ho wish to make a protracted stay, he can got an excellent native house built for him, all complete, for about six pounds. Or, if he desires to camp under canvas, he can take with hirn a tent and "fly, a mosquito net, and a small stretcher bed and blankets, and find an ideal camping-place on the beach by the palm groves near the water spring gushing up through the salt water on the Atua-Koro road. Every other month a steamer leaves •Wellington to call, via Rarotonga, at Mangaia and Aitutaki, and other 6mall outlying islands of the Cook Group. Here is a glorious opportunity for anyone who wishes to strike out from the beaten track, and, with minimum of discomfort, to explore an Eden isle of marvellous beauty, and make tho acquaintance of an unspoilt, kindly and very trustworthy Ocean-Maori peoglo., " v " "