FESTIVITIES IN FIJI.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21076, 9 January 1932, Page 9

FESTIVITIES IN FIJI.

HOT HOLIDAY WEATHER. DANCING IN DISCOMFORT. [from otjr own correspondent.] SUVA. Jan. 4. Christmas and New Year were celebrated in Fiji under tropical conditions. Although the thermometer registered an average of only about 92 degrees in the shade over the holiday season, the -humidity of the climate makes conditions much more uncomfortable than what the readings would indicate, particularly when dancing appears to be the sole form of evening entertainment. Even the comparative lightness of white shell jackets for evening dress wear afforded little relief for dancers on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, and as for those attired .in dinner jackets and full evening dress their plight could be read in their dripping countenances, and in the limp remains of collaxs and shirt fronts. The fact that most of the dances are held in hotels, and that special permits enable them to serve liquor until two or three o'clock in the morning, does not help to solve the problem of perspiring partners. Under such conditions iced drinks, oven soft ones, are a snare and a delusion. Strangely, there appears to be more dancing in the summer than at any other time. Although perhaps somewhat ■inconvenient for over-weight dancers, it is an excellent arrangement for Indian and Chinese laundrymen. During the present spell of hot weather the bare-footed Fijians do not take kindly to the asphalt streets, which they cross with more speed than they usually exhibit. Judging by the contortions of a native platoon, which had fallen-in on the roadway outside the «Tubiloe Church on a recent Sunday morning, it would appear that even these thick-soled Islanders are by no means immune from the effects of boiling tar. That the weather is regarded as hot even by the natives was borne out yesterday by the sight of a native sailor steering a cutter into port. One arm served to steer the vessel and the other held an outsize in umbrellas over his woolly bead. This might appear unusual on the Auckland waterfront, but not in Fiji, where nothing is unusual; nob even all-night dancing in the hottest month of the year.