OCEAN ISLAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21920, 4 April 1933, Page 2

OCEAN ISLAND

LOADING OF PHOSPHATE NATIVES’ SIMPLE WANTS Mr T. B. Occlcshaw, who was connected with the chemistry department of the Dominion Fertiliser Company, and who has an engagement at Ocean Island under the British Phosphate Commission, writes interestingly to a friend of the life in this tropical locality;— I arrived at the little isle after a wonderfully calm trip. We sailed from Ravensbourne at 1 p.m. on January 7 and arrived at the island at 3 a.m. on the 19th. We were cleared by the doctor and the Customs first thing, and ashore. I was taken ashore on the Government boat, which is manned by police. These are all Ellice Island boys, dressed in a fancy loin cloth (lava lava). They do duty in the various settlements here. When there may be coolies working with, or near, Kanakas there is always a policeman on duty, as I understand they are always willing to start something otherwise. KANAKA WORKMEN. The Kanaka is a wonderfully happy and contented boy. All working together they are like a pack of school kids — laugh, sing and will play round for hours on end. They are recruited from the many islands north of Ocean Island and the Gilbert Islands. They sign on for a period of two years under a task allotment scheme. In the phosphate raising fields their task is to fill four trucks (about one ton each). After completing their four they may knock off, or continue to work, and are paid 9d per car over their four as overtime cars. Some of the boys have their Janes (all women are Janes) and kiddies working, and do as many as 10 to 16 overtime cars, so they have up to 12s a day overtime. It is hard work the filling of the trucks, ns they gather the phosphate from between coral pinnacles and carry it on a belly basket sometimes up to 20 yards and tip into a truck. When filled the trucks are shunted to a loop, where the rake is picked up by a small puffing billy engine and drawn to hoppers. Prom the hoppers it is crushed to about three inch size, dried, and conveyed by belt conveyor to storage —about 40,000 tons capacity—ready for shipping. The conveying to ship’s side is by pontoon, each holding six baskets. SPEEDY LOADING. There is a belt conveyor (200 ton an hour capacity if required) running out and over the reef about 200 yards from the shore. The phosphate is tipped over the end into the baskets on the pontoons, and when filled these are towed by motor launch to the ships and the baskets hauled up and emptied. The baskets go back into the pontoons, which are towed away to the filling point. There are 12 pontoons and 6 motor launches in use during loading. There is generally a throe foot to five foot swell on, and the way the boys handle their pontoons at the filling chutes and the ship’s side is wonderful. They do not tie up. It is all done on the move. For an 18-hour run they can load 2900 tons by this method.All labour for this job is provided by the Kanakas. The motor launches and the ship’s winches all driven by Kanakas. There are only three white men on this particular job—two ashore and one on the ship, so It is a very creditable performance. DIGGING OUT. THE PHOSPHATE. The fields from where they dig the phosphate rock, after being worked out, look like the remains of a lost city, coral pinnacles standing from 2ft to 50ft high. Before opening new country it must bo cleared of growth—limes, mangoes, ferns and coconut palms. Holes (bong a bongs) are dug to 20 feet and sampled for analysis. I have two boys in the laboratory, one of whom speaks English fairly well, and it is much easier for me, especially when I am out sampling on the fields. The staff mess together, and w;e have Chinese cooks and waiters. They do us well in the food department. The only things we do,not get are fresh eggs and milk. The houses are roomy and well built. All sides open out on a swivel scheme, so that they can be almost like out of doors. Each has a sitting room, bedroom, shower room. Fresh water is supplied for washing and shower. Ice (fresh block each morning) and cordial are provided free. Of an evening the boys (Europeans) have billiards and snooker (two full-size tables). There is also a reading room and a library with a good range of books, magazines, papers and weeklies. Several of the chaps have wireless sets, but these are subject to a good deal of static, excepting the American stations. We have a very fine lay out for swimming (water at 85 degrees), spring boards, rings, ropes, ladders, and steps—a wonderfully warm blue and very buoyant water much saltier here than down south. Every night there is tennis. I think they have the finest court I have ever seen here. A reddish cement job and well lighted, and sonic very keen players. It is, however, too hot for day tennis. LEAVING FOR HOME.

There is a recruit on next month. The boys and Janes that are leaving are spending all their earnings at the company’s store here before leaving as money has no use on their islands as only an occasional trader calls at them. Their one aim is to buy a bike, sewing machine, yards or rolls of canvas, fish hooks and lines, brace and bit, and four 20-foot lengths of IJin American red pine. These are their total possessions when leaving. The bike, of course, they soon pull to pieces to see how it works and lose the ball bearings. The machine is co give to their prospective Jane. The canvas is to make sails for their canoes, as they go from island to island. The timber they split down into three pieces (and make a perfect job, too). The brace and bit is to drill the holes in the wood. This is usually done by twirling a pointed shell or shark’s tooth. Their canoes are all laced together with grass —no nails are used. Haying got together these goods any spare money they have —a pound or twenty—they Just cut it out on anything from tins of bully beef to fancy hair combs. It is great to watch them fishing. They will dive in with a spear, stay up to two and a-half minutes, and most always come up with a fish up to three feet long. They do not cook their fish — cat them raw or sunbake them for storage.