CHANGE OF HOMES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26666, 12 January 1948, Page 6

CHANGE OF HOMES

“TIN CAN” ISLANDERS TRANSFER TO EUA COMPLETED P.A. AUCKLAND, Jan. 11. One transfer of 1100 people from their temporary settlement on the estate of Queen Salote of Tonga, near Nukualofa, to their new home on the fertile Eua Island should be completed by now, said the Governor of Vavau, Mr Ulukalala, who is in. Auckland. The Tongans were driven from their homes on the famous “Tin Can Island ” of Niuafoou by the eruption of a volcano in 1946. Eua Island is a comparatively short distance from the Tongan Group, and the people have travelled on the Tongan Government’s small inter-island ship, Hipofua. Stock has also been transferred. The new home, Eua, was formerly populated only by a handful of Tongans. It is the most fertile island in the group, and sweet corn can spring from seed to ripeness there in six weeks. It has enough rich land to provide a full share of individual holdings for many generations of the immigrants. - . , The fertility of the island would enable the immigrants to be selfsupporting within six months, but it will be six or seven years before newly planted coconut palms can bear a copra crop. In the meantime, the settlers will be exempted from the Tongan tax of 32s a year. Advance parties cleared the land and prepared for the arrival of the community. Not all the Niuafoou people were enthusiastic about the proposed change. They petitioned the Tongan Government to allow them to return to their former half-desolated home, but the authorities adhered to their policy. ■