THE SOLOMON ISLANDS

Otago Witness, Issue 2928, 27 April 1910, Page 33

THE SOLOMON ISLANDS

RICHEST IN THE. PACIFIC. POSSIBILITIES OF DEVELOPMENT. Five hundred miles in a straight line east of Papua lies a long double chain of narrow islands, the richest in the Pacific. These are the Solomons. f Hot, damp, and luxuriant to the waters edge with tropical jungle, with seas everywhere dangerous because of . coral reefs, they spread in a long slant from the northwest to the south-east, seven big islands and a lot of little ones. They are all volcanic, and supposed to be rising steadily out of the ssa, and many of them are ringed with mangrove swamps. Each of the seven, about 100 miles by 20, is spread about a mountain backbone, down whose sides from a foot to a foot and a-half of rain a year washes the fine volcanic soil, until the flats H°Ty>!ith are rich almost beyond imagining. They are too far north by 100 miles for that (planters' pest, the hurricane. The temperature averages 82deg for the year, an . ry-,,, can almost see things growing in the warm, damp soil. The eocoanut palm, that in Ceylon takes 15 years to bear, bears hera in four. Cotton and sugarcane, sasro and bananas, melons and every tropical plant flourish luxuriantly. Yet there are only about 250 white people in these islands, and the interior of all the large ones is still practically unexplored. THE SEVEN ISLANDS. Since the exchange with Germany of Samoa for territory in the Solomons Britain has owned the whole group, except Bougainville, the largest and the westernmost, and a few small islands by it. The British Solomons are governed by a Resident Commissioner, Mr Woodford, who reports to the Commissioner for the Westeirn Pacific, in Fiji. Bougainville runs about 120 by 135 miles, and in its centre stands the highest mountain, of about 10.000 ft. Following the double line south-eastward, the next island is Cboiseul, quite unexplored, and hardly even charted. Little is known about it. except that there is a big mountain in tho middle. East of Choiseul again is Ysabel, and south of these two islands respectively lie Vella Lavella, not very big, and- New Georgia, which is rather larger, with a scattering of smaller islands. Then comes the _ centre and the more en less civilised part, the Russell Group, and the Floridas, all in between and slightly westward of the large isands of Malaita. northward, and Guadalcanal - to the south. Still further to the south-east lies the last of the group, Sail Christoval. THE CTVILISED CENTRE. Roughly speaking, the Russell Islands and the coasts of the Guadalcanar and ipart of Malaita are more or less settled and civilised. Sa.n Christoval and most of the western islands are barbarous and unexplored. Malaita and the inland parts of Guadalcanar have, however, an evil repur tation. Right in the centre of the wellknown trading parts, on a headland to the south of the island of Gela, is the Government centre, Tulagi. Hera are the Commissioner's and deputy-Commissioners houses and the gaol. Tulagi is the headquarters of the Government steamer, the Belama. Farther west, in Gizo and ShortlandsT live resident magistrates, with small bodies of native police. Five missions work among the island*—the Melanesia*! (Church of England), two Roman Catholic, the Methodist Missionary Society, and the South S»a Evangelical Society. The trade is in the hands of Lever Bros., the Solomon Island Development Company, and a number of small traders, and mails are carried for the Commonwealth Government by Messrs Burns, Philp, and Co. 11 times a year. FEVER AND HEAD HUNTERS. It is nor, only the richness of these islands that gives them their importance to the Commonwealth. They cannot re> main always a upon another island government. Fiji: half-policed, not oven half developed; and except along the coaetlin«s, uaexpfcrod, uncivilised, almost unknown. But tfcere are several reasons for this state of thing's. The Solomons are so far away from anywheiv.. and there is the fever, and there ace the interesting, not to say absorbing, habits of the natives. The fever, how#ver, is nothing like the kind that has killed of? so many Queenaland explorers in New Guinea. Everyone gets it, but. with'-proper precautione, it is usually light, and everyone gets ov#r it. ' ; Take your quinine vegulai'ly. live well, but carefully, especially with liquor, and your attacks will last only a day or two." c n w-i '-•->•' 0 has worked in the Solomons five yeara The iiatiVß.- ,*iother matter. Ten years ago it wes said that a white man in the Solomons, outside tho well : known trading parts, carried his life in cno hand aria a revolver in the other. The native i>nnulation is made up of many races—four distinct at least. And there are dozens of languages—five separate onas are spoken on M*lafl:a. Exempt at Ougtong, Java, to the northward, the Solomon Islanders s>re not Polynesians but Melanesians. The former are, on the whole, a well-mannerod race. The saying, "Manners none, customs beastly," has been quoted of the latter. They are, and still are, to a great extent at least, oufaide the sphere of trading influence. head-hunting-, slave-gathering, blood-thirsty, polygamous savages. But though lazy they are intelligent, and often make good servants. Roughly speaking,■ in the western islands they are mostly black, with clear-cut features, but they to a lighter brown, with thiofc negro hps, as you go eastward. They -bleach- their frizzy hair with. lime, and .their teetf;. are red with chewing hatel-nut. The. .western slanders are tho most. savage. , New Georgia used to be the hei-dq-uartors cf the wont of the baad-huntiingi 'chiefs, who, sailing out in long, fiff'*at war-eario&s. at on» time alwios** depopulated acl Choiseul. Hifcad-huntfing has been pretty well stamped-- 1 out in the last I.f> yeara, but tribes still fight with oaf» s»tv on moat of the larger islands, and fleets of war-canoes are still seen sometimes, malcing off, on some

bloodthirsty errand. Ar..d on all the islands the shore tribes of bushmen are at deadly feud. LONG, SWIFT WAR-CANOES. The Solomon Islanders are well-known for their skill in wood-carving and boatbuilding, and they travel as much as 200 miles in their canoes. Forty or 50ft in length, and very narrow, these each hold 20 or 30 men. They are known to have covered over 12 miles in two hours, and 90 miles in 21 hours, with two breaks. They are stained coal-black, picked out with gleaming nautilus shells- in beautiful designs, and at their bows are grinning images of hideous gods, to scare away the evil spirits. The natives are still cannibals, but rather, it appears, out of superstitutipn than because they like the taste of man. Numbers of traders have been killed by the head-hunters; two were murdered only last year. Murders have lessened ever since the establishment of the protectorate, but traders still go armed. The Government trading, and mission influence have all had their effect, though mainly round the coastlines. But that Dr Northcote Deck, of the South Sea Evangelical Mission, should have been able to get more than once safely across Malaita is a good sign. Lately, with a, party of natives, foe has even crossed the mountain backbone of Guadalcanal-, over the Lion'6 Head, near where Baron von Norbeck and his party of scientists were murdered years ago. A SAVAGE AND A SILVER MIRROR. ' The mixture of heathenism with civilisation in some parts of these islands is extraordinary. In the middle of Malaita Dr Deck was charged a shilling for his night's <odging, "allee same Queensland." And sometimes, it is said, amongst western islands, a native will come aboard a trading schooner, grinning, in white man's clothes of clean white drill and make a point of shaving on the deck with a 6afety razor and pocket silver mirror to show off. Then he will go back in his canoe to his harem and his slaves and his war expeditions, and next day, perhaps, preside at a human sacrifice, to celebrate the opening of his fine new canoe house. CHANGING TIMES. No doubt a great deal of this bloodthirstiness is in the nature of the Melansian. But if in the wilder parts he is always ready to murder, it is partly because he is always afraid of being murdered. The islandeirs are so split up by raoe and habit and language that they fight among them selves like. cabs. And then, they have not always been politely treated by traders and recru'ting expeditions. The native is apt to look on white men as all of a kind, and what the last white did the next is blamed for But within the last five or 10 years a bette" class of trader has been coming in, and no doubt that has had its influence. The only English recruiting, now that no more men are taken off to Queensland, is for Fiji. The Germans, however, are still allowed to recruit in British territory for •Samoa. The effect of the returned Queensland kanaka is doubtful. Some try to spread Christianity and civilisation but a great many are s>aid to slip back almost to the primitive savage again. They have at least, however, learnt that the white man has a power not to bo despisad. The unfortunate returned kanaka does not always have a good time amongst his former friends. Sometimes he is robbed of every thing he has in his first day at home. Then he has to some extent forgotten hk language and customs. There are some things he -finds it difficult to return to, and he is apt to be looked down on by his little society. POPULATION. There are only 251 white people in the Solomons. The native population is set down at about 150.000, mainly on Malaita. Of the whites, 190 are British, only 20 French. 11 Soandinavian. and 11 German. And 177 are traders or planters, and so on. About six-sevenths of the shipping is also British, leaving the Germans with hardly one-sev«nth, and the United States with only a few ships The native stock is wonderfully vigorous. In spite of the custom of infanticide and of the fact that for years from 1500 to 2000 men have been recruited annually from Malaita, and that very few of those taksn bey->nd the islands have returned, th-i population seams to remain the samp. Last year, however, only 711 natives were recruited for Fiji and Samoa, and over 3720 came back from these islands and from Queensland THE GPOWTH OF TRADE. Nearly all the plantations in the Solomons now are of oceoanuta. There is also s. trade in beceh-de-mer, ivory nuts, and tortoishfil. Last year over 3200 tons of oopra, 3200 bags of cocoanuts, and 560 tons of ivory mi\s were exported. Trade generally has inorea«ed threefold in the last 10 years. For the year 1898-9 the total export tirade was valued at under £17,000, for the yaar 1908-9 at over £50.000. Nearly all this comes from copra. As to the imports, ships and boats, tobacco and matches, rice and drapery, are the most important. Imports have increased, but not marvellously, during the last five y*ars. Comparatively little alcohol is imported: the climate won't allo.v a man to drrtti-k. Last year's import was only £5lB worth. A* to tobacco, the native* u«e it in pkigs as a curranoy. It is cheap stuff, costing the importer about lOd a pound. Tha levenu* of the islands Tomes ■from Customs, trading, labour, and station licenses, fines, etc. Last year the Customs receipts amounted to about £6500, and of that over £5700 came from tobacco, on which the duty is at present Is a pound. HOW THE TRADER WORKS. The large companies have amongst them hundreds of thousands of acres of cocoanut plantation, and thev also buy from the natives for trade sreods. Smaller traders have also generally at their stations a couple of hundred, or perhaps a thousand, acres, on which they gjrow cocoanuts in ■rhair spare time. The cooaanoiis are colieotod- by schooners which go round among the islands, and they an-o shipped off in stoamors twice a year. The native plantation own*rs de no work. Thoy simply sell so many thousand cocoanuts as they lie on >he ground. The trader and his men collect them, pav for them in tobacco, calico, and so on. and break them into copra. Cocoanuts fetch Is a hundred . in trade roods, and 5000 or 6000' of them go to the ton. NEW--POSSIBILITIES. In spite of the large amount of land owned by the oomp*nio« and private toadacs, there is plenty left, if it were opened up. And coeoanut crxowincr will not long be almost the onlv industry. Nearly everything- tropical flourishes in the Solomons. Sugarcane has so far only been grown bv the natives for their own

uses. But it grows well. This industry would, however, need a great deal of labour and costly machinery. " You can't touch sugar under a quarter of a million," says an authority. Cotton grows well, but that requires a very large supply of -labour at one part of the year, and very little at other times. It pays best whore there is a, big population, as in India, where surplus labour may be drawn upon when needed. Cocoanuts yield some return practically all the year round. Sago and bananas flourish, but nothing, except experimentally, has been done yet with them. Then there are cattle. Lever Bros. have 500 head on Guadalcanal", and they fatten well. There would be room enough for hundreds of thousands on the highlands, once the natives were got into order. But there is the question of a market. Quarantine restrictions would keep the cattle out of the Austarlian ports. Climatic conditions would 'make it difficult to preserve the jeof where it was grown. But boiling down and shipping oft the tallow and hides and horns and bones might pay. Cattle could be kept, .as in Ceylon, by coeoanut growers, to eat the grass down between the palms when they are big enough not to be knocked over, and to manure ■ the ground. Experiments are also being made with sheep. But there are pests to be stamped out. The worst of these is the cocoanut-beetle, which eats the centre shoot of the young palm, stunting it down. Vegetables, again, especially of the pumpkin kind, grow marvellously. A melon vine will bear in six or seven weeks. RUBBER. Next, and as important as any, comes the rubber plant. Para rubber grows better in the Malay States than in Ceylon, and Papua and the Solomons' have almost the same climate as the Malay States; There is a large area under rubber in Papua, but in the Solomons so far only small areas have been' planted, for experiment, by the S.I.D. Company, and by a couple of private traders. The plants have flourished, but they have riot yet reached the bearing stage. However, so much rubber has been-planted wherever it will grow, and the coeoanut has in many places been so- comparatively neglected; : that in five or 10 years' time, when the rubber boom is over, cocoanuts may pay the best. New uses are found every day for coeoanut oil, and the demand for cocoa--' nut butter is increasing. It is much used on the Continent. The two plants might be grown by the same planter, the cocoanut ■ along ■ the coast, and the rubber farther inland, sheltered from the wind. Then a maji would be protected from variations. THE LABOUR QUESTION.' But the great difficultv, if the Solomons are to fee developed much further, will be in getting labour. ~ No. doubt the civilisation of the natives will create a greater supply. So far most of the recruiting has been from Malaita and Guadalcanal, and. the bush natives have not been drawn upon. But in the end Japanese cr coolies may have to be brought in. Of course, there could he no question of white labour: it is wot a climate for white men to labour in. The few white labourers are, however, fairly well paid. Carpenters and tradesmen get on the average from 14s to 16s per day, plantation hands from "10 to- £2O a month, masters of small vessels from £l2 to £B4, and sailors and bandy men £B. The differences from the wages paid to natives are illustrative. Plantation labourers tret £6 and domestic servants from £6 to £l2 a vear, sailors and ship hands £1 a month. The Solomons are not a white man's country, and ther never will be settled by white men. But open them un and make the land available, imported indented labour, police the natives with a force o f Sikh or Gcorkha soldiers, and the soil and climate will return it all a hundredfold.— Sydney Daily Telegraph.