EXILED IN THE PACIFIC.

Otago Witness, Issue 3802, 25 January 1927, Page 7

EXILED IN THE PACIFIC.

COMMISSIONER AT ELLICE ISLANDS.

WELLINGTON, January 17. It is almost inconceivable nowadays that any civilised being could be practically cut off from the rest of the world for months at a stretch, but that is the fortune or otherwise of Mr D. J. Kennedy, the Resident Commissioner of the Ellice Islands, a group some 2000 miles to'”the north of New Zealand. Mr Kennedy and his wife', who are the only Britishers on the islands, sometimes receive no mails for nine months. There is no cable communication, and at the present time his latest newspaper is three months old. This fact has been ascertained by a Wellington wireless enthusiast, who has been in communication with Mt Kennedy. The latter has contrived a transmitting set, the battery—the old-fashioned wet type—made from cocoanut shells, and with two receiving’ valves as transmitters. His signals, though naturally weak, were picked up clearly enough in Wellington, and now his local amateur wireless friend has agreed to supply Mt Kennedy with news at stated intervals. As Mr Kennedy’s term at the station is one of five years, his is anything but an enviable existence. One of his first queries was whether there was any truth in a rumour that there was war with China. "Evidently he had heard snatches “on the air” which had whetted his curiosity.— The foregoing is only one more example of the growing value of wireless.