LONELY FANNING ISLAND

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16317, 18 April 1927, Page 10

LONELY FANNING ISLAND

“FINEST PLACE IN THE WORLD.” Among the passengers to arrive ,in Wellington from San Francisco by the Makura was Mr. K. G. 0. Whitelaw, of Sydney, who for the last two years lias been a member of the staff of the Pacific Cable Co. stationed on Fanning Island, an equatorial outpost- of the Empire onlyfour degrees north of the “line.” Mr. Whitelaw stated that he had forebodings when he was first sent to Fanning Island, but now declares it to be “the finest placo in the world, if it is not the biggest.” Ho bases liis opinion on the fact that although the island is so near the equator, it experiences no extremes of heat or cold, but the temperature stays round about 77 degrees nretty well all the year round, due to the fact that the south-east trade winds keep them cool and healthy. “Fanning Island is only an atoll,” said Mr. Whitelaw, “abodt 14 miles bv 8. and at no point is it more than six feet above the level of the ocean, nor is it wider than half a mile at any point. Tliero are between 35 and 40 white people ami native servants connected with the cable station, aud there are some 150 natives and five or six whites concerned with the copra plantation that covers the greater part of island. .The natives belong to the Gilbert Islands. They make good servants and workers, and are kept there under indenture for a term of three years, and are then returned to their homes if thev wish to