ISLAND SCREEN

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4544, 4 March 1942, Page 6

ISLAND SCREEN

FROM TORRES TO TIMOR HAUNTS OF QUAINT PEOPLES (By W.S.) The Japanese are natural amphibians. They have already demonstrated this by their methods of the last few weeks. Though not the equal of the Malays in seamanship, there is little of island terrain and.coastal resources that they are not familiar with. To match this it behoves us to learn all there is to Jparn about our own “island screen” against which

'lie Japanese spearhead is now thrusting.

The smaller Pacific islands have been the scene of international rivalries seemingly quite out of proportion to their size. Great Britain, Germany, the United States and Holland were for decades at loggerheads, especially being entangled in native factional struggles. The strategic importance of these minor land masses has been demonstrated far more, than every before in the last few months, this comment applying to none more than Thursday Island and Timor.

The waters of,. Torres Strait now constitute a passage of major importance to us and all Pacific nations. A glance at the map reveals the strait aS a hundred-miles-wide channel dotted with occasional islands. Its deepblue waters are everywhere inter-

Ipersed with green and yellow patches, sure indication of far-spreading coral reefs which lie close beneath the surface. Even for small boats navigation in these waters is beset with dangers which only constant watchfulness can avert; for large ocean-going vessels it is impossible. Vessels sailing from the ports of Japan, China, Malaya, and the:.East Indies can enter the channel only, between the Great Barrier Reef and the mainland of Australia, which will lead them to the ports of Eastern Australia, by way of the narrow, tortuous deep-water passage which runs past Thursday Island. A VITAL PASSAGE It is obvious that an enemy Power in control of this island could command the Torres, practically controlling the vital trade routes which pass through it. When De Quiros, turned back from his famous expedition, leaving Captain Luis Vaez de Torres to sail on (Torres reporting to the King of Spain, “My temper was different from that of Captain Fernandez de Quiros”), he reached the south coast of New Guinea, and, sailing .westward, got to the Spice Islands and eventually Manila. But he failed to sight Australia, and so completed his magnificent voyage without discovering this southward continent. It was not until over 160 years later that Cook established the relationship between the Torres Strait and Australia. After his discovery of the east coast of Australia in 1770, Cook sailed north along the coast, charting- it and naming the capes, bays and islands he encountered. After suffering shipwreck and later just escaping, utter destruction on the outer slopes of the Great Barrier Reef, he finally rounded the north of Australia, naming the point Cape York. He than landed and took possession of the east coast of Australia in the name of his Majesty King George 111. He called this island Possession Island, and then sailed west and north among a cluster of islands. The largest of these he named after the Prince of V/ales, but many of the smaller ones after the days of the, week, and amongst these was Thursday Island. Wednesday, Friday and Sunday Islands are its near neighbours, and Prince of Wales a couple of miles to the south. It is through the channel between

Prince of Wales and Thursday Island that calling ships steam slowly under the experienced hand of the harbour master to . tie up at the T-shaped jetty. Many do not come right in, but remain at anchor outside at the mouth of the channel, and maintain contact with launches. MEDLEY OF THURSDAY ISLAND . Behind the town, rising about 300 feet, is a timbered ridge, which forms a lump in the centre of the island. The town, a line of wooden shops sadly in need of paint, rests sleepily in the shade of green tropical trees. Here in the afternoon shopkeepers relax and chat—or just relax. The whole gamut of tones is represented among the coloured people. Chinese, Japanese, Malays, Australian aborigines, Torres Strait islanders,. Papuans—all mingle. The hospital at the far end of the island, as well as the Government offices, hotels, most of the shops and the main residences are of wood, but the native quarters are mostly of iron. The Custom Louse, built in 1938, was the first stone building- on the island. North of Thursday, about midway in the strait, are the large islands of Badu and Moa. Further to the east many of the coral reefs are surmounted by low sandy islands covered with picturesque eocoanuts and panclamus palms. These, are typical coral islands. Further east again, almost at the extreme northern' extremity of the Great Barrier, here some 150 miles from the coast, volcanic eruption has thrown up the three Murray Islands and Darnley Island. These are high, like the Rocky Islands, but, unlike them, are of amazing- fertility and covered with dense tropical vegetation. Moa was named Banks Island by Bligh (after the famous naturalist), who discovered it in 1792, when he was revisiting the Pacific seas in which his historic ordeal had occurred. In those days, and until 70 years ago, the island was inhabited by cannibals, whose favourite .pastime was head hunting. They were very hostile to white people, and were never tamed. In 1863 they were almost completely annihilated in a terrible massacre. Close by Moa Island, about a mile to the north, is Badu (or Mulgrave) Island, which is separated from Moa by a shallow passage. Badu was also the home of fierce cannibals, and between the natives of the two islands existed a fierce rivalry. They were always at war, and in the passage terrible battles frequently took place between canoe loads of Moa and Badu warriors. Booby Island is another tiny dot. It is doubtful whether any other island of similar size in Australian waters has been the scene of such strange human, histories as this lonely northern speck, which has been well described as “The Rock of Romance.” Reposing- in isolation in a reef-studded sea, Booby is a barren rock between 200 and 250 acres in area, riddled with caves. The island was discovered and named by Cook, who visited it in the Endeavour on August 23, 1770. To quote Cook’s diary: “Mr Banks and I landed upon the island, and found it to be mostly a barren rock, frequented by birds, such as boobies, a few of which we shot, an(l occasioned my giving- it the pame of Booby Island.” Unaware that Cook had discovered and named the island, Bligh also recorded his discovery of it, and, by a strange coincidence, he also named it Booby Island because of the many boobies he saw there. As Bligh wrote in the story of his voyage to Timor: “This bird is as large as a duck; like the noddy, it has received its name from seamen for suffering itself to be caught on the masts and yards of ships. They are the most presumptive proofs of being- in the neighbourhood of land of any sea fowl we are acquainted with.” PEARLERS’ INFLUENCE The first settlement in the Torres Strait was established in 1862 on Albany Island, near Cape York, but was transferred to Somerset, on the mainland, in the following- year. It was a Government settlement made necessary by the numerous shipwrecks in the strait and the murderous attacks made on the survivors by the natives. Then pearl shell wps discovered. The prospect of wealth soon brought pearling vessels from Australian ports, and by 1871 the export of shell was valued at £25,000. At first the industry was based on Somerset, but this was too remote from the fisheries, and in 1876 the town of Port Kennedy, on Thursday Island, was established. This became the seat of Government and the capital of the Torres Strait Islands, which were annexed by Queensland. The islands had hitherto been nominally independent, and their unfortunate inhabitants had, in consequence, been abominably treated by the pearlers. One captain habitually forced natives to dive for shell at the point of the revolver. The need for labour led to ruthless exploitation of the natives, who were collected like slaves from as far afield as the outlying Melanesian and Polynesian islands. Government action gradually removed the more glaring abuses, although the natives continued to be exploited for many years before the industry settled down to its present orderly condition.,