LIFE IN TAHITI

Taranaki Daily News, 29 December 1934, Page 7

LIFE IN TAHITI

“NO PLACE FOR YOUNG MAN.” MISSION TO AUSTRALIA. Homeward bound , for Tahiti, Mr. Charles Nordhoff, co-author with James Hall of a number of successful books dealing with the South Seas, passed through Wellington after, a. brief visit to Australia. Mr. Nordhoff is a man of the islands; he has decided to pass the remainder of his days in the Pacific. His wife is a Tahitian, and she and his children live at his home just outside Papeete. “The islands are no place for a young man, because he ought to be doing something in the world,” said Mr. Nordhoff, “but when the time has come to settle down there can be no better home." , . He stated that he had failed to achieve the object of his visit to Australis, which was to obtain material for a new book. “The information I sought Vas unobtainable,” he said. ‘‘Unfortunately the very early pioiieers in New South Wales do not appear to have kept any reliable journals. However, I am glad to have seen something of Australia. Mr. Nordhoff obtained at Sydney during big stay a number of old prints after J. Webber, one of the artists who accompanied Captain Cook on his voyages. The prints, he said, were hand-coloured. They were all scenes of native life in Tahiti at the time when Captain Cook visited those islands. The pictures were very unusual and interesting, and originals had sold at London for as much as £l2OO. Mr. Nordhoff touched on one, of his favourite themes, acclimatisation. “I have just received a letter from my children at Papeete,” he said. “They tell me that a pair of pukeko,' taken down by the Makura on her last voyage, are now doing well. Everyone there admires their red beaks and indigo plumage, and I am hoping to be able to arrange for four more to be ehipped to Tahiti soon. I am very interested in the importation and establishment of game birds in New Zealand, particularly in the acclimatisation of Canadian geese. I am anxious to obtain information concerning the weights of these geese; I understand that they go as heavy as 15 pounds. If that is so they must be some of that race of giant Canadian geese, now extinct elsewhere; the geese of to-day, although of the same species, seldom exceed 10 pounds in weight. It is quite possible that these geese are of the giant race, because they were first brought into New Zealand before the big fellows became scarce in Canada.” . Another of Mr. Nordhoff’s interests is Polynesian native fish-hooks, a subject on which he has written a 'monologue published by the Polynesian Society. A kindred spirit at Wellington gave him a pair of fish-hooks made of turtle-sheel and mother of pearl, tied firmly with cotton, and made by a native craftsman on an island north of Fiji. These Mr. Nordhoff was taking back with him to Papeete. “I shall try them out in actual practice, fishing for bonito,” he said. “My native fisherman Will be most interested to compare them with those of Tahiti, and I shall be keen to see whether they give as good results. Native fish-hooks are every bit as efficient as the European article, provided, of course, that one uses them as the native does; he has designed the hook to meet his own technique, and his traditional methods of fishing.”