WHERE ADVENTURES LURK.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17244, 10 January 1924, Page 3

WHERE ADVENTURES LURK.

THE ROMANTIC LANDS OF REEF AND PALM. I well remember the day l first met the lat-e Louis Becko in Sydney, writes “Bill Bowyang” in the Sydney “Sun.” I had just returned from my first trip to Fiji, and wo spent the best part of an afternoon discussing the early trading days amongst the islands of the South Seas, tjho notorious trading of yrearms and blackbirding, and tho adventures of that much-boomed buccaneer, Captain Bully Hayes. 1 have visited many islands since those days, but alas 1 they have changed greatly since, full of boyfiood stories. I wandered over coral seas to the -climes of “ reef and palm.” But nowadays no natives flock in I canoes to tho ship the moment she j nears land to offer pigs, fowls, yams, and all kinds of island produce in exchange ior any trumper** we, may givo them. A ship is no novelty to them now. and the natives know a great deal better than we do what their property is worth, as wc soon find out when we come on shore to deal with them. It is much neaver home, within the Barrier 'Reef and amongst the islands in Torres Strait, that we can still find islands wihere adventure lurks, and where riches lie below the rippling waters. Even at the present time gold is being found on these coral specks, and pearls of great price are still dragged from the waters which wash tile shell-strewn beaches. THE HUT ON HORNET ISLAND. Lying close to the south-west coast of New Guinea there is a small coral speck known as Hornet Island. It is only two miles in length by one and a quarter in breadth. Crews of passing schooners rarely or never land on its shores, as looking at tlhe island from the deck of a boat it appears uninviting indeed. Yet, on the northern portion of this coral speck there is an abandoned hut and a stone well which still holds excellent drinking water. Ttiere is a story attached to the hut and the well, and it is told here for the first time. Thirty years back two men. Jim Clarity and Ned Beavers, landed here in their schooner. and shortly afterwards erected irae hut. They made periodical visits to Thursday Island and Port Moresby, and always seemed to be plentifully supplied with money. Loading their schooner with provisions, they would return to Hornet Island, and would not be seen agaip for several months. An old sailor at Thursday Island once told me that Clarity and Beavers were at one time notorious black-birders in the Soutlh Seas, and that some of the crimes they committed on out-of-thewav islands would have placed them behind iron bars for ti'ie rest of their days if they had been arrested. ROUTING THE SAVAGES. On one occasion savages from the mainland decided to slaughter the two white men on Hornet Island. They landed in their canoes on tho beach in front of the hut. and assembled under a clump of cocoanut trees. There was no sign of the two white men> and the savages were about to patrol the island when a plug of dynamite came hissing through the air and burst with a loud explosion amongst tihem. Many of tern were killed on the spot, and others were terribly injured. Before they could reach their canoes there was another explosion amongst those who were racing frantically towards the water’s edge, and more of them fell on the sand. Those who managed to reach their canoes never looked back, but paddled madly towards the mainland. Nothing on earth could have persuaded them ever afterwards to return to the island. It is not known what became of Clarity and Beavers. They left Hornet Island and were never seen or heard of again. .Toe Moore, a trepang fisherman, landed on the island for fresh water shaortly after the two men had visited Thursday Island. He found that they had deserted their hut and taken ail their possessions with them. It will probably never be known why they lived on this coral speck for two years, but it was thought that it had something to do with the culture of artificial pearls. With only a few feet of soil between his feet and the sea, a man named Clausen lived some years back on a small island in the Trobriand Group. •He was the only inhabitant on the | coral-reinforced circlet of- sand and i drift soil, but there was little that he wanted from the outer world. He reared goats and fowls, and a garden at the rear of his palm-constructed bungalow supplied him with fruit and vegetables. When he died in 1912 he was about SO years of age, and prior to making his home on this isle he had spent a lifetime in the South Seas. What stories that man could tell! He had a wonderful collection of curios and could relate the history- of each of them. In one corner of his bungalow stood a hideous wooden idol, and around its neck was a long chain of human teeth. In another portion of the h. ut lnhere hung a collection of human BATTLE WITH AN OCTOPUS. Clausen is one of the few men in our northern waters who had an encounter with an octopus and lived to tell the story. He was fishing from a small boat on the fringe of a deep coral basin when there suddenly rose from the deep a huge octopus which threw one of its tentacles around his legs. Lucikly the fisherman has brought with him a sharp tomahawk which was used for killing j sharks he hooked, and grasping this he j attacked the monster from the deep. As portion of the creature’s slimy tentacles was lying across the front of the boat he severed it with one blow of the axe. Then another tentacle arose with terrible swiftness from the deep and coiled itself around one of the oars. Clausen stood back and watched the oar disappear overboard. Clausen was about to paddle his boat ashore with the remaining oar when another tentacle loomed up from the sea and coiled itself around the fisherman's body. He felt himself being lifted off his feet when he hacked at it with his axe. and it fell into the boat. Then, grasping the oar. he paddled furiously to shore. When he reached the beach he examined the tentacle lying in the boat, and, although he had probablv only severed a little more than half of it, the hideous thing measured nine feet.