PACIFIC VOYAGE

Waikato Independent, Volume XXXV, Issue 3336, 27 July 1935, Page 2

PACIFIC VOYAGE

DIAEY OF A 3000-MILE CETTISE NORFOLK ISLAND TO FIJI (By C.W.V.) 111. Thursday, 4th July.—The trip from Norfolk has been through smooth warm seas peopled by flying Ash, schools of porpoises and a constant attendance of sea-birds. At night, stars in the sea and skyswirling points of light in the velvet black water below, and above the planets in all their cold brilliance. To the north each evening one, brighter than the rest, painted a luminous trail across the sea. It was Venus. Beside her was the waxing moon—a slender ship whose hull was a streak of silver. The beauty of a tropic might at sea lias been described countless times. Actually to see and feel it, however often, never fails to stir something very deep down within one. Friday, sth.—lt is midnight. For the last half-hour I have been on deck right for'ard in the bows. Leaning against the rail, it seemed as though I were being borne forward by son c irresistible but invisible force, over a dark, mysterious sea to some undiscovered land. I was not conscious of the ship behind me. The wind, warm and voluptuous, roared in my ears, and I gave myself up to the intoxicating beauty of the night. Ahead gleamed the light marking a reef to the north of Kandavu, the first of Hie Fiji group. Looking at the sky, faintly luminous with stars I found Stevenson's "Requiem" running through my mind. It must have been just such a night that inspired at least the first line, "Under a wide and starry sky ... ." The stars stretched from horizon to horizon without a break. One slipped from its place in the firmament and dissolved in a streak of light. Saturday, 6th. —Early morning saw us at anchor off Suva. A panorama of dusky-blue hills with fantastically irregular tops, stretched away in the distance. Over their rugged shoulders lay a lace shawl of cloud, which' draped in soft folds over sharp ridges and deep valleys. One peak, like a thumb pointing upwards, stood out stark against the morning sky. To seaward was a white line of surf, broken only by Hie narrow entrance to the harbour, where the reef bares its teeth in a perpetual snarl.

An Indian Market-day One of the sights of Fiji from the visitors' point of view is the Indian market at Nausori on a Saturday morning. On the way out from Suva the road winds along the top of a ridge of hills, giving magnificent panoramic views of Suva harbour and the rugged inaccessible hills of Vitilevu. A steep, thickly wooded slope across a deep valley reminds one strongly of the Mamaku hills. All the way along the road the car passes throngs of Fijians and Indians, all walking to unknown destinations. Through villages, both native and Indian, past paddy fields, patches of taro and yam, groves of breadfruit trees, the car swings on, till a turn in the road reveals the Rcwa River ,n broad stream as wide as the Waikato at Mercer. Slim Indian women in soft white draperies, with the carriage and dignity of nuns, are standing alongside us on the punt which plies all day across the stream. They are also on their way to the market. A bridge is being built, but it will be a year before it will be ready for use. As we ne.fr the far bank a native woman is sitting, up-to her waist in water, doing the family washing. A brown toddler, naked and unashamed, paddles on the edge of the stream. All Creeds and Sects Nausori, as we found it, was crowded with Fijians and Indians from the outlying districts, who had come into the sugar town to sell their produce at the Indian market, which is situated near the Indian labour lines attached to the Colonial Sugar Refining Company's mill. Here were to lie seen' Indians of .-ill creeds and sects— Bombay tailors, Hindu taxi drivers, coolies from the sugar fields, tail wiry Punjabis, Madrassi cultivators— ad accompanied by their wives and families, and obviously making i; gain occasion of their customary Saturday morning, market. Jumbled together in a closely-con-fined space wen' all manner of stalls—in some ca-os merely a piece of mat on the ground, and a sard-: covering Cor a roof. Often the stall would consist of an aged Indian silting patiently with a remarkable optimism in front of a few handfulls of chillies or some stunted tomatoes. Taro, yams, dahl, and other native and Indian vegetables were to be seen on erery side. Other stalls specialised in sticky Indian sweetmeats of various colours which, for the most part, appeared to be

swarming with a mass of flics. This, however, did not seem to worry the consumer unduly. A flock of goats and several humped Zebu cattle added to the variety of the market. Miniature ''Woolwe-rths'' Some of the stalls were miniature "Woolworths," containing several departments, and an amazing mixture of goods from brightly coloured "shirts to tinned food, hair-oil, and various toilet requirements. The crowd jabbered incessantly, and with the heat of the sun, the proximity of so many.lndians and the contribution by the goats., the general surroundings and atmosphere were more interesting than pleasant, The turbans- of the men and the brightly-coloured saris (or head cloth) of the womenfolk added vivid touches of colour. Through the crowd strode a priest in a long shirt-like robe of the brightest yellow. He was followed by an attendant with an umbrella held over the holy man's head. The gold ornaments of the women also attracted attention. Heavy ornaments of gold were screwed into their ears and left nostrils. Some carried their worldly possessions in the form of a necklet of sovereigns, and nearly all had their thin arms and logs weighed down with heavy silver bangles. Children of the East Children were everywhere in evidence, for, as in Mother India, the Indians are a prolific race —child wives of fourteen or sixteen years were to be seen carrying their babies —small mysterious bundles of humanity with all the wisdom of India's timeless past stamped upon their tiny inscrutable features. In the township of Nausori itself chars-a-bancs and lorries elbowed each other for a place in the crowded streets, while a Fijian and an Indian constable strove to maintain some semblance of traffic control. Tall bushyhaired Fijians swung carelessly along cracking jokes for each other's amusement, or flirting openly with the. Fijian girls, who offered native vegetables, crabs and prawns, etc., for sale on the congested footpaths. (To be Continued).