VISITOR FROM NIUE

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20694, 3 January 1939, Page 5

VISITOR FROM NIUE

MRS BRENDA LONSDALE The pioneering instinct is not yet dead, and the modern woman, despite her love of comfort, is as ready as her great-grandmother ever was to desert all the modern amenities to accompany her husband in the course of duly and service. Mrs Brenda Lonsdale has returned to New Zealand from Niue Island, South Pacilic, where she has lived for many years. Her husband is in charge o'f the wireless station there. Mrs Lonsdale admitted that island life was inclined to become monotonous. "It is very quiet—the same things day after day," she said in an interview. "The Maui Pomare calls at Aloft, the port, once a month, occasionally we see an American yacht, and there is the annual event of the ship which comes for the copra. There is tennis, swimming, bridige, mah jong, reading and the wireless, of course, but these become monotonous.’’ Books, papers and magazines are exchanged among the 16 Europeans. Mr Lonsdale is on duty every night of the year, so husband and wife share few of each other's activities. Mrs Lonsdale's daughter, like children on outback farms in New Zealand, has lessons prepared by the Correspondence School in Wellington. Her son is not yet old enough for lessons. Supervising the lessons of her daughter occupies Mrs Lonsdale s mornings. After lunch she rests till 3 o’clock because of the heat; perhaps she will then dress in a cool frock and go visiting. Afternoon lea is usually had between 3 and 4 o’clock, if she’ does not go visiting she mayread till after i o'clock. The evenings are wonderfully moonlight for walking. "Food is a problem,” said Mrs Lonsdale. There is plenty of fruit, but It takes some time to acquire a taste for it. We have no fresh milk, and for water we depend on the rains and the tanks, because there are no streams. The natives get their water from large concrete community tanks, there being one in each of the 11 villages. From November to March there is likelihood of drought; recourse must then be la»en to brackish cave water."