The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-12-17
BRITAINs NEW ISLANDS.
One of Them Tn the Middle Pacific Has Been Sub
 merged Twice.

=. OydH6y,a AuSLfal1a, Ii Dec. z11--Ih6 annexation by the British Crown of the Gilbert and Ellice groups in the middle Pacific at the natives request, which has just been proclaimed, di- rects attention to one of the most remarkable islands in the world This is Ocean Island. which, although iso- lated and about 200 miles west of the GiIberts, has been classed with them since 1901. Ocean Island is famous for it's immense deposits of high grade phosphate of lime which are readily convertible into fertilizer and are be- ing worked by. the Pacific Phosphate, Co., with Headquarters in Lendon.
 Even more remarkable are the de- posits upon Naru, or Pleasant Island. 100 miles from Ocean Isa1rld and,i like it, not properly a part of any arcni- pelago. Naru had been Gernany's up to the outbreak of the war, having been annexed by the Kaiser's gov- ernment in 1888, and it had been called for administrative purposes one of the Marshans. zNow it is being held by the British as prize of war.
 Long years before Ocean Island was inhabited by man it was an ideal 5roosting place for sea. birds and cov- cred with guano. Rain and spray falling upon this guano dissolved out the soluble phosphate salt and car, ried it down to the coral rock, where 1t gathered sufficient lime to become
 fixed, and itw deposited on the
 surface and in the cavities of the rock.
 Tn this state guano has no commer-
 cial value because it is associated with too much carbonate of lime, which wastes the sulphurict acid necessary in the manufacture of the artificial lT11sa EI4% of ifS evolution Ocean Island sank, and its surface having been broken by the wash of the Pacific'ss long rollers and other disintegrating causes, the phos- tphate of lime being tougher and less
 soIuabIe than the coral rock, became sorted out and filled up the gullies with phosphated sand. The island rose again and the patie1es of sand were solidifed by fresh phosphate into sandstone. Once more the is land was "drowned's-to speak geo. ogicaIly-which resulted in the dis solution of the sandstone and it's ero- sion into pebbles and boulders; but lupon it's resurgence these forms were left high and dry. It is these which constitute. as they do in the case of
 Narus the importance of Ocean Is land. Large quantities of phosphate of lime were up to the time of the war being exported from the two is- lands to Australia, Japan, the United
 States, and Europe for the manufac- ture of superphosphates.
 The Gilperts had been until the re-
 cent act of annexation under British
 protection since 1892. The group is 1 traversed by the Equator. The is- lands are small, their total area being not more than 17O square miles, yet these atolls, which have upon them only a scant covering of soil,y are
 more densely populated than them ost
 fertile islands in all the remainder of isOceania. The natives number 34OOo
 Fifty years ago in the gun and gin'' ] era, when virtually all the South Sea
 Islands were a prety to ruthless ex- ploitation and outrages by whites, these natives were notorious for their cruelty. but since then they have been 1 Christianized by missionaries. Many
 of them can read and write English
 They are among the most expert fish
 ermen in the world.
 The Ellice Islands are also purely
 coralline and of only a few feet eIeva-
 tion- What is true of the population | of the Gilberts is true of the people
 inhabiting the El1fce group.