Arizona republican., 1921-08-15
(ey Frederic J. Haskin)


 WASHINGTON. D. C., Aug. It. News comes to this country of a curious kind of communism in exist ence in some of the islands of the Pacific. mixed with the enforcement of Polynessian blue laws and a re- tirement system for the aged. All of this takes place in the Gilbert Islands. group lying north and south of the equator. The group comprises sixteen islands. .ying ai- most exactly half way around the globe from England. The islands were annexed by Great Britain in 1892.
 Sailors recently from the islanls are authority for the reports of con- ditions now existing there. The laws are rigidly enforced by native police men, the British overlords appar- ently following the practice of per hitting the native population the largest possible share in it's own gov- ernment.
 Practically the only industry in the islands is the raising of cocoanuts. The islands are coral atolls, the soil formed by the decomposed coral be- ing fit only for the one industry. Every native man is allotted a space of five acres of land on which to grow cocoanuts. If the native takes unto himself a wife. two additional acres are given to him. Every child blessing the union gives the family a grant of ST additional acre. A real Rooseveltian family, with a dozen children. would have a grant of cocoanut land amounting to IS acres.
 A hard and fast wage scale is fixed for those natives who choose to work on the plantations of the British or of other natives. For their labor, they receive four shillings a day. At the present rate of exchange. this is the.equivalent of about 72 cents. The femintsm movement has not made much headway In the islands women being discriminated against in the matter of liquor allowance. Every man in the islands is allowed a daily allowance of a goblet of rum with no mention made of any allow ance for his sisters and his cousins and his aunts The size of the gob- let is not specified. but if half a CO., coanut shell is taken as a goblet measurement, the daily allowance is not a stinted one by any means. No Rum on Sunday How ever. the missionaries ars forcing Sunday observance to soms | extenI. On tflS udy dionc tiic run treasury is closed up, no man beinl issued a ration. Also, on Sunday tn, whole population is forbidden to d, any work. The women are forbid l den even to attempt to do the famil. washing on Sunday, trifling thougi | the job is The men must not worl | among the trees, and cannot evel fish, either for pleasure or to stocl the family larder.
 l Crews of visiting ships are not al | lowed to purchase rum. The thirst. mariner must depend on sipping tn | supply of a friendly and generous O abstemious native. This rule i | hard and fast, and the natives ar reported to look upon it with favor as It prevents great inroads into tn public supply of liquor. Also, tn natives are forbidden to give ava. any cocoanuts to visitors. The, must be sold ct the retail rate. am the product of the island is parte, with at a shilling per cocoanut. Thi is not done with the idea of dispos ing of many cocoanuts. in this way | but apparently to discourage tn selling of them.
 The inhabitants of the island ar taxed in cocoanuts. The details 0 the taxing scheme have not been re ceived here, but it is believed to b somewhat on the order of the Ameri can income tax. A single man pro ducing a thousand cocoanuts woul have more of them taken from hir as a tax levy than would a marie man. and an additional exemption | allowed for each child
 Every man must retire from tn
 business of raising cocoanuts whe
 he is sixty years old, no matter wha
 his physical condition may be. Af
 ter that he is supported by the com
 n1unitv, and has no tax to pay | Despite the fact that the islands ar
 not as advantageously situated a
 many of the other Pacific group
 the population is fairly dense for ths
 part of the world The natives ono
 were imported to Hawaii as laborer 1 but did not do well at all, and tf
 idea was abandoned.
 The Sunday blue laws in effect the islands are the result of the woi
 of missionaries, both British ar | American. No native would ev'