Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1921-12-07
IN THE DAYS NEWS
France In Tn. ssush Seas.

while other nationa have acquired is
land, of commercial worth and military
advantage in the Pacific, France has
accrued tba islands Of romance and poe
try eact entirely In keeping with ma
tional character, notes one of a series
of bulletins from the Washington. D.
c., headquarters of the National Geo.
graphic Society dealing with the spheres
of influence of various world powers In
Oceanica.
ITO France belong Tahiti and the Mar
quesas group, immortalized by Stevenson,
Melville and latterly pepularized by a
rhapsodic coterie of South Sea writer's
She holds New Caledonia, the largest is
land except for New Zealand in the
South Pacific; and also large numbers OF
the smallest and least known of the
land points that seem like tiny pin
preks on a map of the vast ocean ex-
panse east of Australia. All her pos
sessions are south OF Australia; none of
them, except the Marquesas group. lies
beyond parallels of latitude which pierce
! Sydney and the aorthernmost point of
| Australia
"a catalogue Of French holdings, by
| island groups, would sound formidable,
| and a list of them would mount into the
| hundreds. Yet. exclusive of New Gale
| donia, the land area of all the South
| Sea French possessions is scarcely more
than 1.5Oo square miles, and they fan
| readily into three zones, with a fourth.
New Hebrides, In which France divides
sovereignty witt treat Britain.
Directly east Of Queensland, Australia.
| is the first of these easily remembered
| zones, which is dominated by mountain
| Gus New Caledonia, a Siberia of Z the
South Seas, which both in respect to its
one time use as penal colony, and in
its future economic promise. Within this
| first circle of French possessions also
are the low-lying Loyalty Islands, with
| their Christianized Melanesian cannibals
the Isle of Pines, with it's coral caves an6
gaunt sentinel like trees; the barrier
| Huons, and several lesser groups.
| IN lrthwest of New Caledonia are thf
New Hebridea, jointly administered by
France and Great Britain. Recent years
have brought many adventures and col
onists to the South Seas, and the white
population OF many islands is extremel!
variable. AS recently as 1903 there were
! only 3O0 French settlers and fewer thai
eco Engishmen In the New Hehrides
And the ma orPy of the latter We're mis-
| sienaries.
"Since then New Hebrides has beel
recognized as a land Of promise. Bot
its beauty and its fertility have beei
magnets for Europeans. Three crops o
maize may be grown in year, the COT
fee raised there is esteemed highly, an
nowhere else except in the Solomon
are coconuts, which spell copra CONNER
oially. so prolific l'he worst thing abou
| the island is the native population. MuI
| derous. treacherous vindictive they ar
called, yet Their have one virtue, that
honesty, even tt a scrupulous refusal |
+ regard finding as keeping when they pic
| up the esnallest trinket. All sorts
| articles are placed in the cleft Of site
| and left for the owner to recover then
II Life for the native New Hebridea
i has been too much of one sweet son;
/ He is lazy and sensual to an amazih
degree His neighbors on TaRna, TO II
. south, are reputed just as nufderon
but much more vigorous, because Twin
is harder TO get. Two customs Away
come to mind in connection with II
New Hebrides people. They wind the
:, babies head round and round with col
and produce conical, or egg7shape
= skull. Their wives plight their trotl
: not with a wedding ring. but by havlr
6 two front teeth knocked out by old
: women.
, As noted. the New Hebddes 'zon
a lies northeast, but separated by Il
British-owned Fijis, Is the Wallis arch
= pelago. This archipelago is the secor
i of the French circles or zones eaStwel
e from Australia.
The Wallis Islands have tot
" area of about 40 square miles, and fey
4 er than 5000 Polynesians, mild-mar
nered and hard working, live on thel
IF To the south, in his zone, are Il
20 Hornes Islands, with about ! fourth
l., the people of the Wa lis gr, up.
t again moving eastward IL ere lie t
n last island groups before the vast e
panse of almost unbroken ocean betwe
| these French possessions and Sou
D. America. A great heart-shaped zol
comprises four archipelagoes. Most n
merous, and least important of the
groups, are the Taumotu or PaLno
Islands. North of the Taunotu dout
chat are the Marquesas west of the
are the Society Islands which inclu
! beautiful Tahiti. and to the southwe
are the Tubuai Islands.
n About Tahiti and the MARQUES