Forty Years On The Pacific/The British Solomon Islands

IT is attributed to Robert Louis Stevenson, the famous traveler and novelist, that he said of the Solomon Islands, "they were dreams of fertility," and there is much truth in the statement. Perhaps less interesting and picturesque in many respects than other island groups in the Pacific, there is not the least doubt that these Solomons have a wonderful commercial future. In the last twenty years the development has been marvelous, in the first years there may not have been more than a few thousand acres taken up for the planting of cocoanuts. There are many thousands of acres being developed into well laid-out, well managed cocoanut plantations, some in the first stages, and others already come to fruitful and profitable stages. One firm, Lever Brothers of Sunlight Soap fame, exports from their plantations to their works in England and Australia at least 5,000 tons of copra a month. This firm has planned development in the Solomons, during the next ten years, on a scale that will by then need a fleet of ships to cope with the trade and export of copra. The Solomons are progressing with such rapidity that all the accessories of progress and all personal and domestic comforts will be common.

No other islands of the Pacific can offer more interesting historical items, as to their discovery, than the Solomons. Some of the most adventurous and famous of navigators, hundreds of years back, visited these islands, and it is recorded, and the statement believed to this day, that one of these intrepid sailors estimated the Solomons comprised in their whole group thousands of islands, and after one has sailed through the innumerable channels, into many bays and straits, and, in short, round the group, it is difficult to disbelieve the number an exaggeration. Three hundred and forty-nine years ago the bold mariner, Mendana, sailed through the Solomons, and the names he gave the various larger islands are still retained. This plucky sailorman on his return to Europe told of a wonderland, rich beyond the imagination of men, of strange black peoples, with strange customs, unfriendly and aggressive; a land, as he told the Spanish king of those days, that was a revelation of fertility, and which teemed with a superabundance of all precious metals. Mendana had ambitions of returning and setting up a Spanish colony, himself as king, and the beautiful wife he so tenderly writes about in his memoirs, as queen. He never returned, and nothing more of any note was heard of the Solomons until fifty years ago British men-of-war voyaging in that part of the Pacific took stock of its possibilities, and from that time missionaries and traders, sure of some protection, gradually found opportunities for friendly intercourse with the natives, and then for enterprise and settlement. Great Britain had made no claim either to own or protect the islands, her statesmen, indeed, were indifferent to the spread of the Empire in the Pacific, when the Germans came on the scene, and there was a sudden shuffle, as it were, the British taking one lot of the islands and the Germans the other. In 1900, a second adjustment, and the present one, took place whereby all the islands south of the big island in the north, Bourgainville, became a British Protectorate, the rest the German Solomons, and under the German New Guinea administration.

The Solomons lie between the parallels of 5 degrees and 12 degrees, 30 minutes south, and the meridians of 155 degrees and 170 degrees of east longitude. They are well out of the regions of hurricanes, a factor of immense importance commercially, and which is the cause 'of much damage in other island groups of the South Pacific—Fiji, for instance. The total area of the British Protectorate will amount at a moderate computation to about 10,000,000 acres, and every acre useful or suitable for some tropical product.

The pretty little settlement of Tulagi on the small island of Florida, sandwiched between the very large islands of Guadalcannal and Malaita, in the south end of the group, is the seat of government and the chief port of entry, there being a Resident Commissioner (Mr. Chas. Workman, M.A.) and officials for the conduct of government business of customs, land matters, native affairs, police, and the collection of revenues. The climate of the Solomons cannot be described as a healthy one, since malarial fever and dysentery are prevalent, the latter chiefly among the natives. Europeans, taking reasonable precautions, stand the climate very well; they in time become acclimatized, and with an occasional holiday to the mountains, where it is both cold and bracing, any white man can live a long, useful life. Numbers of white women are now living at Tulagi, Gizo, and other settlements, on Government and mission stations and plantations. This signifies that malaria, the dreaded ailment of the tropics, will gradually disappear as the comforts of homes under women's guidance are promoted, and the land is opened up and drained. The European population of the Solomons would be at present about 1,000, the native about 150,000, but this is much under the supposed real number there is no doubt, as owing to the still very savage tribes, such as on Malaita, a census has not been possible. The Administration estimate that the natives are decreasing, large numbers having been carried off by dysentery, but many more by incessant tribal warfare, which the Administration seems powerless to avert. In these islands is the interesting study of the meeting and admixture of the Polynesian and Melanesian races, at the same time to the casual eye there is nothing in racial characteristics very striking. The natives are addicted to chewing the betel nut, and liming their hair, more, however, to destroy vermin than for ornament. There is much diversity in the native languages, at least forty are known to occur, and the list is by no means complete. There is in the Solomons a decided shortage of native labor, a problem that is causing planters some concern for future developments. The indentured native, too, in the past has been a much pampered person, and his efforts not as satisfactory as they might be.

All trade is done with Australia. With copra and other products exported, and merchandise imported, the amount runs to hundreds of thousands of value a year, and the war has not made any appreciable difference. Copra, rubber, timber, bananas, cotton, and pearl shell were the products chiefly exported a few years back, but the demand for copra has meant its rapid extension to the "neglect of the others. Ivory nuts are fairly plentiful, and before the war commanded $75 a ton. No doubt this product will be developed, for Japan, in place of Germany, is coming to the fore in button making, the nut being especially serviceable for that purpose. There is a great variety of timbers, but a classification has never been taken, though it is recognized that the Solomons can provide from its many forests all commercial timbers.

Prospecting for minerals has not been undertaken or encouraged, owing to the still uncertain temper of the natives; it is supposed, however, that gold and copper will be found in abundance.

With copra, the raising of stock on the plantations will, there is no doubt, ultimately become the two chief industries of the group. The cattle serve the necessary purpose of keeping matured plantations free from grass, and they become remarkably sleek and prime from the succulent herbage. In 1916, 200 head of fat cattle were sent from Lever Bros.' plantation to Sydney, and were sold at an average of $100 per head. Animals, such as birds, snakes and insects are common in variety, but calling for no particular attention; while in the Solomon waters are to be found great quantities of turtles, especially the species from which the commercial tortoise-shell is procured.