LAND POLICY As the New Hebrides is not a territorial possession of either power concerned, there are no Crown lands or their equivalent. The whole of the land area of the Group is held to belong, or to have belonged until alienated, to the natives. The Protocol regulates the acquisition of unregistered land from natives and the registration of land claims. It provides for the creation of inalienable native reserves and for the control of sales of land by natives to non-natives. On the islands of Santo, Malekula, Efate and Epi substantial areas have been alienated. On the other islands little alienation has occurred. BRITISH NATIONAL ADMINISTRATION RESIDENT COMMISSIONER: C. H. Allan, CMG, OBE Administrative Officers, Class A: G. Bristow, MBE; K. Woodward, MBE; D. K. H. Dale Senior Geologist: Dr D. Mallick FRENCH NATIONAL ADMINISTRATION JOINT SERVICES Chief Agricultural Officer: B. Thévenin Chief Medical Officer: Médecin-Col. Chassary Superintendent of Public Works: P. Debant JUDICIARY Justice of the High Court and British Judge of Joint Court: J. P. Trainor ATTENBOROUGH, D. Quest in Paradise. London, Lutterworth Press, 1960. CHEESMAN, Evelyn. Things Worth While. London, Hutchinson, 1957. DE LA RUE, Aubert. Les Nouvelles-Hébrides. Montreal, 1945. LARSEN, May and LARSEN, H. Black Sand; New Hebrides, its peoples and places. London, Oliver and Boyd, 1961. LUKE, Sir H. From a South Seas Diary. London, Nicholson and Watson, 1946. MORRELL, W. P. Britain in the Pacific Islands. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1960. SCARR, Deryck. Fragments of Empire: A History of the Western Pacific High Commission 1877-1914. Australian National University Press, Canberra, and C. Hurst and Co., London, 1967. SIMPSON, Colin. Islands of Men. Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1956. WILSON, J. S. G. Economic Survey of the New Hebrides. H.M.S.O., 1966. THE GILBERT AND ELLICE ISLANDS The Gilbert and Ellice Islands, which also include Ocean Island and the Phoenix and Northern Line Islands, are situated in the South-West Pacific around the point where the International Date Line cuts the Equator. Although the total land area is only 283 square miles it is scattered over more than two million square miles of ocean, and distances between extreme points are enormous. Christmas Island in the east is 2,000 miles from Ocean Island in the west, and the latitude of Washington Island in the north is more than 1,000 miles from the latitude of Niulakita in the south. Furthermore, the islands are remote from large centres of civilisation, and Tarawa, the capital, is about 2,500 miles from Sydney and 1,365 miles from Suva. The scattered nature of the territory and its remoteness cause many difficulties in administration, transport and communications. The Gilbert and Ellice Islands are atolls composed of coral reefs built on the outer arc of the ridges formed by pressure from the central Pacific against the ancient core of Australia. In most of the atolls the reef encloses a lagoon, on the eastern side of which are long narrow stretches of land varying in length from a few hundred yards to some ten miles, and in width from one or two hundred yards to nearly a mile. The surface of these islands seldom rises more than twelve feet above sea level. The climate of the central Gilberts, the Phoenix Islands and Ocean Island is of the maritime equatorial type, but that of the islands farther north and south is of tropical type. The mean annual temperature is 27°C (80°F). The trade winds blow throughout the year with a strong easterly component and exercise a moderating influence on the temperature. From October to March there are occasional westerly gales. Rain comes in sharp squalls and is very irregular, giving wide variations in total fall from island to island and year to year. The average is 40 inches a year near the Equator, rising to 120 inches in the extreme north and south. A census of the population of the islands was held in December 1968. The total population enumerated was 53,517 and comprised 26,404 males and 27,113 females. The territory lies midway between Polynesia and Micronesia, the people of the Gilbert Islands being Micronesian stock, whilst the people of the Ellice Islands are Polynesians with close connections with Samoa and the Tokelaus to the south and east. The racial groups indicated by the 1968 census were as follows: Micronesians (almost entirely Gilbertese) 44,897; Polynesians (almost entirely Ellice Islanders) 7,465; Europeans 458; Chinese (employed at Ocean Island) 65; Mixed race 566; other races 66. The land area of the 29 inhabited islands is very small, and although no accurate surveys have been made, it has been estimated that there is an area of 100 square miles in the Gilbert Islands and 10 square miles in the Ellice Islands. With a population estimated to be increasing at a rate to double itself in about 30 years, despite a family-planning campaign, it is not surprising that population pressure is acute. In 1968 the density of population was nearly 0-3 persons per acre. The people of the territory maintain a reasonable standard of living only by intensive exploitation of the sea and the very limited resources of their infertile atolls, and by sending their young men out to work. A small number find employment on the copra plantations in the Line Islands (Washington, Fanning and Christmas), but the main outlet at present is to the phosphate industry on Ocean Island and Nauru which take approximately 500 and 800 workers respectively, many of them accompanied by their families. There is, already, a surplus of labour available for employment but a critical situation will arise in the late 1970s, when the phosphate which is mined on Ocean Island will be exhausted at the present rate of extraction and the population may well be approaching 68,000 with a density of over 600 to the square mile. The main languages spoken are Gilbertese, Ellice and English. The official language is English, but on the outer islands away from the headquarters at Tarawa it is seldom used. Practically the entire population is Christian, but whereas the religion of the Ellice Islands is predominantly Protestant, that of the Gilbert Islands is more evenly divided between Protestant and Roman Catholic. The Medical Department has its headquarters at Bikenibeu, Tarawa, where the Central Hospital (142 beds) is also situated. Another General Hospital (60 beds) is operated at Ocean Island by the British Phosphate Commissioners for their employees. There is a cottage hospital with 16 beds at Funafuti in the Ellice Islands and a small hospital/dispensary with a medical officer or a male medical assistant in charge on all other islands. The principal endemic diseases are infantile diarrhoea, chicken pox, amoebiasis, bacillary dysentery, filariasis (mostly in the Ellice group), tuberculosis and leprosy. Tuberculosis remains one of the most serious public health problems. Medical expenditure in 1969, excluding Colonial Development and Welfare Schemes, amounted to an estimated $A274,932. The thirty-seven islands of the territory are divided into four districts which are (with their headquarters islands in brackets): Ocean Island, Gilbert Islands (Tarawa), Ellice Islands (Funafuti), and Line Islands (Christmas Island). The Phoenix group is uninhabited. Tarawa is the capital. The main Government Stations are on three separate islets on South Tarawa-Betio (population 4,591), Bairiki (1,300), and Bikenibeu (2,438). Bairiki and Bikenibeu are connected by causeways, but Betio, the port area and scene of the bitter struggle between the United States Marines and the Japanese in 1943, lies two miles west of Bairiki and is served by a scheduled launch service. The headquarters of Government are on Bairiki Islet, where are to be found the House of Representatives building, the Secretariat, Treasury, Legal, Audit, Labour, Information and Public Works Departments. The principal occupations for the available labour force of the islands are provided by the open-cast phosphate mining at Ocean Island, work on the copra plantations in the Line Islands, and Government service. Some labour, however, has secured employment overseas, notably in the phosphate workings at Nauru, and with a fishing company and agricultural enterprises in the New Hebrides. The Marine Training School at Tarawa produced six crews who were employed by overseas shipping lines in 1969. Apart from a very small number of skilled or professional expatriates, all workers are Gilbertese and Ellice Islanders to whom, for the most part, work is a profitable way of seeing new islands and of increasing prevailing income levels on their home islands. The bulk of the population is engaged in copra production on a subsistence basis. During 1969 the British Phosphate Commissioners at Ocean Island employed 604 persons of whom 509 were Gilbert and Ellice Islanders. A further 773 workers from the islands were employed by the Commissioners at Nauru. Estimated numbers in other occupations are: Government service 1,817, and Local Government approximately 294 officials; commerce 719; copra plantations 271. There is only one registered trade union operating at present. Agriculture is virtually non-existent in the islands due to the poor quality of the soil, which is composed largely of coral sand and rock fragments. The major part of all islands, except Ocean and some of the Phoenix group, is covered with coconut palms which provide the islands with an important source of food and drink, and with copra, which is their only cash crop. In 1969, out of a total production of 6,666 tons of copra, 5,601 tons came from Island producers and 1,605 tons from the Line Islands Plantations. Sea fishing is excellent but on a small scale. Phosphate of lime is mined at Ocean Island by the British Phosphate Commissioners. Livestock is limited to pigs and poultry. There is little useful timber. The principal domestic exports are copra, mainly shipped to the United Kingdom, and phosphate (untreated). In 1969, 4,825 tons of copra were exported and the production of phosphate on Ocean Island amounted to 555,100 tons. The values and origins or destinations of imports and exports in 1969 (actual A Copra Board is responsible for all purchases of copra and sales overseas. Internal purchases are made through the agency of the co-operative societies. Most imports and sales or retail goods are handled by a statutory trading organisation, the Wholesale Society and by the co-operatives. The economic life of the indigenous population is based on the co-operative movement. At 31st March 1969 there were 46 co-operative societies (mainly consumer-marketing societies, but including four consumer societies and two secondary societies) having a total membership of 18,049. The volume of private trading is small. The principal ports are at Betio Islet (Tarawa), and Ocean Island. Small ships of up to 10 feet draught may enter the harbour at Betio, whilst larger vessels drawing up to 28 feet anchor in the lagoon and are serviced by barges. At Ocean Island there is a cantilever through which phosphate is loaded, and barge and boat loading facilities are also provided by the British Phosphate Commissioners. Vessels of up to 30 feet draught can enter the lagoon at Funafuti, while at Christmas Island vessels anchor or lie at buoys outside the lagoon. During 1969 a total of 105 overseas vessels called at ports in the territory. Of this number, 53 (with an estimated tonnage of 353,204 tons) were vessels owned or chartered by the British Phosphate Commissioners at Ocean Island. T* |