THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 365 



this magnificent estate is now again being worked, by a French 

 syndicate, and I hope such is the case. There is plenty of 

 room for enterprise in the Society Islands, and in Tahiti alone 

 a Land Mortgage Company would prove a great blessing, espe- 

 cially if as I understand the French Government intend, now 

 that the island is an absolute possession its systematic cultiva- 

 tion were encouraged. 



The Tahitians are inveterately fond of orange-toddy, which 

 they make by fermenting the juice of the fruit in much the 

 same manner as the Line islanders deal with the sap of the 

 cocoa-nut palm ; and the consequence is, that intoxication of a 

 somewhat mild type is very prevalent among them. This is 

 certainly a very undesirable result of the gnnvth of knowledge ; 

 but to lay this drunkenness at the door of the missionaries, 

 whether Catholic or Protestant, as the result of their forbidding 

 the unspeakable obscenities of some of the national dances, is 

 to my mind beside the question altogether. 



The representatives of the Government will have other in- 

 structions, I should hope, than to countenance the preservation 

 of 'national songs,' however wittily improper, and 'national 

 dances,' however suggestively indecent. I am no Puritan, but 

 I should certainly hesitate on commercial grounds before I 

 exchanged my admiration for the works of the Marist Fathers 

 of Oceania for the voluptuous delights of a can-can in Tahiti. 

 In thinking as I do that the Tahitians would, under a system 

 of taxation like that of Fiji, rapidly advance in the ways of 

 industry and prosperity, I am perhaps something of an optimist, 

 as most of my friends were of decided opinion that the laziness 

 of the Tahiti natives was incurable, and that the introduction 

 of civilisation and Christianity had by no means helped them 

 to appreciate the nobility of labour. In fact Mr. Sterndale 

 says : 



