TORREYA 



Vol. 42 September-October No. 5 



Botanizing on Niue Island 



T. G. YUNCKER 



To many, Niue Island has little significance because it is one 

 of the more isolated of the Polynesian islands, has had few Euro- 

 pean or American visitors, and about which there has been little 

 publicity. Furthermore, it lies in a lonely part of the south Pacific 

 ocean and has little or no strategic or commercial importance. Be- 

 cause of the manner of its geological formation and other features 

 it is, however, a very interesting island especially to the botanist 

 and the geologist. It is situated at 19° S. latitude and 169° 50' W. 

 longitude with the Samoan, Tongan and Society groups as its 

 closest neighbors but with the nearest islands several hundred 

 miles distant. It has no harbor with safe anchorage during storms. 

 I'his fact discourages visits from any ships except the regular New 

 Zealand government service boat which, previous to the outbreak 

 of the war, was scheduled to visit the island once a month. For 

 weeks the only vessels one may see are the dugout canoes in which 

 the natives fish off the edge of the reef. 



The island is approximately 13 miles long and 11 miles wide 

 and has a native population of about 4,000 which has remained 

 fairly constant for a number of years. The white population, 

 mostly government officials and their families, numbers less than a 

 score. The natives wear European clothing for the most part al- 

 though a wrap-around, skirt-like garment similar to the Samoan 

 lava-lava is also used. They are in the main a high type, quiet and 

 peaceful people. They do not, however, have the spontaneity of 

 the Samoans, for example, nor do they sing and play with as much 

 enthusiasm. This may be because life is considerably more difficult 

 in Niue than in most of the more fertile volcanic islands nearer the 

 equator. 



ToRREYA for September-October (Vol. 42, 121 to 152) was issued January 29, 



1943. 



121 



