THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC 



555 



the "Nanga," both having the 

 same significance and purpose, 

 with only slight variations in the 

 mode of procedure, as clearly 

 established by the late Rev. Lori- 

 mer Fison in collaboration with 

 the writer, whose investigations 

 extended over several years. 



PHOSPHATES IN pipU OP MIN- 

 ERAL WpAPTH 



In natural resources these Pa- 

 cific islands differ to some extent 

 from Australia, New Zealand, 

 and New Guinea, there being, so 

 far as is known, an absence of 

 great and rich mineral deposits; 

 but the soils are extremely rich, 

 and for the production of sugar, 

 cotton, rubber, coconuts, bananas, 

 coffee, cocoa, rice, pineapples, 

 and many varieties of fruit and 

 vegetables they are eminently 

 suitable and probably unsur- 

 passed. It would indeed be diffi- 

 cult to name any product of 

 tropical origin that could not 

 flourish in the fertile soils of 

 Polynesia. 



Among the greatest of all the 

 natural resources of these oceanic 

 territories the enormous deposits 

 of high-grade phosphates on 

 several of the Polynesian islands 

 are of prime importance. This 

 is especially so in the case of 

 Nauru, or Pleasant Island, a 

 small, isolated spot half a degree 

 south of the Equator and rising 

 about twenty feet above sea-level, 

 estimated by Dr. Paul Hombrun to con- 

 tain about 497,700,000 tons of the richest 

 phosphates to be obtained anywhere, the 

 quantitative analysis giving from 83 to 

 90 per cent of tricalcium phosphate (see 

 page -567). 



Although this remarkable little isle has 

 no harbor, the phosphates are loaded into 

 the freighters at. the rate of 100 tons per 

 hour by special contrivances. The Ocean 

 Island high-grade phosphate deposits are 

 estimated at 12,500,000 tons. 



There are also rich phosphate deposits 

 on the islands of Angaur, in the Pelew 

 group, and Makatea, the estimated quan- 

 tity on the latter — an island belonging to 

 France, on the western side of the Tua- 



It 



is 



MURAP ART IN 



motu or Low 

 000,000 tons. 



Photograph by A. Nieler 

 NEW GUINEA 



Archipelago — being 10,- 



PACIPIC ISPANDS DISTRIBUTED AMONG 

 MANY NATIONS 



Before the World War the Nauru and 

 Angaur deposits were in German hands. 

 This suggests some brief consideration 

 of the political or pre-war condition of 

 these Pacific groups, especially in the 

 light of their occupation by European 

 powers and their present relation to the 

 Australian continent and to New Zea- 

 land. 



At the outbreak of the World War the 

 Pacific islands were in the possession of 

 the United States of America, Great 



