NAURU, THE RICHEST TSLAND TX THE SOUTH SEAS 



n 



Photograph from Mrs. Rosamond Dodson Rhone 

 TEACHERS AND PUPILS OP A MISSIONARY NATIVE SCHOOL 



was the first plebiscite growing out of the 

 war, and it took place in what was per- 

 haps the most remote territory in the 

 world. It suggested that day in the Old 

 Testament when Joshua called all the 

 tribes of Israel to Shechem and said to 

 them: "Choose you this day whom ye 

 will serve!" 



This was a great day for Nauru. Per- 

 haps the crowd that gathered in Shechem 

 on that far-off day was no more weird 

 and picturesque in appearance than those 

 who came together on this little coral 

 island. 



As upon a festal day, the natives 

 crowned themselves with fresh wreaths 

 of flowers, and those who were nearest 

 to the white settlement or under mission- 

 ary influence put on "plenty clothes," the 

 men wearing clean lava-lavas falling to 

 the knee and the women Mother Hub- 

 bard dresses reaching to their bare heels, 

 while those from more remote parts of 

 the island, or avowedly pagan, came 

 dressed only in ridis of pandanus leaves, 

 swinging from their hips like ballet 

 dancers' skirts, their bare brown torsos 

 glistening with coconut oil. 



Thev came on foot, on bicycles — a na- 

 tive in a ridi, riding a bicycle is a delight- 

 ful anachronism, — some of the aged and 



feeble were drawn in light carts by man 

 (or woman) power. Perhaps the most 

 picturesque figure in that company was 

 an old man named Tekoroa, dressed in a 

 mat wrapped about his waist and reach- 

 ing to his knees, encasing him tightly, 

 like an envelope. Before there was a 

 white government he killed seven men, 

 natives, cast upon the beach by the waves, 

 in order to seize their canoe. 



They assembled at the government 

 court-house, which is built like a native 

 house, a high, wide shed supported by 

 posts of coconut timbers, roofed by a 

 deeply eaved thatch of pandanus leaves 

 and floored by coarse coconut mats. 

 Guided by the native police, they passed 

 in line before the administrator's desk 

 and subscribed themselves, without ex- 

 ception, British subjects. They can all 

 read and write in their own language, for 

 the missionaries have spread education 

 throughout the islands. 



MINING AND SHIPPING OP PHOSPHATE 



Phosphate is mined by Chinese coolies 

 in open quarries, but these are not like 

 stone quarries, where everything is taken 

 out as the work progresses. The phos- 

 phate is packed between the coral pinna- 

 cles as tightly as the filling in a tooth and 



