“People without a leader are like logs in the current of the sea; they don’t know where to go.” Neli Lifuka is totally candid and color­ ful as he describes his conventional childhood on Vaitupu in the Territory of Tuvalu (until 1975 the Ellice Island Group), his early education and travels, his first job as an engine-room hand on a phosphate cargo ship, his experiences with American marines in World War II, and his crucial role in the unprecedented purchase of Kioa Island (just off Fiji) in 1946. Klaus-Friedrich Koch visited Kioa for the first time 20 years later. Fasci­ nated by the story of Old Man Neli’s adventures and the difficulties en­ countered in the settlement of Kioa by the Vaitupuan colonists, he arranged to return as soon as he could with a notebook and recording equipment. This book is an edited transcript of Neli’s autobiography, supplemented by an introduction and a legal analysis of the conflict between Polynesian customs and British colonial- administrative law which bewildered Vaitupu and Kioa for a great many years. Professor H.E. Maude has written the foreword to this unusual chapter in Pacific history. Distinguished as historian and administrator, Professor LOGS M THE CURRENT OF THE SEA Maude was Resident Commissioner in Neli Lifuka's Story of Kioa charge of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony at the time of the Kioa and the Vaitupu Colonists purchase. Fclited and Introduced by Klaus-Friedrich Koch “People without a leader are like logs in the current of the sea; they don’t know where to go.” Neli Lifuka is totally candid and color­ ful as he describes his conventional childhood on Vaitupu in the Territory of Tuvalu (until 1975 the Ellice Island Group), his early education and travels, his first job as an engine-room hand on a phosphate cargo ship, his experiences with American marines in World War II, and his crucial role in the unprecedented purchase of Kioa Island (just off Fiji) in 1946. Klaus-Friedrich Koch visited Kioa for the first time 20 years later. Fasci­ nated by the story of Old Man Neli’s adventures and the difficulties en­ countered in the settlement of Kioa by the Vaitupuan colonists, he arranged to return as soon as he could with a notebook and recording equipment. This book is an edited transcript of Neli’s autobiography, supplemented by an introduction and a legal analysis of the conflict between Polynesian customs and British colonial- administrative law which bewildered Vaitupu and Kioa for a great many years. Professor H.E. Maude has written the foreword to this unusual chapter in Pacific history. Distinguished as historian and administrator, Professor LOGS M THE CURRENT OF THE SEA Maude was Resident Commissioner in Neli Lifuka's Story of Kioa charge of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony at the time of the Kioa and the Vaitupu Colonists purchase. Fclited and Introduced by Klaus-Friedrich Koch This book was published by ANU Press between 1965–1991. This republication is part of the digitisation project being carried out by Scholarly Information Services/Library and ANU Press. This project aims to make past scholarly works published by The Australian National University available to a global audience under its open-access policy. Logs in the Current of the Sea Neli Lifuka LOGS IN THE CURRENT OF THE SEA Neli Lifuka’s Story of Kioa and the Vaitupu Colonists EDITED AND INTRODUCED BY KLAUS-FRIEDRICH KOCH With a Foreword by Professor H.E. Maude AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY PRESS CANBERRA 1978 First published in Australia 1978 Printed in the United States of America for the Australian National University Press, Canberra ©Copyright 1978 by Langdon Associates, Inc. This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism, or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be made to the publisher. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Koch, Klaus-Friedrich. Logs in the current of the sea. Simultaneously published, Cambridge, U.S.: The Press of the Langdon Associates. Bibliography ISBN 0 7081 0362 6 1. Lifuka, Neli, 1909- 2. Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony. 3. Fiji Islands — Biography. I. Title. 996.81 FOREWORD BY PROFESSOR H E. MAUDE It is not my intention to tell the story of Old Man Neli Lifuka’s very varied career here, except to say that the earlier part of my own life in the islands seems to have intertwined with Neli’s to a remarkable extent. When I lirst left Australia for Ocean Island in 1929 he was an engine-room hand on the same ship; a year later he was on the Col­ ony yacht Nimanoa when she took me to Bern as District Officer for the Southern Gilbert Islands. In later years Neli and I sailed on sev­ eral ships and lived on several islands at one and the same time; and after World War II when he became Magistrate of Vaitupu, I was the Resident Commissioner in charge of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony. Finally, in 1946, I went with Foua Tofinga to an auction sale in Suva where, on behalf of the people of Vaitupu, we success­ fully bid for Kioa Island in Fiji, where Old Man Neli now lives as a respected patriarch. I remember Neli Liluka as a man of my own age unusually adept at mastering the skills required for successfully performing any work that he was invited to undertake, whether for the government, commerce, or the phosphate industry. In addition, he was the best mediator I have ever known—the interpreter of one culture to another. He was able to perform a vital role in a period of rapid cul­ tural and technological change by interpreting the often seemingly odd and unpredictable requirements of the European to his fellow- islanders, and vice versa. He could do this, never taking leave of his own culture, because his perceptions were unusually quick, and be­ cause, more importantly, he inspired the trust and affection both of his European employers and his compatriots, whether colleagues or subordinates. We all admired his honesty, respected his judgment, and knew from experience that it he thought any of us to be wrong he would tell us so in no uncertain terms. Neli Liluka ot Vaitupu and Kioa is, on any assessment, an ex­ ceptionally able and courageous man, yet he is no paragon. He speaks of the trials and triumphs of his eventful life with a disarming frank­ ness that impels us to relate to him with an understanding and a sym­ pathy that transcends cultural differences. My personal knowledge of the events, islands and in many cases the people mentioned by Neli is sufficient to enable me to confirm the substantial accuracy of his narrative. His editor and friend, anthropologist Klaus-Friedrich Koch, wisely has been content to play the part of a passive redactor, repro­ ducing Neli s own story as nearly as possible in Neli’s own words and vi Foreword confining his essential explanatory data to the notes and a separate section of legal analysis. The Lifuka/Koch book can, in fact, be read with profit and de­ light by all interested in the Pacific islander of today, for in it we are told more about island life in a time of social and political transition than we can gain from a dozen textbooks. It is a welcome and oppor­ tune breakthrough in our regional literature, providing us with the first life history of a Polynesian villager who has remained closely connected with village life. It will be welcomed by anthropologists, psychologists, and historians alike. Furthermore, Dr. Koch has pre­ pared a case study of the legal difficulties and delays involved in the transfer of the title to Kioa Island which will be of value to all con­ cerned with the reconciliation of customary tenure and European- based law; a matter that is still causing misunderstanding and contro­ versy in some Pacific states and territories. In the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony titles to native-owned land were based on local customary law and disputes were either settled by indigenous tribunals or by Europeans trained in anthro­ pology and speaking the local language. The Kioa question could not, unfortunately, be so decided since it concerned two independent administrations. As a former Chief Lands Commissioner I must curb my inclination to comment at length on the points raised in this in­ teresting case; but perhaps I may state my personal conviction that the problem of title could not have been properly resolved until the matai of Vaitupu and the settlers on Kioa had reached an agreement, and that any earlier decision would in all probability have conflicted with the best interests of the colonists and prevented the effective development of the island. But these technicalities notwithstanding, it would be a thousand pities if anyone were to be intimidated by them into thinking that some special expertise is required to enjoy what is in fact a very special and a very human story. H.E. Maude Canberra, Australia 27th May, 1977 CONTENTS Foreword by Professor H.E. Maude V Introduction by Klaus-Friedrich Koch xi Neli Lifuka’s Story 1 Childhood and School Days in Vaitupu 3 Early Travels 10 Marriage and a Sojourn in Vaitupu 14 Work in the B.P.C. Hospital on Ocean Island 17 War Years in Funafuti 26 Magistrate in Vaitupu 33 The Settlement of Kioa 45 Working for the Wholesale Society 53 In Kioa 61 The Legal History of the Kioa Settlement 89 Notes 101 Bibliography 109 ILLUSTRATIONS Neli Lifuka frontispiece Neli Lifuka and Klaus-Friedrich Koch viii Beach hut where Neli told his story (1970) xiv Old-style houses on Kioa New-style houses on Kioa xvi Map of Central Polynesia 2 Ellice sailing canoes 16 Officer Lifuka (Moana Raoi, 1959) 58 Neli in the maneapa on Vaitupu (1969) 70 MM Neli Lifuka and Klaus-Friedrich Koch ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My field studies on the history of the Kioa settlement, part of a com­ parative research project on law and conflict management in the South Pacific, have been supported by grants from the American Philosophical Society, the Milton and Clark Funds of Harvard Uni­ versity, the Comparative International Program in the Department of Social Relations at Harvard University, and the National Institute of Mental Health (No.