Policy and practice in an atoll territory : British rule in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, 1892-1970.

Abstract

The sixteen Gilbert and nine Ellice Islands form a chain of coral atolls and reef islands that lies between latitudes 3°30'N and 2°45'S and longitudes 172°30'E and 180° in the central Pacific Ocean. Only Butaritari, Tarawa and Abemama in the Gilberts and Nukufetau and Funafuti in the Ellice Islands offer safe lagoon anchorages for ships with a draft in excess of fifteen feet. Landing at the reef islands, for example at Nikunau and Tamana in the Gilberts or at Nanumanga and Niutao in the Ellice, can be hazardous in calm weather and is virtually impossible during westerly storms. Poor soils, composed primarily of sand and vegetal deposits, sparse and irregular rainfall, and the shallow freshwater lens associated with low coral islands (maximum altitude of about fifteen feet) all combine to place severe limitations on the range of agricultural crops that can be grown. Pandanus, breadfruit and the ubiquitous coconut are the main tree crops and a coarse taro-like plant (known as babai in the Gilberts and pulaka in the Ellice) is laboriously cultivated in pits up to eight feet in depth on all islands. A wider range of exotic crops, bananas and papaw for example,can be grown with ease in the Ellice Islands but only with difficulty on most of the Gilbert Islands. Throughout both groups, traditional systems of land tenure which have led to extensive fragmentation make effective land utilisation difficult; the problem is complicated on those atolls which consist of a string of islets spread along a reef. It is clear that, before the days of imported foodstuffs, the Gilbertese and Ellice Islanders were forced to live in a delicate balance with their environment.