75. Bernholt arrived quite unexpectedly and I understood Dick to say that he brought a wife, son and two daughters, who have been parked at Ted Island. Van and Moreton also are there and there should be quite a little party. A ship has come over from Thursday Island and is said to be returning on Monday. It may turn out that we take that over since there is no mail from Mills of B-P, T.I., and we have no idea when the craft he has engaged may call for us. He cannot be entirely blamed for that silence, however, since I was supposed to call him tomorrow morning but of course cannot do so from here. There is no particular point in starting any letters since I can mail them myself in a few days. I am hoping there may be some mail waiting us when we get to R.I.P. tomorrow, and in any event I shall then, I hope, have more definite information about our future movements. Saturday, 22 May 1948. Last night Dick and Mr. Bernholt decided to sleep up on on the ridge a little north of camp, in order to avoid mosquitoes but complained of them as much as we did when they came in to breakfast this morning. I think we got out just in time. Relativity is an odd thing - now, camped in an old army hut at Red Island Point, which in itself consists of one white man's house, two half-castes and several abandoned army huts, we feel that we are in a metropolis. Cairns would be positively numbing in its rush of traffic and constant hurry and scurry. Joe immediately took his fish lines on our arrival and produced a very pleas- sant meal of fish for supper. George and Van have gone out jack-lighting, Len is taking a shower somewhere, which I must do soon, and I am writing this. There was mail awaiting us from New York but nothing to tell when we shall leave here or whether the Alagna is running on time. A rumor comes that a barge will be over on Tuesday and in that case we shall take it, whether or not it has been sent over by our T.I. agent. Evidently writing is an art not much practiced by the Islanders. On our way back I got another carpet snake, only eight feet five of him this time, and Van brought me a turtle and a frog so "reptiles and amphibians" goes over the two hundred mark now. The snake has been skinned, just before supper, and tomorrow the work of final packing for the things not ready to be packed when we left Lockerbie for the Jardine River must be undertaken. What we do with them remains to be seen - our means of packing are so scanty that the containers could not possibly stand the rigors of a journey to Cairns but we have nothing else in which to pack. Possibly B-P in T.I. may be able to do something about it, but in view of their reluctance to writing letters, I am afraid they may prove something of a broken reed. We shall get by somehow though. I think tomorrow, after the chores have been done, I shall start some let- ters for New York. I shall mail them myself, I expect, as we think Alagna will leave T.I. before the end of the week. Sunday, 23 May 1948. I omitted to say that the boys were paid off yesterday afternoon and went off to Cowall Creek to bid their goodbyes to their folks. Judging by the chattering and laughter that went on before their departure, they were satisfied with their pay and with the to- bacco they bought from me before they left. They are paid £2-10-0 weekly, of which £2-0-0 goes to the Protector in trust for them and they get the 10/10 as pocket money. From that is deducted the value of the tobacco they have drawn and before going on furlough, as it were, I allowed them to buy what ad- ditional tobacco they wanted to take home with them. It is the usual method here and the system of trade goods, with these boys, is not in effect, I'm glad to say, as that is a lengthy operation.