Our landing place will be Red Island Point. An average of two boats a week visit RIP from Thursday Island. A big launch owned by Cadzow (butcher) and a 60 ft. landing craft owned by Wreford (carry- ing sawn lumber from Holland's mill). Tom Holland is married to Sharret Cowling of Madiri Plantation, lower Fly River. Am more than ready to leave T.I. but as there is no chance of getting on a plane until sometime next week, I will make a trip to the mainland on Cadzow's boat leaving Friday or Saturday. The long delayed wet season seems about to break and T.I. is extremely hot and muggy. The little town of about 300 whites and 600 resident natives is staging a slow recovery from neglect and wanton damage by the Aus- trian forces which occupied it during the war, and is almost as stag- nant as the overheated air. Conditions are incredibly primitive in at least my hotel, and to make matters worse, the town water supply has broken down and the only water available is from a small emergency sup- ply which is siphoned out of storage tanks for a short time each day. This is the sixth day of water shortage. As Ethel the prprietress said, as I drew a fire pail of water by the kitchen door for my morning ablutions, "It's bloody awful". The bathhouse is out the back, in the hotel yard. A crude, dirty little shed with half a roof, a wooden wash stand and a jagged piece of a mirror; no sink or wash bowl and no light. You provide your own soap, and take a bath by ladling water out of a pail with the bottom part of a soap dish. Ethel is quite a character. There was a party in the hotel last night and she was in it. Had one too many after the 39th. Fell and broke her head open on the concrete floor. When I went down early this morning, there was a pool of her still wet blood a foot across at the bottom of the stairs, and a little black pup was licking it, licking her blood from the cement. The chief activities here are pearling, and trade with the Torres Strait islands. Pearling ceased with the outbreak of the war in the Pacific, and after the long rest the beds have had, shell is now planti- ful. Before the war there were 70 boats and nearly all diving was done by Japs. Now there are only 30 boats and white men and islanders are doing the diving. Owing to inexperience of the crews and divers, out- put per boat is small, but a very high price of about £600 per ton for shell makes the industry pay extremely well. The boats are in now for the wet season lay-off. The shell is being sorted and packed in boxes for export. Have decided to give old Joe McLaughlin a job as cook after all. He was on the booze when I arrived but has pulled out of that and is going over to RIP to camp until we are ready to take the field. Will try him out. If he fails us we shall perhaps be able to get an island cook. Jensen has offered to keep a lookout for one. Joe has advantages for us in that he is an experienced camp cook and knows everyone on the Peninsula. Against that we will have to pay him more than we can really afford on our slim budget. Do not yet know what his wages will be. Such things are fixed by awards and awards are in process of being reversed with the introduction of a 40-hour working week.