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The diet of the people, which consists mainly of fish and coconuts, appears to be deficient in many necessary ingredients, though it does not seem to be detrimental to the health of the inhabitants. 12. Water-supplies Under primitive conditions, life in coral atolls is complicated by the necessity for storing every available drop of water. The indigenous method was to cut grooves and hollows on the under-side of the trunks of coconutpalms and so lead the water into numerous small reservoirs. Water-tanks have now been placed on each of the islets. At Fakaofo there are three tanks with a total capacity of 43,800 gallons and a catchment area of 2,646 square feet. At Nukunono there are three tanks with a total capacity of 35,500 gallons and a catchment area of 2,700 square feet. At Atafu the two tanks have a total capacity of 42,500 gallons with a catchment area of 2,700 square feet. On Fakaofo there are two wells, and on Atafu one of a less satisfactory nature, all of which are available for use for washing purposes. Three of the tanks, one in each atoll, have been completed within the last few years. The provision of additional storage capacity has reduced the number of drinking-nuts previously consumed, and this should increase the amount of copra available, for export. According to normal public-health standards, however, the available supply of fresh water on each atoll is still inadequate, and attention will be given in future to the examination of such local conditions as may make it possible to increase the fresh-water supply. The large meetinghouses in each village, for instance, might be suitably roofed so as to provide additional catchment areas, and extra tanks could then be erected alongside. Forty-four-gallon drums are in some cases used as reservoirs alongside trees, but the danger associated with this method is that diseases borne by mosquitoes might thereby be encouraged, as it is difficult to induce the people to keep the drums covered. The increase in the available water-supply might make it easier to combat the present prevalence of skin-diseases, but it would be necessary to educate the islanders to make proper and regular use of the additional water-supply if extra tanks were installed. 111. EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS 13. Education Village schools under mission pastors or eatechists are maintained on each island, education being limited for the most part to elementary arithmetic, reading and writing the Samoan language, and scriptural literature. It has not been possible up to the present to establish there Samoan teachers, as the islanders themselves prefer the present arrangement owing to the difficulty of maintaining suitably in the atolls strangers from other Groups who are accustomed to a different mode of life. Some assistance has, however, been afforded the mission schools. The Superintendent of Schools from Samoa paid a visit to all atolls in 1945. Stationery, materials, and other equipment have been supplied from time to time, and it is also intended to send School Journals in Samoan and, as they become available in the future, elementary text-books in the Samoan and English languages. Additional radio receiving-sets are on order for distribution to institutions and villages in Samoa, and when these, arrive it is proposed to make one available to each of the Tokelau atolls; this will ensure that children in the Tokelau schools have an opportunity of listening to regular education transmissions from Samoa.

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