Economy & Resources
During World War II, a substantial airstrip was built, which is still used today although flights to the atoll are not regular.
A large passage in the lagoon allows inter-island ships to enter the lagoon, and the island has become popular as a stopover for yachts crossing the Pacific from Panama to New Zealand. The inter-island Taio shipping company visits the island approximately every three months.
The locally produced Rito hats, woven from coconut fibre, are considered the finest in the whole South Pacific. The fibre is from young coconut leaves which are stripped, boiled and dried resulting in a fine white leaf. Called rito weaving, the traditional items woven are Sunday church fans, small baskets and hats, the hats being a copy of the ones the sailors wore.
Read more about this topic: Penrhyn (atoll)
Famous quotes containing the words economy and/or resources:
“It enhances our sense of the grand security and serenity of nature to observe the still undisturbed economy and content of the fishes of this century, their happiness a regular fruit of the summer.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“But, with whatever exception, it is still true that tradition characterizes the preaching of this country; that it comes out of the memory, and not out of the soul; that it aims at what is usual, and not at what is necessary and eternal; that thus historical Christianity destroys the power of preaching, by withdrawing it from the exploration of the moral nature of man; where the sublime is, where are the resources of astonishment and power.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)