Wallis and Futuna

World Factbook - Central News Agency

Wallis and Futuna were the only remaining colonies in France to join the Vichy government during the Second World War, a period that ended in May 1942 with the advent of 2,000 US forces. The name of Wallis and Futuna was transformed into an oversee community in 2003: demographic pyramid: improved: unimproved: none (oversee community of France);;; The economies are confined to conventional sub-sistence farming, with about 80% of labour income derived from farming (coconuts and vegetables), animal husbandry (mainly pigs) and fisheries.

Nonetheless, around 70% of the workforce is engaged in the government industry, although only about one third of the workforce is gainfully employed. However, the number of people working in the government industry is limited. Revenue comes from government grants, licences for fisheries to Japan and South Korea, imports duties and transfers from foreign labour in New Caledonia.

The French directly finance the French government as well as health and educational sectors. In addition, it provides funds for important developments in a number of areas, among them infrastructures, commercial developments, environment and health-care. One of Wallis and Futuna's central concerns is an ageing populace with the resulting problems of social and economical growth. Only very few persons between 18-30 years of age are living on the island, as the possibilities for official jobs are restricted.

One of the local authorities' priorities is to improve employment generation.

Valais and Futuna | French Absea Community, Pacific Ocean

Valais and Futuna, in the whole territory of the Wallis and Futuna Islands, French Territoire des Îles Wallis et Futuna, self-governing French Overseas Community, comprising two groups of islands in the western Pacific Ocean. Included are the Wallis Islands (Uvea and the neighbouring islands) and the Horne Islands (Futuna and Alofi).

Matâ'utu, on Uvea, is the city. Uvea has its name, Valais, from its eighteenth c. discovery by Britain, Captain Samuel Wallis, but the local name is much older. The Uvea and Futuna are sometimes mistaken for isles of the same or similar name. The Uvea is sometimes mistaken for Ouvéa in the loyalty isles of New Caledonia.

The name Futuna has a cousin among the Vanuatu Isles (formerly the New Hebrides), and it seems from the folk music that both the Futuna in Vanuatu and the Stewart Isles (Sikaiana) were populated in the Solomon Isles in the pre-European time of Futuna. Entire area 54 km2 (140 km2). It is a vulcanic isle, but it is relatively low and reaches a height of only 145 meters on Mount Lulu Fakahega.

It has a surface area of 29 sq. km (76 sq. km). The Uvea is encircled by a barriere with about 20 islands, which have a maximal height of 60 meters. Passports opening through the coastline allow boat entry to the principal islet and the area between the coastline and the islet is a protected area.

Located just over 125 leagues (200 km) south-west, Futuna has a smaller neighbor, Alofi. They are both vulcanic isles. The Futuna has an area of 46 km2 and its volcano tops reach 760 meters. Alofi covers an area of 18 km2 and its highest peak is 365m.

The Futuna and Alofi are divided by a 3.2 km wide canal, and both of them are partly protected by fringe coral canals. Sufficient rainfall will fall on all three isles. There are no perpetual creeks, but there are many creeks and wells on Futuna. There is no freshwater and no long-term settlement in Alofi.

Soil on the Uvea and Futuna Island is of low fecundity and a number of limiting elements limit farm output. Uvea's rainforests of rhinoceroses ruined the Uvea area in the 1930', but the pests did not get to Futuna and Alofi. Only on Alofi and a small part of Uvea there are still considerable stocks of unspoilt wood.

Otherwise the woods have practically vanished and degradation is a Futuna issue. Native inhabitants are Polynesians, but there are considerable variations between the language and tribes of the Uvea and Futuna isles. Uvea seems to have been populated by at least 800 B.C. and the Tongans took over the population.

Uvea and Tonga have close links in culture, history and linguistics. Conversely, indigenous ethnic ity indicates that the Futunians originated in Samoa; their tongue is related to that of Samoa, and the Futunians have a lot of common culture with Samoa. Walloon (Uveic) and Futunian are both Polish and French.

For a long time, the island population has been ruled by a government of France and the great majority professes the belief of Româché. It is reluctant to tie Futuna to Uvea, and its inhabitants have voiced a wish to have their own regional state. Dogs are scattered around the island, mainly along the coastline.

Approximately two third of the Uvea people live here. New Caledonia's Uveanian and futunian populations are bigger than those of the home isles. There have always been few expats in Wallis and Futuna. Only a few of the island's entire inhabitants are of Ancestry.

Approximately four fifth of the people of Wallis and Futuna are subsisting, cultivating sweet potatoes, taro, banana and other foodstuffs. Valais and Futuna are truly resource-poor and export earnings are very low. The income comes from grants from the public authorities, the licencing of fishery permits to Japan and Korea, imports tax and transfers from foreign labour in New Caledonia.

The Uvea is more advanced than Futuna. Uvea is home to the government of France, and the country has the better infrastructures. Futuna, on the other hand, is a bit insulated, there is only a partly asphalted street that circles the entire archipelago, and the government offices are tight. Valais and Futuna attract a small number of tourists.

It has an internatonal airfield in Hihifo, North Uvea, which is connected to New Caledonia and Polynesia. Some of the routes between Uvea and Futuna Island. There is a freighter sailing between the island and Nouméa, New Caledonia, about a couple of dozens of days a year. The Wallis and Futuna is an oversea community of France, split into three quarters corresponding to three traditionally divisive or royalties (or, more precisely, highest chiefs).

The other two share the islands Futuna (in the north-west Sigave and in the south-east Alo, to which the isle of Alofi also belongs). It is composed of the three Magi and three other Magi nominated by the Presidents with the consent of the Legislative, the Territorial Assembly.

Territorial Assembly is composed of 20 members (13 from Uvea and seven from Futuna) chosen by popular vote for five years. Wallis and Futuna elect regional delegates to the Senate and the National Assembly as an integrated part of France. The elementary school in Wallis and Futuna is run by a missionary organisation of the Romans and the State; the State has exclusive authority over upper school.

There are free healthcare available in Uvea and Futuna Island clinics. In Wallis and Futuna, the first residents were Lapita civilizations who arrived on the island around at least 800 BC. Archeological proofs indicate that humans are active in farming and fisheries. Subsequent swells of other Polynesians arrived on the island around 1400 AD:

Samoan settles on Futuna and Tongan on Uvea. Uvea, Alo and Sigave were on the spot when the Wallis and Futuna archipelago first appeared in the seventeenth cent. In 1616, the Flemish discoverers Jakob Le Maire and Willem Schouten saw Futuna during their early expeditions in the Pacific.

There was a decline of 151 years before Captain Samuel Wallis met Uvea in 1767. In the 1820' s there was a further decline of more than 50 years before the fishing industries entered the area and the Europeans began to call regularly on both isles. In the 1830s French Marist priest came as a missionary.

In the space of a decennium, they have enjoyed remarkable achievements and have continued to be an important political power in the archipelago. The Protestant people were never a serious challenger, and the people of the Isles were not affected by the conflict of religion that prevailed elsewhere in the Pacific. Already in the 1840' the people of the archipelago applied for refuge in France, but France reacted only slowly; the Wallis Isles became a protected territory in France in 1887, and Futuna did so the following year.

In the following five centuries the Macedonian government was well established and governed the settlement with a relatively strong grip. During World War II in 1942, the Allies deployed 6,000 soldiers on Uvea and within a brief period a system of streets, two runways and anchorages in the area.

From a historical point of view, the Wallis and Futuna have shown conservativeism and opposed suggestions to alter their dependency state. During 1998, a typical hurricane devastated most of the Uvea cultures, which included the island's orchards, and the recreation was supported by a subsidy from France. Nouméa of 1998, which enhanced the New Caledonia's independence from France, gave rise to discussion about the forthcoming state of Wallis and Futuna's large expatriate communities in New Caledonia; the agreement had given New Caledonia the authority to monitor Wallis and Futuna's migration in return for financial assistance.

A few years later, the other two empires were at times without leaders: the Valais royalty, Tomasi Kulimoetoke, passed away in 2007 after 48 years of rule, and the empire was left empty until July 2008; and in February 2008, after reigning for only five years, the Alo royalty was dismissed by most of the clan of the empire, criticising his way of leading.

Clashes over island governance persisted. In 2014, the Valais emperor was taken away and the empire was vacated for two years. Clashes broke out among the regal family in April 2016 over the election of a new sovereign, Tominiko Halagahu, who had been chosen by Valais warlords.