Permits Go

Fiji Travel Restrictions

Suva, Oct. 15.

IT is no longer necessary for overseas residents to obtain a permit to enter the Colony of Fiji. This was purely a wartime measure, and has now been repealed.

During the war it was also necessary for European males over the age of 15 to apply to the Labour and National Service Board for permission to leave the Colony, and for all Europeans leaving the country to obtain an exit permit from the police. Neither of these permits is now required; all that is necessary is a pro perly vised passport.

Restrictions on entering wharf areas have also been lifted, and it is now pos sible for Fiji residents to meet new arrivals on overseas ships without the trouble of getting a permit from the police. To date, visitors to the Colony have had a tough time getting off the Suva wharf unless they had a sympathetic soul on shore who was willing to go to considerable trouble for their sake. The nearest taxi stand is quite a way from the Customs shed, and there appears to be no other way of removing one's luggage.

Fijians, licensed by the Government, remove luggage from the ship to the shed, and demand, and get, 5/- upwards for the service. In Australia, or New Zea land, the same job is performed by Euro peans for a couple of shillings; but the Fijian, these days, seems incapable of thinking in terms of anything less than a dollar.

Mr. W. W. Bolton, a well-known scholar, of Papeete, Tahiti, recently celebrated his 87th birthday by taking a moonlight stroll to Maraa Cave—a place 18 miles distant from his residence.

Mr. F. Percival Ward, who was Seventh Day Adventist? missionary on Pitcairn Island for some time, is now engaged at the SDA printing establishment at War

burton, Victoria.