Another Fijian Island For

G & E Islanders

FORMERLY part of the Austral Verge Estate, the small Fijian Island of Kioa was bought at auction on June lo on behalf of the islanders of Vaitupu in Gilbert and Ellice Islands group.

The price was £3,000, and was subscribed by a co-operative group of islanders with out financial assistance from the G & E Government.

Mr. H. E. Maude of the G. & E. Islands staff bid for the island on the islanders’ behalf. He said that the Vaitupu Island ers were among the most progressive in the Central Pacific, and that he antici pated that they would develop Kioa ex tensively.

The purchase of Kioa was undertaken with the support of the two governments concerned. It will help solve the prob lem of over-population in the relatively barren Gilbert and Ellice Islands It is understood that the Vaitupu Islanders are also claimants to the island of Niulakita, the southernmost of the Ellice Group, which was purchased by G. & E. Island Colony Government from Burns Philp (S.S.) Ltd., in 1944.