NZ Airforce Leaves Nausori

Prom Our Own Correspondent

Suva, Oct. 18.

THE Royal New Zealand Air Force has withdrawn virtually all its personnel and equipment from Nausori Air port to the Laucala Bay (Suva) base.

Nausori has not been entirely aban doned, however, and is being maintained by the Government of Fiji. The only regular service using the airport is the NZNAC Douglas airliner service from New Zealand to Samoa. Tonga and the Cook Group via Norfolk Island. To meet the requirements of this service, men and equipment are sent from Laucala Bay be fore planes are due.

As a result of this, two of Fiji’s most annoyed people are Messrs. T. F. French (Suva) andN. S. Chalmers (Ba), operators of private planes for whom Nausori now

provides ho service when they descend from the blue without warning.

No announcement has been made yet as to where Fiji’s permanent international air-port will be. It is obvious, however, that the New Zealand Government, which is one of the Empire countries with a voice in the matter, does not think that it will be at Nausori.

Local feeling developed into near-civil war in 1946 when the decision between Nausori and Nadi was first mooted. Nadi is about 120 miles by road from Suva, the capital, but is in the dry zone of Viti Levu. Nausori is about 17 miles from Suva, by road, but is situated on river flats in the wet zone of the island.

The Government of Fiji would be short sighted, however, if it allowed Nausori to fall into disrepair. Apart from the draw back of climate, it has a better strategic situation than Nadi as far as Fiji admin istration and commerce are concerned.

Countless thousands of empty oil drums are scattered across the Islands of the Western Pacific, where they were used to supply aviation and other petrol during the war. There is a world-wide shortage of drums, and a certain amount of sal vaging is going on. The government of Papua-New Guinea recently invited ten ders for the purchase of 2,000 heavy galvanised empty drums.