Fiji News Notes
p. 15 · Read in the full issue
From Our Own Correspondent
Suva, May 2.
LAUCALA Bay (where the flying-boat base is situated at Suva’s side door) was deluged with 11.8 in. of rain be tween 6 p.m. and 8.15 p.m. on April 29.
The Suva town area reported 4.25 in. in the same period, and Walu Bay escaped with a mere 3.99 in.
In case of disbelief it is added that the Laucala Bay record was checked by two gauges. * The Union Company’s ship, “Matua,” took 12,803 cases of bananas and 1,810 cases of citrus fruit when she sailed from Suva for Auckland on April 30. The ship’s accommodation was filled to capacity and about 200 cases of fruit had to be left, * Twenty-five young Fijians at Canton Island, all of them employees of Pan American World Airways, have sent a gift of a large, handsomely mounted clock to the Jubilee Methodist Church. Suva.
The clock was brought to Fiji by plane
by one of the donors, Viliame Batibila, of Nadi, who presented it at the evening service on April 24.
Viliame described how the Fijians at Canton had formed their own choir and started their own church services, which are frequently attended by other Pacific Islanders and Americans at the island. * Mr. John Neil Falvey has been admitted as a barrister and solicitor in Fiji by his Honor, Mr. Justice Carew, at the Supreme Court, Suva. * Mr. D. M. N, McFarlane was elected Deputy Mayor of Suva at a special meet ing of the Town Council on April 26. * The death has occurred of one of the first Fijian women who trained as a nurse at the old hospital (now demolished) at Korovou, Suva. She was Fine Liku, wife of Samisoni Fotu, a very well-known Lauan Assistant Medical Practitioner.
Nurse Fine was a trainee as long ago as 1909. When she became seriously ill recently, she was brought from Loma loma, Lau, where her husband is stationed, to Suva by an RNZAF Cata lina flying-boat. She died at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital.
Among the representative gathering at the funeral were Lady Maraia, nurses of the CWM Hospital and medical students.
Nurse Fine, who was associated with various Fijian women’s organisations, in cluding the Matanisiga and the Ruve, is survived by her husband, three daughters and three sons, one of whom, Tevita Fotu, is an AMP. * Providing an excellent boost for the current campaign to organise Fijian amateur athletics for the coming British Empire Games in New Zealand and, later, the Olympics, a young Fijian, Mataika Tuicakau, in spite of a slippery ground and the lack of spiked shoes, put a 16i lb. shot 45 ft. 31 in. at an inter-school meet
ing at Suva. This compares more than favourably with the present Empire stan dards. * Members of Fiji’s Copra Board have been appointed as follows: —Mr. S. H. Wil son, MLC; Ratu George Toganivalu, MLC; Messrs. J. M. Hedstrom and W. G. John son (for two years); and Messrs. S. A.
Bull, C. H. Came, H. Petersen and Ulaiasi Bosabalavu (for one year). * Fiji Golf Club Associates elected the following officers at the annual meet ing:—Captain, Mrs. W. V. Banting; se cretary, Mrs. D. J. Warren; committee, Mesdames Leys, Olsen and Roth (re elected) .
The Fiji Basketball Association’s officers for 1949 are;—Patron, Lady 1 Freeston; president, Miss A. Naylor; vice-presidents, Miss Robertson, Mrs. Weaver, Mr. C.
Hokin; treasurer, Miss Bradley; secretary, Mr. Hokin; committee, one member from each team.
After less than two years of basketball in Fiji, the association has 26 teams (eight Fijian, nine Indian and nine Euro pean). ♦ After being crushed against the railing of the. Suvavou Bridge, near Suva, when a bus skidded on the bridge, an 11-year old part-European girl, Ania Rogers, died soon after her admission to hospital.
A 16-year-old Fijian student, Ratu Apenisa Veikoso, was killed when, cycling down the Bypass Road, Suva, he collided with a bus. ; The mounting toll of road accidents in the Suva area is causing serious concern.