Fijian Swimmers Have

No Place to Swim

From Our Own Correspondent SUVA, July 31.

THE first Fijian title-winner at the British Empire Games, Mataika Tuicakau (putting the shot) and Luke Tunabuna, who did well in the javelin event, are among the 25 inter national athletes Invited by the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association to compete at the Canterbury Centennial Games at Christchurch in December.

This has produced a new crop of queries from New Zealand about the ab sence of Fijian swimmers as competitors in international events.

The reason for this is that there is no Fijian amateur swimming organisation of any kind. A self-appointed Suva com mittee of three (two Fijians, one Euro pean) investigated the situation in March and April, found that the possi bilities were unlimited and that support of all kinds was available, and then was stalled by the fact that in the Suva area there is not a single swimming pool of any description available to Fijians.

The Suva sea baths are nominally one of the few all-European amenities in the capital. But, it is a question how long the situation can be justified, especially in view of the fact that a limited num ber of Chinese apparently use the Euro pean baths with impunity.

In the meantime organised Fijian swimming is hanging fire.

Suva, overcrowded to the point of bursting at the seams, and with hope lessly inadequate playing-fields and simi lar amenities, has not been equipped by Nature with the bathing-beaches and deep freshwater swimming-pools that

abound at other Island capitals like Apia and Papeete.