News Notes From N. Hebrides

SANTO, July 6.

SANTO’s roads now are very bad. Pot holes of the more spectacular type are the rule. If you do not care for corrugations, there are several water hazards which try the nerve, tempers and skill of drivers. And, of course . . . the poor old vehicles. The pedestrians (there are no foot-paths) have their full share of the agony.

A farewell cocktail party was recently given to the French Delegate, M. Menager and Mme. Menager, at the Cine Tropical.

They leave on the Morinda for Sydney, via the Solomons. They are en route to France.

M. L, D. Cao’s ship, for local trading, arrived at Santo after a smart voyage from Sydney via Noumea. This is the first of several expected arrivals. It is necessary to introduce an anxious note here. There are indications that Mr. Pat Savage left Brisbane over three weeks ago in a 42 ft. ex-fishing boat, and there has been no word of him. In addition to Mr.

Savage, the ship carried a competent navigator and one extra crew.

Qantas arrived late this week and. owing to a choppy sea and heavy rain, and the fact that the launch had decided to go on strike, the aircraft merely dropped its passengers and mails, and took off for Vila, leaving passengers, air cargo and mails behind. The captain wisely declined to make use of a dinghy instead of the usual launch, because the dinghy could have caused damage to the plane’s hull.