Opening of Lautoka Markets

Mr. and Mrs. W. R. Cahill, of Madang, New Guinea, after a brief visit to Sydney are now back again in Brisbane. They do not expect to return to NG for some time.

Mr. W. Andrews-Baxter, who has been in Honiara, BSI, for the past 21 years with the Shell Company, has been transferred to Western Australia.

These new town-markets were officially opened by the Chairman of the Lautoka [?]own Board, Mr. E. F. Corbett, on Saturday morning, January 19. A representative [?]athering of the townspeople were present. Mr. C. K. H. Nott, District Commissioner Western, and Mr. A. H. Marlow, general manager of Fiji Builders Ltd., who were responsible for the construction, also spoke.

Cost of the building, which is of three-sided, half-hexagon shape, with adequate [?]oor area, was £10,570. The project was erected by the Town Board with the [?]nancial backing of the Central Government. The Board has every confidence that [?]le markets will be self-supporting and no drain whatsoever on local ratepayers. The Fiji Government, moreover, has agreed to meet any deficit in the running of the markets in the next five years.

Hitherto Lautoka’s only markets have been road-side affairs. The new modern building will be a boon to local housewives as well as to producers of vegetables and [?]her foodstuffs. Inset (left to right): Messrs. Corbett, Marlow and Nott.

Mr. F. L. Smith, formerly manager of the Suva branch of the Bank of New Zealand and for the last two years financial adviser to the Bijian Affairs Board, has gone back to the Dominion on retirement for the second time. In 1949, on the recommendation of the Secretary for Fijian Affairs (Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna) he was brought out of his

first retirement and appointed to one of the key posts in the Fijian Administration. He also played a major role in the establishment ot the Fijian Development Fund scheme, of which Ratu Sir Lala is the principal architect. He was the first secretary of the Fijian De velopment Fund Board set up last year.