Launching A Truck In

Niue

T Niue, May 9

HE LMS churches of Liku, Hakupu, Avatele Fatiau and Tamakautoga, on Niue Island, re cently imported from England a 4ton Bedford truck.

Niue has no public transport and most of the natives travel on foot or on bicycles. One of the great joys of the Niuean is t 0 have a truck ride and they frequently hire a truck to make a trip round the island in much the same spirit as a group of Europeans will hire a bus for a beach picnic.

Trucks are hired also for carry-

ing purposes and hundreds of pounds have been paid to truck-owners over the years.

With this in mind, the Rev. M. G.

Check, LMS missionary, put before the Churches the idea of purchasing a vehicle of their own. However, only the Churches of the south end of the island thought the idea a good one and proceeded to raise the money.

An impressive opening ceremony was held at Hakupu on May 3 to celebrate the truck “taking the road.”

After the ribbon was cut, 35 women chosen from the LMS women’s organisation were taken for a 38-mile ride around the island. At a subsequent feast many village orators expressed their satisfaction at the co-operative effort of the villages and stated a new-found belief that co-operation could accom plish great things.

One orator was so carried away by the idea that he stated: “In the future we will all co-operate and purchase many wonderful things. We will ask the Missionary to get us an aeroplane so that we can visit other lands and we will put up a broadcasting station so that other people can know about our island.”

So with much feasting, singing, dancing—and of course oratory— the truck “took the road.”