Notes From Lautoka

From Our Own Correspondent

Lautoka, Jan. 13.

Torrential rains have been falling in the Western districts of Fiji for two days and at the moment the Ba River is in flood, and road communication Tavua and Ba, Ba and Lautoka, and Lautoka and Nadi has been interrupted by road flooding. Fairly heavy windstorms and thunderstorms have been ex perienced and at the moment show no signs of abating.

The rains followed one of the driest seasons on record. ,♦ * * With the absorption of the CSR Mill area and adjacent lands into Lautoka, a new Town Council is to be elected to replace the Town Board, there is an assurance that the Lautoka Wharf will be com pleted by the end of 1955, and prospects for the town, which has already gone ahead in an astonish ing manner in the last few years, are bright.

New subdivisions of both in dustrial areas and residential areas are planned. Morris Hedstrom’s new store is close to completion and Millers are planning an up-to date garage alongside their re modelled store.

A broadcasting station license has been applied for by local interests, and the support of the town is assured for this project since the service from Suva is not at all satisfactory.

Elections for the Town Council are planned for April or May this year, and a good deal of interest centres around the candidates, who have not yet been disclosed. * * * The first Government primary school for European children in Lautoka is scheduled to open shortly. The CSR Co. has con tributed largely to this project, having donated light, water, build ings at a nominal shilling a year, and underwritten the cost of em ployment of competent teachers, a married couple, who have already been selected. * * * The Coronation celebrations have already engaged the attention of the townspeople and the local com mittee has outlined a programme starting on Coronation Day with parades of ex-servicemen, Scouts, Guides and schoolchildren, with bonfires, band concerts, and Indian displays, ending on June 11 with Fijian mekes and taralalas. * * * There has been an outbreak of breaking and entering at Lautoka in the last few weeks, in most cases only food, small articles of jewellery and liquor being taken. An Indian has been arrested while attempting

to enter a European house. On another occasion, an Indian store was burgled, money and some watches being stolen from a safe in an occupied room. A smart policeman, checking taxi drivers, found that one had just left for Suva with a fare who had proffered a £lO note. He phoned Suva police, who arrested and searched the man, an Indian. The watches were found on him, dangling between his legs on a string.

At a Methodist Conference in Christchurch, NZ, early in January the Rev. A. W. E. Silvester, re cently retired missionary from the Solomons, reported that £825 had been donated by young people at tending the conference, towards the construction of a youth hostel for Vella Lavella island. An appeal

will be made for a further £1,500 and for tradesmen within the Methodist Church to go to the Solomons to build the hostel, „ Mr - and Mrs. R. Sanders and their two children returned to Auckland in January a J^ er . 18 months 9 n Pl tcairn Island where Mr. Sanders was education officer, Mr - a ” d Mr f; A1 3, e1 ? rec( |ntly went from New Zealand to relieve them.