Fiji Prepares for Two

Royal Occasions

(From Our Own Correspondent)

Suva, Feb. 10.

rERE are suggestions that Fiji might be wise to cut down the Colony-wide celebrations planned for Coronation Week in June and to concentrate on an all out celebration when the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh arrived for their two-day visit in December.

The reaction to the unexpected announcement by the Governor (Sir Ronald Garvey) last week, that tier Majesty and the Duke would spend December 17-19 in Fiji (with a call at Tonga on December 20) nade it clear that Fiji in general, and the Fijian people in particular, vill regard the Royal visit as the nost important historical occasion since the Cession.

For the first time in history a British reigning monarch will set f oot on the soil of Fiji, and in the light of Fiji’s direct, unshakable oyalty to the Crown, no greater went is ever likely to befall these slands.

Fairly lavish expenditure has been >lanned for the Coronation period. sTo word of criticism has been made if the Government’s propoals, but hey are now being discussed with in eye to the even bigger event

(in local eyes) at the end of the year. There is likely to be a good deal of support for the idea that the Coronation could be fittingly commemorated at a fraction of the cost now planned, and that the balance of 'the money could go towards meeting the heavy outlay that will be essential in December

if Fiji is to mark the Queen’s visit worthily—as it must.

No hint of sthe form the Royal welcome will take has yet been given.

Miss Poko Utanga, of Rarotonga, has entered the Ardmore Teachers* Training College, Auckland.