Wide Activities Of South Pacific Commission

Survey Of Eye Diseases

BRIEF surveys of eye diseases prevalent in Niue, American Samoa and Western Samoa are being made for the South Pacific Commission by Dr. J. J. Losch dorfer, ophthalmologist, of the Ad ministration of Papua and New Guinea. His main tasks will in clude advices to local hospital staffs on the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of eye diseases, and operative treatment of advanced cataract cases. He left Noumea in November for Niue, where he will assist in setting up a service to pro vide glasses for people needing them,

Campaign Against

Mosquito-Borne Diseases

DR. M. O. T. IYENGAR recently has taken up his appointment as specialist on mosquito-borne diseases (mainly malaria and fil~ ariasis). He will expand the work being carried on, to give effect to the recommendations of the con ference on filariasis and elephant iasis, held under Commission auspices in Tahiti two years ago.

In recent years, Dr. Iyengar has carried out surveys for WHO, mainly on malaria and Anopheles in Afghanistan, and on the

epidemiology of filariasis in Siam, the Maldives and Ceylon. He has been an entomologist and malari ologist in Bengal and Travancore, and the results of his work appear in more than sixty publications.

Technical Officers At

Science Congress In Manila

npHE principal technical officers ox X the Commission attended tha Eighth Pacific Science Congress held in Manila from November h to 26, under the auspices of thu Pacific Science Association. Presem were leading scientific workers oc

he Pacific in the fields of physical, riological and social sciences.

These meetings began in 1920, irhen some 100 Pacific scientists met n Honolulu at the first Pan-Pacific Scientific Conference. Congresses ,ave been held subsequently in Aus ralia, Japan, Java, Canada, the halted States and New Zealand, lore than 1,000 scientists attended be NZ Congress, held in Auckland n 1949.

Coconut Expert In New

Guinea

CHE Commission’s coconut expert, Mr. W. V. D. Pieris, returned to headquarters on November 27 fter spending ten weeks on a sur ey of the coconut industry in apua, New Guinea, and the British olomon Islands.

Expert To Make Rice

Survey

rHE possibilities of expanding rice production in certain South Pacific territories will shortly e examined by Mr. R. Watson, a ce expert with many years’ experi ice in rice production and market ig in the Far East. His services ave been made available to the □mmission for the purpose by the aod and Agriculture Organisation.

Mr. Watson will arrive at Noumea irly in December to begin his sur sy with an investigation of rice ■owing possibilities in New Cale mia. Early in 1954 he will visit .ji, New Guinea, and the Solomon lands.

Spc Quarterly Bulletin

PUBLICATION of the Commis sion’s Quarterly Bulletin for October completes the third ar of issue of this magazine, aich is devoted to the interests id activities of Pacific Islanders, wide range of articles on subjects the Commission’s three main ilds of activity (economic develop snt, health, and social develop 3nt) has been published—such as i e industrial development of icific territories; rhinoceros beetle ntrol; copra production; cattle eeds for tropical conditions; fish rming; tropical pastures and dders; malaria and leprosy re arch; infant nutrition; health ucation; welfare centres; co eratives; adult education and mmunity development projects.

The Bulletin is available from the immission’s Sydney oflice (GPO *x 5254). Annual subscription is - Stg. (or $1.15) post-free by sur -2e mail.