Profits for Traders

Cruise Ship

In Moresby

Souvenirs for Visitors, Profits for Traders

PORT Moresby, in late June, gave a tumultuous welcome to the eleven hundred passengers on board the P and O Liner, Himalaya.

The vessel dropped anchor in the Harbour shortly after seven o’clock in the morning and first passengers came ashore about an hour later.

They, and about twenty later boatloads, were welcomed on to Papuan soil by the Police and PIR bands.

Many people missed transport arranged for them whilst listening to the bands, especially the PIR Pipe Band, but got seats in later buses and taxis.

By ten o’clock ,the landing area on the waterfront was deserted, but the shopping area of Port Moresby was crowded with hundreds of gaily-dressed souvenir hunters.

Most shops reported record busi ness during the ten hours Himalaya was in port.

About 50 of the passengers, soon after landing, were taken to the War Cemetery at Bomana to see the graves of relatives and friends.

One woman with a son buried at Bomana told a PIM correspondent that she had applied to have his body removed to Australia. After seeing Bomana cemetery, she de cided against this. “It would be a pity to move my son from such a beautiful spot,” she said.

Those visitors who did not take one of the many conducted tours of Port Moresby spent the morning shopping and the afternoon watch ing a “Sing-Sing” at Ela Beach Oval.

Storekeepers in Port Moresby sell ing films reported the best business for years. About four out of every five of the tourists carried a movie or still camera. The native traffic constable on duty in Musgrave Street was the most photographed man in Moresby that day. At times, scores of people were standing near him, or on the footpaths with their cameras trained on him.

Before calling at Moresby, Himalaya visited Noumea and Suva.

She carried 1,163 passengers, plus her crew of 630.

Four Tongan Government scholars at the Auckland Grammar School have passed the NZ School Cer tificate examination. They are Karl • Tu’inukuafe, Edgar Max Tu’inukuafe, ’Teuene Tupou and ‘Aisake Folau. t A Pago Pago barber’s shop was broken into and robbed, and the Goat Island Club liquor store looted on the following night late in May.