[?]Wharf Pass

[?]Were

[?]Wharf Pass [?]Settled

;cent decision of the Comp er of Customs, Fiji, to in jce a system of permits for Suva wharves caused much lissent, and is now to be ramber of Commerce, which ted the ball rolling by ask 2ustoms for more protection pillaging, was not happy e results that their requrst that every person entering :f area should have a per l a passport-type of photo The Chamber’s protest m amendment—the s, lotos, were to be used only emptroller has now offered i six months trial of free pedestrians day and night entry o f vehicles during At night, drivers will have a good reason for their there. Firms and others ffiicles frequently at the

wharves will be provided with a per manent permit.

Members of the Suva C of C ex pressed themselves as satisfied with the new proposal, and suggested ihat the shipping agents should exercise greater control over those who went on board ships.

The point which seems to have been lost sight of at the beginning is that pedes.rians are not likely to walk down to the wharf to pillage cargo. Apart from the difiiculty of taking it from the ship’s hold, or the wharf shed, getting it through the gates past a watchful gatekeeper would be very difficult.

Some might go down to contact crew members and bring ashore opium or jewellery. But as one

member of the Chamber remarked, the Chamber was concerned with pillaging. Smuggling was the Customs job.

TI Mr. William H. Watson, well kown merchant, of Rarotonga, Cook Islands, accompanied by his wife and daughters, arrived in Sydney late in March by the liner Orion, on his way home after nearly twelve months’ holiday in Europe. They enjoyed all the pleasures of 1955’s wonderful summer “the best summer Europe has known for 50 years.” They wandered leisurely through every country of Western Europe—not omi ting Scotland, the home of this branch of the Watson clan.