The Editors' Mailbag

Cook Is. Has Its

Own "Illustrated"

Mr. Gordon Russell, Editor

of the Cook Islands Review, while on a visit to Sydney re cently heard the editor of PIM go ing through the usual monthly routine of chivvying the block maker into producing blocks on time.

This must have given Mr. Russell furiously to think and when he re turned to Rarotonga he loosed this broadside at us on the matter of process-blockmaking in general: Soon after the inception of the Review, in December, 1954, the Gov ernment Printer, at Rarotonga, Mr. lan Forbes, convinced himself by studious application that there were some short cuts to success in this process-engraving business. Per sistent about this he was given some latitude by the Administra tion.

The ultimate result has proved a surprise to local sceptics and a tribute to the perseverance and in genuity of the instigator.

In the July issue of the Review a half-tone (80 screen) illustration appeared featuring Rarotonga’s first Maori lady, Makea Nui Tere moana Ariki, recent recipient of the CBE. To prove that this initial effort was no accident, one line “block,” and two half-tones, made in Rarotonga, are to be seen in the August issue of the same newspaper.

The equipment over which Mr.

Forbes performs his mumbo-jumbo would cause a fully-fledged process engraver to burst into fits of laughter. But the pictures tell the story and, while at present each one produced is something of a labour of love, time and experience will furnish a quality and quantity in local process engraving that will satisfy all local requirements.

We note that Mr. Russell care fully does not give the recipe for this remarkable process and we have visions of Mr. Forbes putting in the thousands of dots necessary in a process-block by hand, maybe with the aid of a toy gimlet. The whole thing sounds interesting— although one block in two years, or even two blocks in one month, seem hardly likely to overcome our own difficulties.

Missionary Family

In Micronesia

I have had an order in for the next edition of the Pacific Islands Year Book for two years, and I am now anxious to receive this price less book (writes the Rev. Creston K. Ketchum, of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel,

from Okinawa, in the North Pacific.) My family and I are thinking in terms of moving back to Micro nesia, where we were captaining the Morning Star VI for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. You may remember that I lost Morning Star VI in the fall of 1952 in a storm. Since then I have been home to Canada and now am back in the Pacific Islands, to make them our future home.

Details of new PIM photographic awards appear on page 61, this issue.

Would Suva Support

A No. 1 Restaurant?

I notice in the June PIM that someone asks why Suva has no first-class restaurant and dance floor to cater for the stream of tourists which passes through Suva, and give them a little lively Islands entertainment (writes a former resident of Fiji).

The answer is that, unlike Tahiti, class distinctions and racial barriers are evident in Suva. Suva has not yet advanced to the stage when all races can frolic together and let their hair down in public, with everyone permitted to drink and have a jolly good time, as is done in Tahiti.

Do you suppose there is a hotel or restaurant in the whole of Tahiti (or Hawaii) where, if a man goes to dinner comfortably dressed, without a coat, he is approached by a waiter and informed that a coat is compulsory? This often happens in Suva, and it is not the sort of thing that makes a tourist happy.

Suva people take refuge from each other in a variety of Clubs, but the unfortunate tourist, being a bird of passage, is left to his own devices, unless he has an introduc tion to someone who can take him to a club.

The situation will probably resolve itself some day, but I think it will be many years before Suva even faintly resembles Papeete in the matter of night life. t For the hydro-electric project at Yate (NO, 25,000 tons of cement will be bought in Japan. This rep resents nearly half of the required tonnage. It will benefit Japanese ships, which hitherto have arrived empty to load nickel ore. Four were along the NC coast on August 7, lording the ore.