Too Many Movies

Noumea Child

Delinquents

Too Many Movies And Careless Parents

CHILD delinquency came up for an airing recently in Noumea when a special commission of the Conseil Generale considered the matter.

Certain college students who be came involved with the police caused the investigation; and the considered opinion of the committee was that that good old stand-by, the movies, were mostly to blame.

Comics and other “worse publica tions” also came under fire. One

member said that in regard to the last category there was laxness in New Caledonia where certain publications which could not legally be displayed, could be found m full view on counters and shelves of the local bookshops.

Good home influence was also found to be lacking and frequently youngsters were taken to bars by their parents. It was found that there was a weakening in parental control and that in some cases the benefits of a good family life were lacking.

One member of the commission suggested a school for parents.

II A daughter was born to Mr. and Mrs. J. Whittaker, at Wewak, NG, November 27. *

• TREKKA , of Vancouver, has been hauled out at a northern New Zealand port, and owner John Guzz well joined the Smeetans in Tzu Hang for the run to Melbourne for the Olympics. He will travel back to New Zealand by other means. • KONA, of Honolulu, has been sold in Fiji for local use. Messrs.

Blackford and Houtz are remaining there in employment for the present.

• Forerunner, Ex Spring

BOK, which arrived in NZ trans pacific about 1948, and cruised Tonga-Fiji under other ownership in 1952, is reported sold in Auck land to Mr. and Mrs. Andre Guerin.

Mr. Guerin, of Tahiti, left there in the launch PHILANTE II as cook, several years ago, and has since been a PAA employee at Fiji, Can ton, and now at Auckland. They may eventually cruise back to the Islands in the yacht. • MANU MOANA, of Auckland, with owner W. S. Holder, Bob Narruhn, formerly of Tarawa, Bill Sellars, of Fiji, Wally Taylor, of Auckland, and an American school teacher, Peter Fraser, aboard, arrived back in Auckland on No vember 23 after a cruise through Polynesia. • WAIMANA, of Auckland, was sold some time ago in the Solomons to a plantation owner, and owner Ray Williams arrived back home in November. Williams had earlier sailed the yacht Kereru to the New Hebrides, sold her there, and, with

his shipmates, returned to Auck land and purchased Waimana. Now another yacht is in view.

Mh Buys Tuvalu

The Gilbert and Ellice Islands Wholesale Society’s Tuvalu was passed in at auction in Suva on November 9 and bought privately

shortly after by Morris Heds Ltd., at an undisclosed figure.

Tuvalu is a 120-ft, 200 tons, ship built in Australia in 1944. has been trading regularly bet Fiji and the Gilbert and Ellice was last in the news a year when she spotted the derelict J drifting and waterlogged nort Fiji. (

is understood that she will be iced by a bigger ship. Un ial sources in Tarawa report the G & E Government is cur y having built in Hongkong a Government vessel similar to BSIP’s Melanesian now on her ery voyage south.

; Oliver Mac Away

e tug Oliver Mac left Noumea a.m. on November 13 towing old 600-tons steamer Loyaute, latter loaded with scrap iron, e vessels, under the command lew Zealander, Captain R. T. ilton, are headed for Hongkong, t they have been sold. First of call was to have been la but Captain Hamilton re d bad weather between New [onia and the New Hebrides. f seas nearly washed the ship’s erator overboard and the hulk found to be taking in water, put into Santo, New Hebrides, i repairs were made and fresh taken in. On November 26, m ships were passing through olomon Islands. tow is expected to take Christmas. The tug carries an lational crew of 32—English, h. Indo-Chinese, New Cale n natives, New Hebrides js, Wallis Islanders and a few Red descent. i Oliver Mac was recently red from W. R. Carpenter & if Suva, by Mr. Jean Hagen, lumea. (See Nov. PIM) .

'Jiern Cross Viii To Be

F Built Next Year

’k on the Melanesian Mission’s ern Cross VIII is expected to at Ballina, in northern New [ Wales, about the end of ry. *as thought a month or so lat the Mission would not pro nth plans for Southern Cross [ecause of high costs; however, aave now decided to proceed igh the original plan for a of 87 ft has been modified, igh considerably bigger than ley, which was completed at a for the Mission a few is ago, she is still probably lallest vessel to bear the name srn Cross for the mission, uls received from the builders

j. White Pty. are that she a wooden [ twin-screw with a1.0.a. ft 5 in., and ere d by diesels,

[will be

accommodation for the crew forward.

In addition to the Bishop’s cabin there will be two, two-berth cabins! one on the port and one on the starboard. An open saloon will ex tend right across the ship, and in addition there will be a galley and storeroom. There will be one hold with a capacity of 35 tons. A motor boat, in addition to a life-boat, will be carried.

Maritime Safety Shows

Progress

Apia Radio shipping coast station has recently established a continu ous radio watch cm the international radio-telephone distress frequency of 2182 kc/s.

A receiving terminal for this pur pose has been located at a remote point of good reception, with a land-line brought down to the main receiving station.

This is a most important contri bution to smallship maritime safety and convenience in the Pacific tropical area. Some 15 vessels of the Western Samoa coastal fleet are now being equipped with radio.

Ships will have 2182 kc/s, 2012 kc/s. and 4115.3 kc/s and the coast station will reply on 2182 kc/s, 2206 kc/s, or 4420.7 kc/s.

The important thing is that Apia now forms part of a gradually im proving network of stations guard ing a standard international small ships distress frequency. There are

[?] Henri Helme Maria del Mar" new set of during a recent the Wallis [?]: F. E. Dunn.

tgaps. Watch in some areas is •existent or only part-time still, brogress is being made, it the question must still be ;ed: Could the Joyita and tarimoa tragedies happen again lorrow? They could —but they [not. There is overwhelming ence that the paramount safety •ument for Pacific Islands small s is the hand-generator, kite type of distress transmitter, most invariably the first thing ill in case of distress in a small i\ is the source of power—be prectly from a motor-driven t, or indirectly via a battery, m that happens little can be F with the ship’s main trans er. undamaged as this instru t itself might well be. There prything to suggest that speedy could have been brought to to, and definitely to Arakarimoa, a distress transmitter of this

[been carried.

lanced against the safety factor ided, the cost of one of these feency sets, even the most ern types now being manu red in England and elsewhere ise in ocean-going vessels’ life- B, is insignificant, lere appears to be no real

reason why marine authorities which license trading craft in the various Island areas, could not in sist on every such vessel being so equipped, just as they now can in sist on certain other safety pro visions.

But the voluntary carriage of such equipment could be greatly pro moted by the insurance under writers. In the Islands where ship ping mishaps are so common it must be to their advantage to offer lower rates of insurance in respect of vessels so equipped. The sets themselves are thoroughly proved.

They are watertight. They require no skill whatever in operation.

We are convinced that this type of distress transmitter will in the long run be accepted as having par

ticularly valuable applications in the Pacific Islands.

The pity of it is that it may take another Arakarimoa or Joyita to hammer the fact home to those concerned. The underwriters, by approaching the matter from the “pocket book” angle, could make a valuable contribution to promoting their acceptance and their universal use in the South Pacific.

Meanwhile the steadily improving 2182 kc/s watch may well save some lives, and maritime convenience will in any case be served.

Some Fish-Throwing—

Scott V. The Japs

The language barrier and lack of understanding of some people’s customs could be a feasible ex

planation of the odd behaviourf alleged of a Japanese fishing boat when it encountered the ketch rigged scow Scott near Vatoa reef, Fiji, in November.

When Scott returned to Fiji after trochus fishing, on November 23, the master reported that the Jap anese ship had tried to run them onto a reef. These Fiji people who are sensitive on the subject of all Japanese ships and have not yet recovered from the Joyita sensation (and the allegations of Japanese piracy that were imagined at that time), subsequently advanced the idea that the Japs were “at it again.”

When Scott met up with the Jap anse ship, the Japs came along side and talked but no one, of course, knew what they were say ing. The Japs then threw some fish across to the Scott, the skipper of which, disliking anything Jap anese, threw them right back again.

This business of throwing fish on board seems to be customary with the Japanese under these circum stances —reports from New Guinea and elsewhere have indicated that this is usually the opening gambit.

Perhaps it is to be regarded as a gesture of friendship; possibly it is a manifestation of guilty conscience, or both. Certainly the Japanese

can be under no delusions as to how their fishing-boats are regarded in the South Pacific.

But in the case of the Scott, after this exchange of Ashy-courtesies, the Jap kept right alongside and according to Scott’s skipper, tried

to force them onto the reef, skipper then decided to run thr the narrow Vatoa passage knc that with Scott’s 3-ft draught he safe inside, while the Jap ship not. The Japanese ship folle saw that it was too shallow,

irn round and grounded on the f Divers went over and man [ to get her off at high tide. The day the ship was gone.

I sorts of sinister reasons for (“attack” have been advanced •hiding the theory that the Japs their eyes on the Scott’s diving f and cash-box. Other Suva »ns think that what the Japs ;ed was (a) some fresh water; b) a bit of information. )tt (which last appeared in PIM Icot ) is owned by Mr. J. B. ler. of Suva. He bought her i Mr. Lew Graham about 1952. scow is over 50 years old, hav traded along the NZ coast for p years. She carried passengers cargo in the Fiji Group until a months ago when she was de tered as not up to required lard for this trade. She is now ffor trochus fishing in the Lau ip e Scott incident is, of course, a symptom of a 'more serious se. and until the basic factors changed there will continue to icidents with Japanese fishing 5. These are not new. For a de before the Pacific war each [ of PIM carried stories of ty Japanese poaching on reefs [fishing grounds in the South Be. So far we in the South Be have done nothing more cti c a 1 than yell “keep-off,” lugh in mighty few cases have done much about exploiting i fishing grounds ourselves. [ one in the South Seas has k to love the Japanese; and the idual who has had a visitation L these poachers,' or seen an cent reef stripped of shell, is :ely to be impressed by theories pressures,” true as may be. But the indulgence iti-Japanese hysteria, which we I witnessed frequently in the ■ew years, does not help matters r.

4 Madora Is The Name

[ we expected, the 800-tons am, recently purchased by the ie interests, has been re tened. As Damadora del Mar left Sydney on her first Islands ge on November 15, first port all Norfolk Island, thence to hea and return. ptain Emile Savoie does not longer operate alone, a com- L in which he is a substantial cholder, has been formed to rate the del Mar line— ite Maritimes Caledonien, with quarters in Noumea. F. H. hens Pty. Ltd. is the company’s «y agent. ptain Savoie himself was in nand for Damadora’s first ge to Noumea.

Maria To Be Sold

gotiations for the sale of the ■an Savoie ship, Maria del Mar,

were still proceeding in early De cember.

This ship has been in New Caledonia-New Hebrides waters for some time but is expected to go south to Sydney this month—and then, perhaps, to new owners.

Delivery Of Melanesia

The BSIP’s new vessel Melanesia left Manila, November 10 and was expected to call at Hollandia (Dutch New Guinea) and maybe Rabaul en route to Honiara on her delivery voyage She should have reached the BSIP by the month’s end, but the Protectorate’s Sydney agents did not know of her arrival in early De cember. (See later news, p. 19)

Apparently Melanesia had had some slight trouble with her steer ing between Hongkong and Manila as our sketchy report on her pro gress records that she proceeded from Manila “‘after alterations to the steering gear had been suc cessfully carried out.”

Kurimarau For Fiji Trade

The well known 297-ton motor vessel Kurimarau, now owned by S.

Berg & Co., of Sydney, cleared Syd ney in mid-November for Fiji, where she was expected on De cember 5.

Kurimarau will operate from Suva to neighbouring groups, carrying petroleum products under contract to Vacuum Oil Co.

(Continued P. 109)

lilt in Hongkong in 1937 for irs Pacific Plantations, BSIP, [vessel became well known in I in post-war years when, under [ownership of the BSIP Gov isnt, she made regular calls. ie was put up for sale in 1954 [purchased by her present own who had her refitted and her b-handling facilities greatly fin ed. e has since operated in NG rs, running cargoes for APC. rst Fijian port of call for marau was to be Lautoka. She then go on to Suva, where she [expected to go into her new less almost immediately. irimarau made her crossing to (with an Australian crew, which to sign off at Suva, where a n crew will be engaged, ip’s officers are: Captain R. D. kerson; chief officer, L. G. N. tier; engineer, Churchill Evans, cently the ship underwent a ;y in Brisbane in preparation tier new trade. She loaded a 3 at Sydney.

Bugainville Co. Buys

Southern Cross Vii

uthern Cross VII, after being lup in Sydney since mid-1954, d a buyer in the last few s: The Bougainville Company bw Guinea, which already owns man and the very much ler Nuguria.

Southern Cross VII, built to mission specifications in the UK in 1933, was not everyone’s dish, hence her long period of idleness await ing a buyer. It is likely that she will need modifications before she goes into service for the Bougain ville Co.

The Mission withdrew her from service because, under existing con ditions, she was far too costly to run. Recently, she has been under option to a semi-government organ isation in Tasmania, which is in the market for a small ship for a spud-run into small ports. The option was not proceeded with, how ever, when it was discovered that Southern Cross had too big a draught.

She may now be used to trans port petroleum products—a contract for which has recently gone to the Bougainville Co.

Sydney agents for Southern Cross were S. G. White Pty. Ltd., owners of the Ballina ship-yard which built Baddeley and will build Southern Cross VIII.

Viria For Sale

The 600-tons Swedish-built Viria, owned by New Guinea Industries, Lae, will likely soon have a new owner.

Negotiations had apparently reached a delicate stage in De cember —Sydney agents, Blackmore Shipping and Customs Agency, had no comment to make.

Deutgan, Too?

It is rumoured that M. Marcel Marinacce’s Deutgan has also found a new owner—but we could get no official confirmation of this in Sydney up till December 4.

Voyage Completed

Thirty-two days out from Papeete on a voyage from England, the

Australian-owned motor fishing trawler Pagan arrived at Auckland on November 29. The vessel will be offered for sale there by owner E. R.

Barker.