BSIP Woman Wins

PIM Cover Award

A YEAR ago, the "Pacific Islands Monthly" announced that it would pay £l5 for the best cover photograph published during the year; and another £l5 for the best news photo.

The result, as far as the cover photos were concerned, was all that could be desired and we have in the last 12 months received some excellent material.

But the quest for good news-photos was, without putting too fine a point on it, a complete wash-out. You will perhaps remember what we said in September, 1956 (p. 61), in, giving an example of the kind of news photo that we wanted: It was that a photograph of a visiting Cabinet Minister opening a bazaar in Port Moresby was just a photograph; but a photograph of the Cabinet Minister being hit on the head by a falling coconut while he was opening the bazaar would have that something extra that we wanted.

Unfortunately, during the year no meta phorical Cabinet Ministers anywhere in the Islands were hit on the head by metaphorical coconuts.

In our estimation, the photographs which came nearest to telling an unusual news-story were those that appeared on pages 20 and 21 of September issue—Fiji's switched-baby case.

However, in this case we wrote the story and then asked the Public Relations Officer in Fiji if it could get us a photo of the boys and their mothers. This the PRO'S photo grapher, Rob Wright, did; but as the photo graphs were commissioned, we feel that did not come within the scope of this competition.

Most of the other published photographs that came within a mile of "unusual news angles" concerned shipping mishaps, and in this category was the photograph on page 63, February PIM, from Mr. Eric C. Adams, of a life-boat being lowered away from the "Matua" which struck Duff Reef, Fiji, in January, 1957.

This is not exactly up to standard; but it does convey some feeling of suspense, as the boat dangles from the davits and cants over at an angle. Therefore, we propose to pay Mr. Adams £5 and call honour satisfied.

It can be said, of course, that the basic requirement in news pictures, of the kind we wanted, is to be at the right place at the right moment. But there is more in it than that—a good news-cameraman does not have to wait on freak chance, and so far as we can judge none of our readers tried very hard in the news department.

WE did, however, receive many excellent "covers" and these have appeared month by month throughout the year.

We have chosen, for the award of £l5, Mrs.

R. C. Short, of Gizo, British Solomon Islands Protectorate, for her September, 1956, photo graph of Ata, a young Gilbertese now living in the Gilbertese settlement at Gizo.

Although the above reproduction of the year's covers is poor, photographically "Ata— the New Solomon Islander" was faultless. It was taken with a Voightlander Prominent camera, using 35 mm. Plus-X film, was home processed and enlarged by using a 35 mm. slide pro jector. We suggest you turn back to September PIM and look at Ata.

The treatment of the subject is simple, bold and, as a magazine cover, has that essenfial requirement—you will turn back and look at it a second time. Moreover, Ata is not just a portrait; Mrs. Short's handling of five subject gives the young man a living personality—in the same way that Mona Lisa's tmirk gives de Vinci's masterpiece personality.

However, in making the award to Mrs. Short, «re were perhaps a little influenced by another #f her photographs which made the grade luring the year—the January cover of the small boys lined up to get a yaws injection.

This particular cover caused a lot of amuse ment all over the Pacific.

t There were about 3,000 Pacific Islanders in Auckland now, according to the Rev. R. L. Challis, who is chairman of the sub-commitee which is investigating overcrowding of houses in Auckland.

In Auckland, there are about 1,400 Samoans, 1,000 Cook Islanders and 600 Niueans. The number of Islanders in the country is more than 5,000. Mr. Challis said that the influx of Islanders generally, would continue to rise. The Maui Pemare was fully booked out for every trip to New Zealand until January, 1959.

t The stamps marked “France Libre” circulating in the Wallis and Futuna Islands are to be replaced progressively by a new issue. First two stamps of the new series were on sale in the islands and also in Noumea post office from June 10, and had values of 3 and 9 francs. . t Custom’s duties collected at Noumea, NC, totalled about £2S million during the first half of this year—almost double the amount in the same period in 1956. Export tax on smeltered nickel realised about

£Boo,Ooo.