Dogs Have Maybe

Rarotonga Purge

Dogs Have Maybe Had Their Day

THE Rarotonga Island Council has at last fallen into line with other Island Councils in the Cook Islands by passing legislation to rid the island of stray dogs.

For years Rarotonga has been in fested with packs of hungry, diseased, unsightly mongrels which were serv ing no useful purpose whatever.

They disturb the night with their fighting, and are a menace to people on the roads, especially cyclists.

Regular blitzs were made against unregistered dogs, but the ex traordinary feature was that a large percentage of these dogs were registered by their owners who evidently considered them worth the annual fee.

If any ordinance existed requir ing the keeping of dogs on leash at night, it was never enforced.

However, all that is—apparently —to be ended. Female pups are to be destroyed forthwith, and all female dogs are to be destroyed within a year.

After that the remaining males will be permitted to live out a bachelor existence in which there will presumably be little incentive for night-fighting, and as they die off the Raratonga Dog will have had his Day —always assuming that the ordinance can he, and is, en forced.

H A Brisbane technical school has built and presented a row-boat to Papuan Sea Scouts

t Dr. John E. Kennedy. of Bloomfield, Connecticut, USA, is the new Director of Medical Services in American Samoa. Dr. Kennedy has with him his wife and six children. He is familiar with tropical hospitals. He has been on medical staffs in both Guam and the Trust Territories.