By Ordinance
p. 41 · Read in the full issue
Food Shall Be Planted
THERE may be a lesson for other areas in the official attitude towards the planting of food crops in Tonga.
Because the food situation at Niuatoputapu—better known to the outside world as Keppel’s Island—in the extreme north of the Tonga Group, is considered unsatisfactory, an order has been issued by the Tongan Cabinet under which every landholder shall plant certain crops each month up to next August under penalty of £5 fine or six months in gaol for each failure to comply.
The produce to be planted each month is listed in specific amounts —such as 200 tapioca in October and November —and leaves nothing to chance. t Rabaul got a new thermal vent in late October —right in the town area, too. A cloud of white vapour and gas shot 15 ft into the air from a vent which opened on land west of the main wharf. The vigorous emission lasted about 10 minutes before subsiding into thin clouds of vapour which lasted another eight hours. But there were no unusual seismic disturbances associated with the vent.