Is A Busy Man

£33,000 is the Goal

Fiji's Mr. Hall

From a Suva Correspondent mHEY pay no radio licensing fees X in Papua-New Guinea —mainly because of the efforts, over 20 years ago, of Mr. E. A. James, who challenged the Government’s right to impose them —and won. (In those day’s, P-NG had no radio broadcasting station —and Mr.

James considered that a licence to listen to a non-existent station was an imposition).

In Fiji, the law says radio fees must be paid—and few people pay them. But the efforts of Mr. J.

W. Hall are being directed towards fixing that.

Radio Licensing Inspector Hall, an elderly, grey-moustached veteran of India’s North-West Frontier, still has the gleam of battle in his eye, but he keeps it these days for Fiji’s non-radio-licensed public.

Fiji has more than 18,000 licensed radios, but it is calculated another 12,000 people manage to get their radio entertainment free. That’s a loose estimate, too, for nobody knows for sure just how many there are—although Mr. Hall says he is on the way to finding out.

£3,000 for the Kitty

In 1957, the first full year that Mr. Hall got on to the job, the number of licences taken out jumped by about 8,000 —and re turned the Government £25,000 —only £B,OOO short of the subsidy the Government pays the Fiji Broad casting Commission to help it operate.

Over £3,000 of that sum can probably be attributed to the hard working Mr. Hall—£6oo in fines from actions launched by him, and £2,500 in “compounding fees’’—which are paid, with various degrees of willingness, by the people who are caught by Mr. Hall and don’t wish to bother with court proceedings. (And, of course, untold numbers of others who had never seen Mr.

Hall were stampered into getting a licence, too).

Mr. Hall's Ambition

Says Mr. Hall, “My aim is to get as near as possible to that £33,000 subsidy every year”.

Fiji is expected to pay its radio ees on January 1 each year, for the full calender year. Fees are 25 - for the first radio, and 15/for every other set.

In 1957, mainly through the

efforts of the conscientious Mr.

Hall, the Government made effective a law requiring radio dealers to sell radios only to people with licences.

If the buyer has none, he fills out an appication before he can have the radio. The law had been in existence before, but nobody had done much about making it effective.

People have complained about this, on the ground that- it is bureaucracy on the loose. But Mr.

Hall points out that since people have to pay their licences, they should be pleased to have things made easy for them.

The real value of this system is,

of course, that Mr. Hall and the Post Office don’t have to worry about new sets. They merely need concentrate on bringing up to scratch the old hands who probably never have had a licence.

Getting His Man There was, for instance, the time near Nadi when Mr. Hall, driving by, heard a radio out in the fields: investigated and found it coming from an Indian shack in the sugar cane.

The lady of the house said there was a licence, but her husband had it, and he wasn’t home.

Where was he?

“He keeps a grocer shop between

Lautoka and Nadi, but I don’t know just where.”

Never daunted, Mr. Hall started on the 24-mile drive between the two centres, stopping and asking all the way. After two hours he found the right man.

“I haven’t a licence,” said the Indian. “My radio is out of order.”

“But your radio is working!” said Mr. Hall. “I heard it less than two hours ago.”

“Just fancy that!” said the set owner, game to the last. “My wife must have had it repaired, today!”

On another occasion an Indian denied owning a set, although Mr.

Hall suspected otherwise. (“I’ve got spies everywhere”, he says).

That afternoon he followed the man home from his office, identified his house, and returned again that night—to find the gentleman sitting in an easy chair listening to the radio.

Next day, Mr. Hall returned with a policeman.

Names Count With that kind of reputation for always getting his man, it was probably no surprise to Mr. Hall when, on the night he had to leave off after checking only half of a street, it was found that next day the other half of the street was queuing up at the Post Office, paying licence fees!

“That’s where publicity helps,” explains Mr. Hall. “When people hear of others being fined for not paying their fees, they quickly hop in and pay their own. And that’s what we want.”

For that reason, Mr. Hall is a little unhappy at a recent court ruling which has thrown into doubt Mr. Hall’s authority to prosecute.

The matter will probably be settled soon, and meanwhile Mr.

Hall is “compounding” his customers to save appearing in court.

“But it’s not the same,” says Mr.

Hall. “Names are what count in this business.”