Some Shattering News

From The Solomons

From a Special Correspondent in Honiara Any report of the successful opening, and conclusion, of the first Legislative Council in the history of the Solomons should, no doubt, be sheathed in all sorts of words like “colourful”, “moving”, “historic”, “vital step towards self-government”, etc.

AND no doubt the meeting held at the BSI Training College at nearby Kukum, accompanied as it was with the honour guards and ceremonial parades one would have wished, does deserve all those tributes. -Silt for the man-in-the-street, if Honiara has such a fellow, this higher vision became blurred by one shattering piece of news which came out of Kukum early in the piece—that is, import duty on beer has been raised by 50 per cent!

The new budget increases it from 4/6 to 6/9 per gallon, which means a bottle of beer goes up 6d (to 4/6) and a can goes up 3d (to 2/3). Beer

isn’t sold by the glass here.

It hasn’t been much use the Financial Secretary pointing out that duties on copper nails, building materials, sheathing for ships, and kerosene-operated domestic deep freezers, have been reduced some what.

Needs The Money The Protectorate needs the money, it seems. The UK will be handing out more than £570,000 to the BSIP this year, which will be about half the Protectorate’s budget, and the locals are expected to help all they can.

Besides the beer, there is also now a small export duty on timber.

After this news, the rest of Legco was just routine.

The High Commissioner, Sir John Gutch, reported that the BSIP was making progress generally, except that the 1961-64 Development Plan had not yet been approved by the Secretary of State, which was “dis appointing”.

Agriculture, co-operatives, the building programme, Local Gov ernment Councils, are all doing well enough.

Liquor Permits

Sir John said the BSIP is simply aiming at keeping services main tained at their minimum require ments, and then spending a little bit extra for a “reasonable measure of expansion”.

There is no money to spare, as usual. The drop in copra revenue made things a bit tighter than had been expected.

(Continued an p. 139)

Here is the scene at the inaugural meeting of the BSIP's first Legislative Council.

iring the session it was revealed the BSIP hopes to get rid of liquor system this year. The ernment does not want discrim-

ination against drinkers. (Already the permit system has been liberalised, and it is not hard for Melanesians to drink beer now.) A Melanesian member, Bugotu, told the Council that discrimination on the basis of colour could cause tensions. He said either beer im ports should be stopped, or every body should drink beer.

The Rev. L Alafurai later suc cessfully moved for earlier liquor closing hours, “so that people would not be roaming around the streets”.

The Government used its majority to block one move aimed at get ting children’s travelling expenses to and from the Protectorate as an allowable yearly tax deduction, ha

stead of once every two years, as at present.

Mr. C. R. Reece said it was not too much to expect parents to want to see their children each year.

The voting was 11-10, which just happens to be the official and non official composition of the Council.

Fiji Floods

Unusually high tides around the Suva area in January were responsible for the flooding of the Queen's Road, in the Lami area.

Here, a car makes its way through one of the flooded spots.

Photo: Rob Wright

Fiji's Korolevu Beach Hotel ushered in the New Year with a "Shipwreck Party", which brought big crowds. Here are two shipwrecked "tourists"—hotel manager Bill Clark and Mr.

J. Beresford.

Photo: Stinsons