Contents

No 8. Vol. Xxxii.

March, 1962

People 5

Buka Tax Trouble Flares Up 15 Minister on the Defensive 16 West Samoa Objects to Christmas Island Tests 17 Big New Missile Project in the Mar shalls 17 American Samoa's Building Boom .. 18 Fiji Union Papers Lost 18 US Research Could Mean New Hope for Coconut Planters 19 Fiji Has a New Newspaper 19 Nauruans in Canberra for Secret Talks 20 NNG Self Rule by 1970 20 NG Takes a Running Jump at Star dom 21

Commentary 23

The Editors' Mailbag 25

Sydneysider Goes Walkabout 27

Samoa, Fiji Have Many Similar Headaches 29 Papua's Milne Bay Needs Help 31

Cameron's Plateau: New Milne Bay Headquarters? 35

Canberra Commentary 36

Territories Talk-Talk 37

Emigration Offsets Cooks' Baby Boom 43 A Night in Puka Puka 45 CDC Chairman Looks at Fiji 47 The West Samoan Scene 49 G. W. L. Townsend: He Hated Red Tape and Bureaucrats 55 A Bomb Blast Over Rabaul 59 Malaria Can Be Beaten 63 Relations Between Coffee Com panies in NG 67

Magazine Section 69

Pacific Shipping And Cruis

Ing Yachts 95

Pacific Report 11L

Deaths of Islands People 132 In a Nutshell 133

Travel Talk 134

Shipping, Airways Timetables 137 Commerce and Produce 145

THE COVER: This unusual photograph was taken by New Britain planter Harry Bode, of Unung Plantation, Jacquinot Bay, at the height of the eclipse of the sun on February 5. In some parts of New Guinea the eclipse was total, and international scientists descended on the Territory to make observations. The native woman at Unung is peering through a specially-prepared pair of binoculars to avoid damage to her eyesight. There are more photographs from Unung on page 37.