Pacific Report

The month’s round-up of news and pictures of people and rents, from PIM correspondents in the South Pacific.

\dministrator Outspoken

Care of Old People

ie Norfolk Island Council and Administrator, Mr. R. H. Words h, have been at loggerheads y ’ on the best way of looking • the island’s old people. t bout 141 per cent, of Norfolk s ilation was over 65 at the 1961 us, but social service benefits are automatically available to them, t present, the Administration an allowance to elderly people idered to be without adequate ns of support, besides the cost of >ital treatment and drugs when e are required. Fifteen people are receiving allowances ranging i 15/- to £2/13/4 a week ; The I amount spent on the island s old 3le is about 16.8 per cent, of 1 revenue. he Norfolk Island Council has lied for an immediate increase of per cent, in the allowances, but Wordsworth told the council ting in August that this was not real answer to the problem.

Care and help is necessary as well money,” he said. “I feel very erely on this matter, and circum ices I have seen here would not tolerated in any other country.

I have been told that some elderly :ens don’t call a doctor because / fear they won’t be able to pay his services. This is a dreadful ig and a disgrace on the Adminis ion and on the island.”

Ax. Wordsworth suggested that a >lic meeting be called to enlist the of all residents in tackling the blem of caring for the aged. He 1 he visualised the introduction of meals on wheels” service, the pos le use of a visiting bush nurse and :n the use of part of Norfolk’s jpital as a rest home.

Fhe council agreed to meet to de e how to co-ordinate their views ;h those of the Administrator. ?lM’s correspondent says that the >st likely first step will be to in iase the number of people receiv

ing the Administration’s allowance— without any rise in the amounts paid.

He adds: “The absence of a pen sion scheme is a real hardship to Norfolk people who have reached the twilight years.

“An organisation known as The Sunshine Club is active in organising social gatherings, street stalls, etc., for fund raising and distribution, but it cannot provide all that is needed.

“There is also the need to persuade some people that they are old and may be in need of extra care. There is no one so proud and independent as an old Norfolker.

“The matter requires tact besides increased financial support.”

Polio Deaths in New Guinea:

Vaccine Flown In

Papua-New Guinea health authorities have taken quarantine precautions in the Sepik area follow-

ing the deaths of two children who died of poliomyelitis in the Dagua area, west of Wewak. They were among 11 cases reported in one week in that district.

A shipment of oral Sabin anti poliomyelitis vaccine was flown to Wewak from London.

The Director of Public Health, Dr.

Roy Scragg, said in Port Moresby that movement out of the Sepik was banned unless the traveller had an inoculation certificate.

In late September six polio cases were also reported in Port Moresby but no restrictions were placed on movement.

Two Ways of Doing It:

Fiji's Study in Attitudes

A co-operative society operated by Ellice islanders off Fiji collapsed when it was run by the men, so the women have taken over and seen to it that the society has since been managed firmly and well. On the other hand, Fiji authorities are con cerned at the number of Indian men in Fiji who are actively discouraging their wives from registering as voters for the next general election on the ground that the women “shouldn’t have too much authority”.

The co-operative society is on the island of Kioa, off Vanua Levu.

In his latest annual report the Fiji Registrar of Co-operative Societies, Mr. F. E. M. Warner, said the Kioa store supplied a small community of 300. An earlier consumers’ society, which had been run by the men, had collapsed because of unpaid debt.

Though turnover was restricted by an unproductive environment, the new society was not only competently managed, but it was also very firmly managed. The no-credit rule was strictly enforced. The turnover for 1961 was £1,219, and distributable profits were £ll5.

“To appease the jealousy of the men, the women permit their husbands to attend annual general meetings as spectators, and each is given a free packet of cigarettes, but they relentlessly resist all attempts by the men to join the society, as well as their pleas for credit,” Mr. Warner stated.

Difficulty over the elections was reported by the supervisor of elections, Mr. B. L. Gregg. In the general elections in Fiji next year, women of all races will have the franchise for the first time.

The Indian husbands claim that women do not understand politics and that it is a tradition for Indian women to abstain from politics.

A number of Fijians, particularly

BIG NOISE: A "big noise" in the Sydney Grammar School cadet unit is cymbalist Brian Lukin (15). When an Army news camera pictured him unloading band in struments at the unit's annual camp at Singleton, New South Wales, Brian was a long way from home. Home in his case is Port Moresby.

more remote areas, are also aging their womenfolk from -ing for the elections. In many g places the women do not mow of their new rights, or general election is only a few j away. It is in these areas ie chiefs retain much of their mal power.

Gregg commenting on develop among the women, remarked: s pointed out with the greatest sis to husbands who hold these that women have been given ;ht to vote and that the right not be withheld from them, regards tradition, in India i not only vote and take an part in politics, but even stand didates. Husbands are reminded 'hen the elections come along /ill, no doubt, wish to pull in possible vote for the candidate ;ir choice, but it will be no hen asking that their wives be allowed to vote, they are not registered, they lot be allowed to vote and ire their votes will be lost. It ed that all husbands will realise portance of their wives register id having a vote.” number eligible to register for actions is estimated to be about )0. But up to the beginning itember only about one-quarter lat number had registered, singly, Fijians comprised more half the enrolments, although ndians are the biggest racial , and vocally, far more politic imded. en the rolls closed at the end September, however, it was ted that there would be more i voters than any other single group. The reason for the big enrolments is that with the ity of them living in villages comparatively easy to enrol a umber at the same time. Out lie villages most Fijians would to be pushed to register.

ch for New Trees

Plants in the BSIP

search for new plants and trees he mountainous interior of alcanal will begin soon. It will v the arrival in the BSIP of Dr.

T Whitmore, of St. John’s ge, Cambridge, England, who been appointed to the post of it Botanist. , Whitmore is due to arrive on ier 16 after visiting the Brisbane arium, where there is a small ;tion of Solomon Islands plants, after spending a week at Lae Mr. J. S. Womersley, Chief

Botanist in the P-NG Administration.

In November, Mr. Womersley and a New Guinea botanical collector, Mr. Michael Galore, will visit the Solomons and advise the Chief Forestry Officer, Mr. K. W, Trenaman, on the establishment of a herbarium of Solomon Islands flora.

Accompanied by Dr. Whitmore and Mr. Dennis, of the BSIP Forestry Department, they will also make a forest survey and take part in a botanical collecting expedition in the high mountains of Guadalcanal, which are, botanically, the most interesting and among the least explored areas in the world. They will

also go to Vangunu Island in the Western Solomons, Beech forests may exist in the in terior of Guadalcanal as in the high mountains of New Guinea. Popo manasiu, the highest peak, is over 8,000 feet above sea level. Trees and other plants common to the colder areas of the world and of economic importance could flourish there.

Mr. Dennis will take an advance party of Solomon Islanders inland about mid-October to clear a foot track through the perpetually wet and mist-shrouded forest and scrub to the summit of Mt. Popomanasiu and establish a camp site for the main

party. He will join the main pair Honiara in early November.

Another man interested in mon Islands trees is Mr.

Evans, of United Africa Conn (Timber) Limited. He has working recently on land hell: Levers on Kolombangara, in the e tern Solomons, surveying til stands, to make an economic as ment of what timber is the prospects of exploiting it.

The Chief Forestry Officer w the area towards the end of Ain He said later it was too early y©\ even a preliminary forecast o;c results of the survey.

Mr. Evans’ first main line has revealed good forest, sii< to that on Vangunu, including! calophyllum, dillenia and camn perma species.

Fiji's Self-Styled

Reds Have Troubles

Apimeleki Ramatau Mataka case a stir in Fiji last year when her nounced that he had formed in r villages of the Nadroga Provinn group known as the Bula Tale O munist Party. But the group has i in trouble almost ever since, a struggling for existence for alir a year they suddenly found tlf

NEWLY-WEDS: These newly-wed co: were seen at a meeting of the nesian Association in Sydney reco[?] Above are Mr. and Mrs. Barry Joh[?] of Hunters Hill, Sydney. She was for[?] Sefarosa Foster, of Rotuma and Lower photo shows Mr. and Mrs. bassa. Mrs. Jacubassa was formerly [?] Marsters of Rarotonga, and is a descei[?] of William Marsters of Palmerston I[?]

2s forcibly evicted from land on :h they had settled at Togavere. here was little they could do Lit it for they had no right to be the land. Now renamed the Lami b, 38 of them about the middle September moved to Navua where r set up in a house, he District Officer, Ravuama livalu, MLC, went along to see n and was informed that they did wish to return to their village. y also advised Ravuama that f were Communists. When 'uama asked them if they knew it being Communists meant their kesman replied: We don’t know what it means, we want to be Communists.”

'hey don’t want to return to their Iroga villages because they don’t the way the Fijian Administra i is being run. One of their kesmen asserted that they would ier see their children starve than irn to the villages. [■here is no land for them at vua, but they want to stay there. in all it seems they don’t >w what they want to do—except Communist, without knowing at Communist means!

ick to the Land: Two

iral Schemes in Fiji

Hie Fiji Prisons Department is •ning about 1,000 acres of rugged untry into a thriving mixed farm. |e land is at Naboro, about 12 miles >m Suva, along the Queen’s Road.

The task is one which would easily deter the most land-hungry person, for the land is overgrown with thick bush, much of it is hilly and sharply ridged, and it is badly infested with Navua sedge weed, a weed that no farmer likes to see on his property.

And the soil is not particularly good.

The Government late in April made a grant to buy planting material, spraying equipment and tools. The Public Works Department also helped by bulldozing a road into the area, and levelling a site for accommodation, yet to be built, for prisoners and staff.

Since the prisoners started clearing

the area in June, they have brought about 20 acres of land into pro duction. Bananas and dalo are being planted.

The Superintendent of Prisons, Mr. b. M. Sellers, in a recent address to the Fiji Society, said that he hoped to develop the farm to take dairy and beef cattle and a piggery. The meat and milk would be used to supply prisons and Government institutions, Mr. Sellers’ estimates that revenue in the first year will be £lOO an acre, rising in subsequent years to £2OO.

The farm project is Mr. Sellers’ idea. In his term of office he has

continually laid emphasis on the need to rehabilitate prisoners. He hopes that when prisoners are re leased the scheme will return them back to the land which, with an exploding population, is urgently in need of cultivation.

Those who know the quality pro ducts already turned out by the gaol have no reason to doubt that they will receive top quality, one day, from the prison farm. The bread baked at the Suva Gaol, is among the best in Fiji, and that is saying a lot, for Fiji’s Chinese bakers take a real interest in the quality of their products. The vegetables produced in the prison gardens attracted much attention at the Fiji Show last year.

Mr. Sellers’ scheme is not the only one of its kind.

Under the direction of the Rev.

Dr. George Hemming, the Church of England’s Men’s Society has started a project which will mean 15 acres of swamp land, near Buckhurst Park, Laucala Bay, coming into production for kitchen crops.

The plan is to provide work for unemployed men—to pay them to cultivate the land and grow crops to meet the cost involved. This project was also started in June and by the end of August about 5,000

dalo tops had been planted, while plans were being made to experiment with other crops.

Gifts of cash, planting material, fertilisers, and other materials have helped to launch the project. And no better initial crop could be chosen for dalo is to the inhabitants of Fiji what the potato is to the Irish.

Women of the church have also played a part by providing the paid workers with mid-day meals.

New Pacific Tuna Canning

Factories Planned

Tuna canneries will soon be d* all over the Pacific at the pn rate of progress.

An American company, Van C Seafoods, which established Pacific’s first successful canner Pago Pago, American Samoa: 1954, announced recently tha£

FIJIANS IN HONIARA: The Fijian community at Honiara live in what is known the "Fijian village"—a replica of their villages in Fiji. Keen to meet and talk w[?] anyone from their own country, they lost no time in organising an afternoon when they found Mr. and Mrs. L. G. Usher of Suva (seated centre) visit Honiara recently. Mr. Usher is publisher of "The Fiji Times". Photo: Rob Wri[?]

ed to build another at Palau in arolines. As already announced, ier American company, Star is planning to operate a second ry at Pago Pago, gotiations are also under way Japanese interests to install a jry in Noumea. Mr. Onishi, tor of the Taiyo Fishery Co., of o, is due in Noumea soon to ss the installation of a 200 ton freezer plant on a small bay le Ducos Peninsula, which forms limit of Noumea Harbour. The vas an important warehouse area he US Navy during the war. idies made of the waters around Caledonia have shown great tides of tuna. If the Noumea becomes a reality, it will help ise New Caledonia’s hard-pressed amy.

Sugar Prospects

k Bright Again

forward-looking spirit now ailing in the Fiji sugar industry the oustanding impression he had ;d during a visit to the Colony, the chairman of the Colonial ir Refining Co. Ltd., Mr. J. W. lop, in September. Mr. Dunlop his wife went to Fiji for a three cs’ holiday, but they spent some :heir time looking at the com a’s interests. liking a realistic note, and rring to the troubles which beset industry in 1960 and 1961, he that the past was regarded as inportance only where it could to avoiding mistakes.

Phere is a general realisation that ual co-operation, working sther as a team, is vital for the

efficient operation of the industry for the benefit of its members, and of Fiji,” Mr. Dunlop said.

“I am certain that an important cause of this pleasing state of affairs is farmers’ understanding that the staff of South Pacific Sugar Mills Ltd. (the CSR subsidiary in Fiji) has a deep loyalty to and affection for Fiji and its peoples.

', ; , Many of \tem ave and grandsons of CSR staff who served in Fiji. These men—field officers, engineers, chemists, managers—all are giving that little bit extra because they see special value and significance in, and get

special satisfaction from what they are doing.”

Mr. Dunlop said that the immediate prospects for the sugar^industry 'were good. The current ye p produce at least 240,0001 tons of sugw. the seeond on record. In 1 965, provided every thing went well, there was every P™spect that the target of 255.000 tons would be reached.

Jhe favourable i mpreS sion gained Dunlop is shared by parties ° y hQ M have bee £ the guests of S PSM the cane areas and f yii L mills ot Vltl Lev “’

Morale from the managers right

down to the lowliest worker ; to be high. Excellent quality has the chemists chortling, whil farmers are happy at the prospe good returns in sight. Ships arriving regularly to transpoi overseas markets the product t earns Fiji at least half its e income.

Big Timber Possibilities

On Bougainville

An area of about 100,000 of forest land on Bougainville, Guinea, may soon be opened uj the timber export business.

A survey team of forestry ofl recently visited the area, whio near Tonolei Harbour in the s< east corner of Bougainville, to in the trees. After this visit the Prir Utilisation Officer of the Departi of Forests, Mr. E. Gray, said the ministration proposed to subm recommendation to the Depart! of Territories for Ministerial proval to throw open the forest for tender. The tender would b great value to men interested in porting good quality logs to ■ seas markets.

Mr. Gray said that the tree the area were good, and the contained stands of pure Termii growing on large patches of sws ground. This timber is indigenov P-NG, and is suitable for plyv and for building. The trees gro’< a height of 170 feet with a 1, girth.

If the tender is let, Tonolei hour, a Jap wartime base, couhl developed as a port.

New Guinea Gets Special

Treatment Over Coffee

New Guinea could hardly have pected a better deal on its coffee ports than it received from nation UN Coffee Conference, w/ was concluded in New York: August 25, says PlM’s Canfcl correspondent.

NG was given special treatmen a trust territory, with permission export up to 6,000 tons (100 C bags) a year.

This is quite independent of : ports to the “metropolitan” couu —Australia.

Latest figures show that NO managing to sell a bigger propon of its coffee crop outside Austrar Of the 3,457 tons exported in I*l 62, Australia took 2,398 tons.

Of the balance of 1,059 tons, aL 600 tons went to the Netherlands ;

est to other markets in Western pe, South-East Asia and North rica. the previous year, when exports ed 2,294 tons, Australia took ! tons and other markets only tons, so that the greater rate of ision was in overseas markets, ficial estimates place the limit le amount of NG type Arabica a can be absorbed by Australia bout 3,500 tons a year, pua was treated separately by inference, and under the provi that any producer can export up 5,000 60-kilogram bags has, in t, a quota of its own. However, lan plantings of coffee are not [leant. )ffee experts believe that the con ice decisions will ensure the e of the Territory industry, r the end of the five-year agree production will be running nd 170,000 bags, lis would mean that the Austra market would need to keep ex ling at the same rate as it did be n 1960-61 and 1961-62. it even though such a steady in se might be difficult, the outlook the NG grower is now much ir than it was before the agree t was made. ne curious feature of the success legotiations on the agreement was lack of any reaction by Terri- Minister Paul Hasluck, or his irtment. he Minister made a comment on

production figures for the year just ended about three weeks before the agreement was made, but on the agreement itself he volunteered no comment.

The result is that there has been no official disclosure of the terms of the agreement to the Australian or the P-NG people.

It was left to the Minister for Trade, Mr. McEwen, to welcome the new agreement.

He pointed out that in terms of value, coffee was the most important agricultural commodity entering world trade.

Australia was interested in the agreement both as a consumer and because coffee was one of the most important industries in New Guinea.

“I am heartened by the way in which the world’s leading coffee pro ducers have recognised the special problems of trust territories,” he said.

“Those producers agreed to a special provision in the agreement put forward by the Australian delegation which will safeguard continued de velopment of the NG coffee industry for the five-year currency of the agreement.

“I have long advocated inter national commodity agreements as one way of overcoming the export problems facing primary producing countries.

“This is the most effective way of overcoming the problem of depressed, unstable prices for primary products.”