Official Says

GEIC’s Isolation Must End, Top Official Says

The age-old isolation of the Ibert and Ellice Islands may ne to an end soon if proposals

dined recently by GEIC

sident Commissioner (Mr. V.

Andersen) are followed up.

T the fourth Colony Conference at Tarawa early in October, Mr. lerson said the colony must ex re every means of economic de >pment, including tourism and the ting of scheduled internal and ;rnal air and shipping services, e of which existed at present.

Ir. Andersen said the colony was :d with major difficulties because 37 small islands were spread over ut two million square miles of the tral Pacific, its population was in ising rapidly, it had a limited land i with very few economic re •ces, and it would be faced with dss of employment opportunities n the phosphate deposits on Ocean nd, and later Nauru, were worked

Tourism, Too

Fhe colony must aim to make the use of all available land and t see that all possible ways of easing the output of copra are ued,” Mr. Andersen said, t must explore all other ways of eving economic development, fil ing tourism and the exploitation he products of the sea. t must stimulate further emigra te the British Solomon Islands, ■ improve medical and educational ces, and must seek employment seas for its citizens.” to the conference en “d Government proposals to re iquor controls, to enable islanders fink beer and sour toddy without fits. • present islanders in the Colony ■equired to obtain permits before can drink beer, wines, spirits and toddy (the fermented sap from flower spathe of the coconut )■ the field of education, delegates 1 of the Government’s ultimate of providing universal primary ation in English, improving idary education facilities, and in ing opportunities for overseas ing. the medical sphere, the con ice was told of a long-term plan

under which it was hoped to station Assistant Medical Officers and nurses on most islands, and to follow up the present tuberculosis scheme with a campaign to improve maternity and child care, and health education.

Delegates welcomed a proposal to replace the Colony Conference system with a 17-member Advisory Council. (Colony Conferences have been held every two years since 1956. They are attended by 37 representatives from all the inhabited islands and discuss matters of territorial importance.) The conference also endorsed the need for local government councils to pay for better-trained staff, and it proposed the formation of a corps of Island Executive Officers who would perform somewhat similar duties to town clerks in metropolitan countries.

The conference thought the finance for these proposals and for other minor ones might be found through a poll tax on all adult males, the tax to be in addition to the existing land owners’ tax.

A Fijian student who is making many friends in Sydney is young Ratu Joni Vuiyasawa, son of Ratu Charlie and therefore an important member of the Sukuna family. Young Joni, aged 23, is a student at Wesley College, in Sydney, and appears to be taking a keen and increasing interest in Fijian affairs. Some of his well wishers have been urging him to qualify in law—and it would appear to be an advantage if the Fijian com munity had its own practising barrister in Suva.