Nutshell

In A Nutshell

NEW Hebrides Airlines is expect to begin a regular service ea< Wednesday between Vila and tl newly-opened airfield at Tongoa at return fare of £7.

This service will reduce travellh time between Vila and Tongoa fro about 10 hours by sea to about minutes, in effect making Tong< much closer to Vila than Forari.

For its size, Tongoa is one of tl most heavily populated islands the New Hebrides, having almc 2,500 people.

The new airstrip, which w officially opened by the British ai French Resident Commissioners November, is not yet completed, further tree-cutting and widening required. The strip is about 2,0( ft long.

Wild cats have been killing a L of chickens on Pitcairn Island, s any cat seen prowling round a fo\ run usually gets very short shrift with a gun. But some of Pitcairn boys have become so “trigger happ] that Roy Clark, the island’s pos master, made a special trip to tl picture show recently to give the bo: a full description of his cat so th; it would be recognised and spared. ❖ ❖ ❖ The Gilbert and Ellice Island Colony Copra Board has renewed ii contract with Unilever’s and th entire Colony copra production wi be sold to them in 1963. The M Loganbank loaded 1,600 tons e copra for Europe at Tarawa i November.

Eighty Tarawa residents attende the inaugural meeting of the Gilbe: and Ellice Islands Colony Amateu Sports Association in November, an strongly supported a proposed dra« constitution. The first task of tb newly appointed executive committe is to affiliate the association with thi South Pacific Games Council, thu making GEIC sportsman eligible t compete in the South Pacific Game in Suva.

_atest reports on the new airfield -Auki. Malaita, BSIP, say that a :p 100 ft wide by about 3,400 ft eg has been graded to levels, and ;t an access road has been com bed. Other works in connection 'h the proposed internal air service [;he BSIP are in hand at Honiara’s raderson Field. Foundations for hangar are being built, and =es for the electricity main are rug erected. * sis * Six long-term prisoners in the New brides, who were captured during round-up of Big Bay murderers last tr, have built a Kukum-type hot-air •ra drier at Karwenu College, ey received technical advice from Condominium Agricultural partment. The college has been lit on an old plantation, and the liable coconuts will be used for ira.

During their time in prison, the in task of the Big Bay prisoners I be to undertake the agricultural elopment of British Government d at Malapoa which has been erved for future educational elopment. It is also hoped that y will begin a small cocoa planta ii soon.

He * * \n agreement was concluded in vember between the BSIP Govern nt and the Tokyo company, Nanpo igyo Kaisha Limited, granting the npany timber cutting rights over major part of Baga Island, in the stern Solomons. The agreement for five years in the first instance, I will allow the company to cut million super feet of timber mally.

Vlost of the production is expected be exported as logs to Japan, but awmill will probably be erected at ga. The company will pay the vernment a royalty for the trees, 1 will also pay export duty, rhe company will probably not tieve *'\e full output planned until lo *' months of 1963. ♦ * * Vlembers of the Honiara Chamber Commerce agreed recently to raise ir subscriptions to enable the imber to subscribe to a fund for South Pacific Games, and to con ae their support of other organisa as, including the Boy Scouts and *1 Guides. * * Hs A new radio-telephone link be *en Honiara. BSIP, and Vila and

Santo in the New Hebrides was d to open on December 17 from 10. a.m. to 11 a.m. daily, except on Su days and public holidays. Calls w cost 10/- a minute, with a mimmu charge of 30/-. * * * A message from the Gilbert ai Ellice Islands Colony says that t effects of the drought which h lasted for some months are becoi ing increasingly felt in the Southe Gilberts and the Phoenix Islands.

Copra production is low ever where, and the demand by island c operatives for store goods from tl Wholesale Society is very low, * * * Terence Ernest Dobbs, 20, j engine-room oiler, was found n guilty at Suva in November of tl murder of a shipmate, Alexandi James Cameron, of Kirkcaldy, Fif shire, Scotland. The Crown allege that Dobbs, of Swansea, Wales, hz murdered Cameron with a penkni: in a brawl at the Golden Dragon, Suva nightclub, on October 15. 80l men were from the Oronsay, whic was in port at the time. * * * Two Japanese businessmen were i New Guinea in November inquirin into prospects of buying Territoi timber. * * * Jet travel and Hawaiian Statehoo are making the average America more interested in the South Sea, As a result “Polynesian” restauram are becoming more popular—jui how popular is revealed by the Wa Street Journal, which reports ths where there were 20 Polynesian re; taurants in the US five years age there are more than 200 now.

The decor of the restaurants a follow the general pattern, report the Journal, with statues and pagai gods lining the walls. Bamboo cut tains separate dimly-lit booths am in glass-enclosed “jungles” tropica birds flit about.

Although the decor might be ger nine South Seas, the food is not Americans don’t like Polynesiaj food, so nearly all Polynesian res taurants in America feature Canton ese, Japanese, Hawaiian and Eas Indian food—and West Indian run drinks. ❖ ❖ * A new Administration agriculture centre is to be established in Mini in the NG Western Highlands. Agrr cultural centres are used for demon strating the best ways of growinji crops.

From January I, Garuda Indo nesian Airways will take over the Dutch airline De Kroonduif, which provided an internal service in West New Guinea. It has not been announced whether Garuda will operate De Kroonduifs fortnightly Lae-Hollandia service after May. * ♦ * An official delegation of 12, headed by the Administrator, Sir Donald Cleland, will represent P-NG in Aus tralia during the Royal visit in March. About 150 P-NG school children, about half of whom are already studying in Australia, will also visit Canberra to see the Queen. ♦ * ♦ Erection of the coconut process ing plant to be operated in Pago Pago jointly by Tonga and an American syndicate should begin in March, and the factory should be working by December, according to the Cor poration’s president, Mr, Raymond Turnbull. He said the plant was expected to process about 30 million coconuts a year. * * * The Australian Broadcasting Com mission’s P-NG service on December 15 opened its second station—9Rß Rabaul, medium-wave, operating on 810 kilocycles. Its main station, which includes a shortwave trans mitter, is in Port Moresby. 9RB is broadcasting in English, Pidgin and Tolai and has its own news service. ❖ * * Two Japanese fishing vessels based in Pago Pago, where they were working for the Van Camp factory, disappeared with all hands near American Samoa about December 21.

The vessels, the Kai Maru No. 3 and the lyo Mam No. 35, both about 100 tons, had a crew of about 20 each.

A wide sea-air search resulted in recovery of some flotsam believed to have come from one of the missing vessels. * * * Meanwhile in New Caledonia a search was called off for Daniel Charles, 20, who disappeared on December 24, near Noumea in an outboard motor boat. It was believed that his vessel had sunk. * * * Port Moresby branch of the Papua and New Guinea Workers Associa tion has accepted in principle an offer by the Australian Council of Trade Unions to assist the association in its work.

The ways in which the ACTU aid might be given will be discussed early in the new year by Port Moresby branch of the Executive Committee.