Nutshell

In A f Nutshell

[N American scientist, Dr. Farring- L ton Daniels, Emeritus Professor Chemistry at the University of isconsin, is investigating the pos ality of using solar energy for the filiation of water in South Pacific ands with poor or no water pplies. He hopes to achieve his ject with the aid of an inexpensive istic solar still.

Dr. Daniels visited New Zealand cently and gave a public lecture ider the sponsorship of the Royal iciety on the use of solar energy. * * * An Anglican church for the St. ancis Society, is being built at jki. Port Moresby. The church, lich will cost about £12,000, will •Id about 400 people. A basement 11 accommodate 30 students in two issrooms. $ $ $ Norfolk Island will issue two pos ge stamps next year to mark the 10th anniversary of the founding of e Melanesian Mission. The stamps ill be designed from coloured slides bmitted to Norfolk’s Stamp Design ammittee by Messrs. C, Keenan and r , N. S. Newbald. Mr. Keenan’s de depicts the interior of St. Bar ibas Chapel; the other is an exterior ew of the chapel.

Three other slides depicting scenes i the island have been chosen for series of stamps to be issued in >64. The slides were submitted by iessrs. H. Arthur and J. Carr and Irs. L. Marsh.

A total of 4,288 earthquakes were registered in Vila, New Hebrides, during the year ended December 31, 1962. This compared with 3,566 quakes the previous year. The greatest number of quakes last year was in October when 1,097 were recorded.

Vila’s seismological station is in the basement of the Condominium Mines Department building. It was installed by the Institut Francais d’Oceanie and has been operating since 1960. The station works in close co-operation with the Institut’s two other stations at Noumea and Koumac, New Cale donia.

Of the 1,097 quakes registered in Vila in October, 180 were strong enough to be recorded at the New Caledonian stations. All the epi centres were to the west of Efate, the island on which Vila is situated.

The epicentres of 814 of the quakes registered in Vila during the year were localised in the New Hebrides. Three of these quakes were above magnitude 6 but below magni tude 7 on the Mercalli scale. * S'! * The Niue Assembly received a re quest recently from the New Zealand publishers A. H. & A. W. Reed for help in preparing a projected atlas of the Pacific. * * * Ten young women from the Tokelau Islands arrived in New Zea land recently to work as domestics.

They are the first assisted immigrants to go to New Zealand under a trial plan organised by the Departments of Labour and Island Territories. * * * Qantas has bought “Albany Court”, a 12-storey building in Collins Street, Melbourne, for £480,000 for use as Victorian headquarters. The re modelled building will include a modern ground floor sales office, and

Cars Are

Cheap

Housing is expen sive in Port Moresby these days. But cars sell cheaply. This is part of a whole yard filled with good secondhand vehicles, most of which can be bought on £20 deposit.

a booking office. Qantas interest Melbourne is expected to incn greatly in the next few years as Tullamarine jet airport nears comi tion. * * * Preparations for the establishrr of a radio telephone link betw Apia and Suva are now in the f stages. When the link is establisl West Samoan telephone subscril will be able to make contact v any place on the world link. * * * A sensational jewel robbery t( place in Noumea early on Ma 26, when a jeweller’s shop wind was broken and thieves made with jewellery valued at 500,( francs (£2,500), according to lo newspaper reports. The French li Tahitien, which was in port and ( to sail from Sydney later t morning, was held up for th hours and searched, but with result.

This was the second big jei robbery in Noumea in 12 mont Last year, another jeweller’s shop v robbed of watches and jewelli valued at one million francs—i biggest robbery in Noumea’s histo * * * The Condominium Agricultu Station at Tagabe, near Vila, N Hebrides, recently opened up an ai of bush on a plateau about 400 above the station, and a mile aw from it. The bush was first cut and then treated with hormone we( killer. The area has been fenced, a is now completely grassed over, will be used for running cattle. * * * A group of 16 Papua-New Guin natives visited Canberra in March watch Parliament in action. The fii party of natives went to Canber last September on the inauguration a programme enabling natives to g first hand knowledge of how ti Parliamentary system functions.

With one exception, all the nativ who made the latest visit we Local Government Councillors.

Three of them were members < the present Papua-New Guinea Legi lative Council. * * * The next session of the Papua-Ne Guinea Legislative Council will ope on June 3. Major business will ii elude the resumed debate on the ne Liquor Ordinance which gives nativ< complete drinking equality wit Europeans, but will reduce hours c business in hotels and clubs.

Norfolk Island’s newest shop, hich specialises in Eastern goods— idios, cameras and the like —was uened recently at Burnt Pine by ussell and Jan Greene. Mr. Greene so operates one of the island s four otor repairs workshops and Jan as, until recently, librarian at the ingston Public Library. Their new •nture brings the number of Nor sk’s shops catering for tourists with ongkong and other Eastern com lodities to seven. * * * Six Papuans and New Guineans ave been promoted from assistant atrol officers-in-training to assist it patrol officers. They are the first atives to be appointed assistant atrol officers. The men are Jack agita, Leana Gari, Rowland Kekedo, asil Koe, Raga Kopi and Wasengula evi.

They will undertake some of the iities of European patrol officers, id will carry out census patrols and ther administrative duties.

They are expected to be put in large of patrol posts when they ave gained sufficient experience. * * * People from three villages on roodenough Island in the Milne Bay hstrict of P-NG have cleared and jpaired an airstrip at Vivigani which ras built by ANGAU officers in 943 and used by Australian and merican forces during the war.

Officials of the Department of Civil iviation have certified it for use by >C3 aircraft. A Patair DC3 was :heduled to land at Vivigani on larch 14 to fly two American tourists rom Goodenough Island to the robriands. ♦ * ♦ A P-NG Administration geologist rill lead a patrol from the upper rea of the Fly River to Dam dur ig April to look for commercial auxite deposits. The geological sur ey will last two weeks.

The geologist is Mr. G. Brouxhon, if the Department of Lands. He and lis party will fly to Kiunga then ravel by ship down the Fly River o Dam. * ♦ ♦ About 200,000 high-yielding rubber ree seeds, recently imported from rialaya, have been planted in many •arts of P-NG.

The trees will be grown in nurseries intil they reach a height of about six eet. They will then be sent to Agri mltural stations for sale to farmers vorking on new settlement farms hroughout P-NG.

The trees are expected to be ready :or transplanting during the next wet season.

In December, 1871, three ye before Fiji was ceded to Brit Fiji’s King Cakobau offered £. sterling “for the first and best c of 20 tons of sugar produced fr local sugar cane”. Nowadays, ab I 4 million tons of sugar cane grown in Fiji by about 12,700 farm on farms averaging about 10 aci Sugar has been Fiji’s main exp since 1883.

These facts are given in a ronet pamphlet on Fiji’s sugar indusl issued by South Pacific Sugar M Ltd., Suva, for the use of sch< teachers. SPSM has also issued coloured wall chart on the indus and a printed pamphlet on “H Fiji’s Raw Sugar is Made” for 1 use of schools. * % ❖ Causeways are to be built acr< tidal passages on Tarav OblC, which at present restr journeys from Colony headquarti at Bairiki to the hospital and scho. at Bikeibeu to two four-hour peric each day. The Secretary of St; for the Colonies has approved amer ment of the GEIC’s £20,000 Colon Development and Welfare Scher for road impovement to include t building of the causeways. * ❖ * The Fiji 1963 trades and industri fair will be held at Suva from Se «/ ml ? er^ 9 to —during Hibisc Week. The fair organisers, the Sm Jaycees, are planning to spend at lea £5,000 on a new exhibition hall.

The organisers confidently expe that, like last year, there will be e hibitors from both Fiji and overse; —in bigger numbers.

The fair committee chairman, M Vijay Singh, said the fair would 1 the largest and most extensive ev« held in Fiji. * ❖ * Maternal and child health will fc the main subjects at a rural healt conference to be held by the Sout Pacific Commission at Papeete frot April 18 to 27. At least 12 territoric will be represented. Two top-leve consultants engaged for the cor ference are Dr. N. R. E. Fendal Director of Medical Services, Kenys and Dr. Wiktoria Winnicka, Directa of the Maternal and Child Healt: Division, World Health Organisatior The Research Council of the SPC will concentrate on health matter when it meets at Papeete from Apri 29 to May 2. Most Research Counci members will attend the health coni ference.