Nutshell

In A Nutshell

A SUITABLY qualified person "*■ is to be appointed to investi ate the possibility of establish ig a social security scheme in 'iji. At present about the only eople who have any form of acial security are Government jrvants, employees of firms Jth superannuation schemes nd Service pensioners. * * ♦ . pictorial set of 11 stamps for Cook Islands is to be issued on j 4 to replace the set that has i on sale since 1949. •enominations, with their designs Id (tiare Maori); 2d (fishing I; 3d (frangipani); 5d (love tern); (hibiscus); 8d (b on i t o); 1/nge); 1/6 (the Queen); 2/- (island ie); 3/- (administration centre, igaia); 5/- (Rarotonga). lr. James Berry, of Wellington, gned the stamps. * * * he Governor of Fiji, Sir Kenneth Idocks, and Lady Maddocks will e Fiji on the liner Oriana on ember 12 following the com on of Sir Kenneth’s five-year term ffice. No announcement has been e about his successor. * * * rs. F. P. Ward, of Sydney, wife i former Seventh-day Adventist 3r on Pitcairn Island, received a r of thanks during the Royal r of Australia for a thatch fan e on Pitcairn Island which she to the Queen, * * * r. M. R. Booker, who was re iy appointed Deputy Secretary, artment of Territories, visited xa-New Guinea in April to get i first-hand knowledge. * * * r. H. R. le Clerc, of Sydney, )rary organiser of the Norfolk id Friendship League, visited folk in April to make arrange ts for the league’s “Back to folk” fortnight to be held from 1 to 14. party of 30 League members arrive by air on June 1. The

visitors will be there for the traditional Bounty Day celebrations on June 8, which is the anniversary of the landing of the Pitcairners on Norfolk and the island’s most im portant community event.

A full programme for the “Back to Norfolk” fortnight, featuring sports and evening entertainments, is being arranged by a local com mittee. The proceeds will go to the Sunshine Club, which cares for older citizens, and to the Norfolk Island Hospital. * * * The United States Navy has an nounced that a polio epidemic that swept the Marshall Islands in January and February killed 10 children and left about 60 children crippled. Navy doctors helped to get the epidemic under control in Feb ruary. All the islanders were given oral polio vaccines and the disease was confined to 212 patients, all aged under seven. * * * An exhibition of the work of two artists, Captain Bret Hilder and M.

Nicolai Mishutushkin, will open at the Vila Culture Centre on May 3.

Captain Hilder is well known for his profiles in PIM of Islands person alit i e s. M. Mishutushkin, who arrived in the New Hebrides from Tahiti in January, had an exhibition of paintings at the Cultural Centre in 1961. * * * The Van Camp Sea Food Com pany is to establish a commercial fisheries project at Koror, Palau, in the Caroline Group of the United States Trust Territory of the Pacific.

A contract between the Trust Terri tory Government and Van Camp calls for the establishment of ex tensive fishing operations, a plant for freezing tuna and the training of Micronesians both ashore and afloat.

Fish frozen at Koror will probably be exported to Van Camp canneries elsewhere.

An official Press release says: “The opening of Palau to commercial fish ing marks the first major step towards large-scale development of the most important natural resource of the Trust Territory, and is ex

peeled to lead to similar enterj in other districts of the Terr: thus stimulating the local ecoi through increased employment 2 higher level of income.” * * * The Government-appointed ( mission on Higher Educatioi Papua and New Guinea was di begin a three-week visit to the r tory on April 28 to study Go ment and missionary education tivities and to arrange to take “o spot” evidence from all intei people during a visit in July. * * * Kuru (“laughing death”) wi the main subject of discussion j second meeting of the P-NG M< Research Advisory Committe Port Moresby on May 24. Kun also be discussed when the W( Pacific Regional Committee o World Health Organisation me< Port Moresby in September.

During the past six years, !

Administration and overseas m scientists have done intensm search on kuru, which affect; Fore people of P-NG’s Eastern lands. * * * Acting Assistant District Offi D. Fitzer, who has been lead patrol into the fortress-like Mountains, near the West Guinea border, has described th rain in a radio message as “a graphic hell for foot travellers” patrol made the first European tact with the region’s scattere habitants. It began its return jo to civilisation in mid-April.

A half-ton consignment of Gj (NG) tea has been sold at a price to an Australian whe company which blends and pac tea for the retail trade.

Six chests of Broken Orange grade were sold for 5/- a lb deli Melbourne, and four chest Broken Orange Pekoe tannings lised 4/9 a lb.

The purchaser will blend Garaina tea with from 12 to 20 grades to give the flavour rec by the Australian market. * * * Two large boulders from th* koda Trail, flown in an RAAF cules to Canberra recently, w polished, inscribed, and laid as dation stones for the RSL quarters building in the Austl capital. * * * The P-NG Department of ' Health organised a mass imm tion campaign against polio ii

ison Island area of the Milne District after 17 cases of polio reported from two villages on iland’s north coast in April. * ♦ * iders for the construction of an sas wharf at Kieta, Bougainville, De called in the second half of ear. The tender will be let with month of being called and con ion of the wharf is expected to mpleted before June next year. ; first stage of the wharf will be long and will take shipping up JOO tons. Provision has been in the design of the wharf so t may be extended to take ship up to 10,000 tons, ch reclamation work has been to enable the wharf to be built , April, p. 101). * * * sub-committee of the Port sby Building Board has been set find a solution to the problem lanty settlements around Port sby. The sub-committee is d by the Administration’s r Health Inspector, Mr. C. lers. * * * total of 510 people died of a in West New Guinea in the nic that broke out last Septem the Indonesian newsagency a said recently. UNTEA’s i director declared the territory a free at the end of March.

[?]tor Frank Hoeter, of the Royal -New Guinea Constabulary, stationed roka, left Sydney in April for a 12 [?] stay in Kashmir, where he has been [?]ted to a UN observer team. He [?] the rank of major with the Aus- Citizen Military Force. His wife will follow him to Kashmir later.

The first shipment of timber Baga Island in the Western Soloi to Japan is expected to be mad June or July. This follows the g ing of timber-cutting rights ovei major part of Baga Island to N Ringyo Kaisha Limited, of Tc last November. The agreement is five years in the first instance, will allow the company to or million super feet of timber annr A Japanese ship, Fuji Maru, rived at Baga Island in mid-M with 850 tons of cargo, including logging tractors, sawmilling e< ment and a prefabricated buildinj the British Solomons Forestry C pany (which seems to be the r the Japanese company is using ir Solomons).

The company’s manager, assi manager and other employees arrived in the Fuji Maru, w brought the number of Japanese gaged in executive and tech] work on Baga to nine. The com] has recruited a labour force of a 120 men and has built a camp, the end of March, logging oj tions were expected to start “soor * * * A small flock of sheep from ( terbury, New Zealand, arrived Suva in April. After two week the Agriculture Department’s qua tine station at Vatuwaqa, they 1 to be transported to Vanua Levu experiments in sheep rearing. * * * Mr. Lahui Tau, secretary of Port Moresby Workers’ Associai said in April that workers’ assc tions in Territory centres were sidering forming an overall Pi and New Guinea association.

Associations are established at Moresby, Madang, Lae and Raba * * * The first Rugby League team play in Australia representing whole of Papua-New Guinea meet a Cairns side in Cairns June 23. * * * People who try to rush the ii pendence of Papua and New Gu: by setting target dates do more h than good, according to Bis Hand, the Anglican Bishop-elect New Guinea.

Bishop Hand said in Brisbane April: “The people up there will ready for independence when t themselves know and feel and they are.

“Even the administrators in territory are not in a position toi a date for independence.”