Nutshell

In A Nutshell

“Open go” drinking for every one will come into force in New Caledonia on October 1. The Territorial Assembly decided to abolish racial discrimination in the purchase and consumption of alcohol on the last day of its session in July, following a long debate. Until now, natives have been limited to the consumption of beer. • A total of 473 primary schools were in use in the BSIP at the end of 1962, according to the annual re port of the BSIP Education Depart ment. Of these, all but 11 were run by missions. The 11 exceptions were four Government and seven local council schools. During 1962, there was an increase of 1,231 children at primary schools over 1961. The num ber of teachers in registered schools increased by 79, including 38 quali fied teachers. • A horrified crowd at Magenta aerodrome, near Noumea, saw a mem ber of the Noumea Parachutists’ Club meet instant death when he landed on the gable of a shed’s roof after a parachute jump on June 30.

The victim was Andre Vitella, a 40-year-old bachelor, who was one of three to make jumps from 1,500 ft. The other two landed safely, but Vitella was carried over the shed by the wind.

It was the club’s first fatality.

Since October, 1961, members of the club have made 1,000 jumps, with only three (official) accidents. One of the accidents occurred early in June when a woman parachutist plunged into the sea after a jump from 4,000 ft. ( PIM , July, p. 125). • Rats have been causing concern in two parts of the Pacific recently.

In Noumea, fears of bubonic plague have been aroused following the find ing of dead rats on the city’s foot paths. And on Matasso Island, New Hebrides, rats have become so pre valent that the islanders have com plained that their food supplies are continually being eaten.

The finding of dead rats in Noumea prompted an editorial in a local paper calling on health authorities to check whether the rats had been poisoned

or had died “naturally”, and if the latter whether they showed any signs of plague.

The paper said that as a large part of Noumea’s mixed population lived in dubious hygienic conditions, the city was always at the mercy of an epidemic. It added that rat plagues had caused numerous deaths in New Caledonia in recent years—64 in 1900, 28 in 1901, 21 in 1906, 37 in 1912, and 10 in 1942.

In the New Hebrides, the British Dis trict Agent responsible for Matasso Is. recently made a public appeal in Vila For unwanted cats, especially females, to take to Matasso to combat the rat plague there. Matasso Island is about lalf way between Efate and Epi. • Pago Pago’s “Turtle”, the urtle-shaped auditorium opened in fuly last year for the fifth South Pacific Conference, has been officially lamed the Lee Auditorium in recog lition of Governor H. Rex Lee’s de motion and hard work for the people )f American Samoa. A general nemorandum conferring this name >n the auditorium was signed re unify by Acting Governor Owen S.

Vspinall. Governor Lee is at present n the United States. He will return 0 Pago about the end of August. • The first shipment of logs from laga Island, BSIP, was expected to >e made on July 15 in the Japanese hip Daiko Maru. The ship was to arry more than half a million super eet to Japan. After August, more han a million super feet will be ex erted each month. The British Solo ions Forestry Company, a Japanese rm, has timber-cutting rights on laga Island for five years. • At the end of 1962, 47 co-opera ive societies, with a total membership f about 3,500 were operating in the •SIP. The total capital invested was 28,500, an increase of more than 6,000 over the previous year. More lan £24,000 of that capital is in ested and owned by Solomon Islan ers. The remainder is loan capital ivested in two ships the Simon Gain nd Ara Ni Ulu. • The Baptist Mission at Baiyer hver, 40 miles north of Mt. Hagen 1 the Western Highlands, will start a airy cattle farm in December. It will upply milk for the local Baptist ospital and provide training in agri ulture and animal husbandry for

lighlands boys.

• During the last 18 months, 30 mierican, Dutch, Australian and ■nghsh anthropologists have done re

search in Papua and New Guinea. At the beginning of July, 18 were still there and four more were expected in the next few weeks. • A “pay as you earn” system of income tax may be introduced in Fiji at the beginning of 1965. The Com missioner of Revenue, Mr. D. J.

Barnes, has sent a letter to employers asking for comments, suggestions or criticisms on a proposed PAYE sys tem. • Timber rights to about 110,000 acres of forest land in southern Bou gainville will be offered for sale about mid-August. Announcing this, P-NG’s Administrator, Sir Donald Cleland, said the land contained about 500 million super feet of merchantable timber and was near Tonolei Har bour. The Administration acquired the rights to the timber last year. • The weather coast people on Guadalcanal are so happy about the BSIP Medical Department’s anti malarial campaign—no deaths since the first spraying—that they have agreed to provide carriers for the spray teams without pay. At the first spraying, they insisted on being paid.

Results from some 3,500 blood speci mens taken on Guadalcanal show that the incidence of malaria has dropped from 30 per cent, to 8.8 per cent. • A US Government Survey Mission arrived in the US Trust Terri tory of the Pacific Islands (Micro nesia) in July to survey economic, political and social developments in all districts and make recommenda tions for the accelerated pace of de velopment in the Territory. The mis sion is led by Mr. Anthony Solomon, President Kennedy’s Special Consul tant. • A contract for the construction of more than $ 1 million worth of concrete block houses—7s in all— for the US Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands was let to the Guam construction company of Jones and Guerrero Co. Inc. in July. The houses are for teachers as part of an accelerated elementary school pro gramme in the Territory. • Volunteer labourers have re cently been building a road to the top of Alava, a mountain behind Pago Pago, American Samoa, where the South Pacific’s first TV towers will be situated. The TV station will service American Samoa but trans mission will be picked up in Western Samoa, too. • Work on the reconstruction of the former cable station on Norfolk

Island as a 50-bed tourist hotel is expected to start about the first week of August following the arrival of MV Tulagi with materials. The work will be carried out by Sabemo Pty.

Ltd., a Sydney building firm.

The new hotel, The Kingfisher, will be operated by Empress Australia Ltd., which expects the hotel to be opened by the end of September.

The company had previously set late August or early September as the opening date ( PIM, June, p. 21). • France’s national holiday, Bastille Day, normally celebrated on July 14, received quite a switching around in the New Hebrides this year.

The celebrations were held on July 20 in Vila, 24th in Lamap, 27th in Santo and the 30th in Tanna—so that the visiting French warships La

Capricieuse and La Dunkerquoise could be at each place to show the flag. • RAF Valiants from Britain, based in Queensland, continued their aerial photographic survey of the Solomons and part of the New Hebrides in July.

O Lopevi volcano, New Hebrides, which erupted violently in July, 1960, after being dormant since 1939, was again very active in July and was inspected by the Condominium Mines Officer, Mr. R. Priam. • The Papua-New Guinea Depart ment of Public Health has finished a smallpox vaccination campaign during which 208,000 people in the

Sepik District (90 per cent.) were vaccinated. A tuberculosis survey covering about 12,000 people, was to begin in mid-July in coastal villages between Wuteng, on the West New Guinea border, and Aitape, in the Sepik District. • Barefoot native members of the Royal Papua and New Guinea Con stabulary will have to put on boots with a new uniform for the force which is expected to be adopted on July 1 next year.

The new uniform will comprise a light blue shirt, dark blue shorts, a beret, blue woollen stockings, blue puttees, black boots and a black leather belt.

THE LAE SCENE: Lae (New Guinea) resi dent, Mr. Michael Powell, currently study ing medicine at Queensland University, recently took attractive Brisbane girl. Miss Susan Robson, as his bride. Many New Guinea people attended the Brisbane ceremony. Mr. Powell is the son of Lae residents Mr. and Mrs. Terry Powell.

BELOW, a group of gay Lae people, in vintage dress, acted as the crew of a vintage car which was raffled in aid of the Suva Games appeal at a Lae fun day.