Pacific Islands Monthly

Flashbac on 1963

"Colonial" Territories

Have Moved Nearer

To Self-Government

Further moves towards full self-government for the “colonial” territories were among the most important events in the South Pacific in 1963. This is seen in making our flashback over the past 12 months.

I AKIN ARY* Fijian members MnUMIVI * of the Legisla ve Council made it clear that “there lould be no change in Fiji’s present Dnstitution until the Fijian people their desire for further con itutional changes”. * * * New Zealand promised the United rations that the 25,000 people of the dok and Niue Islands would be ;lf-governing within three years. * * * Prime Minister Mataafa, of /estern Samoa, devoted most of is New Year speech to the need )r a sound and stable economy. 3ur first year as an independent tate has ended successfully. No one m predict what may happen during 963, but there is no cause for alarm r undue panic,” he said, * * * The people of Pitcairn Island pro ved to the South Pacific Office, ieir administrative headquarters in iji, over the possibility that the rench Government would use the land of Mangareva, in the Gambier rchipelago of French Polynesia, as nuclear and missile launching base. * * * Mr. J. P. Bayly, sponsor of the ayly Clinic which cares for poor idian women and children and ijians in the slums around Suva, ied in Fiji on January 12. ; EBRUARY: Although the takeover o f /estern New Guinea by Indonesia 'as not to take place officially until lay, 1963, a mass exodus of Dutch

civil servants had been taking place since October 1, 1962, making the job of replacing them difficult for the United Nations Temporary Execu tive Authority. * * ♦ Drinking hours in Papua-New Guinea were shortened under a Liquor Licensing Bill introduced into the Papua-New Guinea Legislative Council. ♦ * * Some of the recommendations made in a second interim report tabled in the P-NG Legislative Council in February were that the Papua-New Guinea Legislative Coun cil should have its name changed to House of Assembly following the new Council elections in 1964. * * * The Queen made her second visit to Fiji in 10 years, and she and

Prince Philip received a very warm welcome from the Fijian people, ♦ * ♦ Lord Silsoe, formerly Sir Malcolm Trustram Eve, began a survey of Fiji’s coconut industry. k A ADfU. West New Guinea mrtixvii. was pretty wdl in Indonesian hands despite UN claims that Indonesia could not take over the territory before May 1. All that remained was for the Indonesian troops to take over from UN forces and for the Netherlands Bank to hand over to the Bank of Indonesia, ♦ ♦ ♦ Plans were well under way for the South Pacific Games to be held in Suva from August 29 to September 7. Territories taking part in the games were organising teams through territory-wide campaigns. ♦ ♦ * A commission was appointed to re port on the development of higher education in Papua-New Guinea, in cluding the establishment of a uni versity, Chairman was Sir George Currie, former vice-chancellor of the University of New Zealand. ♦ * * Mr. Douglas (“Mike”) Knuebuhl, president of American Samoa’s Cham ber of Commerce, made a bitter attack on a new income tax bill passed by the territory’s Senate and Legislative Assembly in late January.

The bill provided for a two per cent, tax on wages too low to be covered by the graduated scale of income tax, and imposed the regular US tax on all higher salaries and incomes, and on corporations. (Over)

The Queen visited Fiji in February.

A hurricane set back Tongan banana exports several months when it tore across the Tongan Group. * * * Mr. W. B. Rogers took over the position of Fiji’s Development Com missioner. * * * The P-NG inter-island trader Polurrian sank on March 28 en route between Sohano and Rabaul, with the loss of 34 lives.

APRIL- BOAC entered the * trans - Tasman service

on April 4 when a Comet IV left Sydney for Auckland. * * * It was announced that Mr. Kenneth R. Iverson would head a mission to P-NG from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development in the middle part of the year. * * * Tupua Tamasese, loint Head of State of Western Samoa since its independence in January, 1962, died in Apia on April 5. * * * It was officially announced that

France would use five atolls in tho Tuamotu Archipelago of Frencl Polynesia as bases for a nuclear tesO ing project. sf: sjs Fiji went to the polls under itj new constitution, which gave the voL for the first time to the Fijian peopll and to women of all races. * It was hoped that thu * problem of finding a nev home for the Nauruans might bn solved by using Curtis Island, ot the Australian coast.

Tonga was exploring the possibility of raising loans with the World Banij and the US Export-Import Bank foe various projects. * * * It was announced that Norfolk Is land was to have a new Island Counr cil with the Administrator as a mem ber, and with the right to discus* budget proposals. * * * Polynesian Airlines Ltd. announce*; that it would soon introduce au air service between Western Samoji and Aitutaki and Rarotonga in tha Cook Islands. 5*C * jfc It was announced that the firs Advisory Council for the Gilbert anci Ellice Islands Colony would be es tablished later in the year. * * * The Administrator of Nauru, Mn R. S. Leydin, told the UN Trustees ship Council in New York tha£ leaders of Nauru might accept Curtii Island, off the Australian coast, as ; new home for their people. * * * Indonesia officially completed itt take-over of West New Guinea on

Some P-NG drinking hours were short in February and the drive by the mise against intemperance was stepped [?]

lay 1. The Australian Prime [inister, Sir Robert Menzies, made a atement on the defence of Papua ew Guinea. “We will defend these rritories as if they were part of e mainland; there must be no mis ken ideas about that,” he said. * * * Under a bill passed by both Houses Federal Parliament in May, Papua ew Guinea was to have a 64ember House of Assembly in 1964, take the place of the 37-member jgislative Council. * * * Australia’s Governor-General, Lord e LTsle, made a 23-day tour of ipua-New Guinea. It was his first fit. * * * Fifteen people drowned when a [inch sank near Maupiti, French fiynesia. * * * Sir Hugh Ragg, “Grand Old Man Fiji”, died suddenly at his home Tamavua, Suva, early on May 24, ed 81. * * * Proposals for self-government for s Methodist Church in Fiji and estern Samoa were unanimously en irsed at the General Conference of e Methodist Church of Australasia, Id in Adelaide, South Australia.

UNE: The question of whether Japanese commercial in vests should be allowed to establish tuna cannery in Rarotonga, Cook ands, was a lively topic in Raro nga. ♦ * * Emergency food and water supplies

were being brought in to Hull and Gardner Islands in the Phoenix Group of the Gilbert and Ellice Is lands Colony, where droughts were severe. * * * Attacks by Tolai litigants upon land titles in New Guinea were creat ing general fear that all land titles in the Territory might be unsafe. * * * A team of experts from the World Bank began a two-month survey of Papua-New Guinea in June, * * * The UN decided to establish in Apia, Western Samoa, the head quarters of a new United Nations Regional Area for the South and West Pacific.

JIJI V • Mr. Francis Derick Jake * way, Chief Secretary of Sarawak since 1959, was appointed Governor of Fiji, succeeding Sir Kenneth Maddocks. He was to take up his position in January. * * * Fiji was having its own morals problems, coinciding with the Pro fumo affair in Britain. Several Government officials were given gaol sentences on “charges involving in decency”. * * * Suva’s new wharf, which cost £2,500,00, was finished after two years’ work. The wharf was capable of taking any ship in the world. ♦ * * An important decision was made by the Chief Justice of P-NG that

one-third of Varzin Plantation in New Britain belonged to the Tolais and not to European interests who bought it. * * ♦ The Government of Western Samoa protested to France against the French Government’s decision to establish a nuclear testing base in the Tuamotus, 1,920 miles from Western Samoa. * * * The Chief Justice of Fiji, Mr.

Justice Mac Duff, died suddenly in Suva on July 11. * ♦ ♦ The Rt. Rev. Leonard Kempthorne, who retired in 1962 as Bishop in Polynesia, died in Suva on July 25 in his 77th year. * ♦ ♦ The French Government rejected New Zealand’s protest against French

The First South Pacific Games were held in Suva in August - September.

This is the official Games flag, showing a blazing torch superimposed on a globe with the Pacific

prominently dis -

played. The flag is

royal blue, with sky

blue and white for the globe and the torch of gold, with crimson flames.

(reparations for nuclear testing in the louth Pacific. ♦ * ♦ The Ansett flying boat Pacific Chieftain was wrecked in a storm t Lord Howe Island after breaking rom her moorings. ♦ ♦ ♦ The Western Pacific High Commis ioner, Sir David Trench, was ap ointed Governor and Commander i-Chief of Hong Kong in succession ) Sir Robert Black. ♦ * * The five member nations of the outh Pacific Commission met in ondon in July to discuss the entry f Western Samoa to Commission lembership.

AUGUST• 1116 p e °p le ° f pit -

. cairn said they

ere “living in fear” of what the iture held for their island as a re lit of the French Government’s scision to hold nuclear tests in rench Polynesia. ♦ * ♦ Allegations made to the UN by Cook Islands resident that New ealand was seeking to frustrate the alitical aspirations of the Cook Is nders caused irritation in Govern icnt circles in Wellington. * * ♦ Mr. Patrick Joseph Twomey, tiown throughout the South Pacific 5 the “leper man”, died at Suva n August 1 at the age of 71. * ♦ * Among the 492 Vietnamese who 'ere repatriated from Vila, New

Hebrides, were quite a number who were most unwilling to return to their “homeland”. * * sjs Planters’ associations in P-NG com plained about lack of confidence in investment in the Territory. * * * The West New Guinea Legislative Council, in late August, decided that there would be no need for the people of West New Guinea to have a ple biscite on self-determination before

1969. The Council was set up by Indonesia and no members were elected. ♦ ♦ ♦ The First South Pacific Games were held in Suva from August 29 to September 7.

SEPTEMBER- Work was JCr ' tWOCK. going ahea(j rapidly on the reconstruction of the wartime airstrip at Funafuti, GEIC,

he death occurred in July of the Bishop [?] Polynesia, Leonard Kempthorne, here seen with his wife.

a link in the proposed new air service between Fiji and the GEIC. * * * Mr. Charles Hall, director in the Philippines of the California Packing Corporation, visited the New Hebrides to study the possibility of establish ing pineapple plantations and factories to can both fruit and juice, * * * Sir Kenneth Maddocks and Lady Maddocks departed from Fiji on September 13 after Sir Kenneth had been in office for five years. ♦ * * Work was proceeding on the build ing of a fish factory for the newly formed Norfolk Island Fisheries Ltd., Norfolk Island.

Within a few days in late Sep tember the 2/6 Papuan gold shares in Pacific Islands Mines Ltd. went up to 7/-.

The Protestant Church of Tahit became autonomous.

A Japanese com v * pany was im terested in the possibilities of a cul tured pearl venture in the Vavau Group of Tonga. * * * Lealofi, a 41-year-old doctor, waE elected to the royal title of Tupui Tamasese of Western Samoa, bui there was a dispute over the position * Sfc Negotiations were in the finas stages for Polynesian Airlines to itn crease its fortnightly Cook Islands service to weekly flights and to intro duce a new service each fortnigW between Apia and Nadi, Fiji.

Three Cook Islanders were recover ing in hospital in Vila, Ner; Hebrides, at the end of Octob© from the privations of a 60-day drill voyage in a 17 foot open boat whies took them 2,200 miles across tM Pacific. * * * One hundred members of tM French Foreign Legion arrived ii Papeete on October 9 to assist ii the erection of the atomic testinn centre in French Polynesia. * * * The 25th session of the Soutti Pacific Commission was held ii Noumea. Samoa was not yet readb to be admitted.

NOVEMBER: L ? rd .ajf®

released h u report on the Fiji copra industry ii which he said the total copra pro'

The Ansett flying boat "Pacific Chieftain" was a complete loss at Lord Howe Island in July.

action of the area covered by the )uth Pacific Commission accounted »r more than 10 per cent, of the orld production. * * * Pitcairn’s population was at its west since the early 1880’s. The tcairners were leaving their home il almost literally in droves.

SjS Hs * Airline competition, using Tahiti as drawcard for tourists, warmed up little more in November when Aus alia’s international airline Qantas augurated a weekly Boeing 707 rvice Sydney-Nadi-Papeete and re rn. sf= * * A plan was introduced to spend i million developing the port of ipeete. * * * Federal Parliament made amend mts to the Norfolk Island Act lich opened the way for the Nor ik Island Council to be reconsti ted. s|k s§s 9§S A decree signed by President de mile outlawed two political parties French Polynesia. The two parties ;re the Rassemblement Demo itique des Populations Tahitiennes LDPT) and the Papu Tiama aohi.

S»C Papua-New Guinea ended a litical era. The Legislative Council is prorogued to make way for a gely elected House of Assembly xt year.

The first Solomon Islanders to be come Anglican bishops were conse crated in All Saints Cathedral, Honiara, BSIP, on November 30.

They are the Rev. Dudley Tuti and the Rev. Leonard Alufurai. * * * The Netherlands and Australia, in the UN, reminded Indonesia of its “obligation to keep faith” with the people of West New Guinea. * * * It was announced that the Cook Islands would have full internal self

government in 1965, The Territory would have a fully elected Legisla tive Assembly with complete legis lative autonomy, with a cabinet of five, headed by a chief minister.

Mr. D. C. Brown was elected Leader of Government Business in the in terim. * ♦ ♦ A White Paper was released in the BSIP, proposing that in 1965, the Solomons should have a partly elected Legislative Council in place of the fully nominated one.

[?]ua Tamasese, Joint Head of State of [?]stern Samoa, died in April after a long illness.

After a 7,450-mile voyage on a ras from Peru in 130 days, WilliaE Willis, 70, came ashore near Api Western Samoa, on November 11. * * * The death occurred in Suva on Nt vember 1 of Mr. A. E. Pearce, wH lived in Suva for more than 50 yeas and who was one of Fiji’s most pn minent businessmen, and a philae thropist, * * * Several islands in the New Hebridfc suffered severe hurricane damage late November, and food and buili ing materials were donated.

December: Gff-Jse

opened the new Commonweal Cable, linking Australia with Britas across the Pacific.

Hubert Leonard Murray, Admir istrator of Papua from 1940 until tt outbreak of war in 1941, died in Sy ney on December 9, aged 76. * * * Four hundred and one Gilberts from the Phoenix Islands arrived Wagena Island in the Solomons in tr Tongan ship Niuvakai on DecemUi 3. The Gilbertese were to settle Wagena because of persistent drough in their home islands.

William Willis, on arrival at Apia after raft voyage. Photo: "Samoana".