from the islands Press

WESTERN SAMOA must have had more reports (on it by experts) per head of population than any other country in the world, but the percentage actually implemented must be proportion ately smaller than any other country.

Voters must be a little tired of paying for reports which only gather dust in Ministerial offices. —Editorial in “Samoa Bulletin”, Apia.

WITH the coming of 1964, there are more things to consider, more things to hope for in American Samoa.

Big hopes are set on tourists for 1964, but too little has been done to prepare the place and people. The next 12 months should be filled with activities on hotels, development of sightseeing spots, and the training of admini strative and guiding personnel.

And there should be thoughts about the society. The rising rate of marriages is being met by an increased rate of divorces. As more and more youngsters find jobs, patrons of the local bars in crease. Editorial in “Samoa News”, Pago Pago.

IHAVE been living in New Zealand for a few years and I am able to tell you what I know about living conditions there as far as our Niuean friends are concerned.

If one of them wants to own a house, he has to work jolly hard to get it. There are taxes and rates of all sorts to pay. For example, you have to pay for water, electricity, gas, etc. That is not all. You have to furnish the house at a heavy cost.

To live in rooms and flats at rental costs is even dearer, especially for married people with children.

True enough, wages are much higher than what you get here in Niue, but the cost of living is very high indeed.

Here in Niue, you can gather a few sticks for firewood, cook your own food, ride your own bicycle to work, with no house tax and no water rates to pay.

What would be your choice?

To stay on the island where life is easy or to go away and live in another country where you earn good money and have to spend it all on debts, etc.?— Letter from M. D. Fasi in the ‘‘Niue News letter”.

DURING the Christmas and New Year holidays, parents are often tempted to join drink ing, dancing and picnic parties day and night, leaving baby and small children for bigger children to care for.

To Mum and Dad it’s a grand Christmas celebration, but to the children it’s a misery. ... It is not only unfair to the children, it is also breaking the LAW.

The Cook Islands Protection of Children Ordinance, 1954, says: “Any person, who, having the custody, control or charge of a child, being a boy under the age of 14 years or being a girl under the age of 16 years, wilfully ill treats, neglects, abandons or exposes in a manner likely to cause such a child unnecessary suffering or injury to its health, is liable to imprisonment for one year or to a fine of one hundred pounds”.— Public notice in the “Cook Islands News”.

SOME people have suggested the name Paradesia to be the name for Papua-New Guinea.

Well, it sounds very nice . . . but I should say Australia is not called Koalaland because it is the land of Koala bears.— Letter from Sam Na’aru in the “South Pacific Post”, Port Moresby.

Dear Customers: Please

accept our apologies for the rather inferior quality of the current batch of potatoes. Mind you, we have had worse—but it must be rather annoying to have to throw quite a chunk of each potato away.

Fresh potatoes have always been a problem here. We either carry them or we don’t—but we feel we should, because they are an important part of our diets.

Much as we have experimented —with the help of scientific

institutes in Australia (CSIRO) and UK—we have not been successful in finding a way to keep spuds reasonably fit for periods exceeding six to seven weeks.

The potatoes you are eating now are eight weeks old and showing signs of age.

As you know, we are having slight birth pains in connection with our direct Australia-Tarawa shipping service. Advertisement inserted by the GEIC Wholesale Society in “Colony Information Notes”, a GEIC newsletter.

NOT many people in Fiji are likely to have missed the significant point that the adoption by the Legislative Council of the proposed “member system” came only a day before the arrival of the new representative of the Sovereign. [The new Governor, Sir Derek Jakeway, arrived in Fiji on January 18].

In the last year or two Fiji has acquired a certain degree of celebrity overseas as “the British Colony that insists on remaining a colony”.

It cannot be questioned that many people of all races have come to a realisation that in the circumstances of the world of 1964 changes must come, but it is equally certain that the responsible people of the Colony are implacably opposed to being arbitrarily pushed into political paths which reason and instinct tell them would lead to disaster.

There is no place in Fiji for people like the Sukarnos, the lagans and the Nkrumahs, who have played ducks and drakes with their unhappy countries till such terms as “liberation” and “independence” and “self deter mination” have ceased to have any real meaning.

Regardless of race, the average man-in-the-street looks on the “member system” as the thin end of the wedge of internal self government an admirable objective as long as it involves no trend towards an over-riding of factors which make Fiji unique among dependent territories.— Editorial in “The Fiji Times”.