From the Islands Press

NO wonder Australian investors are reticent about investing in (Papua-New Guinea) Territory companies. My wife and I have shares in two Territory com panies, and in the case of one of them, a dividend was declared in April, 1963, but we still haven’t received payment even after de manding it of the directors . . .

It appears that, for Australian resident shareholders to institute proceedings for payment, we must visit the Territory to give evidence, and the directors are obviously aware of the cost of such action.

I feel that the Companies’

Ordinance should provide some form of protecion in matters of this nature.— Letter in the “South Pacific Post”, Port Moresby, from N. F. Davis, of Box Hill, Victoria.

PIGS on Betio must be kept in pig pens at Temakin or Takeronga, and not behind your own house. It is against all con siderations of public health and is certainly far from being in the public interest to pester Betio in habitants with wandering pigs and their inevitable evidences.

Unfortunately, there are no Council pens available for hire, but you may build a sty at Tako ronga, provided you see Kalepo as to the size, position and suit ability of your proposed construc tion. In the very near future, the Betio Town Council truck will be collecting all stray pigs from Betio.— Public notice in the Gil bert and Ellice Islands “Colony Information Notes”.

IN view of the difficulties already facing many families in Western Samoa, which has one of the highest birth rates in the world, it is heartening, but not surprising, that the Government should be considering the implica tions of a birth control pro gramme.

It is disquieting, however, that among the first people the Prime Minister should consult on this problem should be the heads of the various missions. . . .

Proposals [put forward by some mission leaders] such as outlawing de facto marriages, delaying marriage age and making divorce more difficult seem aimed at reinforcing the power of the

church over the individual rather than achieving anything towards solving the population problem.

It would be unfortunate if, in a well-meaning attempt at improving the welfare of the people, the Government un wittingly became the instrument for imposing repressive legisla tion, confusing an imposed ecclesiastical morality with the common good. Editorial in “Samoana”, Apia, Western Samoa.

THERE can be no doubt that people are being attracted to Fiji by the shopping opportunities [for cameras, watches, radios, binoculars and other duty-free articles]. They are spending money which would not other wise go into circulation in the Colony, and every pound intro duced in this way bounces advantageously round in the economy for quite a long time.

Results of the limited con cessions now in force justify an early examination to see what goods can, with advantage, be added to the list. Such things as furs and sweaters and fine lace were suggested when the matter was being discussed in The Fiji Times in 1962, before the present duty-free concessions were intro duced.

It is time to think of them again.— Editorial in “The Fiji Times”, Suva.

WITH many others, no doubt, 1 am disappointed to see that the (Norfolk Island) Council at its recent meeting passed a motion giving permission for clubs on the island to have a Sunday liquor licence.

This means that the Lord’s Day as well as the other six days of the week will be used for the purchase and consumption of alcohol. With the Bond opening for further trade during the week, the hotels and guest-houses having their licences and the clubs having longer hours for drinking, it ap pears that the Island is coming more and more under the grip of alcohol.

This will lead to its degenera tion if some measures of preven tion are not soon applied.— Letter from the Rev. O. Weaver in “Norfolk News”.