From the Islands Press

IF there is no more to be had from the current session of the Legislature but the circus acts which have led to two near fist fights in five days, then it’s time to close up the Fono and allow the 32 lawmakers to return to more worthwhile occupations.

It was nothing short of shame to watch our lawmakers challenge one another to a fist fight on the floor—in both Houses.

The ugly mess in the Senate grew out of an argument that should never have taken place.

And to all the spectators, the per formers were under the influence of liquor. . . The public never heard about it as the WVUV con veniently left it off the tape [re cording].

If the public is forced to listen to the Fono’s hymns and prayers, let them all witness the opposite side. It gives them a better idea of their selections for the law making jobs, and allows them to make notes for the future,—Edi torial in “Samoa NewsPago Pago. 11 ON behalf of myself, other Europeans, and all the decent natives of the Gazelle Peninsula, I would like to know why our Administration apparently has a “hands off” instruction towards native drunks who infest our roads, particularly on a weekend.

I approve heartily of equal rights for natives, but I also believe they should be subject to equal punishments.— Letter from Mrs. E. R. Reece, Kokopo, in the “New Guinea Times-Courier”, Lae.

MANY of the outside world hold the view that Pitcairn is only a lonely island where people just sit around in the sun carving flying fish and weaving baskets.

Nothing is really further from the truth . . .

Time, the factor which waits for no man, is a very scarce com modity even on Pitcairn. Most find the day far too short to get through all that needs doing.— Editorial in “Pitcairn Miscellany”.

T>ECAUSE the Fiji Legislative Council last year refused to agree to legislation which would have enabled the Transport Con trol Board to limit the number of private taxis, their number has climbed since last August from 750 to nearly 1,200, and there is no provision for curbing this growth.

These private taxis, not operat ing a regular service for the benefit of customers, have turned pirate. They operate near bus stations and along bus routes, and pick up passengers whose fares would otherwise help to maintain the services that run to timetables, and are a permanent element in the public transport system.

The pirates also eat into the business of the organised taxi companies, who normally operate to a fixed, and known, fare sche dule, and whose individual cars can be traced if there should be overcharging or other malpractice.

This is not the case with the piratical private taxi, and reports, especially from visitors to Fiji, of excesive charges for taxi hire are growing in number.

The situation ... is getting quite out of hand, and so long as the proliferation of private taxis continues, it must get worse, to the detriment of the operator who provides a properly organised pub lic amenity and observes the law. —Editorial in “The Fiji Times”.

I AM a trifle weary of the discrimination against the poor, dear European. Letter from Mrs. Joan Meatcham, in the “South Pacific Posf’, Port Moresby.

PERHAPS our legislators figure that it will be at least eight and probably 11 years before Apia becomes the venue for the Games, and that it is too soon yet to make preparations. Papua-New Guinea has already made a bid for the Games to be held there at Rabaul in 1969 and is planning ac cordingly. With all these terri tories scrambling to get the Games, perhaps one day Samoa, too, might acknowledge the value of sport. Columnist in “Samoana”, Apia.