From the Islands Press

AT the moment, Western Samoa is losing dignity overseas be cause some farmers are trying to fool the Department of Agricul ture with poor bananas. They are really fooling themselves, because if the standard of Samoa’s produce falls too low, there will simply be no market for it.— Editorial in “Samoa Bulletin”, Apia.

UGLINESS is spreading in many parts of Fiji—more noticeably in areas close to towns.

Some of it is the sort of ugliness that creates dismayed outcries in overseas countries all round the globe—the felling or mutilating of trees to make way for power and telephone lines, the ironing out of curves and windings in highways so that motor vehicles may rush faster and faster through the countryside, and the spoiling of otherwise unspoiled scenery by the intrusion of advertising hoardings and similar monstrosities.

But in Fiji the trouble is emphasised many times over by the persistence and the extension of scattered rural slums.— Editorial in “The Fiji Times”.

ALTHOUGH speakers on (Western Samoa’s) In dependence Day paid considerable lip service to the magnificent progress in the last two-and-a-half years, they failed to enumerate the visible signs and benefits of progress. What are they?

No new hospitals or high schools to see. Only school fees.

A few houses built for Govern ment servants, a slow-growing hangar at Faleolo, and two harbour walls. A start, but a slow one.

A bigger bank, but less to put in it. We have a deficit in over seas trade which first appeared in 1960 and is growing very healthily. Also, with the harbour loan, we have the makings of a national debt, which seems to be a sign of respectability in indepen dent countries.— Editorial in the “Samoa Bulletin”, Apia.

IF there is one factor about the [new Papua-New Guinea] House of Assembly which is abundantly clear, it is the

significantly tougher line to crime, criminals, gaols, urban drifting and laziness in general, which has been expressed by Members inside and outside the House.

There is little doubt that there would be no quarter shown to criminals once independence came to this country. And there are signs that the Government will, as of now, face pressure for the provision of heavier sentences for a wide range of crimes.— Editorial in the “South Pacific Post”, Port Moresby.

FIRST ISSUE: The first issue of a new Tongan weekly newspaper, "Chronicle", or "Kalonikali", appeared in English and Tongan editions in Nukualofa on June 19 at 3d a copy. The paper is edited by the Tongan Premier's Depart ment and printed by the Government Printer. Six hundred copies of the English edition sold out in Nukualofa within 20 minutes, while 5,000 Tongan edition copies were sold on the first afternoon and 1,000 were held for release on other islands. It was re ported from Nukualofa that "Kaloni kali" is Tonga's first printed news paper. However, Sydney's Mitchell Library has one issue of a Tongan newspaper called "Koe Fetuu O Toga" which appeared in September, 1869.