The Editors' Maillag

French Bomb Tests

lir, —At the annual meeting of Auckland Campaign for Nuclear armament the attention of inbers was drawn to the article September PIM, “Tahitians Un py at Bomb Tests”. So are we. r ou report the French Prime lister, Mr. Pompidou, as saying t if inconvenience was likely re would be no tests. I was ructed to write to assure you that the view of our organisation lear tests carried out in the ific by France or any other nation dd be grossly inconvenient. lr. Pompidou’s assurance that of the duties of French ntists in Tahiti will be to deter e what effects atomic tests would e on the flora and fauna of the itory provides little consolation our fellow-citizens with friends relations in, for example, the >k Islands. In their territory wind weather are difficult to predict there is very grave danger of r suffering accidental damage n the tests, similar to the harm e to the Marshall Islanders at Bikini test in 1954. it the 1963 Hiroshima Day ch, held here to commemorate past and present victims of the atomic bomb, one of the ikers was a Cook Islander, Mr. ert Henry, a well-known leader mg his people. [e said: “The breakers that roar loudly round our little islands r stop you from hearing the 11 voice of our people raised in est. But if we can’t make that e heard, our lives won’t be th a damn.”—Yours, etc.

Margot Roth.

etary, kland Campaign for lear Disarmament, borough, Auckland.

Mew Hebrides Air Services

ir, —l read with interest your :le (Sept., p. 14) on the New rides air services. We still have got over the change that New Tides Airways and Hebridair, ig with our magnificent Condo ium airstrip, has made to our of life here. Previously one of more isolated islands of the / Hebrides, in spite of its relative Amity to Vila, Tongoa now has

an air service at least four days a week to Vila and back—that is, when accidents such as those of August don’t interrupt and this for approximately the same fare as we paid by sea before! May these air companies continue to prosper.

However, I feel I must write to you concerning the one most entitled and suitable to handle the available inter-island traffic. On this issue you have remained admirably neutral.

In particular I want to comment on the Hebridair-Transpac claim to have bigger and better resources.

This is 100 per cent, true—but, so what? I have never forgotten the day when, still in primary school, I arrived late back from lunch in tears, and with skinned knees, to complain to the teacher that my then substantially smaller brother had pushed me off the footpath into the gutter. I could never under • stand for a long while why the teacher had laughed at me and done nothing to my small brother!

Mr. Bob Paul was probably still not out of the kite-flying stage when Transpac became established, but I haven’t heard of these bigger and better resources getting to work in the New Hebrides even yet.

New Hebrides Airways have been instrumental in gaining control of private airstrips—but what has prevented Hebridair from doing the same? Again, why have not Hebridair bothered to include native shareholders in their company?

"Our Aeroplane"

Even if we credit NHAL with no other motive than enlightened self-interest, the company has in corporated a large number of Tongoan natives into its midst, and, just as significantly far-sightedly, has a capable Tongoan native as its local agent.

The result is that the NHAL Drover is referred to as “our aero plane” by every native on Tongoa, and for that reason alone Hebridair has not been able to capture even a fraction of the quite vast native traffic to and from Tongoa—in spite of having completely equal rights to our Condominium airstrip.

Or, again, when the NHAL plane was smashed on Aniwa recently, the company got off its tail very smartly

1 had the second plane back m its Fiji refit in record time— sks before it was due to be back, t when the Hebridair plane was naged on Erromanga about the le time no effort was made to lace it from the “bigger and ter resources” of Transpac. And Her in the year, when the same ig happened, Hebridair had no :raft to replace the damaged rnier. again, I know of an airstrip Aoba nearly completed, one on shortly to be commenced, and lird on south-west Malekula being itemplated. To my knowledge it NHAL which is actively encour ng all three ventures, in spite of fact that the most influential n connected with the Epi strip is prominent, French businessman, h in the New Hebrides and New edonia. ’erhaps I am being unfair to bridair, but as far as I know t is a fact. could go on to give other mples, such as Mr. Paul Burton h a pick and shovel working der than aynone else to shape the t Tongoan airstrip before the tidominium became actively aged.

Ay point is that “bigger and ter resouces” mean nothing if : is not prepared to use them. In t, the best and biggest resources d so far in the New Hebrides 'e been those of pioneering iative and the willingness to take :s that have been the character cs of NHAL all along the line far. 3 robably economic and political ssure will force NHAL into a ner, and perhaps out of the ring Dgether in its present form, but will be a fate which will be a el one indeed after what it has sady done for the New Hebrides, have the unpleasant feeling that *r NHAL has done a little more its pioneering spadework and ed things up a little more, others 1 step in and take over. But lough it may be an inevitable 'elopment it won’t be justice.— urs, etc.,

J. R. Hyslop.

ngoa, w Hebrides.

Naming Of The Mortlocks

Without wishing to detract from Colin Jack Hinton’s very fine er in July PIM (p. 59) on the ning of the Mortlocks, the correct [ynesian name of the islands is hi (pronounced Tar-koo) and not

Tau’u as shown on the Admiralty charts.

In Mortlock legends, Taku has the honour of being the discoverer and first man to visit this group. He is also credited with the planting of the first coconuts, and the giant swamp taro.

The Mortlock Group consists of 12 or 13 islands and sand cays, and the largest island on the south eastern side bears the discoverer’s name.—Yours, etc.

Gordon Bladen.

Rabaul, New Guinea.

No Reflection On Samoan

Departmental Heads

Sir, I enclose copies of cor respondence relating to an article in Pacific Islands Monthly, September, 1964, under the name of R. F.

Rankin in Apia. The article states that the Harbourmaster ordered an air conditioner for his office and “. . . he resorted to a subterfuge not uncommon among departmental heads. He requisitioned for some chain to the same value, he certified he had received it when in fact he had not, and the Treasury payment for the chain was used to pay for the air conditioner”.

Under the constitutional functions

of the Controller and Chief Auditor, I made a reasonable request to Mr.

Rankin to give information regard ing the allegation published under his name about misuse of public funds by departmental heads, which would have entailed their making false declarations under the Public Revenues Ordinance 1959 and on conviction imprisonment not ex ceeding six months or a fine of £5O or both.

Mr. Rankin wrote to me [see letter published below] that he had no proof, and even if he had he would not divulge the informa tion, and that the article was ultimately the responsibility of the publishers of Pacific Islands Monthly.

He intimated that what he referred to as his constitutional rights to freedom of expression enabled him to make the allegation.

He also wrote that he was most willing to oblige in giving informa tion on the misuse of government funds.

Mr. Rankin’s statement of his alleged willingness to give informa tion on the misuse of government funds is somewhat in question when at the same time he declines to divulge the information. It becomes in greater question when he states that he has no proof of the serious

egation published in Pacific Islands inthly. [n view of the wide circulation of cific Islands Monthly, I would ;gest that the journal should now e full publicity to the fact that the hor of the September article ild not sustain his serious allega n about departmental heads of ;stern Samoa and his consequent lection on them and officers of Audit Office and the Treasury, incurs, etc.

R. I. Campagnolo,

Controller and Chief Auditor. ia.

Copy of letter from Mr. R. F.

Gankin to the Chief Auditor, Vestern Samoa, October 5. >ir, —The article appearing in :ific Islands Monthly of September printed under my by-line by :ue of the fact that it is not light news but rather opinion and imentary on the news. n my opinion, based on 10 years /ice in the Western Samoa Public vice, what Captain Moors resorted was, in the words of Mr. Justice cGregor, “merely a subterfuge” [ is not uncommon among those horised to sign requisitions. further believe that on occasion departmental head may be :ed to perpetrate similar sub uges for the good of his depart nt, e.g. if the Education Depart [it runs out of chalk and has no ney left in the particular vote ering that item but some left in ther vote, it is mere commonsense utilise by any means that money available. If a departmental head not be trusted to use depart ital moneys for the good of his artment he should not hold )onsibility. have no proof that this is the j any more than anyone has proof t this has not occurred, and even f had would not divulge the in nation under duress. iy suggestion is that if you Hire further information or wish refute the article you approach ;ctly the publishers of the Pacific nds Monthly, for the article is mately their responsibility, a view of the above, and of the that I believe your precept to in direct contravention of my stitutional rights to freedom of ression, I regret that I shall be ble to appear as requested at .m. on October 8. assure you that in any reason ; request from your department

seeking my co-operation in giving information on the misuse of government funds I am most willing to oblige.—Yours, etc.

R. F. Rankin,

Managing Director.

Samoa Newspapers, Ltd.

Apia.

Mountain With A Hole

Sir, —In the July issue of PIM, a correspondent stated in connexion with the article Moorea’s Pierced Mountain, that the name of this high peak is Moua Puta. He added that the name was not Te-Puta-a-Pai, as I wrote in an article in the Cook Islands News of September 27, 1963.

Without wishing to be contentious, I must insist that I gave the peak its correct name. According to the extant legend, it was the warrior named Pai who pierced the mountain.

Puta-a-Pai might be interpreted to mean “The hole made by Pai” (with his spear).

The suggested alternative name Moua Puta only means “a mountain with a hole”. Throughout Tahiti the peak is always referred to as Te-Puta-a-Pai, and it was known in earlier times in the Cook Islands by that same name.—Yours, etc.

C. T. Cowan.

Rarotonga, Cook Islands.