Nutshell

In A Nutshell

iE BSIP Government will introduce a bill in the Legislative mcil in December to abolish rictions on the drinking of spirits Solomon Islanders.

Tiis follows a motion moved at June Legislative Council meeting Mariano Kelesi, that the Govern it should abolish the restriction osed on Solomon Islanders by ion 41 of the Liquor Ordinance, ch precludes natives from drink spirits except by permit. Re gions on drinking beer were oved in 1961. lelesi said this section of the [nance was discriminatory, and the time had come for its repeal, [is motion was supported by all fficial members present—Bishop red Hill and Bishop Leonard furai being absent in New land.

Tie unofficial members said that )mon Islanders had proved their ity to drink beer in a reasonable iner, and were now sufficiently srienced and mature to drink its if they so wished, ut the Chamber of Commerce, onsortium of heads of the five irches, and some other people, s since expressed concern at, or osition to, the possibility of oving the restrictions on spirit king. • The first flight to Lord Howe tid of the recently-converted ig-boat of Airlines of New South es was made on October 9. > The appointment of Peu at ikoro, BSIP, as a port, boarding ion, and place of loading and >ading for Customs purposes, has i cancelled, and Honiara is porarily the port of entry for the tern District. ; is hoped to establish a new : of entry in the Eastern Solomons lin the next few months, eu’s loss of status follows the idrawal from Vanikoro in August the Kauri Timber Company, of ibourne, after exploiting the id’s kauri for about 40 years.

I The French Naval vessel iral Charner, which was on the i seas near Tahiti, made a mercy

voyage to Rapa in mid-September to take food and medical supplies to the 150 people of that island, following a tornado which did wide spread damage. Rapa, the southern most island of French Polynesia, is 700 miles south-south-east of Tahiti. • During the past 18 months the incidence of black rot in kumeras exported from Niue, which has been very troublesome, has been reduced, mainly through the efforts of the local Agriculture Department and the New Zealand Department of Agriculture.

Kumeras are being dipped in a bordeaux mixture and shipped in the cooler. This means extra expense for the Agriculture Department so a charge of sixpence a bag is now being made to all growers. But it is worthwhile because it means that virtually no part of a shipment is lost because of this disease. • The South Pacific Commission, in association with the University of California, is experimenting in French Polynesia (Tuamotu Islands) and in Fiji (Lau Group) with solar

stills to try to convert sea water to potable “fresh” water. At last, plans are being made for the construction of a new tar sealed highway linking Suva and Nadi within the next six to 10 years.

Mr. J. N. Falvey, Member for Com munications and Works, said recently it would cost several million pounds and that the big problem was one of finance.

Only a few stretches of the road between Suva and Nadi are tar sealed. The rest is loose metal.

• After years of talk, a company has been formed in New Caledonia to build a casino in Noumea to at tract visitors from the Pacific area and further afield. The casino will be the first in the Pacific area. • A contract for the erection of a new teachers’ college at Goroka in the Eastern Highlands of P-NG has been let to Morobe Constructions Limited of Port Moresby for £759,200.

The project includes buildings with a total floor area approximating

100,000 sq. ft. and the walls be mainly local clay brick v will give a boost to the loca dustry.

The main teaching block wi of two storeys and will co 15 classrooms, an associated mon room, a laboratory anc office. Seven separate dorm buildings will accommodate males and 100 females.

A contract has also been lei £218,000 to Morobe Construe for extensions to the high scho Keravat, near Rabaul.

Another big contract has let to a Port Moresby coffin C.D.R. Building Company, £237,119 for the erection residential accommodation for new Administrative College t( erected at Port Moresby. • The Papua-New Guinea De ment of Agriculture is testin see if tea can be grown success in the Sepik District.

The District Agricultural O for Sepik, Mr. D. Macaulay, recently that the department sent tea seedlings to Lumi, Pas Maprik and Amanab Agricul

ions and the Corrective Institu i at Boram, near Wewak. ome 200 tea seedlings would be ited at Telefomin Agricultural ension Centre. > Tenders were called in October the construction of a 14-mile I linking Minj, Kudjip and Banz he Western Highlands of Papua v Guinea. The contract, worth ut £140,000, will include con ation of six bridges. > A technical paper in French on venomous cone shells of New ;donia has recently been pub ;d by the South Pacific Com mon. The author is Rene ;amegna, of Noumea’s Pasteur itute. An English translation of paper is expected to appear later, he paper should be of interest II Islands people who poke about reefs picking up shells, as the pmous cone shells of New Cale ia are found throughout the th Pacific, and some of them are ible of killing humans within rs. he title of the SPC paper is Gasteropodes Venimeux de la idle des Conides Rencontres en ivelle-Caledonie. It sells for Australian or 40 French Pacific cs. 1 Work on a new aerodrome for Hagen in the Western Highlands 5 -NG was nearing completion in sber. The aerodrome is at

Kagamuga near Korn Farm, eight miles from Mount Hagen.

The new airstrip is being put down because the present strip is substandard for Category A operations and is restricting township development because it is in the middle of the town.

The new airstrip will take DC3’s, Fokker Friendships and Bristol Freighters. For picture, see p. 33. • P-NG Department of Agriculture officers will soon use a caravan for patrols in the Gazelle

Peninsula of the New Britain Dis trict. This will make it easier for them to stay long periods in villages, A four-wheel drive vehicle will be used to tow the caravan from village to village, • P-NG Forestry Department is to burn off some 300 acres of felled low-quality forest at the 45,000 acre Brown River Forest Reserve near Port Moresby at the end of October.

The 300 acres of cleared land will be planted with teak next January, The January plantings will in

[?]CHOLOGIST: An American shell col [?]r, Mr. Willard Mohorter, of Cincinnati, [?], recently spent a few days in Rabaul [?]art of a six-month Pacific Islands trip. is no stranger to the Pacific, although vas the first time he had been to aul. His tour included Fiji, BSIP, P-NG Queensland, where he collected [?]ecimens for the Cincinnati Museum.

se the total area of teak forest the Brown River Reserve to 0 acres—the oldest trees having 1 established 10 years. • The Speaker of Papua-New nea’s House of Assembly, Mr.

R. Niall, announced in October the House would start its next ion on January 18. i A new hotel is to be built on banks of the Rewa River at sori, about 14 miles from Suva, cost of £F25,000. It is expected be completed by May or June : year. 1 Representatives from the lican, Congregational, Methodist, byterian and Reformed Churches king in the Pacific area decided meeting in Fiji in September to ahead with a plan to build a logical college in Suva as a joint ure of the participating Churches, he Fiji Government has agreed ease 10 acres of Crown Land at ito, at the southernmost point Suva Peninsula, for the college, :h will be open for the 1966 lemic year. filially, the college will provide immodation for 16 single students

and six married students. Capital is being provided by the Theological Education Fund of the World Council of Churches ($100,000), local churches, mission boards, and other interested bodies ($65,000). • New Caledonia had its driest September for 38 years this year, when water in the catchment area of the Yate hydro-electric scheme was at its lowest level since operations began. Almost no current could be generated, and unless rain falls soon, the turbines will have to be closed down completely. • More than 20,000 acres of mahogany have been planted in Fiji this year. This is nearly twice as much as the total plantings in the 20 years between 1940 and 1960.

In 30 to 40 years’ time, experts believe Fiji’s mahogany could be worth £8 million a year. Mahogany, was introduced to Fiji in 1911. It grows rapidly, is relatively free from pests and diseases, and has shown it will stand up to hurricanes. • Fires caused damage estimated at 25 million Pacific francs (£A 125.000) at Noumea’s Tontouta Airport on September 25. One fire partly destroyed the hangar and workshops of the French airline UTA, and destroyed two light monoplanes belonging to the Noumea Aero Club. The second fire destroyed the radio communications centre of the Civil Aviation Depart ment. • A new law providing for a minimum wage, overtime payments and holidays for employees in the building and civil engineering trades on Fiji’s main island of Viti Levu, will come into force on November 1. • Yin Tobaining, of Vunamami, New Britain, was elected president of the Gazelle Peninsula Local Government Council in October, He replaces Nason Tokiala. He obtained 27 votes out of a total of 47. • Seven young British scientists set sail from England in September in a 60 ft converted trawler on a 2i year trip around the world to in vestigate ways of increasing world food supplies, particularly from the extra protein foods found in the sea by people who live on islands.

After passing through the Panama Canal, the scientists will head for New Zealand, via Pitcairn, the Cook Islands, and Tonga. Later they will sail through other Pacific areas, in cluding the New Hebrides.

The leader of the expedition is Mr. G. T. Vine-Lott, of London.

• The General Archives in Suva, Fiji, recently received a consignment of valuable Pitcairn Island records from the Pitcairn Island Advisory Council. The records include the Council’s minute books, evidence books of the Magistrate’s Court, shipping lists, a register of births and deaths, and minutes of the Internal Committee, which was set up in 1904 to administer works, cultivation and the control of live stock.

Most of the records date from 1904. but some go back to 1864.

IN NEW POST: Air Commodore W. E.

Townsend, OBE, who is well known in New Guinea, took over as commander of the RAAF base at Butterworth, Malaya, in October. His connection with New Guinea dates back to 1943 when he was com mander of No. 22 (Attack) Squadron in that area. In November, 1943, while leading the squadron in a low level attack on a Japanese post in New Britain, he was shot down. He successfully ditched his burning aircraft and, with his gunner, escaped into the jungle. Despite hard ship and lack of food, the two men eluded capture and remained at large in the inhospitable hinterland until evacuated by submarine in February, 1944. Later Air Commodore Townsend commanded the RAAF base at Port Moresby. He last visited New Britain several months ago when the former American airman Fred Hargesheimer, who was also shot down over New Britain during the war, handed over a school to the villagers of Evase to repay them for saving him from the Japanese. Townsend had helped his friend organise this from the Australian end (PIM, Aug., p. 31).