Levuka's Future

Is Brighter

Fiji's old capital of Levuka has got a new lease of life as a result of the Japanese fish freezing in dustry which is now based there.

The industry has meant new com mercial and Government building works, and a stepping up in com merce in the town area.

T EVUKA boomed for a time after World War II as a result of copra exports, with the town being an important shipping point. But the situation changed drastically in 1958 when Carpenter’s mill in Suva began taking Fiji’s copra direct, and in recent years Levuka has been depressed. Hoped for booms in bananas and whaling have never eventuated.

Tourism has been one of the hopes for the future, and still is according to the chairman of the Levuka Township Board, Mr. Eddie Ashley, who also operates the island’s only hotel, the Royal.

“But the arrival of the Japanese has now given Levuka a solid base at last, so that we can survive while we expand in other directions,” he says.

There is now a connection by

plane with Suva, but the regular connection with the mainland is via a two hour launch trip from Levuka to the jetty at Natobi, followed by a bus trip of a little over an hour down the coast to Suva. There is one launch service i day.

Japanese ships currently bring ish to Levuka, where they are landled in a freezer and exported.

Fhere are about 20 or 25 Japanese echnicians living ashore, and one nan has his wife. There is a rest louse for Japanese fishermen.

Although before the arrival of he Japanese there were fears that hey and the locals might not be ble to get on, the Japanese have •een mixing very well and there ave been no problems.

Eddie Ashley, who is 48, and /ho has been 25 years in Levuka, ecently made his first visit outside iji- He flew to London as a guest f Air India on a Boeing 707.

Jntil then the biggest city he had sen was Suva.

It was all grander, bigger and etter than I had imagined it,” said ddie on his return. “But I felt ither like a modern Flying Dutch lan, destined to live in air terminal wildings for the rest of my life.”

New Hebrides Air Services

New Hebrides Airways Ltd, have creased their services. This follows e opening of a new airfield at r alaha (on Aoba) and the repair in cord time of a Drover aircraft hich was damaged at Aniwa last ugust. Walaha is the second air >rt at Aoba, and it is on the south sst side of the island.

Mr. Eddie Ashley, licensee of the Royal Hotel, Levuka —Levuka's only hotel—is a well known Mine Host to Islands travellers.