from the Islans Press

THERE is no argument against the fact that the American Samoan taxi drivers are among the most notorious in the world for lack of attention to their passengers. Bus drivers are no better. And American Samoa is still one of the few places where one can get a rough bus ride.

The seats are uncomfortable to begin with, and most times the drivers speed and turn the many curves as if the passengers were pieces of cargo.

People still ride in buses and fight for space with sacks of taro, chickens and pigs. Beer drinking is common and drunkards bother passengers.

Certainly it is within the powers of the Commerce Com mission to require proper service out of the taxis and buses. The law gives them that power —with the intention that they will use it for the benefit and protection of the public.

We have seen buses and taxis put on good performances for tourists. Why can’t they do the same for the local people? They get paid just the same.— Editorial in “Samoa News”, Pago Pago.

THE tourist mania seems to have obscured so much of the important issues in this country [Fiji]. Certainly, the tourist business is making money, but only for Suva and its environs. This part of Fiji [Vanua Levu-Taveuni area] sees nothing of it except an occasional ship at Savusavu which is only one small centre of Vanua Levu.

I was once asked in New Zealand, “And how far is Fiji from Suva?” I replied, “Geo graphically, very close, but in every other way, very, very far off”.— Letter from A. Thompson, Taveuni, in “The Fiji Times”, Suva.

WE would like to commend those members of the com munity who are making deter mined efforts to cater for visitors to Norfolk Island who are not solely interested in “duty free” shopping.

With increasing Customs re strictions, it will be most

necessary to develop other attrac tions for a holiday on Norfolk, and the men who make fishing facilities available are to be con gratulated for their initiative and enterprise.

Without proper harbour facili ties, it is quite an expensive and at times hazardous business to put a boat in the water, and we feel that the Council and the Admini stration should give boatmen every co-operation in the installa tion and maintenance of adequate launching facilities. — Editorial in the “Norfolk Islander”.

A MAN had his arm amputated after a terrifying night time chase in the Yonggamugl area north of Kundiawa [New Guinea Highlands]. An axe wound severed the muscle and broke all the bones in the forearm. After unsuccessful treatment in Kundiawa, the man was flown to Goroka, where his arm was amputated below the elbow.

Police are unable to offer any reason for the attack, which occurred on a lonely native walk ing track early in the morning.

After three days’ search, police were able to arrest a man. . . .

Because police feared a revenge attack on the man, he was locked in the Mogl (Yonggamugl) Council House with a policeman.

Two policemen remained outside, and, with the help of some of the councillors, guarded the door and the windows of the Council House.— News item in “Kundiawa News”.

THE strange structure going up in front of A. B. Donald’s Parekura shop is not a model airplane; it’s a benzine station of the super-modern variety which will be designed to dispense with benzine, oil, and motoring supplies.— News item in the “Cook Islands News”, Rarotonga.

STOP and think if it would be possible to locate another similarly sized community as this one, with so many benefactors scattered far and wide over the whole world.

Practically every family on Pitcairn has at least one, and often several friends overseas who,

in ways both great and small, do many favours and perform many services, all of which help in some tangible way to foster the spirit of goodwill which is so often found in the smaller settlements of this world. Editorial in “Pitcairn Miscellany”.

ACCORDING to some mem bers of [Western Samoa’s] Assembly, speaking last week on one of the days when enough members turned up to enable Parliament to proceed with its business, some seconded officers get very highly paid and do not do enough to earn their money.

Retiring Director of Education, C. I. Williams, is one man against whom no member could level such a charge. In fact, Mr.

Williams is so far ahead of MP’s that they have not yet even con sidered his report for 1963—1 et alone last year.— Editorial in “Samoana”, Apia.

IN defiance of rational argu ment, of bitter experience in many parts of the world, and, above all, in complete defiance of facts, the United Nations General Assembly’s Trusteeship Com mittee has issued another UN demand for the political and economic ruination of Fiji, Like the Committee of 24, the Trusteeship Committee commits its blunders in terms that make crystal clear its ignorance of some of the subjects with which it has the temerity to deal. . . .

The committee, we are told, re affirmed the “inalienable right of the people of Fiji to freedom and independence. . . .” What the people of Fiji need most urgently today is complete freedom from people who are determined to make Fiji another Congo or another Cyprus. Editorial in “The Fiji Times’’, Suva.

MAJOR Qualtrough and Sgt.

Cooke, who arrived at Tarawa on Monday’s plane [November 29], are to spend the next three or four months on Betio dealing with the old ammunition that is still on the island. They will not be able to destroy any of it until their ex plosives arrive from Australia, probably in January.— News item in Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony Newsletter.