The Month In Review
p. 14 · Read in the full issue
With all Islands parliaments in recess, and with many people still away on vacation, January, 1966, was not a particularly eventful month in the South Pacific.
BUT there was one topic of conversation common to all territories—the drought, or, in some cases, the rains that brought some relief from it.
The main events of the month were: January 1 ; Nearly two dozen Islands people were honoured by te Queen in the New Year Honours List.
January 7: The sale was announced of one of the last freehold islands in the world— Naitauba, in the Lau Group of Fiji. The buyer is the American TV star, Raymond Burr.
January 8: The New Zealand Minister of Island Territories, Mr. J. R. Hanan, left Auckland on a visit to Niue and the Tokelaus.
January 17: Australia’s Minister for Territories, Mr. C. E. Barnes, met members of the Papua-New Guinea House of Assembly Com-
mittee on Constitutional Develop ment in Port Moresby, but threw no light on what Australia believed would be the future of the Territory. A few days earlier, Mr. Barnes opened the Ter ritory’s first multi-racial local government council at Goroka.
January 23: Workers’ associa tions throughout Papua- New Guinea agreed to establish a Territory-wide federation, January 25: The Public Service Association of Papua-New Guinea asked Australia’s new Prime Minister, Mr. Harold Holt, to state bluntly whether the Govern ment intended to introduce a compensation scheme for public servants in the Territory, January 29-30: Tahiti, Ameri can and Western Samoa were struck by fierce storm, January 31: A Legislative Council on Nauru was officially opened.