Airport Builder

Left Niue A

Legacy Of Bees

From a Niue Correspondent The island of Niue has had

few long-time European residents

in its history, and one of the few it has had, Percy Walsh, left the island for good in February.

MR. WALSH first came to Niue in 1947 to help build the air field. But this job never got started, and he ended up in charge of the sawmill at the Public Works Depart ment.

However, Mr. Walsh will probably be best remembered for having intro duced honey bees to Niue, and for acting as adviser to the Agriculture Department on beekeeping.

When he first arrived on Niue, he noticed that many plants, such as pumpkins, gave very poor crops due to the lack of bees to pollinate the flowers.

In 1957 he had a quarter-hive of bees sent to Niue. The bees increased rapidly, producing about 500 lb of honey in two years. Then two hurri canes struck the island and killed so many bees that they were unable to recover.

Plenty of Honey

The Niue Government then became interested in bees and got three more hives. Now there are 13 hives spread around the island, plus four others that have disappeared into the bush. (Information is required on those.) Thousands of pounds of honey have been produced on Niue since Mr. Walsh’s first bees were imported.

This has both been sold on Niue and sent to New Zealand where it is blended with other honey.

Meanwhile, the airfield that Mr.

Walsh came to build is again being talked about following the recent visit to Niue of the New Zealand Minister of Island Territories, Mr. J.

R. Hanan.

Niue’s airfield has had a long history. After the plan to build it in 1947 came to nothing, interest in it revived in the early 1960’5, and in 1964 Niue’s Assembly decided to ask the Minister of Island Territories to consider building it again.

An aerodromes engineer and an aviation expert then visited Niue, and as a result of their visit, it was

reported that the site at Vaiola, which had been surveyed many years before, would be ideal. It was estimated that the airstrip could be built for about £NZ250,000.

That was a lot of money for Niue, so the Island Territories Department interested the New Zealand Army in considering the construction of the strip as an army exercise, thereby halving the costs.

An Army engineer visited Niue last year to report on this plan, and apparently it is practical.

More Impetus

Mr. Hanan’s recent visit to the island has given more impetus to it.

But because the land has not been acquired yet, he said: “When I know that there is no problem in regard to the land, this project will be pre sented to the New Zealand Cabinet and I shall be your strongest advocate because I believe this is necessary to your progress, to your social and economic development”.

During Mr. Hanan’s visit, the Assembly took the opportunity of making several requests.

They asked about the possibilities of obtaining: © Water reticulation in all villages. • Extra shipping calls particu larly from May to December when the greatest quantities of produce are available for export. (At present, Niue has only one ship a month). © Electric power for the outer villages and a hotel or flats to house the increasing number of visitors to the island. © Additional money for banana, coconut and land development schemes, and for abattoirs, a cooler and freezer storage. © Extensions to the present wharf, replacements for the existing cargo sheds, and shelter and slipways for the cargo lighters.

In short, the Assembly handed Mr.

Hanan a blueprint for Niue’s economic future.