Yesterday

The formation of the South Pacific Commission was the biggest news in PIM 20 years ago. Representatives of Great Britain, France, Holland, the US, Australia and New Zealand met in Canberra early in February, 1947, to establish the body.

Its headquarters were temporarily located in Sydney.

PIM commented : “The plan was good and the delegates’ will to accomplish something worthwhile was sincere and praiseworthy. But the conference opened amid nasty political discord and closed under the shadow of vast industrial turmoil.”

HERE are other items from PIM for February, 1947: A GROUP of 300 American soldiers was scheduled to leave Noumea on February 5. With their departure only a few men attached to war surplus disposals were left of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who had been stationed there during the war. rpONGA was talking about the A forthcoming marriage of Crown Prince Tupouto’a-Tungi.

No one knew who the bride-to-be was. Rumour linked the prince with several of Tonga’s most eligible noble ladies. The best bet was Halaevalu Mata’aho, who was then finishing up at a college in Auckland. (She, in fact, proved to be the bride and is now Queen Mata’aho. The prince is now King Taufa’ahau). r O armed Japanese had fired on an unarmed police party on Butaritari Atoll in the Gilberts —l5 months after the Japanese surrender. The Japanese later committed suicide.

Rarotonga looked forward to a brighter new year. Elec tricity was to be introduced at Avarua.

MONTH-LONG tourist visas for New Caledonia were to be issued through the French Con sulate in New Zealand. The RNZAF and Pan Am operated services from New Zealand to New Caledonia and Qantas from Australia to Noumea. No accom modation was guaranteed in New Caledonia and tourists were asked to hold return tickets.

VISITORS and tourists to Fiji were really roughing it, a Suva report said. They were be ing accommodated under “raw military conditions” near Nadi

because all hotel space at Suva was filled. Fiji’s 12 hotels housed at least 200 but they were half full of “permanents” and regular travellers filled the remaining rooms.

SEVERAL samples of “sly grog” were seized by police during the Christmas period in Nuku alofa. The growing local evil of distilling illicit liquor was said to be a legacy of the American occupation forces.

THE United States announced a move for control of the former Japanese mandated islands (the Carolines, Marianas and Marshalls). The US Secretary of State, General Marshall, said the US would ask the Security Council of the newly-formed United Nations for “strategic trusteeship” over the islands.

AN article on Pacific aviation carried a map with a “pro jected air route” into Niue from Tonga and Rarotonga. To day, however, Niue still has no airstrip.

“F>AREUS” —printed calico loin A cloths—were obtainable once again in the Cook Islands. A re port from Mangaia said that women had worn pareus in the ’twenties, but the fashion had later given over to elastic-sup ported knickers.

fpHE working week for Public A Works employees in Fiji was to be reduced from 48 hours to 44 hours, without loss of pay.

Dr. S. M. Lambert, An

American doctor who became famous as the conquerer of hook worm after many years research in the Pacific (particularly New Guinea and Fiji), had died in the US. He wrote a book, A Yankee In Paradise (also published as A Doctor In Paradise ) which was a fine account of life in the Islands.

HIGH prices of copra made many pockets heavy in Tonga and Christmas spending hectic in Nukualofa, Hundreds of people converged on shops and because of the overcrowding, several people were knocked down in the roadways by motor vehicles.

However, a shortage of goods dampened the crowd’s enthusiasm.

American yachtsman Dwight Long, who spent several months in the South Pacific in the 'thirties in the course of a world cruise in the "Idle Hour", had just acquired a new boat when PIM went to press this time 20 years ago. He had named the new boat "Timi" in memory of the Tahitian boy who was his shipmate in the "Idle Hour". The "Idle Hour" is seen here in New York after her world-girdling voyage, which Long described in a book. The picture first appeared in PIM in February, 1940.