From the Islands Press
p. 67 · Read in the full issue
|7*OR years Niue has been crying -T for an airport. The experts say Niue cannot afford, in these days of mass communications, to continue to exist economically without one. Yet poor Niue con tinues, as usual, to be suspended on a meat hook.
Engineers and other experts have visited Niue to pave the way for the project and the local gov ernment (i.e., we) has even acquired and paid for a site. It is my belief that the lack of a definite decision is because some one is still trying to think of a polite way of saying “very sorry but. . . . Niue’s project will have to take a back seat indefinitely”.
It is about time Niue gave some thing up and what better project can we make sacrifices for than an airfield? Let our roads get pot holes and gaping crevasses for a few months; give school and other government buildings a back seat for a change! Let’s wait a little longer for more electric power and a reticulated water supply; delay the new housing scheme for a short spell; cancel agricultural projects for a while, etc.. LETS
Start Building An Air
FIELD.—Letter in “Tohi Tala Niue”, Niue.
WITH this issue [May 4, 1967] the Daily Bulletin’s name and masthead are given a proper heave-ho. . . . The Daily Bulletin is now known as the News Bulletin. Announcement in the News Bulletin, roneoed govern ment newssheet, Pago Pago.
IN many districts [in Papua-New Guinea] there are still a lot of people who are just walking around, without jobs, like beggars.
They are not educated like some of us are. So don’t be in a hurry to try and get self-government.
Our territory hasn’t got enough teachers, doctors, PIR, policemen, carpenters, mechanics, drivers and scouts. Who dares to reply to this letter can do so.— Letter in “Our News”, Port Moresby.
AS a relative newcomer [to Pago Pago] I am interested but not able to properly put into perspective much of what I see
and hear. But it does seem that there is more restriction and dis couragement of small business than incentives.
Several persons who seem capable have related how they have been blocked or frustrated by the government in their attempts to start small businesses such as restaurants, motel units, and the like. As a small but illustrative point, I have been told that hamburger buns are imported from Honolulu in spite of the fact that there are several local bakeries.
Some large businesses also report restrictions and thwarting of their development plans. Letter in “The Samoa Times”, Pago Pago.
IT has been a matter of prestige and national pride in many newly independent countries to set up their own shipping and air lines.
Samoa already has its airline and whether or not it would be better nationalised at this stage has not even reached the stage of debate. The Prime Minister has now announced that the Govern ment is interested in getting its own ship. The airline and the ship have arisen from economic necessity and the prospects of profit.
All indications are that the ship can be operated as profitably as the airline. If living costs are to be kept down and planters are not to lose a large slice of their earnings in freight costs, then it seems the only logical option for this country to buy its own ship.
It is certain that without financ ing this country could never afford its own ship. Bankers and ship builders in Japan or elsewhere will only finance such a venture if they themselves are sure of its success.
On the face of it, this is one investment on which no one can possibly lose.— Editorial in “Apia Advertiser”, Apia.
HAVE you any idea of a planter’s life? I may not be wrong if I say that the life or existence of the country depends on him. It is a job nobody wishes to undertake because a person gets dirty, hot and wet! there is too
much exposure in the sun and rain.
If a planter’s time, pain and hard labour were fully repaid it would diminish all past thoughts of hardship. Instead there is pain and discouragement. Reader’s letter in the “Cook Islands News”, Rarotonga.
THE Director of Education, Mr.
J. G. Rodger, pulled no punches when he talked to the Fiiian Teachers’ Association at Suva. His theme was . . . that Fijian education is dropping further and further behind, and that unless there is a radical change the proportion of Fijians qualified for, and appointed to, the higher posts in Government, commerce and industry will steadily dwindle.
Mr. Rodger showed that the failure of Fijians to make educa tional progress is not due to any inherent inability to learn, or to any intellectual inferiority.
The causes are external. Some are geographical. . . . Some are economic. . . . Other causes are social. . . , Mr. Rodger put as the greatest cause of educational failure what he rightly described as the “appalling” shortage of Fijian teachers with even modest academic qualifications.
The process, of course, is cumulative. If the schools are not able to produce well-qualified students, there is nobody to train for teaching. Without teachers, the schools fail to produce well qualified students.
The use of teachers of other races in Fiji schools ... is a practical and indeed the only immediate solution to the problem of the supply of teachers.
The most obvious source of recruitment is from the ranks of Indian teachers, who are qualify ing in numbers far greater than Fijians are.
An overseas source that might well be considered could be the various organisations of the Peace Corps type. Editorial in “The Fiji Times”, Suva.
FOR SALE: One second-hand singleman canoe. Only been used for about eight months. Price £lO. Apply: Uili i Mutalau.— Notice in “Tohi Tala Niue”, Niue.