Tradewinds,

Latest Resort

Hotel For Fiji

Progressing well, overlooking

a superb site at the Bay of Islands, only about four miles from the centre of Suva, is con struction of the Tradewinds Hotel. It’s different for Suva, be cause it is a resort-style luxury hotel, like the famous Korolevu, and the new Fijian soon to open at Yanuca.

A GROUP of Fiji businessmen has put up the capital for the Tradewinds, and the major share holder is architect Colin Philp, who has been working long hours super vising construction. The Tradewinds is to his own design.

Central theme is a huge open area for lounge, dining room and bars, built right on the water in the Bay of Islands, which is a popular yacht harbour.

Yachts will be encouraged to come right alongside and power hookups and slipping facilities are being provided. Mosquito Island and several others are nearby and the whole area is ideal for waterskiing, skin and scuba diving. The Trade

Part of Nadi's new Hotel Hibiscus. The rooms are grouped around the swimming pool.

inds will also have its own filtered 001.

Seventy air - conditioned rooms, ich with its own facilities, face le bay. The hotel is right on neen’s Road, which links Nadi and ava.

The hotel should be finished by ecember, but bookings are not be g taken until January. The owners •e confident there will be visitors lough to keep the resort hotel busy ► close to Suva, but in any case iey are conscious of the big Suva ipulation always looking for some here new to dine and dance. And rtainly the deepwater anchorage ill be a considerable attraction to iva’s big boating fraternity once ere is a 19th hole alongside it.

Tradewinds’ tariff will be £FS/10/- ;r night double; £F3/10/- single; ith £FI per night per extra bed in e room.

IHE new hotel at Lae, being built by Steamships Trading Company, 11 be completed by September. The :ond-last stage of the $850,000 oject is due to be opened by July . This will consist of three separate rs, a lobby, management rooms d a large convention room, avail le for hire.

The accommodation blocks, con ting of 47 suites holding 94 beds, 11 open in September if construc n goes according to plan.

Steamships also own the Hagen )tel, and opened a new block there months ago at a cost of $160,000. e Hagen now accommodates about people.

With a Sydney businessman, Bill lybury, who has a minor share- Iding, the company owns the pondetta Hotel, which has about rooms.

Mr. O. A. Todd, Steamship’s resi it director in Australia, told PIM ; company had not yet decided on lame for the Lae hotel, and hoped come up with one similiar name ■ its three hotels in the territory. ‘No matter what we call it, I nk the locals will always tag her : Lae Hotel,” he said. “We hope tybe something else might come •ng perhaps in the Hilton dition.” 4 the face of growing protests over the Boeing 727 airline icdules between Papua-New linea and Australia, TAA and isett-ANA, have revamped their letables with effect from August

The most important change is that the Boeings will generally leave Aus tralia earlier in the mornings and will arrive in Port Moresby before lunch.

Freight to be transhipped to Rabaul, Lae and Madang should thus arrive at those destinations the same day.

Under the new schedules, the Boeings will generally leave Sydney at 6.30 a.m. (instead of 9 a.m.) and will reach Port Moresby at 11.10 a.m. instead of 1.35 p.m.

A return trip on the same day will drop passengers in Sydney at 4.55 p.m.—instead of 7.20 p.m. now.

The southbound service to Sydney will connect with Canberra and Mel bourne.

Each airline will also run an extra Sydney - Moresby - Sydney flight on alternate Sundays, and one of their current weekly flights will omit the Brisbane stop.

The direct flight, 1,823 miles, will take three hours 40 minutes—a sav ing of one hour.

Meanwhile, work has begun on a $135,000 extension and rebuilding project at Port Moresby’s Jacksons Airport.

The present terminal building will be enlarged by about half and the existing car park at the airport will be improved and extended.

It is hoped the extensions and improvements will relieve much of the confusion and delay of freight

and passengers at the airport, pre cipitated by the start of the daylight Boeing 727 services.

The Department of Civil Aviation expects the work to be finished by February next year.

AT a recent general meeting of stock holders of the Chateau Royale Hotel, at Noumea’s Anse Vata Beach, it was decided to accept the offer of Union Touristique et Hoteliere, UTH (UTA and Chargeurs Reunies) for future operation of the hotel.

A new company will be formed by UTH in which the Chateau Royale company will receive 10,000 shares valued at 3,300 Pacific francs (total 5A330,000). UTH will take over the debts of Chateau Royale reckoned at some $A 108,000.

The new company will run the hotel and enlarge its capacity, which, PI M’s Noumea correspondent says, it will have to do to make the hotel pay.

FJI AIRWAYS new turboprop aircraft, the Hawker Siddeley 748, is expected to go into service in the Pacific in October.

The 748 will make a once-weekly flight between Fiji and Honiara. It will also fly to the GEIC, Tonga and Samoa.

A twin-engined turboprop airliner, the 748 is pressurised and air-cond

A section of the partly completed Tradewinds Hotel, near Suva, looking across the swimming pool towards the main lounge. The hotel is built right on the Bay of Islands, where small islands like the one in the background create a superb backdrop.

ditioned. It will carry 40 passengers but it can be modified to seat up h 62 people.

The 748 has two Rolls-Royce Dar turboprop engines and flies at 27( mph with a range of up to 1,50« miles. It is particularly suited fo operation in the Islands as it does no need highly developed airfields.

Over 140 of these planes hav been sold all over the world, particu larly in South America, where con ditions require an exceptional! versatile and tough aircraft.

AUSTRALIAN and New Zealan Customs officers have bee having talks in Wellington aboi ways of streamlining Customs foi malities between the two countriei Further talks are to be held.

Commenting in July, Australia Minister for Customs, Senator Ke Anderson, said that although ther was a special relationship betwee Australia and New Zealand, the Am tralian Customs Department had nc lost sight of the need to simplify prc cedures for passengers and carg arriving in Australia from ever country.

He drew attention to the fact ths recently air passengers arriving i Australia have not had to mak written Customs declarations, an he said similar arrangements woul be introduced for passengers arrivin by sea.

Under the new air arrangement: which certainly are a big improvt ment on the old, passengers ar issued on the aircraft with a ne^ type of baggage declaration forn but they do not have to fill this i unless they have more goods tha they are entitled to bring in at cor cession rates. The concessior allowed are printed plainly on th form.

Since most passengers carry gooc within their entitlement it means ths passengers are cleared after only few verbal questions.

Passengers into Australia are er titled to bring duty free persons articles, including jewellery, toile requisites, binoculars, cameras ani “articles of utilitarian nature”; on portable typewriter: one batten operated radio set for each persa 10 years of age and over; persons sporting equipment; 400 cigarette; or 1 lb of tobacco; three bottles c liquor; and souvenirs, gifts and othe goods up to a total value of slot so long as these goods do not includ radios, liquor, tobacco, taoe-recorder dictating machines or gramophone;