From the Islands Press

WHEN three Nukualofa youths, Tlaisa Taumalolo, Tevita Latu Langi and Tavita Mila, were apprehended by police after safely stowing away in the Waimate March 4 for two days, they were not too surprised. Such were their chances, their friends had told them, in stowing away to New Zealand.

What their friends didn’t tell them, however, was that the Wai mate was headed for Samoa.

News item in “The Chronicle”, Nukualofa. \ PIG with eight legs and two tails is being looked after at Tari Hospital in the Southern Highlands. The pig also has two backbones, says Kop Yengis, a worker at the hospital. He said it belonged to a man called Mulungu from Kopari Village.

Mulungu had found the pig so unusual he decided to take it to the hospital.— News Item in “South Pacific Post”, Port Moresby.

IHAVE collected stamps for 30 years and am sure that I am not alone in mourning the sorry end to which the postal authorities are bringing the long and distin guished philatelic history of these territories (P-NG).

With the impending Ghana type, jam-label frog issue we reach rock bottom, and it is sur prising that the Director of Posts and Telegraphs did not have the courage of his convictions and re lease them on April 1.

Many countries have found out too late that you can kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Will P-NG follow Paraguay, Sierra Leone, Cook Islands and scores of other places into phila telic oblivion, or can the flow of unnecessary stamps be halted?

We haven’t had a “Famous Paintings” set yet, so perhaps it is not too late to stop the rot.

Letter from “Sad Philatelist” in “Times Courier”, Lae.

Doctor verrier got the biggest laugh there’s been in

the Legislative Council Chamber for many a day. Speaking yes terday in reply to the debate on the Governor’s speech the doctor pleaded for merchants to push sales of Fiji-made products.

At one stage he produced a toilet roll and said: “Without fear of offending our friends of the Opposition side I will refer to this as a common roll.”— Columnist in “The Fiji Times”, Suva.

TF the roads provide any indica tion, this country is fast going to rack and ruin. They are in an appalling condition with potholes dotting Beach Road and getting worse the further one goes out of Apia. They are far worse now than at any time over the past 20 years.

One can only hope that the visit ing Asian Bank officials were shaken up enough for some money to fall out of their capacious pockets.

The roads give a fine example of penny-pinching unimaginative financing by which attempts to save a few thousand dollars have, with accelerated deterioration from the exceptionally wet weather, now resulted in the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The same pedestrian financial thinking threatens the progress made in education and agriculture over the past few years and without radical atten tion very soon the same fate will overtake them as has happened with the roads.— Columnist in the “Apia Advertiser”, Apia.

T HAVE read the various sug gestions of what the people of Fiji should be called.

Fijeon sounds all right, so does Fijianese, so does Fijistanis and Fijians.

But I like Pacificians as we are in the Pacific.

The accent is on the Cl, pro nounced SHE, so we get Paci fisheans.

This includes everybody, Samoans, Tahitians, Hawaiians, Tongans, Chinese, Japanese, Indians, and Fijians and Euro peans and the Englishmen.

Letter from D. A. Vandenherg in “The Fiji Times”, Suva.

A KINGFISH, 15-ft. long and big enough to provide food for three villages, was found in shallow water near the village of Bira on Malaita recently.

A letter to the Information Service from Johnson Mauru said that the fish was found by a man called Harry Fifunik keri, who tried to drag it up onto the beach.

But the fish was too heavy and another man came to help him. Finally, there were eight people all pulling on the fish, but it would not move.

It was decided to cut the fish up with an axe and bush knives, into three pieces. When it was all cut up, it took four men to carry the head alone. ‘‘Three villages now they kai kai. Me fella happy too much,”

J ohnson concluded.— News Item in the “BSIP News Sheet”, Hon iara. police force makes little ” attempt to investigate acci dents, they merely report that they happened: “Collision with fixed object”, or “Truck hit motor scooter”.

They leave unanswered the question that is crucial to any effective prevention programme What are the main causes of accidents in Yap mechanical failure, speed, drunkenness, poor driver training, bad road design?

We must remember that acci dents are caused by one or a combination of the above faults.

Accidents never just happen they are caused. If drivers knew policemen were directing traffic at busy intersections during rush hours, would they drive as care lessly at they do now?

Still, police should handle traf fic violations in a manner that will not embarrass them. They should bear in mind that it is not part of their job to penalise, irritate, lecture or scold the viola tor, Courtesy is prescribed for a policeman in handling violators.

Policemen should remember that their primary purpose is to pre vent violations, not to arrest people. Extract from the Opinion Page of the “Mogethin”, Yap.