From the Islands Press

WE have a problem which is getting worse. This is juvenile delinquency . . . which is all out of proportion to our small islet population.

Young children roam about the streets of Betio at night, smoking cigarettes, hanging about the clubs and getting into all kinds of mischief. They steal food, smash empty bottles, write all over the walls of empty houses, sneak into the movies without paying and generally make a nuisance of themselves.

Although we have a small population in what can be described as a Pacific Island paradise, we in fact have the problems of a smoky industrial city of several hundreds of thousands as regards our young people.

The delinquency problems spawned through an environment of grimy buildings, sooty walls and row upon row of gloomy tenement housing cannot be used as an excuse. The scene here is that of sandy beaches, waving palm trees, not smoggy streets where the sun hardly shines through.— Letter from Phillip Wilder, in the “Colony Information Notes”, Tarawa.

MISSING: Would the person(s) who borrowed Frank Lui’s Japanese-made Ukulele from his home at Hamula please kindly return the same to its rightful owner. The Ukulele is all brown and was only a day old when it went missing two weeks ago. Owners name on it.— Notice in “Johi Tala Niue”, Niue.

NOT only is nobody claiming four pickled human heads waiting on the Brisbane wharf, but nobody seems to know how they got there.

Early reports indicate the heads arrived in Brisbane from NG on the Karlander-NG Line’s ship, Sletfjord.

It is believed the heads, wrap ped in newspaper, were among a consignment of personal effects addressed simply, “Quincey, Bris bane”.

Officers on the Sletfjord, who first heard the news when they read it in the Australian Press, said they had no record of any

consignment of personal effects for “Quincey”.

Police officials in Lae this week had not heard the report, but said it would take “some time” before they would be notified. They were not yet making any investigations.

The main concern over the heads seems to be from Customs officials—human heads are a prohibited export.— News Item in the “Times Courier”, Lae.

CRIES for the preservation of Fiji’s natural beauty are made from time to time by the Fiji Visitors Bureau.

It also frequently expresses dismay that Fijians nowadays tend to roof their bures with iron instead of grass.

On the subject of beauty, thatch and shacks, the Bureau might take a look at the thatched information office it maintains on Suva Wharf.

The tatty . . . state of the thatching is one of the first un favourable things that arriving tourists must note as they gaze down from the decks of berthing liners.— Columnist in “The Fiji Times”, Suva.

IT is all very well to enumerate the benefits that tourism will bring in the way of new jobs and sales of handicrafts, but the fact remains that those who put the most money into the business also get the lion’s share of the profits.

If the government (Western Samoa) intends to get more for the people out of tourism than a few extra jobs and an increased demand for handicrafts it had better start thinking more closely about how they intend to control the industry “in the interest” of the people.

So far it has come up with nothing better than a brochure for travel agents throughout the world extolling the beauties of Samoa illustrated with a picture showing a Solomon Islands canoe and hut.— Editorial in the “Apia Advertiser”, Apia.

MY name is Silas. I come from New Ireland. I was in the Coastwatchers on Nissan Island

in World War II from 1942 to 1945.

Many people fought in World War 11. I presume they still re member those days of fighting when they were often hungry and did not get much rest and con ditions were very bad and very different from our country today.

I am unhappy about the young men of today. Many of these young men are not capable of going on further at school.

These young men have the ability to do something useful for their country instead of sit ting around their villages doing nothing. I think these people who are doing no work can make trouble for other people, and I think it would be a good idea to make a PNGVR (Papua-New Guinea Volunteer Rifles) unit in Kavieng. This unit would give these young men something to do,— Letter from Silas, in “Our News”, Port Moresby, SMOOTH seas about the island (Pitcairn) early in the month allowed Tony Hermans to launch his small outboard runa bout, ship aboard his water skis and a couple of odd-bods to run the boat and give the community a look at a new water sport for Pitcairn.

With Steve at the helm, Tony made a number of passes across the front of the island and never once suffered the indignity of a ducking.

After more practise, a harden ing of the right muscles and the right weather, he hopes to make a circuit of the island in the near future.

It is understood that others tried to emulate Tony, but our reporter was unable to confirm results.— News Item in the Pit cairn Miscellany”.