Islands Press

From The

mm T LEAVE Fiji for the third 11 A and last time tomorrow. I arrived on September 14, the beginning of Hibiscus Festival week.

I then saw the sun perhaps for a total of 12 to 18 hours. The rest was cold, damp, grey weather of unrelieved gloom and, not wanting to buy transistor radios or binoc ulars, I was confined to a hotel bedroom silently (and sometimes vocally) cursing your travel pro pagandists.

I took interest in statistics, talked with local residents and came up with the conclusion that my experiences in Suva had not been exceptional. Indeed the rain fall over my two weeks in the city has been less than usual—after all this is the dry season!

I know that Suva cannot help its weather but the truth is that almost any place in the United States gets more sunshine than Suva and this fact I intend to make good and clear as soon as I get back because I feel I have been cheated and I resent it.— Letter from C. H. K. Bushwell, of California, in The Fiji Times”.

I WANT to talk about a very useful time which we are going to discover in the future, that is “independence”. We are going towards that time, we Solomons Islanders.

All departments want us to govern ourselves. You leaders and all people should think about it.

What will make us able to stand?

I think that farming is the only thing whole population on earth lived by. All lives are fed by farms, so I think that planting is very important in the world.

Independence does not come by dreaming and we will not get rich by not working. The best way to develop our Solomon Islands is to work hard and work properly and then perhaps we can attain independence.

We can now prepare for independence by planting more coconut plantations, cocoa planta tions and other crops. We must feed our cows, pigs and chickens with good food so they can pro vide us with milk and meat and then we can earn more money from them. By doing all this the Solomon Islands will grow up.

If it takes hard work to reach independence then we must all work as hard as we possibly can. —Letter from Michael Pedoro in “The Solomon Islands Farmer”.

PIT latrines in Inave will soon become a relic of the past.

Twenty-two cheap flush toilets have been purchased from the Health Department, one for every house in the area, and these have replaced the old pit latrines. These flush toilets are mounted on a con crete pedestal, and require flush ing with a bucket of water. They are fly-proof. —Item in the “Cook Islands News”, Rarotonga.

WANTED to a buy a male pig dog—a strong fellow capable of chasing, biting and can have a go at the flesh at the same time.

Ring phone number 51.—Adver tisement in “Tohi Tala Niue”,

LATEST edition of Australian FIX magazine contains an amusing and fascinating pictorial account of the happy crew of the colony’s trading ship Moana Raoi while at Sydney, for the first time last month.

FIX states it arranged with the ship’s Sydney agents, Kerr Bros.

Pty. Ltd., to show the crewmen the first city they had visited. How the colony sailors enjoyed Sydney is reflected in the happy expres sions on their faces as they gazed at the huge and strange animals at Sydney’s Taronga Park Zoo.

The FIX representatives were amazed when two sailors, Toke and Tomi, undertook to mount the elephants and rode them with no trouble at all, commenting “It’s no different to climbing a coconut tree”.

From a lower platform the sailors politely viewed the tower ing “sails” of the new Opera House but only evinced real interest when it was casually mentioned that the ultimate cost of the city’s pledge to culture would be about $lOO million—3o times as much as the annual cost of running the whole of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony.— ltem in the “Colony Information Notes”, Tarawa.

THE correspondent from Palmerston Island writes that during the last three months of 1967, 35 big turtles were caught there. Of these, there were two large females the islanders hoped to ship to Rarotonga per Tagua, however, Capt. Silk refused them aboard as he was making the long circuit through the northern group.

The correspondent writes that the turtles came on the main island, on Cooks Island and on Toms Island; presumably they were laying eggs. Many healthy young turtles were hatched, and some were caught and kept in captivity.

The little captives were fed paua until they grew to three or four inches then the careful Palmerston Islanders let them go free.— ltem in the “Cook Islands News”, Raro tonga.

FIJI’S women athletes at the South Pacific Games in Port Moresby next year will be glad to hear that they need not fear being carried off to the hills by raiding New Guinea tribesmen.

This assurance has come from the highest level—the Commis sioner of Police for the Royal Papua and New Guinea Con stabulary, Mr. R. C. Cole.

Writing to the Fiji Commis sioner of Police, Mr. R. T. M.

Henry, Mr. Cole said Games officials in Port Moresby had been amazed to hear that some athletes were worried about visit ing New Guinea after hearing stories that “women are not safe from primitive tribes who fre quently raid the towns”.

“We simply do not have pri mitive tribes visiting and threaten ing the safety of anyone in the towns,” Mr. Cole said.

“It is too fantastic to even com prehend. The normal forces of law and order will be very much in evidence during the Games and no official or participant need be apprehensive in any way about their own or anyone’s safety.”— Item in “The Fiji Times”.

THIS morning a radio message was received from the yacht Sylvia which visited Rarotonga recently. The yacht called in at Suwarrow Island and found the island’s only inhabitant, Tom Neale, safe, well and happy. Tom sent his kind wishes to the gov ernment and people of the ■■ B| Cook Islands.— ltem in the |H “Cook Islands News”, Raro- M tonga. m