Points

Pim

Palau: Do Not Touch

The recent International Biologi cal Programme meeting in Palau, in the US Trust Territory, urged the Trust Territory Government to re consider its permit to conduct phos phate prospecting in the Palau area.

In September, 1967, the Trust Territory granted a prospecting per mit to Continental Minerals, Inc., to make tests throughout the unique Rock Islands area of Palau.

The meeting’s resolution is con sistent with the idea that the area around coral reefs should not be tampered with unless it is known what the effects will be.

Although the Trust Territory has included such precautionary meas ures in its permit, the scientists pro tested against the agreement on the grounds that it may lead to mining and drastic interference with such a large area of valuable national environment before a thorough ecological (or balance of life) study has been made.

The Trust Territory, in anticipat ing a possibility of creating an ecological imbalance, insisted on safeguards written into the agree ment which give the Trust Terri tory’s Fisheries Management Biolo gist the right to suspend exploratory activities “on the spot” if he “deter mines such activities are harming the ecological balance in the lagoon areas”.

The scientific group urged that studies be made before the prospect ing begins.

Many expressed the view that the area would ultimately have more value to Palau as a tourist attraction than an area for mining the non renewable resource, phosphate.

Along similar lines, one biologist said mining might affect the coral reef and the bait fish which sup port the existing tuna industry.

Ocean Island: Poor Relations

Relations between Banabans and British Phosphate Commissioners on Ocean Island aren’t what they should be.

On a recent trip to the island, on the GEIC’s 71-toner Tautunu, a PIM staff writer found that relations be tween Mr. Len Withers, manager of Ocean’s BPC operations, and Abitiai Tabore, 37, the Banabans’ representa

tive for land matters, were, to say the least, strained.

PI M’s staff writer talked to Mr.

Withers and Abitiai in Mr. Withers’ air-conditioned BPC headquarters office. Abitiai said little, and he agreed with virtually everything Mr.

Withers said about the “good times” between the BPC and the Banabans.

At a later cocktail party, when PlM's man spoke to Abitiai alone, the thoughtful Banaban was a dif ferent man. “I am almost a prisoner of the BPC here”, he said. “Cables sometimes don’t reach me from my bosses on Rabi, Fiji, and I am not consulted on many things the BPC is doing with our land here”.

Abitiai, who arrived on Ocean mid way through last year as Banaban land representative, said there was too much “secrecy” about operations, particularly phosphate output.

“I think the BPC are stepping up production of phosphate too fast,” he said. “Because my people have been making news with calls for more money and independence, the BPC want to finish Ocean off quickly.

Then we will have nothing to bargain about—our riches will have gone.”

Whether Abitiai is right or wrong, there is certainly an atmosphere of hush-hush on Ocean Island. Aus tralian workers at the BPC office admitted that very few except those “at the top” knew what was going on. “It’s all politics now”, they shrugged.

One thing was certain: lack of unanimity between Abitiai and Mr.

Withers and the added lack of under standing between Ocean’s BPC and Tarawa’s GEIC administration make affable Tom Ainsworth’s first GEIC assignment DC, Ocean Island a difficult one.

Suva: What Next, Mr. Hendon?

New arrivals in Suva in January from Sydney were Mr. Hal Hendon and his bride-to-be Maria Resina, formerly of Rotuma.

Behind them, the couple left four months’ work operating Sydney’s first Fiji Restaurant, set in an “Island Centre” Mr. Hendon had built in the shopping heart of the plush suburb, Mosman.

When things were going well, the centre consisted of a Pacific Islands artifacts shop, a discotheque, a snack bar and a rooftop reception area decorated with Fijiana.

But the big thing was always the Fiji Restaurant decorated with turtle shells, Fiji clubs, spears and

pictures, triton shell lights and drums.

“Genuine” Fiji dishes were offered and Sydney’s Fiji Visitors Bureau lent Mr. Hendon a huge wooden figure of a Fiji warrior, which was proudly displayed outside the res taurant.

The restaurant opened with extravagent $2O-a-head charity dinners for the city’s top socialites.

Advertisements appeared in Sydney newspapers singing the praise of the Fiji dishes and the Islands decor.

Mr. Hendon was the managing director of Fiji Enterprises Ltd., owner of the $250,000 setup, Maria Resina was the restaurant’s interior decorator-cum-hostess, and Bill Matthias, a former Fiji entertainer, was the manager of the restaurant But somehow the operation didn’t click. Sydney’s Fiji Visitors Bureau received phone calls from Sydney people saying that the food was either poorly cooked, not genuinely Fijian or too dear. Other res taurateurs said that the Fiji Res taurant was too big and its prices too high.

Then the discotheque closed, the snack bar closed and the artifacts shop closed. All were rented to out siders for office space.

In December came the biggest blow of all—Mr. Hendon leased the restaurant to a Sydney caterer, Mr.

Neil Kerslake, and announced he was off to Fiji. Mr. Kerslake said that the future of the little bit of Fiji in Sydney was “undecided”. It’s doubtful if the Fiji Restaurant has long to live.

And what of Mr. Hendon’s plans for Fiji, where for some time he worked for an import-export busi ness? “I might examine the making of ferro-cement boats or even take up hotel interests”, he told PIM.

Whatever he decides on, Mr.

Hendon seems certain to make news one way or another in Suva.