From the Islands Press

M M TOURING the past few

Mm Mm U weeks, especially,

I though throughout the year to a lesser degree, it has been almost impossible to go to the palatial con fines of the Butiraoi Cinema, Bike nibeu, and expect to see the advertised film through to the end in comfort, with both clarity of sound and picture.

Either the projector does not arrive, or the film, or both; the projector arrives but does not work; the film is not as advertised; or there is no sound, or it is so distorted as to be unintelligible; or the picture jumps so much that it is impossible

MANY of the more popular beaches in the islands—Pango, for instance, near Vila, are being spoiled by litter and broken bottles.

We appeal to all beach-goers and picnickers not to leave litter on the beaches. And particularly, please don’t throw empty bottles into the sea. They only re-appear a few days later as razor-sharp bits of glass on the beaches.— ltem in the “British Newsletter”, Vila.

SIR, —On revisiting Fiji after a lapse of many years, may I make the following observations. Much of the old attractiveness remains to charm the visitor. Suva seems to be a much healthier and cleaner place than it used to be.

One small area of the city is mak ing rapid advances in modernisation.

But why spend vast sums on this tiny secfion, while remote villages still struggle on with inadequate schools, medical facilities and roads? . . .

Why spend money constructing lavish buildings and converting banks into huge refrigerators when many of the counters remain unmanned, and queues of 10 stretch out onto the footpath?

Tourists do not come here to see imitations of buildings they have left behind. What they do look for is service and that is something that neither they nor the local people are getting.

Where are the traffic police? . . .

Are reckless taxi and bus drivers not

to watch, or the print has been used so often that it breaks continually.

If government is going to continue to take the licensing fees, then it must exercise adequate controls in compliance with the law; if exhibitors are going to continue to show films to the public, and make a tidy profit from so doing, then they must recognise their responsibilities, and not take advantage of a tolerant public, which has no alternative except to be without films.

You can’t have your cake and eat it.— Letter from Frustrated Film goer” in “Colony Information Noted, Tarawa.

subject to the road code? When was a driver last fined for failing to dip his lights?

In Hawaii, people will rebuke you publicly if you laugh and talk in the streets late at night or early in the morning. But what of Suva? . . .

Radios, dogs, drunken youths, violent husbands, beaten wives, all play their part (in creating noise). . . . Families can be taught that it is bad manners to let the noises of people, animals and radios go any further than the walls of their own houses.— Extract from a letter from Mrs. ]. Hughes in “The Fiji Times”.

ON Thursday, December 5, the Senior Magistrate, Mr. D. W.

Walsh, gave judgment in the case of Te Maerere Bauro, of Makin, who had been charged with doing a negligent act likely to cause harm to another person. , . . The accused was alleged to have given medical treatment on October 4, 1968, at Bikenibeu to Poongo Petueli, whom he had undertaken to treat.

In delivering his judgment, the Senior Magistrate said he found that the prosecution had proved that the accused had massaged the abdomen of the complainant causing extensive bruising. He was satisfied that the massage was being applied as a form of medical treatment to rid the complainant of a ghost believed by her to be causing her pain.

The Senior Magistrate was further satisfied that the accused was

negligent in the manner in which he applied the massage. He said that Dr. T. Flood had given evidence that massage causing bruising was likely to cause harm, which, in fact, was caused to the complainant in the form of trauma to the superficial abdominal wall.

The Senior Magistrate found Te Maerere guilty as charged and imposed a fine of $3O to be paid in seven days in default of six weeks imprisonment. Te Maerere has, how ever, appealed against both conviction and sentence to the High Court— News item in “Colony and Informa tion Notes”, Tarawa, GEIC.

“XT’S the greatest achievement of -i- Tongan industry since home brew . . .”—Tomasi Kamea, 52, a Queen Salote Wharf labourer, com menting in the Tongan Chronicle on the new, Tongan-manufactured tobacco.

A FIJI custom of marking a new year by throwing water at motor vehicles has been strongly con demned by the Minister for Com munications, Works and Tourism, Mr. C. A. Stinson. He was comment ing on the report of the first fatal accident of 1969—in which a woman and an eight-year-old child were killed and other people injured after water had been thrown over the windscreen of a Land-Rover in Taveuni.— ltem in “Government News Sheet”, Suva.

THE greatly improved situation in Samoa has not been unsuspected.

The surprising thing is that the economy is as buoyant as it is, despite the stultifying influence of many of Samoa’s politicians and the totally inadequate credit facilities of the Bank of Western Samoa.

Things could have been very much better than they are. With less apathy, and a good deal more effort and imagination, Potlatch could already have started on its mill, the Casino Hotel would have been well on the way to completion as another link of the Travelodge chain through out the Pacific, and Western and American Samoa would be linked by modern aircraft run by an airline able to adequately serve the travel ling public.

To top things off the Prime Minister bans pisupo completely. One wonders whether this is a Machiavel lian gesture aimed at diverting public attention from the fact that the Auditor-General, who found corrup tion and so much inefficiency in the government, and who resigned rix months ago, has not yet ■■ ■ been replaced.— Editorial in wM wm the “Apia Advertised. M M