Suva: Mr. Hendon
pp. 35-36 · Read in the full issue
In Reply
Sir, —My attention has been drawn to an article “Suva: What next, Mr.
Hendon?”, published in February’s Pacific Islands Monthly. This article bristles with mis-statements of fact, and my solicitors in Sydney have been instructed to examine it for consideration of issue of a writ for damages. The tenor of it is that the operation of the Fiji Restaurant in Sydney has been unsuccessful, and that I left Sydney in consequence of this.
The truth is quite different. On our last day of operation, the New Year’s Eve party, we had 308 paying customers. For at least two months prior to that, the restaurant was full on Fridays and Saturdays to such an extent that on most Saturdays we had to turn away customers. We had adequate attendances on other days.
The only reason why the premises were leased was purely private, and I had not intended to make it public, but in view of your article have no option but to do this now. It is simply that the Commonwealth Immigration Department refused to extend the permit to remain in Australia for my fiancee long enough to permit my pending divorce to go through, so that I could marry her and thereby automatically make her eligible for Australian residence.
Rather than be separated by the operation of Australian immigration policy, we decided to live in Fiji.
By making it appear as if I had to leave Sydney on account of lack of success in the various operations of my Australian company, Fiji Enter prises Pty. Ltd., you have greatly prejudiced my reputation in Fiji, where I am about to embark on a hotel-motel operation. Obviously, an unsuccessful history would reflect on my standing with regard to com mercial confidence on which every business depends. A photostat copy of the letter of the Department of Immigration authenticating the pre vious paragraph is appended.
For completeness sake, here is a list of incorrect statements in your article: 1. Bill Matthias was never manager of the Fiji Restaurant. He was the bandleader, 2. It is completely incorrect that the operation did not click, as out lined in the second paragraph of
this letter. We often had more business than we could handle. 3. If the Fiji Visitors Bureau received any phone calls with complaints, they never told me about it. To the contrary, their Sydney manager, Mr. Cribble, was full of praise after his last visit to the Fiji Restaurant. Anybody in the public eye is subject to some crank’s grumblings, anyhow. 4. Neither the discotheque, nor the snack bar, nor the artifacts shops closed and were rented for office space. When it became apparent that my fiancee and I could not stay together in Sydney, I simply put the existing shops on the market, and they were snapped up owing to their good location and standard of construction. If the new lessees elect to sell something else in their shops, that is their business. 5. The same applies to the Fiji Restaurant. Without Maria there was simply no one known to us in Sydney capable of running it Fiji style. 6. I have never said I would examine the making of ferro-cement boats.
I merely said I might want to use them in the islands. 7. I have never worked for an import export business in Fiji for the simple reason that I have (until last month) never spent more than two weeks at a time in Fiji. 8. It is incorrect that I was the managing director of Fiji Enter prises Pty. Ltd., Sydney. That company’s articles provide that I hold that position for life, and I am still very much alive.
H. H. Hendon.
82 Nailuva Rd., Raiwai, Fiji, • The article referred to by Mr.
Hendon was published by us in good faith, on information we believed to be true. In accordance with our policy of fair play we are happy to publish Mr. Hendon’s letter in full.