Up Front

with the Editor

By the time you read this I’ll be in Noumea, listening I hope attentively to the ninth South Pacific Conference—a meeting which promises to be another small step for man if not perhaps a giant leap for mankind. South Pacific Conferences are not as spectacular, or as widely reported, as they once were, yet they are actually more significant now.

The sixth conference, held in Lae, New Guinea, in 1966, was the last of the noisy and spectacular ones.

That was the last of the “big” con ferences, which were held every three years, and attended by hundreds of delegates from all over the South Seas. These were more social meet ings than anything else, and they served a worthwhile purpose in getting Islanders together en masse.

That was before there was a South Pacific Games to achieve the same purpose.

Then suddenly, it seemed, the Islanders became sophisticated. And political. With Fiji’s Ratu Mara lead ing the revolt, large social meetings were out, and annual, hard-headed meetings restricted to serious politicians were in. This is the third of the smaller meetings, and all have been held in Noumea, although they will begin rotating the venues again soon.

Last year Mara won the right for the Islanders to draw up their own agenda, and for the South Pacific Commissioners to accept the decisions of the meeting. Two big steps. This year the conference is likely to set up a review committee, to recom mend further changes, including financial ones.

This year Mara will also get extra support from Nauru, which has now joined the panel of com missioners, alongside Western Samoa.

It won’t be long before Tonga, too, is there with the nobs. The metro politan powers are on the decline in the commission, and the interesting point is that they are not now fighting the inevitable.

The balance of power in the South Seas thus begins to shift. These are interesting times.

COOK Islands’ Premier Albert Henry, who as somebody noted at last year’s conference, is not at all muddled despite his constant insistence that he is, is nevertheless leaving quite a muddle back home while he chairs this year’s Noumea conference. His public servants are in revolt over what are called “special posts”.

Special posts are posts in the Public Service which the government wants the right to fill itself if necessary. The Public Service Asso ciation has attacked the government on this, saving special posts are merely political appointments and the way would be left open for graft.

Back on the attack

Albert Henry replied that some of the PSA’s methods in protesting were political, intended to undermine the working of the government, and con tained “all the characteristics of Communism”. He henceforth refused to recognise the executive committee of the PSA.

The PSA stood by its executive, and took a dim view of the Premier’s reference to Communism.

What a mess to leave behind!

The Cook Islands’ public servants are already angry at their low salaries, which they can’t get in creased because of the chronic shortage of public money, and the Premier’s attack on the executive hasn’t improved their tempers.

Especially as the PSA is fighting against what it considers to be the danger of “jobs for the boys”, and I think they’ve good reason to be suspicious.

Perhaps we’re all wrong. Perhaps

Mr. Henry really is muddled in mak ing a frontal attack on his own Public Service at this time.

BUT this month’s award of the Coconut Cluster for Wooden heads goes not to Mr. Henry but to the Papua and New Guinea Tourist Board for their handling of their task of finding a new executive director.

He was still unnamed at the end of September, although the board advertised widely and expensively this senior executive vacancy in June.

That ad. got some pretty high powered applications from overseas, and the board promptly sent out acknowledgments to applicants on July 3. Good.

But then silence. Long, deep, nail biting silence. Until September 10, when presumably all but a short list of applicants got the following letter: “Dear , Further to our letter of July 3 we regret to advise that your application for the position of executive director was unsuccessful.

We apologise for the delay in reach ing this decision but the response was far greater than we had expec ted. Thanking you for your interest.

Yours faithfully, M. Shannon, for D. N. Harvey, Chairman”.

That letter was a roneoed form letter. It was on the cheapest paper —not on the board’s letterhead. Even the date and the “Dear ” were roneoed. AND the signature of M.

Shannon, for D. N. Harvey!

That mass-produced signature, by somebody on behalf of somebody else, was what shattered one recipient —who thumped his soul-less docu ment on my desk and spat: “I know a couple of other fellows who got these. OK, so we didn’t rate inter views, and that’s the way life is. But we’ve all got good positions in the travel industry, we went to a lot of trouble to tell the board about our selves and to supply references. And they haven’t even got the courtesy to personally sign a letter! How many damn applications did they get, anyway—two million? Boy, if that’s their idea of public relations I’ll certainly remember New Guinea!”

The P-NG Tourist Board thus richly deserves its Coconut Cluster for its magnificent job in planting these time-bombs among key travel people abroad. When each goes off, in its own way and in its own time, the shrapnel could cause fine havoc in the territory.

The Coconut Radio Re

PORTS: W. R. Carney, the best Trade Commissioner for the Pacific Islands Australia has ever had, is leaving his South Seas stamping grounds about January for a new post overseas, I personally hope the radio is on the wrong wave-length, but I fear not. • Q. V. L. Weston, the Republic of Nauru’s first Chief Secretary (since

Our Cover

Rangiroa, in the Tua motus of French Polynesia (200 miles NW of Tahiti ), is the locale of this typical family scene with sleepy children, a puppy and women flower-making under the friendly shade trees.

The picture was taken by Miss Chris Osborne.

early 1968) is leaving for Londor to become Nauru’s first representativ< there. The radio says he would hav( quit Nauru anyhow if the Londoi post hadn’t turned up. ® Port Moresby’s new and cheeb weekly newsletter, Inside Moresby circulated on private subscription b] the New Guinea News Service thinks that Canberra’s Georgi Warwick Smith, secretary of th< Territories Department, may, afte: all, be going to London for a pos with the Australian High Com mission. ® The Banaban people of Rab Island, Fiji, haven’t given up th< fight for a greater share of thei dwindling Ocean Island phosphate and they’ve been planning new move with an eminent Sydney barrister.

TED MARRIOTT, Informatioi boss for the British Solomons just arrived in Sydney on leave, ranj immediately to tell me that Honian salvage man Wally Gibbins, wh( holds a theory that the rare Glorit mans breed at the time of the ful moon, put it to the test the othe day.

He did some skin-diving at tin right time in six fathoms of wate on the north coast of Guadalcanal close to Honiara, and his party foun< seven Gloria maris. Next day the; found another 14 shells, up to fou inches long, and most in perfec condition! His diving party include< lain Gower. One of the creature was seen walking along the bottom and Marriott thinks Wally Gibbin got a photograph of it on the move I’ve known Ted Marriott a Ion: time, and I heard him tell this stor with my own ears, otherwise wouldn’t dare report it. What impac the sudden discovery of 21 ne\ Gloria maris will have on the world’ conchologists, let alone the GlorU maris market, I shudder to predict Especially as Wally Gibbins is nov reported to be systematically search ing the Guadalcanal coast.

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