dream"

Tarawa's causeway may be a "pipe dream"

Because finance is not on its

way yet, feelings in Tarawa, capi

tal of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, are that the

colony’s proposed causeway be

tween Tarawa’s commercial and government centres, Betio and Bairiki, will never be built.

All investigations, including aerial surveys and searches for sufficient sand and debris in the lagoon to construct the causeway, have been completed, and last year, a newly formed American society, the Foundation for the Peoples of the South Pacific, pledged at least SUSIOO,OOO for a big dredge and its operating costs to start the project.

Since then, the foundation has been unable to raise even half this sum and the dredge, due in Tarawa early this year, has not been seen.

The GEIC has not insisted on the foundation making good its promise as any pressure brought to bear could embarrass both the US Government and the GEIC, especially with the possibility of a US airline. Air Micro nesia, flying into Tarawa.