Opium and marihuana

scare in Fiji

From a Suva correspondent During a recent trip to Vancouver, a group of Fijian enter tainers—The Fijians—were asked about hippies and drugs. Were they common in Fiji? Were hippies on every street corner and drugs at every teenage party?

The boys—Larry Mason, Kisa Petueli, Alex Wendt, Willy Wye and Rupeni Serovi—were happy to assure reporters that Fiji was free of such fruits of civilisation.

“One thing we don’t have is a drug problem. And the only hippies we have are the garbage collectors and road workers who wear a hibiscus behind the ear,” they said. With honesty, they thought.

The Vancouver papers made much of it. Here was a South Pacific paradise, they said, where not only

were there no high-rise buildings, zoos (the boys saw their first in Vancouver), circuses (they saw one of those too) or hot dog rotisseries, but neither were there hippies nor the drug problems of Canada.

It was ironic that the band should return home to find that drugs were big news in Fiji.

Police were investigating reliable reports of drug-taking by Fiji school children of all races. And a 23-year old Peace Corps volunteer, Michael

T. Babitch, was fined $2OO in Labasa Court, after he pleaded guilty to a charge of being in possession of Indian hemp.

Babitch’s counsel, Mr. H. B.

Gibson, told the magistrate, Mr. R. A.

Kearsley, that Babitch deeply re gretted jeopardising the good reputa tion of the Peace Corps.

Passing sentence, Mr. Kearsley said: “Bearing in mind both my duty to impose a severe deterrent sentence and Mr. Gibson’s assurance that the accused will be sent out of Fiji at the earliest possible opportunity I impose a fine of $2OO, in default three months imprisonment”.

Evidence was given that Babitch’s room was searched and a quantity of Indian hemp found, together with a bamboo pipe. There were four cigarettes of hemp already rolled, all found in a cupboard and suitcase in the room. Total weight of the hemp was 1,622 grains.

Babitch was said to have told police

he had grown Indian hemp at a place where he was formerly living in Nasea. The police visited the place and found some very small plants growing in the garden.

Mr. Gibson said he personally knew that Babitch had worked very hard for the Labasa Farmers’ Co operative Association, to which he was assigned in January, He had arrived in Fiji last December.

The magistrate, Mr. Kearsley, said there was no question of drug-taking being introduced to Fiji by the Peace Corps. “Drug addiction was present in this country long before the Peace Corps came here, let that be clearly understood,” he added.

No drug racket

The director of the Peace Corps in Fiji, Mr. John Hurley, issued a statement in which he said that the Peace Corps would not tolerate or condone the use of marihuana and other illegal drugs by volunteers.

“The case in which a Peace Corps volunteer in Fiji pleaded guilty to a charge of possession of Indian hemp was a clear violation of the Peace Corps standards in this regard, as well as local law,” he said.

“The volunteer concerned will be immediately dismissed from Peace Corps service in Fiji and will return to the United States.”

The statement added that it was deeply regrettable that “such an incident inevitably detracts from the good work being done by the great majority of the volunteers here”.

Prior to the case, Fiji’s Police Com missioner, Mr. R. T. M, Henry, con firmed that police knew that opium and marihuana were being used in Fiji but he said there were no indications of a large-scale racket.

An upsurge in the abuse of drugs might make it necessary for police to form a specialist squad. However, this was not needed at present.

Mr. Henry was commenting after Australian artist Brett Whitely was fined $5O in a Suva court on a pos session of drugs charge.

The artist, who had been living and painting in Fiji for several months, admitted having .4 grams of prepared opium.

Fiji community leaders are ex tremely concerned over the drug scare, although the problem doesn’t appear to be widespread. They have called for community co-operation in mounting a campaign against drug addiction. It has been suggested that a special committee be formed to educate young people about the dangers of drug-taking, to help cure those already addicted and to help the police catch those peddling drugs.

• What's daily life on Pitcairn Island like? Can outsiders easily go there to live? These questions are answered in an article in the latest issue of "Pitcairn Miscellany", the

monthly news-sheet published

on the island. Here is what the article says:

"What we miss on the

roundabout, we gain

on the swing"

Pitcairn is a rock in the Paci fic five miles round and two miles through. It lies half-way between New Zealand and America. Three thousand miles of open ocean separate Pitcairn

from them; a few archipelagos

lie to the north and the southern seas are empty to the ice-caps of Antarctica.

You may feel you would like to settle here; but only seldom is per mission granted by the Governor in Fiji as the only housing on the island, apart from private homes and the schoolhouse, is the government hostel presently occupied by two members of the Volunteer Service Abroad Scheme of New Zealand.

The climate here is ideal. The summer heat is generally moderated by sea breezes and there is no real winter by comparison with most of the outside world.

Bountiful valleys

The hills and valleys are beautiful and coconut palms and banana trees are scattered widely around the island. In fact tropical fruits of one variety or another are plentiful all year round and citrus fruits and most vegetables are plentiful in season and are grown in the well-kept and care fully tended gardens of every family of the island.

Fresh meat is not plentiful although generally a little may be purchased or traded from the calling ships. However, the fish supply is abundant and what could be better than a piece of fish fresh from the sea into the pan?

There used to be a number of wild goats but in recent years their num bers have decreased. Most families now have at least one pet goat at their houses. Recently Mavis, Jacob,

Len and Thelma went goat hunting and killed six of the last remaining 12 wild goats.

However, this does not mean the near extinction of goats on Pitcairn as it is reported that many of the Islanders intend building pens at Ten Side and Outa Valley and will breed meat.

The island now has its own electric power but this was not brought about by necessity because of the lack of fuel as some readers imagine. Wood is plentiful on the island. Roseapple wood is widely used for fires and it grows so quickly in these tropical conditions that supply is far in excess of demand.

Most cooking is still done per the medium of wood. Most homes have what is known as a hob, an open fire with iron bars across it on which the pots are placed, and also a stone oven.

The electric power, however, is a boon for the community, providing lighting and power to run washing machines which many of the homes now have and electric irons, etc.

The island has two telephone lines —one “government line” for those holding government positions and a private line for the rest of the com munity. It is an excellent means of communication on the island where the homes are scattered over a fairly wide area, as if one has imnortant news to convey, you just put through a “long ring” and everyone picks up their phone and listens.

And now a few lines about the children of the island.

At present there are 17 children

at the school ranging in age between 6i and 16 years. Sixteen of the children are receiving their primary education and one girl, Glenda Young, is doing a secondary school correspondence course from New Zealand.

In school the children play as a group and it is not uncommon to round a bend on the island in out of-school hours and find most of them, if not all, participating in a game of softball or cops ’n robbers.

Healthy life

Then too, they spend a great deal of time swimming, almost year-round, either down at Bounty Bay or at “Isaacs”, which are a group of rock pools down below the Mission House, ranging from good-sized ones suitable for swimming and diving to small ones suitable for young babies.

One might think the children here miss out on most of the good things offering in the outside world. How ever I think not. They live on a beautiful island, enjoy a superb climate in an atmosphere almost free of contagious diseases, including the common cold.

Admittedly they do not (except for those who have been away to New Zealand for short periods) know what city life is, but then on the other hand there are many country and city children in other countries who have never seen the sea or a big ship.

What the Pitcairn children miss on the roundabout, they gain on the swing.

Swimming at Bounty Bay.