South Seas in a nutshell

Record flight to Rabaul A crowd of over 1,000 chanting children greeted woman pilot Mrs.

Jerrie Mock when she landed in Rabaul on October 31, having flown from San Francisco to Rabaul in a single engined Cessna 206. On the way she broke a speed record for her plane by flying the 535 miles from Honiara to Rabaul in 265 minutes.

The single-engined $lB,OOO plane will be used by the Catholic Mission in the Siar and Manga areas. Major amount of the cost of the plane was raised by American entertainer Bob Hope who ran a benefit show for this cause. . , Mrs. Mock was to rest in Rabaul for a couple of days before returning to America and the aircraft was to be flown to Goroka for refitting before taking up its duties in South ern New Ireland.

Penal settlement memorial Norfolk Island is to celebrate the 1970 bi-centenary of Captain Cook’s discovery of the east coast of Australia. Their historical society proposes to erect a cairn at Kingston in honour of Lieutenant Philip Gidley King and his party who landed there on March 6, 1788, to establish the first penal settlement, in similar style to the Captain Cook memorial erected in 1953 at Buncombe Bay, where Cook is believed to have landed when he discovered Norfolk in 1774.

The official opening of the museum at Kingston will take place next year, and a large number of documents, photographs and other historical items have been assembled. Classifica tion of the material is now under way.

The Norfolk Island Flora and Fauna Society has proposed that the national park at Mt. Pitt be named the James Cook National Park, and other activities proposed are the rais ing of the large anchor believed to belong to the Sirius which was dis covered by skindivers in 1965 and participation by Norfolk Island in a special exhibition at the Sydney Royal Easter Show.

Five Gilbertese drown Five Gilbertese from Titiana a Gilbertese migrants’ village on Gizo Island in the Solomons, were drowned in early October after the canoe they

were paddling capsized. They were 60-year-old Beneta, her daughter, two grand-children and a one-year-old baby. The two canoes with two families on board, had reached the reef after paddling from Babanga, two miles from Gizo, when one of the canoes struck the reef and capsized.

Cycling round the Pacific New Caledonia’s recent 12-day bicycle race around the island has been the springboard for a number of cyclist exchanges in the Pacific.

Three Tahitians came over for the Caledonian trial, as well as two men each from Australia and NZ, and the 750 miles of gruelling stony roads and dust (less than one-quarter of the route was sealed), made it, said some, one of the toughest bicycle races in the world.

Twenty-two men finished the race, out of 26 starters, while thousands lined the route to Noumea over the last 29 mile lap, to give a tremendous welcome as the men finished one by one with a round of the speed track.

The first two Caledonians home— Jean-Louis Clemen and Joseph de Maria—were subsequently sponsored to compete in the Sydney-Goulburn 112 mile race on October 11. With rather heavy handicaps, the two Caledonians finished 27th and 34th in a field of some 60 cyclists.

Eight Caledonians were expected to participate in the six-day Auckland- Wellington race in November.

"Bisnis" in New Guinea A newsletter called Bisnis began recently to give news of the functions and services of the Business Advisory Service in P-NG. Purpose of the newsletter is to encourage more people in the territory to go into business. Although the first issue contains an article by a Papua-New Guinea University professor, the level of expression will usually be kept simple and direct; Bisnis will also sometimes appear in Pidgin.

New Zealand waves visas American citizens excluding Ameri can Samoans can now enter New Zealand without visas or permits for 30 days stay for pleasure, business or entertainment purposes. But they must hold confirmed return or onward tickets. (Continued on p. 145)

Spear fishing tragedy

A French diver was drowned dur ing an underwater fishing contest out side the Noumea reef on Sunday, Dctober 19.

He was Jean-Marc Moret, 33, con struction engineer, who was compet ing with the Noumea Underwater Diving Club.

The contest was abandoned when Vloret failed to respond to artificial -espiration, after his team-mate Claude Bariller had found him float ng face down in the water. He left i widow and small child.

Pressure for Lord Howe strip Captain S. C. Middlemiss, of Air ines of NSW, told the Lord Howe island Committee in October he was concerned at the apparent lack of efforts on the part of Islanders and he government to have the planned urstrip constructed on the island.

Fhe operation of the flying-boat ser vice was becoming increasingly dif icult, and he felt Islanders should igitate in every possible way to have construction started.

Rarotonga airstrip too short?

A member of the New Zealand Parliament complained in October hat the proposed jet strip to be milt at Rarotonga, in the Cooks, vould be too short at 7,500 ft to ;ake some of the big aircraft required.

But he was told by Minister of Fransport, Mr. Gordon, that the Government had stipulated hat this was to be the maximum ength of the airstrip. The airstrip, lowever, was expected to be able to ake DCB’s and Boeing 707’s, and vas only 1,000 ft shorter than the me at Mangere, NZ.

Shallow graves mystery

The graves of more than 10 people vere uncovered in a 50 yards space n Mendana Avenue, Honiara, British Solomons, recently. A fore nan in charge of a road works gang nade the discovery. They were in a hallow grave, four to six feet apart; here was nothing in the graves to dentify them but possibly they could lave died in the war. The graves vere filled in again by the road gang. lAL looks to the Pacific New Zealand is included in plans dr Japan Air Lines to extend its outes to the South Pacific, a senior ice-president of the company, Mr. ihigaru Inamasu, said in October.

AL plans to fly from Australia and 'JZ to the Pacific Islands and on to apan, but Mr. Inamasu gave no oute details.