South Seas in a nutshell

A. Samoa reserve police

authority revoked

Following complaints from the public and a personal inquiry by Attorney - General of American Samoa, Thomas K. Thorpe, the zountry’s police reserve has been abolished. Mr. Thorpe issued an arder revoking all authority of the reserve police including the right to :arry side-arms, the power of arrest zither than as ordinary citizens, and :he right to operate personal cars as emergency vehicles with flashing lights and horns.

But Mr. Thorpe instructed Police Chief Moaali’itele Tu’ufuli to make a study of the reserve operation for several weeks and then discuss with him whether it should be re established and the men given proper training. He said it was possible the reserve police, with proper training, might help the police department re duce overtime, by working at crowd control during holidays and special events.

Tarawa reclamation Work began in December on re claiming 800 acres of land in the Temaiku area, between Bikenibeu and Bonriki, South Tarawa, in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. Britain has approved a grant of $25,000 for the colony’s airfield construction team, under Major B. O. Bown, to do the job. When completed, it’s hoped to plant coconuts, casuarina and other trees on the new land.

Better communications for the Cooks Rarotonga’s new communications centre in Avarua was officially opened on November 26 by the High Commissioner, Mr. L. I. Davis, and the Premier of the Cooks, Mr. A.

R. Henry. Mr. Davis then had brief telephone conversations with New Zealand’s Minister of Maori and Islands Affairs, Mr. Duncan Mclntyre.

The ceremony took place in the recently constructed extension to the Government and Post Office block which houses a new telephone ex change and a new overseas telephone, A two-storey structure of steel and reinforced concrete, it is connected by underground telephone and radio cables to a recently completed radio

receiving station in the Arorangi district, about eight miles away.

The service was hastened by the advent of Rarotonga’s international jet airport because of the urgent need of giving airport contractors efficient communications.

By the New Year it was hoped to connect overseas telephone calls to private line subscribers in their Rarotonga homes, and on December 1 the telegraph circuit between the Cook Islands and New Zealand changed from the hand-operated morse system to the much faster teleprinter. It was expected that the international Telex system would be installed soon.

P-NG Public Service tribunal Appointed members of the new Public Services Conciliation and Arbitration Tribunal for Papua-New Guinea are: chairman, Mr. L. G.

Matthews; members, Mr. E. G.

Deverall, Mr. S. G. Hastings; assistant members, Mr. Kwamala Kalo, Mr.

Gavera Rea, Dr. Reuben Taureka and Mr. To Meriba Tomolaka.

The new tribunal will replace the present Public Service Arbitrator, following recommendations by two experts appointed by the government to examine the present system. Mr.

Matthews will continue as Public Service Arbitrator until the tribunal begins.

P-NG University's first degree

The University of Papua-New Guinea has awarded its first degree to a student, Robin Stanley O’Regan, who becomes a Master of Laws for a thesis entitled “The Reception of the Common Law in Papua and New Guinea.”

Mr. O’Regan’s thesis was examined by professors from London, Mel bourne and Singapore and was highly commended as an original piece of work. He has been a candidate for the degree since early 1967 when he first joined the university as a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Law. Prior to that he spent a number of years in the territory in private practice in Rabaul and working in the Crown Law Department. The degree will probably be conferred in mid-1970 at the first ceremony to confer this honour.