From the Islands Press

M M rpHE perils of living in Mg A -I- paradise ... A man was strolling in the grounds of a Suva hotel when he heard a swishing sound in the air above him. A second later he was sent reeling and his glasses were smashed. He had been the victim of a bunch of five coconuts which had broken loose from a palm.—Beach comber in “Fiji Times”.

THE first consignment of new 12sided 50 cent pieces has arrived in the Solomons at the ANZ Bank in Honiara. The manager, Mr. Harry Mozley, said that $4OO worth of the new coins had arrived and would be put into circulation as needed.

The new coins have been intro duced because the original 50 cent piece, which was brought out when Australia changed to decimal cur rency, is very close in size and ap pearance to the 20 cent piece, and mistakes were being made.

The new 50 cent pieces have been in use in Australia for some time, and a spokesman for the Common wealth Trading Bank said that as the old ones had not been made for a long time, they would become scarce, and would probably become a collec tor’s item.— ltem in “BSIP News sheet”.

THE Director of Police earnestly requests parents not to permit children to ride on bicycles which are too large for them to control effectively and they should also dis courage the practice of several children riding on one bicycle as it is dangerous.— ltem in the “Nauru Bulletin”.

LAST Friday evening the Police on Betio carried out an unusual operation in order to assess the number of juveniles wandering or sleeping rough late at night. The idea was to take the*e juveniles into police protection in order to interview and give advice to them and their parents.

The police parties, accomoanied by the Welfare Officer, Mr. Derek Andrewartha, set out at 11.30 p.m.

By 12.30 a.m, they had rounded up 27 juveniles and a further eight were found by 2 a.m. Saturday morning.

It was 2.30 a.m. before all the children under 10 years old had been collected.

The remainder were eventually taken to their homes by the police.

Without exception the parents or guardians were unable to a give a reasonable explanation as to why

their child was allowed to roam round at night. Furthermore, most appeared to be only too anxious to get back to sleep and were not interested in the advice given them. —ltem in GEIC “Information Notes”.

IWAS interested to read an item on the subject of “Misbehaviour in public places: an increasing offence on South Tarawa”. In my view, some form of experiments should be undertaken to minimise the increasing offences on South Tarawa and in the Colony as a whole. Apparently, from time to time one meets people in the street who say that conditions in prisons are so much better nowa days that some people do purposely try to get into prisons because they get better treatment there than if they were staying out of prison. I do not stress this as a fact, but it is a point worth keeping in mind,— Letter, in part, in the GEIC “Infor mation Notes”.

THE Marianas District voted over whelmingly in favour of rein tegration with Guam and becoming

a territory of the United States.

More than 3,000 of 4,954 eligible voters turned out for the election, choosing by nearly two to one reintegration with Guam over a second option of becoming a free associated state in partnership with the US. . . . Write-in ballots gave five votes for continuing as a Trust Territory, one for commonwealth status, one for joining Japan.

GUAM turned down a move towards reintegration with the Trust Territory’s Marianas District.

With one third of Guam’s registered voters casting ballots, unofficial results were 3,720 votes against and 2,688 for reintegration. Both items from US Trust Territory “High lights”.

WE already know that nobody fails standard 6 primary school.

Some only make the grade with an E pass which is hardly an entry certificate to Oxford. But they do pass for the record—or is it a

statistic? What fascinates me though are the number of standard 6 passers who are unable to correctly address an envelope for the mail and who, when called upon to sign their name, invariably print it.— Ani Torehai, in “ Post-CourierPort Moresby.

PEOPLE in the eastern outer islands do not appear to be taking as much care over drying their copra as they have at other times previously. This is the view of the agricultural officer, eastern, Mr. C. Johnson, who, according to the Eastern District News, believes that the islanders are in such a hurry to sell that they are not cooking the copra properly, and are putting it in bags before it has cooled.

Mr. Johnson says that in recent years the quality of the copra from here has been very good with 95 per cent, qualified as first grade. In the past three or four months, how ever, the quality has dropped con siderably, and a large proportion is only second or third grade, and some is even being rejected.— ltem in “BSIP Newssheet”.

OERHAPS the toughest staff problem facing the Administra tion just now is to find a new Com missioner of Police. . . . The prob lem about looking for someone outside Australia is that most top cops in the South Pacific and Asian region are fairly devout colonialists who wouldn’t be too popular here.— Douglas Lockwood in the “Post- Courier Port Moresby.

Councillor Bathie drew the attention of his fellow council lors to the fact that the specie of turtle found in Norfolk Island waters was being threatened by indi scriminate killing by spear fishermen and others.

He advised that he was inves tigating as to whether these turtles would be protected under the Com monwealth Fisheries Act. In the meantime, fishermen, spare a thought for the part that you could be playing in the possible extermination of these quaint marine ■■ mm creatures.— ltem in “The B 3 'm Norfolk Islander* J