South Seas in a nutshell

icific population

Some interesting facts on popula m and the Pacific are revealed in April United Nations hand-out. reveals that of the seven nations the world with the highest popu ions, five of them have direct cess to the Pacific. They are China, e Soviet Union, the United States, donesia and Japan. Only India and ikistan stay outside.

Total population of these countries 1,383 million —and they face :eania (islands adjacent to and thin the Pacific) which has a total ipulation of just 18.5 million.

The information, taken from the N’s Demographic Yearbook, also veals, however, that Oceania has ic of the world’s highest birth-rates 2 per cent., only surpassed by Prica and Latin America (2.9 per nt. and 2.4 per cent.).

ixon praises Fitiutans

The villagers of Fitiuta on Ta’u, merican Samoa, have been praised r President Nixon for their efforts reach a downed plane which made forced landing on a reef there cently.

Manua District Governor, Misaale a T., has received the following tter signed by the President “The jroic actions of the people of itiuta in their effort to assist the lot of a plane which had crashed i a reef near their village has come i my attention and I want to com end them for their bravery. I under and that despite very rough seas, the Hagers and a doctor set out in a ng boat for the reef and that some ,en were nearly drowned when the lat was demolished by waves. I hope 5u will convey to the villagers my jep appreciation for their courage id unselfishness.”

uam-Nauru by telephone

A radio-telephone service between ruam and Nauru recently began perating, under arrangements with merican Telephone and Telegraph ompany. The rate is 53.60 per linute.

outh Pacific Games delay

The Fourth South Pacific rames has been postponed two eeks—now from September 8 to 19 ext year—because hotel bookings >r tourists in Papeete in the selected eriod are particularly heavy.

Manpower seminar

A seminar on “Manpower planning in the South Pacific” will be held at the University of the South Pacific, Suva, from July 15 to 18. Organisers hope to get an “international figure” to deliver a survey paper.

"Cabbage" on the mend “Cabbage” is on the mend. Such is the news from the Solomons Atoifi Adventist hospital on Malaita.

A malnourished child, “truly a living skeleton”, who weighed 9 lb 7 oz at 13 months old, is now eating enthusiastically and putting on pounds from a special infant food prepared at the hospital’s new diet kitchen.

For an unexplained reason, every body at the hospital calls the child “Cabbage”.

Hotel for sale on Nauru The Government of Nauru has put up for sale the half-completed hotel described in last month’s PIM (p. 39) as a “white elephant”. The hotel, formerly owned by Pacific Sporting Pools Ltd. and Central Pacific Hotels Ltd. which were wound up in October last year, is described as including “certain construction and other materials, furnishings and other equipment, already purchased and on the site or installed.

“The structure, which is situated on land held on a 25 year lease from October 31, 1968, is located at the south-eastern tip of Anibare Bay within two miles of the airfield, on a site commanding fine views of the foreshore, and is well placed to take advantage of any tourist potential of the island”. It may not be a “white elephant” much longer. 150 starfish caught That $3 starfish bounty offered by the Nauruan Government had cost them $450 by March 16. Crown of thorns starfish caught by that date numbered 150 and fishermen and enthusiasts were showing no signs of flagging in efforts to catch this profitable, 20-legged fellow. The crown of thorns starfish has been accused of destroying large areas of reef, and the Nauruan Government appears to be taking no chances on that score.

A start on Aitutaki's water scheme Work has begun on the Cook Island of Aitutaki’s water supply scheme, designed by Mr. A. L.

jrstensen, second public health ineer of the South Pacific Colli sion, and costing SNZ3O,OOO.

Tie water will be drawn from p wells equipped with automated :tric submersible pumps lowered yn the wells and controlled by :trodes installed in well - head •rvoirs.

monster spearing

K 440-lb groper was caught by . Gilbert Bonnefant off the beach Koumac, Noumea, recently. Mr, inefant speared the giant, nearly feet long, during an underwater ing party. The fish fought for eral hours before it could be ded. riculture in New Hebrides iVork is well in progress on the Iding of an agricultural depart nt to Onesua High School in •th-east Efate in the New Hebrides, part of the scheme to increase icultural knowledge in the country, ) additional acres of school pro ty are being made available for tivation, more cattle are being im •ted for breeding and a further ) acres is being devoted to live ck training of pupils. Cost of the icme has been met partly by the undation of the Peoples of the nth Pacific. w Sydney branch of Foundation A Sydney branch of the Founda n for the Peoples of the South cific, a fund-raising organisation inched in the US, has been opened Sydney to handle general opera ns. It is under the administra n of Mr. Bill O’Donnell, who is qualified accountant. phoid outbreak in Gilberts A. typhoid outbreak in the Gilbert d Ellice Islands has resulted in the iss vaccinating of children and ults. Nine cases of typhoid were covered recently and investiga ns showed that a surprising num r of islanders had immunity. As munity can only be achieved by ving had the disease in the past • by vaccination) it is now thought it mild typhoid has been wide read in the area for some time.

iol for drunk police

Two young policemen who had en drinking, took a police vehicle r a midnight drive around Suva, id crashed in it. Both were gaoled r three months and barred from fding a driving licence for a year.

The men were trapped inside the hide when it crashed and had to :eive hospital treatment. Both said

>y were very drunk and did not ow what they were doing when ;y took the vehicle.

YG radio priorities

A list for establishing more P-NG [ministration radio stations has ;n set up; the towns in order of iority are Madang, Lae, Popon tta, Kundiawa, Port Moresby, ivieng, Mendi, Kimbe, Vanimo d Lorengau. i Airways makes a profit For the first time, this year and t, Fiji Airways has made a small Dfit. Chairman, Captain G. U. len reported in March that the line was now out of the red.

He said that after running at a >s, the airline, in which six South cific governments and three inter tional airlines are partners, reached ; break-even point two years ago.

“It has been agreed among the ajor shareholders that instead of ying a dividend, we will deflect □fits towards the improvement of rvices and, as soon as it is pos )le, in adjustments to fares where omalies occur,” he said, book and stamps from Fiji A 100 years of organised postal rvice in Fiji will be commemorated November this year. A year before e government ran postal services Fiji, on November 1, 1870, The ji Times began to run a postal rvice. The stamps issued then, “The iji Times Express” stamps, have >w become valuable collectors’ ;ms. The centenary will be com emorated by the issue of three amps, in denominations of 4 mts, 15 cents and 20 cents, and will 5 available on November 2.

The Philatelic Society of Fiji will iblish a book about the same time ititled Stamps and postal history of iji from 1870 to 1875.

Two other special stamps will be sued in Fiji in 1970—one in April • May commemorating the closing : Makogai as a leper colony; and ie other in July covering discoverers id explorers of Fiji.

No doubt, if Fiji does become a >minion this year, there will be Jfier stamps to commemorate that. pprentice scheme as memorial Fletcher Construction Co. in New ealand is offering two apprenticeship :holarships to Western Samoans in lemory of two Samoan Fletcher mployees who died in the plane rash at Faleolo in January.

The scholarships will be worth bout $4OO each, with air fares paid > NZ and subsidised accommodation i the first year.