Land development

could make these Fijians rich

If Fiji’s Native Land Trust Board approves the massive de

velopment programme proposed

for the 128-acre, Denarau

Island, by the California-based

Commercial Investment Proper ties Ltd., the Fijian owners of the land could become very

wealthy indeed.

Details of the proposed develop ment—which has an ultimate goal of 1,000-1,200 rooms contained in five hotels, costing an estimated $lO million and upwards—were released in Suva in April by the firm’s man aging director, Mr. Dennis McElrath.

He has been based in Fiji since last August.

He said the lease proposal sub mitted was consistent with the present NLTB policy relating to leases for tourist development. “This includes annual ground rental based upon gross income receipts and participa tion in the profits by the land owners”, he said.

Under its stringent new regula tions, the NLTB lays down that in the case of land to be developed for tourism, the Fijian owners must receive or be able to buy a minimum of 10 per cent, participation of shares.

Big money

This means, in the case of Denarau Island, that ultimately the Fijian owners (there are 11 mataqalis, con sisting of 461 people) of the land could also own up to $1 million worth of shares in the development.

In addition, they would be paid a basic annual rent for the land of 2i per cent, of the yearly gross turnover. Not profits—turnover.

It’s possible too that there would be at least one Fijian representative of the landowners on the board of directors.

First step in the proposed project is the building of a S 4 million, 300-room hotel on a beach-edged 25-acre site on Denarau, which is located at the westerly tip of Nadi Bay. The hotel would be managed, said Mr. McElrath, by Sky Chefs Incorporated, a subsidiary of Ameri can Airlines.

M M npHE Henganofi Local m A A Government Council in the Eastern Highlands wants to make a rule to stop people crying for a dead person in their village.

I think this is a good idea because this type of thing has been going on all over Papua and New Guinea for too long. In West New Britain this custom of mourning has been prac tised for years. I think that a person should mourn for a dead person from another village for two nights only.

The unfortunate thing is that the longer the mourning continues, the more it costs. Also, the more time people spend mourning, the less time can be given to work on the gardens or the plantations. This means loss of money, because there is not enough production.

We should wake up to the fact that our country is advancing through the efforts of its new farmers who cannot afford to spend three or more nights mourning. Letter from Phillip Vakore in “Our News”, Port Moresby.

IT won’t be long before we run out of the law of averages—with resultant more major, less minor, road accidents. An ordinance which gives a 16-year-old a licence and provides him with the authority to hire a car which requires a speed greater than the island’s speed limit to get into second gear, needs some revision to ensure that the driver knows more than which gear does what.

With 1,300 private vehicles, 116 private hire cars and numerous other type vehicles using our 100 miles of road, safety for the immature driver (both junior and senior) whose reflexes have no need to be sharpened by the contingencies of emergency, is now a thing of the past. —Editorial in “The Norfolk Islander”.

CHARLES and Charlotte had a lucky escape on the sth. Heavy rains had been experienced earlier in the week following a rather long “dry”. They decided, as it had cleared up, to go down “Rope”, cut some thatch for basket making and do some fishing.

They had spent quite a time cutting the thatch and had moved onto the rocks further along the beach when with one almighty crash a huge land slide came down, completely cover ing their cut thatch, baskets and slashers and covering a good third of the beach.

Luck was certainly on their side that day as had they left their move

much longer that would have certainly been the end of Charlotte and Charles. —Item from February’s “Pitcairn Miscellany”.

THE “plague” scare which spread over Guam and the TT during the last weekend of March has been proven unfounded. News report from Guam said that Jesuit Brother William Conmiller, 27, of Ponape, had died on March 26, of possible plague.

The national communicable disease centre at Fort Collins, Colorado, notified the Guam Memorial Hospital that the cause of death of Brother Cronmiller was not due to the plague but to a very rare non-contagious disease. —Item from “Highlights”, the Trust Territory newssheet.

UNDERSTAND Mount Pitt was like Pitt Street at mid-day last Saturday morning. Those of us who

From the Islands Press

didn’t make it to the mountain, had just as much excitement, mingled with apprehension as the astronauts came into earth’s atmosphere, stand ing out in the garden in dressing gown and slippers with transistor clutched firmly in hand listening to the module to module broadcast.

“A dirty big black”, as Tom called the cloud bank which got in the way just at the crucial moment, did not give us the clear view that viewers on Mount Pitt told us they had, but we did see the fast moving orange coloured light disappear into the aforesaid “dirty big black”. —ltem in “The Norfolk Islander”.

INDICATIONS are that Lord Howe Island is in for a very quiet winter as far as tourism is concerned.

Present indications are that most of the guest lodges will be closed as from June 9 until early August. The airline claims that if guest lodges close, a fortnightly service is enough. . . . The guest lodges claim that if there is only a plane service every two weeks, tourists will not come, so the accommodation might just as well be closed! —ltem from Lord Howe’s “Signal”.

IT has been reported that work on the Tuapa Pastor’s new house has been considerably slowed up because there has been some dis agreement in the village as to which project should be done first: The

water scheme, or the pastor’s house.

A call for voluntary working was arranged for Wednesday but un fortunately not many people turned up. The village leaders are trying to reach a satisfactory agreement as to the best way of tackling the two projects without hindering or delay ing the progress of either. It is possible that both projects may be physically carried out at the same time, but finance is a problem as the money for both projects has mainly to come from voluntary contributions from the people of the village. —ltem in “Tohi Tala Niue”.

LISTENING to a radio programme the other evening which dis cussed a common name for the multi racial citizens of Fiji, I thought of a suggestion I might offer. When Captain Cook asked the name of these lovely islands, he thought they

said, “Feejee”, when in fact it was “Viti”.

To concoct the name “Vitinese” would not only provide one that slips off the tongue easily but also be more historically accurate, and actually incorporate Fijian (Viti), Indian (in) and Chinese (nese). If the European feels left out, he can always claim the last letter. —Letter from Miss E. MacDonald to “The Fiji Times”.

ALIVE, healthy rhinoceros beetle may be worth 10 cents. That word came today from the Depart ment of Agriculture which said as many as 1,000 beetles are needed for research by the United Nations- South Pacific Commission rhinoceros beetle project in Apia.

As the beetles are caught they should be put in a large, clean con tainer. Small segments of sugar cane should also be placed in the con tainer and it should be covered with a cover containing ample holes to admit plenty of air. —ltem in Ameri can Samoa's “News Bulletin”.

PRESIDENT Hammer Deßoburt has received a vessel containing particles of the surface of the moon collected there during the recent historic flight to the moon. The gift was made to His Excellency by the President of the US, Mr. mm ■■ Richard Nixon. —ltem from m; the “Nauru Bulletin”. m