Will Vavau's latert airfield be third time unlucky?

Prom a Vavau correspondent

The people of Vavau, Tonga,

are currently wondering if third time lucky will prove true of their long awaited airfield. As the 1970 estimates have allotted $T37,900 for the Vavau field, they have some reason to hope; but they have, too, a long history

of disappointments.

The first field built on the top of the cliffs beyond the village of Leimatua was finished late in 1967 and several trial landings were made by Beechcraft planes carrying gov ernment officials. However the field never came into general use, for inspectors sent out by the British Government (which financed the field) condemned it. Up-currents of air could catch a plane and cause it to be dashed to pieces against the cliffs, they decided.

As the site had been chosen by a British airfield expert and was no fault of Tongan officials, the British Government agreed to build another field.

In 1969 a site about H miles inland from the first field was surveyed and partly cleared. But work was delayed from month to month until, without any official reason being given, it became clear that the project had been abandoned.

Now, for the third time, a site has been chosen and in June was surveyed. This time it is an entirely

different location—on the south side of the main island near the village of Makave. At first glance it seems even less promising than former sites; for it is to run over the small island of Tulie and surrounding tidal flats, and will require a vast amount of dredging as well as the removal of several small hills on Tulie and the mainland.

The change of location for the field is generally attributed to the recent interest of King Taufa’ahau in strips running out into the sea, and his desire to save all possible cultivable land for agricultural purposes.

Whatever reasons, political or otherwise, the Vavau people are showing little of the enthusiasm that they displayed over the previous fields. Undoubtedly their interest would revive quickly were work to be actually started. In the meantime, they are wondering if third time will be lucky or unlucky.

Chief Justice of Papua-New Guinea in succession to Sir Alan Mann, who died in June, is Mr. Justice J. P.

Minogue. The new Chief Justice has been a Supreme Court judge in the territory since 1962. Senior puisne judge of the Supreme Court is Mr.

Justice S. T. Frost.

A fine-looking airstrip, this one at Vavau.

But it was the first one, and it can't be used.