From the Islands Press

M M a three mile by five h mile island, must people ■ ■ hurry when all the time saved would amount to perhaps a minute or two? Must anyone get from one end of the island to the other in five minutes instead of the eight or so it takes to travel the roads as they now exist—unless he breaks the speed limit? Please councillors, keep Norfolk Island roads a little narrow and curvy for beauty’s sake.— Editorial in the “Norfolk Islander”.

MISS Suseni Liliko of Burugia Village, Small Gela, has sup plied a story about a freak coconut tree. She said a young tree about 3 ft high was found at Sele Point opposite Mandoliana Island. The tree had four palm fronds and was bearing seven young fruit. The tree was brought back to the village and Miss Liliko planted it in a bucket where everyone could see it. After two weeks it was replanted in the spot where it was originally from and this is now, according to local custom, a sacred place.— ltem in BSIP newssheet.

A HIGHLY dangerous practice has been reported for which wartime ammunition is being used. Several people have heard a number of ex plosions in the Bumburu area of Honiara recently and the bomb dis posal expert reports that an un exloded 105 millimetre shell has been removed from a burnt out tree in the same area. It seems that people are placing old shells in trees and lighting a fire as a quicker way than cutting down the trees to clear the land. Any explosion which follows, kills the tree, but is also a danger to life and surrounding property,— Report in BSIP newssheet.

I AM very much interested in reading the newssheet. It is tremendous work which everyone admires very much. Some of the articles in the sheet are quite easy to read and readers enjoy reading them because they understand English well. But some articles which my complaint is based on are written in very complicated English. This often makes reading them hard and boring. For instance Mr. Francis Bugotu’s article in No. 11 was really

difficult. I can honestly say that I did not understand what it was about after I read it several times.— Letter from Philemon Kesaka in BSIP newssheet. |TOW many listeners to Fiji Forum on Radio Fiji on August 23 must have felt ashamed at the response to the question, “Should we have licensed brothels in Fiji?” The audience and some of the panel treated the subject as a huge joke, as if the question were on a par with, “Should we put a tax on cane knives?”

If a man were to drive through one of our towns at 60 mph knock ing people down right and left, we would not laugh. Yet he would be only destroying bodies. The male who a prostitute for his own selfish gratification is contributing to the destruction of a total personality.— Letter from George A. Knight in '‘The Fiji Times”.

I WOULD humbly urge the censors to put their foot down and clip out the scenes and acts from films which make them filthy and un suitable for younger folks to enjoy.

What is good for ultra-modern countries like Australia, Britain and the US, is not good enough for Fiji, because, with their modernism, these countries have turned corrupt. To keep Fiji free from pollution we will have to keep the mind unpolluted.

If the mind is unpolluted, the thoughts will be pure and the very actions that follow will be pure and wholesome.— Extract of letter from J. L. Dass to “The Fiji Times”.

SEVEN Ndui Ndui men were on their way by boat on July 25 when they caught a large un identifiable fish on the end of their fishing line. Only when the men stabbed at the fish with knives did it raise its sail, allowing them to recognise it as a sailfish. The fish thrashed about with its sail so much that the men were obliged to abandon their boat, which soon became filled with water. After a half hour’s struggle, they managed to kill the fish which was about nine feet long. Fish ■ M story in British newsletter, IB H Vila. y j