The Editor's Mailbag

On Losing A Licence

Sir, —You might be interested to hear how the Otera Rarotonga (Rarotonga’s hotel) lost its liquor licence.

On Wednesday afternoon, Decem ber 9, the Premier, the Hon. A. R.

Henry, opened the new building that houses the Cook Islands Liquor Supplies. This is the new name for the Government Bond—the sole im porters of liquor into the Cook Islands. For the first time apparently in the Cook Islands a certain amount of intoxicating liquor was passed among the 200 invited guests follow ing the speeches to celebrate the opening. Had matters rested there, all would have been well.

But, an hour or so later, down the road in the hotel an official ceremony was held to farewell the NZ High Commissioner and his family who were going off on leave for two months. Once again 200 guests were invited. Now, with a limited number of people to draw upon to fill such an invitation list it was inevitable that a good number of people were invited to both functions.

The farewell to the High Com missioner was held in the verandah lounge. A short corridor length away was the Banana Court, the hotel’s bar. With a sizeable number of guests arriving in a cheerful frame of mind from the new liquor store opening, some avoided the verandah lounge and headed for the Banana Court and settled down to enjoy themselves. (Although the Banana Court is tech nically a house bar, it has been used by increasing numbers of local people during 1970 following the closing of the 27 unlicensed bars on the island.

This practice was apparently con doned by the Internal Affairs Depart ment who run the hotel.) Anyway, by the time speeches were being made on the verandah a certain amount of noise was coming down the corridor to the distraction of both speakers and audience. At the con clusion of the ceremony the Premier stepped along to see what was going on and to his surprise and annoyance he saw drinking, singing and dancing, with a number of his intended guests leading the fun.

The following day, the Deputy High Commissioner, acting on the Premier’s advice, revoked the hotel’s liquor licence which had enabled bona fide guests to purchase and con sume liquor in the Banana Court.

This means that hotel guests who want to drink now have to buy their liquor from the liquor supplies store, something over a mile from the hotel, and once they have brought it back they have to cool it in the communal fridge (and watch it closely mean while) before drinking it in the privacy of their room. Drinking is not allowed elsewhere.

The fact that hotel guests them selves had no part in making the noise appears to have been ignored.

The noisy ones, who were described in the Cook Islands News as “men and women who hold dignified positions in our community, and government officials”, were not regular patrons of the Banana Court and its closing will not affect them.

So far, one loophole has been worked into the system. The crew of the NZGS Moana Roa called on the Premier to put their point of view and they now have a couple of rooms in the hotel where they can drink cold beer supplied by the hotel at liquor store prices. They can, if they like, invite hotel guests to join them.

From the long-term point of view the revocation of the licence means two things. Firstly, future visitors to the Cook Islands who intend staying at the Otera Rarotonga will be put to a certain amount of inconvenience before they can drink legally in their bedrooms (and anyone arriving on the Northern Star on a Saturday afternoon is in for a dry weekend).

Secondly, licensees of the yet-to-be built hotels had better keep the noise down in the bar.

Hardly the way to promote a tourist industry.

Mike Linden.

Otera Rarotonga, Rarotonga.

Geic Copra

Sir, —I refer to the article headed “GEIC copra plans seem doomed”, published in PIM (Nov., ’7O, p. 129).

All the evidence indicates that our copra plan is likely to be a success.

Although it is moving ahead more slowly than our first optimistic targets, it is nevertheless progressing faster than most such agricultural schemes in the less developed parts of the world.

As for the statement, “no resident will bet that the colony’s 30,000 tons output target by 1975, under its adopted development plan, can be

achieved”; this is understandable since in fact the development plan does not mention this target. The only statement made on this subject in the plan is that, “production at a postwar annual average of 7,000 tons is well below the territory’s theoretical maximum of 30,000”.

The Development Plan projects an output of 20,000 tons by 1986, which is 10,000 tons less and 10 years later than the “facts” quoted by your Tarawa correspondent. As the plan has only been under way since June this year, an operational time of five months is obviously insufficient to ascertain whether or not 1986 targets will be achieved.

The statement concerning copra producers’ earnings and tax payments is also incorrect. The copra board in 1970 is likely to pay out $1,060,000 to owner-occupier small producers of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. The amount will be broken down as follows: Paid to producers, $450,000; freight costs, $440,000; export duty, $170,000: Total, $1,060,000. The net value received for a ton of copra by the copra board before duty is paid is $ll7, not $l5O as stated in the article, and an average of $34 is paid in export duty. The board will therefore receive $1,025,000 from copra sales in 1970 and will sub sidise the price by $35,000. The amount of copra taxation is re cognisably high and ways and means of shifting the burden are at present being considered.

There is also an impression created by the article that the coconut planta tions of the Line Islands are efficient, whereas the groves of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands are inefficient, which is also a false one. This does not mean to say that improvements cannot be made and efforts are being made in every sector to in crease output by more efficient methods and by new planting, so that the production of copra may reach the target figure of 20,000 tons

by 1986.

R. T. Harberd.

Director of Agriculture, Tarawa.

Dec. 16, 1970.

Outboard Motor Maintenance

Sir,—As subscribers to your maga zine, and as a company involved in the Pacific region through sales of our Johnson and Evinrude outboard motors, we would like to mention an area of our operations which, we feel could be of interest to PIM readers Outboard Marine International is the regional office of Outboard Marine Corporation, of Waukegan, Illinois, the manufacturers of both Johnson

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md Evinrude outboard motors. Our Australian affiliate is Outboard darine Australia Pty. Ltd. of Canter iury Road, Bankstown, NSW.

From the Hong Kong office we over Asia and most of the Pacific, rith the major exceptions in the Pacific of P-NG, the New Hebrides, Solomons and New Caledonia.

When we say “cover this area” we mbrace a large range of duties and esponsibilities to our distributors and ic public. The most important, in ic eyes of the public, is the train ig of people within the area in the laintenance of our outboard motors.

We have service engineers who •ayel through the Pacific holding laintenance courses, of about two r eeks’ duration, in various centres, hese courses are financed by Out oard Marine and the local distribu >r, at no cost to the students.

During 1970 we have held schools i Truk, Majuro, Guam, Apia, Suva nd Lautoka.

Although the main aim is to pro ide courses for our distributors’ per >nnel, in most cases we have people om local vocational institutes, ades’ schools, government depart- Lents and the armed forces, in attend ee.

One of the problems we find in anning this type of school is that e cannot let everyone who may be terested know that such training is "ovided. Neither our distributors nor irselves can contact everyone and e find there is often some misunder anding about the nature of the >urses by local people.

We feel that these schools are not ily of general interest to the people the Pacific but that a little back ound in PIM will help us immeasur >ly in the future.

G. M. Shea,

Service Engineer. utboard Marine ternational SA, Hong Kong.

Death At Cairns

Sir, —A little item for your “Deaths Islands People” column. Lynn ilson of New Zealand, well known Wabag and Mt. Hagen and various ew Guinea goldfields, died here cently. I think he was well known members of PIM staff. Lynn was ic of the best.

Wishing continued success to PIM. ould be obliged if you would ndly pass my good wishes to the rand Old Man, RWR. I’m not so iung myself, 79.

Harry Dawkins

(once of New Hebrides). cLachlan St., urns, Queensland.