From the Islands Press

M 4 T HAVE seen several

A f 1 Papuans enjoying them

selves at Kamaleai and Harapa. Two of these came to visit their brother married at Kamaleai and in the course of time one of these wished to get married, but met with no luck. There are several of these Papuans and others married at Kama leai, Harapa and Laumana. To these and their kind I have a dull future to describe. Please understand that no matter who you are, if you marry a girl from these places and you have nothing back at your home to give in the way of land, you will be a com plete fool. Your silly wife will not give you much.

The Shortlands belong to the Shortlands people not to you. If Papuans cannot raise the $l,OOO or so to marry in their own place, they should not be a burden to others.

Please, can we stop the Papuan wife hunters? — Letter from D. Kane in BSIP news sheet, Honiara.

LAST Friday about 20 elderly men of Mapumai village dug a 10 ft wide trench from their taro swamp into the Makatea. The trench about H miles long, was last dug 70 years ago by these men’s grandfathers, to prevent flooding of the taro in heavy rains, but had silted up and become overgrown with weeds. The work was completed in about four hours and has safeguarded all the crops. In ap preciation, Clr. Upiri Matenga donated a large goat and others presented four large pigs and the old men were treated to a great umukai. —ltem in the “Cook Islands News”.

AROUND stone ball was found on South Malaita this month and was thought to be a fossilised coco nut (a fossil is a plant or animal from a very long time ago which has turned to a stone). A spokesman for the Geological Surveys Dept, says, how ever, that the stone ball is not a fossil. Stones like this are sometimes found in the Solomons and tests car ried out at the department have shown that they were formed long be fore coconut palms were found in the world.— ltem in BSIP news sheet, Honiara.

MAJURO ATOLL, a sleepy little turquoise kind of thing located in the middle of what everybody thought was the last place pollution would hit, has finally had it. The District Department of Health Services just spent the week putting up signs on the lagoon beach of the district centre warning that the water is con taminated and unsafe for swimming. . . . Credit for this wonderful job of cramping our lagoon is extended to everyone, of course, but special mention in the study report was made

of the leaking hospital sewage pipe line and the sewer line from the Mieco Hotel, which does not extend much beyond 15 yards from the shore.— ltem in the “Micronitor”, Majuro.

IT was a headache to me when I read the paragraph concerning the Malaita population. In years past, Malaita had a larger population than other districts, but the 1969 Census showed Malaita population has de creased, which, to me, is impossible.

Central district, which has the largest population, had a lower population in years gone by I think one of the reasons why Malaita district has that lower popu

lation is because the men who were given books to write names and numbers of people, did not do it satisfactorily. In another Census, try and do it well.— Letter from James Ofaga to the BSIP news sheet, Honiara.

IAM in doubt about the committee who censors the films. Do they know anything about film censorship? Is there a law about censorship or is it just according to custom? filmland 5 they >U should noMoad us with a heap of rubbish. A classification from the censorship board would be a help. In some places if the film is very obscene or awful to watch, men and women watch on different nights, instead of together.— Letter from ’ J. Sebastian in the “Tonga Chronicle ”.

MOST of us have lost the joy of our past. Where are our traditional dances and music? It is unfortunate that nearly all dances performed publicly do not belong to us. They are Tongan or Polynesian.

Did the missionaries stop our people performing their dances because they embody heathen practices? If this is incorrect, why introduce outside dances which are heathen and have erotic implication? Letter from Roman Kokonge in the BSIP newssheet, Honiara.

WHEN tourist figures fall and pockets are feeling the pinch, the service of the Chamber of Commerce is called upon to ‘do some-

thing’, and the meetings are cor respondingly well attended. It’s quite apparent the Christmas/New Year period has been a good one. Only 17 people attended what was to have been the annual general meeting.

Editorial comment in ‘‘The Norfolk Islander THIS letter is intended as a support of the mode of custom of our poor kingdom. There is a trace of hippyism here in Tonga at the pre sent day, but I state vehemently that this is absolutely in no way appropri ate for our civilisation, since Tonga is still under the protection of our Heavenly Father. — Letter from Vil iami Eke to the “Tonga Chronicle”.

OEVERAL hundred people attended iO the wedding at Port Adam, Malaita, recently of Father Leslie Fugui and Miss Nancy Pao. Father Fugui was on the staff of St. Barnabas Cathedral until recently. After the wedding a large celebration was held and later a three-way soccer com petition ... the wedding celebration ended with a tra-la-la that went on until the early hours of next morning, — item in the BSIP news sheet, Honiara.

WE hear continual complaints about »» drunkenness in our streets and the remedy invariably suggested is to banish liquor or make the cost of it so high that the ordinary worker who likes his beer will not be able to buy it. The opposite remedy should be taken. Make price of beer and liquor cheap and open up as many taverns as possible for 24 hours a day if necessary, where music, singing and entertainment can be enjoyed m a convivial manner by all. This would banish sly grog shops and the drink ing of dangerous home-brew and methylated spirits. Hard laws and more policemen are not the remedies for social unrest. — Letter James Crawford in “The Fiji Times”. • A MADANG man sailed his motor -TX cruiser from Townsville with Moresby as first port. He came in through the reef and went ashore at the Ela Beach RSL club for a couple of quickies before reporting to Customs.— ltem in the H M “Papua-New Guinea Post- Courier.” M M