Nutshell
pp. 144-145 · Read in the full issue
In a Nutshell
Banabans’ Appeal.—After
talks spread over several weeks, the Rev. Tebuke Rotan, manager of the Rabe Island Council, was waiting in London at the end of August for a reply to his request to the British Government for a bigger share of the Ocean Island phosphate pro ceeds. At present, the Banabans get 15 per cent, of the royalties with 85 per cent, going to the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony. The Banabans want 50 per cent, because, said the Rev, Tebuke, “our economic advis ers believe that it will take at least $1 million to get our development plans under way so the future of our children can be assured”. The phosphate deposits will be exhaust ed by 1978.
Fiji Golf Champion.—New
Zealander Frank Malloy won the Fiji open golf championship at Suva on August 8 with a score of 212 in the 54-hole tournament sponsored by Air New Zealand. Fiji amateur Ranga Reddy won the amateur sec tion with 222.
Critical Election.—Papua
New Guinea’s third general election for the House of Assembly will be held from February 12 to March 11 next year. The House will be en larged from 84 to 100 elected mem bers and 18-year-olds will be voting for the first time.
West Irian Defector.—Mr.
Moses Weror, ex-member of the In donesian diplomatic staff in Can berra, has crossed the border into Papua New Guinea with his wife and four children and asked for per mission to live in PNG. Weror, who was also accompanied by Mr. Louis Bonay, a brother of a former West Irian governor, said he decided to leave West Irian after being dis missed from the Indonesian foreign service.
Cholera Outbreak.—Seven
cases of cholera with one death were reported from Djaypura in West Irian on August 16. Action was being taken immediately to stop the disease spreading into Papua New Guinea and about 9,000 people living near the border were being vaccinated.
New Solomons Company.
—The Solomon Wholesale Union Ltd., a private company of 50 share holders, mainly Solomon Islanders, with authorised capital of $lOO,OOO, was scheduled for registration in Honiara in August. The four direc tors, elected for 12 months, are Mr.
David Kausimae, Mr. W. D. Ram say, Mr. J. P. Pidoke and Father Peter Thompson. Mr. Kausimae and Father Thompson are elected mem bers of the Governing Council, Mr.
Kausimae being Chairman of Natu ral Resources. Mr. Len Peterson, formerly of New Guinea, was ap pointed managing director. The company will carry trade goods as well as some special lines which will assist small businessmen and trade storekeepers.
New College Head.—New
Testament specialist the Rev. Alan Quigley has been appointed the prin cipal of the Pacific Theological Col lege in Suva in place of Dr. George Knight, who will retire at year-end.
Mr. Quigley graduated MA with honours in philosophy from Victoria University, Wellington, and gained his BD with distinction at Otago University. He was prizeman at Knox College, Dunedin, winning the travelling scholarship and got a de gree B. Phil, with distinction at the University of St. Andrew in Scot land. He has been minister of two parishes in New Zealand and in 1967 taught at the Pacific Theological College.
Jobs For Locals.—Png
House of Assembly Speaker Dr.
John Guise wants to see teenage and young married Australian women in well-paid jobs in New Guinea replaced by “locals”. Writ ing to the Ministerial Member for Labour, Toua Kapena, he complain ed that the Labour Department was failing to make a real effort to help school-leavers to get jobs. He added: “It makes me uneasy to see how easy it seems for teenage and young married overseas women to be ap pointed to well-paid jobs in all gov ernment departments at salaries far in access of those that would be paid to PNG school-leavers if they were employed in similar positions.”
Nauru’S Big Deal.—Nauru
has bought a $5 million site in the middle of Melbourne and plans a property development on it at a cost of $2O million. The site covers 48,000 sq. ft bounded by Exhibition, Little Collins and Collins streets. It has been bought by the Nauruan Phosphate Royalties Trust whose job it is to invest income from phos
phate sales against the day when the republic’s phosphates run out.
Copper Shares Rush.—A
special offer, confined to PNG, of one million Bougainville copper shares resulted in a scramble with applications pouring in for 3.3 mil lion shares. Expatriates, who must have lived there for at least five years, wanted 1.5 million; indigenes 500,000 and councils and missions 500,000. A ballot will decide expat riate allocations. The rest of the ap plications came from tribal groups, savings and loan societies, statutory bodies, corporations and co-opera tives. Bougainville directors an nounced that the start-up date for copper extraction will be “somewhat earlier than previously forecast as mid-1972”.
No More Grubbing
There’ll be no more tussock grub bing by Fiji workers in New Zea land at least for the present. A North Canterbury Nassella Tussock Board application for more Fiji workers has been turned down by the NZ Labour Department because of increasing unemployment among NZ workers. Fiji workers, mainly Fijian villagers, have been going in batches of 40 or more to NZ for several years and returning after several months with large cash sav ings.
Fishery Survey.—The Kyo
kuyo Company of Japan, one of the largest fishing companies in the world, may establish a major fishing industry in Tonga as a result of a fisheries survey in Tongan waters.
Japanese experts, using the Tonga Government’s longliner Ekiaki, spent 10 days at sea, caught bonito at Vavau and observed baitfish at Fonoifua and Haafeva in the Haapai group. One of the team, Mr. Noboro Sako, said he considered Vavau was an excellent base prospect.
Cargo To Politics.—The
East Sepik cargo cultists, who re moved the concrete markers from the top of Mt. Turn, have formed a political organisation called the Peli (Eagle) Association and plan to amalgamate with the Wewak based National Labour Party started early this year by William Hawarri.
The association aims to remove Aus tralians and Chinese from local gov ernment councils.
President Overseas.—Presi
dent Hammer Deßoburt of Nauru is currently overseas. He will have discussions in London, Paris, Wash ington and Ottawa over mutual in terests in the Pacific and will open
Nauru’s new consular office in Tokyo, later attending the Common wealth Parliamentary Association’s conference in Kuala Lumpur. Mr.
Theodore C. Moses, former mana ger of the Nauru Co-operative Soc iety stores is the republic’s first Con sul in Tokyo. No decision has yet been made by Japan concerning re ciprocal consular representation in Nauru.
More Aid For Islands
Australia has announced that it will “expand its horizons” in the South Pacific. To this end, the Australian Government has decided to increase its aid to the South Pacific area by about 40 per cent. Announcing the plan in the Federal Parliament on August 18, the Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr. Bowen, said the decision to increase aid, “is an earnest of our desire to make a positive contribution to the manifest needs of the area.
We shall, in the coming months, be examining in consultation with the Island governments the most effective means of developing and further enhancing this relationship.”
Worried Over Rates—The
BSIP Chamber of Commerce is worried over the nine per cent, in crease on freight rates from July 1 for the Australia-Solomons service.
The chamber pointed out that it was only four months since the last in crease of 15 per cent, was made.
Half the Solomons’ imports travelled on that route. The chamber is hoping that plans in PNG to form a ship pers’ council might benefit the Solo mons also (see p. 87).
Localising Lawyers—Seven
young American Samoan men will attend accredited law schools in the United States in September as part of the government’s localisation pro gramme, Chief Justice Donald H.
Crothers announced on August 18.
The names of two more young men were under consideration. Last year two young Samoans were admitted to US law schools and prospects for their success were so good that it had been decided to increase the in take. The cost to the United States of the seven scholarships is estimated at $30,000.
Png Schools Change—The
PNG Government is planning a re organisation of primary schools under which “A” schools and “T” schools will be merged and have a common curriculum. At present Australian children and a few indigenous children attend the “A” schools and most PNG children are taught at “T”
schools. Apart from a proposed common curriculum, the new combined schools would have a mixture of Australian and local teachers, a common entry age and no preparatory year.
New Rice Company.—Gua-
dalcanal Plains Ltd. has converted its rice project into a separate company known as GPL Agriculture Ltd. Negotiations are continuing with an unnamed country for a 50 per cent, cash interest in the new company. The other country is anxious to take a substantial part of the Guadalcanal rice output for its own consumption.
Record Exports—New Heb
rides exports rose by $H million last year to a record of more than SIH million reversing a slightly downward trend of the last three years. Imports showed their greatest increase since 1963, s2i million in a total of more than $l3 million, Copra and fish accounted for 80 per cent, of the exports with fishing showing the fastest rise in production. but there were also important in creases in log timber and meat ex ports. France, which took 40 per cent, of the condominium’s exporters, was the best customer with the United States in second place. Aus tralia headed the importers’ list.