Letters

The Western Isles

Sir, —Sheree Lipton’s interesting article on the “Half - Forgotten Western Isles” (PIM, Oct., p. 49) brought back to me a reminder of what was the first and probably the last visit to the Ninigo Group by air.

On June 10, 1947, I was pilot of the Island Airways (W. R. Carpenter)

flying boat VH-ALN —lsland Chief tain. On that morning we flew out of our base at Madang and two hours 20 minutes later landed in the beauti ful lagoon of the largest of the islets.

Canoes took us ashore and we had lunch in a large old German-built house with uncomfortable but very solid old furniture. We were all given straw-covered bottles as gifts and after looking over the plantation we took off again for Wewak and later Madang.

It was a memorable experience both for my crew and myself and for the Seimats whose relaxed and pleasant life was temporarily dis rupted by a talus, the like of which they had never seen before!

Hugh M. Birch.

Marketing Manager, Qantas, Sydney.

Games Coverage

Sir, —I must compliment you on your fabulous write up of the South Pacific Games (PIM, Oct.). It’s been the best yet.

R. A. Kennedy.

Suva, Fiji.

Discrimination

Sir, —Incredibly proficient as Mr.

K. O. Worcester apparently is in his mother tongue, his paraphrase of my letter to . . . “I HATE EXPATRI ATES” (PIM, Nov.) obviously only shows lack of discriminatory wits to tell the difference between “unscrupu lous outsiders” (see my letter of April), and “expatriates” in general.

Mr. Worcester amazes me how he still couldn’t pick out the bad apples from the good apples. Is Mr. Wor cester saying that he’d come up with some mystical numerical formulae for solving our problems? If so, well and good; I do not want us Solomon Islanders to start making enemies of other Solomon Islanders due to be witching, platonic winks of some “unscrupulous outsiders”.

If he does indeed have a magical lucky number, could he be as con siderate as to reveal it to us con cerned Solomon Islanders? Let’s hope that we would then be assured of a better future for our country with “Worcester’s Wizard Number” at our beck and call!

J. S. Saunana.

Honiara, BSIP.

Mystery Solved?

Sir, —I am sorry to disappoint my good friends, Reece Discombe and Bob Paul, but what they have there (PIM, Sept., p. 75) is a pig of ballast.

We had 15 tons of them in Arthur Rogers, and believe me, when they were lifted out for cleaning, those holes were very necessary. After a few years in oily bilge water, a piece of rope through the holes was the only way to shift the slippery pigs . . .

Tom Hepworth.

Reef Islands, Santa Cruz.

• Tom Hepworth refers to our story about the discovery of what could have been relics of Captain Cook on Tanna, New Hebrides, by Discombe and Paul recently.

Fiji Police Band

Sir, —As an ardent admirer of the Band of the Royal Fiji Police Force, it is with some regret that I note the departure of its Director of Music, Superintendent James Hemp stead, upon the conclusion of his con tract. I’m sure that many thousands of Australians who have visited Fiji on cruise ships will recall the mag nificent welcome and farewell that they were given by the RFP Band on the wharfside at Suva and count less more Australians will recall the several very successful tours that the band has made to Australia during the past four or five years.

Under the direction of Mr. Hemp stead the band has attained a high degree of excellence and versatility that would be hard to match amongst similar brass bands anywhere in the world.

May I add my congratulations to Assistant Superintendent Viliame Bale as he takes over as bandmaster, and may the band of the Royal Fiji Police continue to delight and thrill its audiences throughout the Pacific under his direction.

Garry W. Rae.

Broadway, Sydney.

Bibliography

Sir, —Continuing by interest in a part-time bibliographical project I began while serving in Hawaii during the past three years, I wonder if any of your readers would be willing to assist by furnishing information (title, author, publisher, date) of books/booklets printed or issued in their area prior to 1900.

C. D. Shores.

3200 “U” Street, Lincoln, Nebraska 68503,