Postscripts

Niue’s loss

They’ll miss Arumaki Strickland 3n Niue. His recent death has [eft a void it will be hard to fill )n that small island to which he ailed from his native Cook Islands vhen a young man.

He’d already made a name for him elf at Rarotonga as manager of the Zook Islands Native Association, as in island councillor and general ecretary of the Cook Islands >Vorkers’ Union. On Niue he was all hings to all men; a baker, then a general merchant, theatre proprietor, )us operator, garage proprietor, and i politician. When ill-health cut >hort his career in 1969, Arumaki was i member of the Niue Executive Committee with Radio and Post 3ffice portfolios. His most endearing pft, however, was his ability to pour >il on troubled waters.

Colourful PRO

Mr. Jack Hackett, the Fiji Gov srnment’s public relations officer ince 1957, wrote his last paragraph is Fiji PRO at the end of September ind retired from the government ervice. But only from the govern nent service.

He’s still writing and establishing pod relations handling publicity or the promoters of the multi-million lollar Pacific Harbour development it Deuba which is about 30 miles vest of Suva on the Coral Coast, he official name for Viti Levu’s ;outh-west coast and coined by Jack limself.

He worked for the government up o and after the last day of his con ract, dictating thousands of words it the South Pacific Conference in Noumea for Fiji’s Press and radio.

Jut that’s Jack Hackett—always ibove and beyond the call of duty, rle began his journalistic career in icrth Lancashire in the late 1920 s >n a lively seaside weekly and be came its news editor.

World War II came along and Jack vent into the Royal Navy as an ordinary seaman and finished up as a

eutenant with the RN Patrol Service nd Damage Control Section. He re amed to his old newspaper after emob. and a few years later crossed 3 the opposition weekly as editor-in hief. But the Navy had left him nth itching feet and in 1953 he ntered the British Colonial Service i Malaya as Selangor state informa on officer.

He got a medal there, pinned on y the Sultan of Selangor, and a □mmendation from the Director of operations, Malaya. It was during ie fight with the communist

jrrorists, euphemistically called an

emergency”. Typically, Jack didn’t rant to sit at a desk when that was oing on.

He put on a bush jacket, bolstered revolver and went into the jungle 'here he waged his own wordy war nd won over many a terrorist with is propaganda. He also got the Loyal Humane Society Parchment Dr saving a soldier from drowning.

Tien he went to Fiji and, for 14 ears, has done a first-class job which as earned him an OBE. His suc essor as PRO is Mr. George Rawns iy, assistant PRO, who worked with ack in England.

No turtle soup

Hawksbill turtles and some species f birds found in Micronesia have een declared “endangered foreign pedes” by the United States Gov rnment and a ban placed on their nportation to the United States.

Tie ban even covers jewellery made rom the turtle shell. Birds which re protected include the Palau owl, tie Palau ground dove, La Perouse’s aegapode, the Ponape mountain tarling, the Palau fantail, the Tinian aonarch and the Ponape great white ye.

New faces

There are, as usual, some new aces in the higher echelons of the ;overnment service on Nauru.

Vearers of new faces are Mr. Henry Connell, sub-dean and senior lecturer n law at Monash University, Mel journe, the new Chief Secretary; At. John Matchett, formerly in haree of the Victorian Education Department’s extended post-graduate ourses, who is the new Director of education; Mr. Frank Norman Martin, new Director of Police who las served in Zambia and on St. lelena; and Mr, R. D. Purdue, for nerly of the city treasury in Salis )ury, South Australia, who is the new

'hief Accountant. One not changing is job is the Chief Justice, Mr, I.

L. Thompson, who was tentatively pped by PlM’s Coconut Radio PIM, Sept., p. 35) for the Chief ustice’s job in Fiji. Mr. Thompson, ommenting on the report, said, “I ave no intention, and have never ad any intention, of leaving my ost”. • Jesus Arriola Sonoda, of Saipan, as been appointed an associate judge f the Marianas District Court. He fas sworn in by TT Chief Justice [arold Burnett. • Mr. John Le Gras, who has held aanagerial posts in Newcastle and lydney for the Australia and New ealand Banking Group Ltd., has been ppointed manager of the bank’s loniara branch. He took up his ew post from his predecessor, Mr.

Jarry Mozley, on October 25. Mr. ,e Gras is an experienced yachtsman nd, with his wife Janette, takes a een interest in water skiing. • The Rev. Dr. L. D. Fullerton, yho spent 21 years with the Metho list Mission in Fiji, has been appoin ed principal of Theological Hall, Queen’s College, Melbourne Uni versity. He will take up this appoint nent in January, 1973. While in 7 iji, popular Dr. Fullerton was tationed at Lautoka. Ba, Nausori md Suva. In Suva he was chairman >f the Indian Methodist Mission. He eft Fiji in 1964 and went to the Jnited States for sabbatical study Je had intended to be there for two fears, but stayed for five. In the JS he was also minister of a Method st church in New York. He returned 0 his native Australia about two r ears ago to become superintendent »f the Parramatta Regional Method st Mission. While in Fiji his main nterest outside his mission work was ngby football. He was a coach, eferee, selector—one of his tasks as 1 selector was to select national earns —and administrator. For many fears he was a member of the man igement committee of the Fiji Rugby Jnion.

For art’s sake

The results of long treks off the Deaten track and into the bush by art ‘ancier Laurie Marshall in search of native artifacts in the Sepik, New Ire and, the New Hebrides, Fiji, and the Solomons are to be seen in Sydney.

Laurie and his Hungarian-born wife Antoinette have opened a private gal lery in Paddington, displaying a large fariety of masks, wands, shields, head dresses and the rest of the parapher nalia associated with native cere monial, Much of it would never have

eft the villages had not Laurie nought it in situ, sometimes paying :or it before it was used in a cere nony. Usually, in the past, many of he articles were cast aside or de itroyed after one airing on the village jreen. Now, the makers realise there’s noney in their art which is true art ind superior to some of the junk vhich today passes for art.

“You’ve got to pay for it, though,” ays Laurie. “Gone are the days when r ou could get a whole lot of stuff for i stick of tobacco, even in the middle >f the bush. Some of them even know low much their creations are selling or in Sydney.”

At one place Laurie handed over lore than $l,OOO. The jubilant vil agers spent the lot in 24 hours at a mb.

The exhibition was opened by Dr. )onald C. Dunham, until recently ead of the UNDP offices for Aus ralia and New Zealand, an American fho knows a thing or two about ative artifacts.

Digging history

Pottery 3,000 years old found in tie Reef Islands and on San Cristobal i the Solomons probably belonged to ome of the ancestors of the Mela esian and Polynesian races.

This is the belief of Dr. Roger rreen, New Zealand archaeologist and older of the first Captain Cook 'ellowship, who is attached to Auck ind University.

Lecturing in Honiara recently, Dr.

Ireen described his finds made in the olomons which, he said, was a “fine lace to dig” but almost an archaeo >gical blank. He had chosen to dig i the Eastern Solomons because iere were no less than six different ngual groups there.

It was while digging in the Reef •lands and on San Cristobal that >r. Green found evidence of early ccupation by people whose journey igs could be traced all through the astern Pacific. They were part of a reat migration of early Melanesian id Polynesian people about 3,000 ;ars ago.

The evidence was in the form of ittery fragments of the Lapita period id similar to pottery found right toss the Pacific. They contained •me particularly fine specimens of ie early Lapita period decorated with limal figurines and human masks, ests had placed the fragments in the ►gion of 1,000 to 800 BC.

An interesting point, however, was iat these people were definitely not ie ancestors of the people living in ie Reef Islands and San Cristobal ►day, who had no tradition of mak g clay pots. Reef Islanders had

found pieces of pottery in their gar lens and had mistaken them for natu al stone.

Some of the adzes Dr. Green found vere made of chalcedony, which is lot found in the Reefs or in use to lay. Obsidian was also found on the ites and this was not from the Solo nons although its source had not yet >een traced.

All the facts pointed to a people /bo had inhabited that part of the eastern Solomons 3,000 years ago, rading extensively with other parts nd importing clay and stone for forking materials; then had moved n.

Dr. Green is still digging in the olomons although, as he described , the Solomons bush is most frus ating for an archaeologist. But it will e many years before more than the irface of Melanesian and Polynesian rigins has been scratched.

One flag

Fiji’s Ministry of Labour has arned that some people who auto atically received citizenship on Oc- Ber 10, last year, may lose their tizenship if they have dual national /.

These are the people who originally jcame citizens of the UK and Dlonies by naturalisation or registra )n by the Governor.

They will lose their Fiji citizenship dess they renounce their other citi nship by May 28, 1972—0ne year ?m the date when the Fiji Citizen ip Act came into force.

People who automatically became ji citizens because of their father’s itus will also need to renounce any tier citizenship they may have ac ired by being born outside Fiji.

Very few applications for citizen ip have been received from people »o are eligible, although they have en living unlawfully in Fiji.

The government has decided that )se eligible are Commonwealth citi is who on October 10, 1970, ha 3 ed in Fiji unlawfully for at least 'en years and aliens who had lived lawfully in Fiji for at least nine irs.

Fhese people were allowed six >nths from May 28 this year to ily for Fiji citizenship.

Picking the best

3n the other side of the coin, Aus lia’s immigration policy—often terly criticised in Fiji—was restated ently by Australian Foreign Affairs nister Nigel Bowen. As others have te before him, he declared that the

Id “White Australia Policy” tests ave been eliminated.

Australia wanted to ensure that its nmigrants would fit into the com lunity, a principle not dissimilar om that applied by Fiji in relation > immigration, he said. Some coun ies would not admit a person of a articular race, but this did not apply > Australia.

“If a person is going to be able to ; into a community adequately, then j has a reasonable prospect of get ig permission to come in”, Mr. >wen said.

The rarely-aired Australian immi ation statistics relating to Fiji landers make interesting reading, icy don’t of course show how many ►pefuls have applied and been turned ray. But taking into account Austra ’s willingness to accept only the ofessional or highly skilled appli nt, the figures do substantiate sug stions that something of a brain ain exists.

Between January 1, 1966 and Be rber 31, 1970, Australia admitted r residence or accorded resident itus to 382 people from Fiji (ex iding part-Europeans, as distinct >m non-Europeans). The majority re Fiji Indians.

About 100 part-Europeans entered istralia each year during the same riod.

The number of non-European dents other than private students Australia at January 31 this year :luded 32 from Fiji, eight from > BSIP, four from GEIC, 19 from nga, 12 from Western Samoa and 3 from the New Hebrides.

Private students from Fiji number >und 300. No one knows how many gal immigrants from Fiji are in stralia, but the number is substan . Three were caught in September, ) in Sydney and one in Melbourne, Fiji Indians, working in factories more than a year. They were t back to Fiji.

Nuclear doom

Vill the French nuclear tests at ruroa in French Polynesia—now ed, at least for this year—spell un for the shellfish in the Pacific?

Environmental biologist Dr. iham Baines of the University of South Pacific in Suva, one of most vociferous members of OM (Against Tests On Mururoa) [fs at French claims that radio logical checks of pelagic fish have wn coastal fishing regions and rnational waters to be practically ! of any contamination, apart from attributable to global fallout.

Lccording to Dr. Baines, shellfish

ave an enormous capacity for con mtrating radioactivity and instances le case of the coconut crabs of ikini Atoll, site of the United States uclear tests 20 years ago.

“These delicious crabs, once a slicacy for the islanders, are so mgerously radioactive that the jople have been forbidden to eat em,” he said.

This line of thought leads one to onder about the coconut crabs of iue Island. They are also con iered a delicacy by Niueans, who e sitting on top of a highly dioactive piece of property.

So what about the coconut crabs Niue? Perhaps some investigation I the question of radioactive crabs II be conducted next June when r. J. C. Yaldwyn, assistant director the Dominion Museum, Welling a, leads a marine expedition to ue. Himself an expert on Crustacea, ’. Yaldwyn hopes to be accom nied by two marine biologists and ornithologist.

Avian Mining Pty. Ltd., of King m, Canberra, has sent two teams investigate the possibility of mium deposits and plans future 'estigations. John Barrie, who is in irge of exploration, describes ueans as “sitting on top of a vol lic mountain”.

Fiji’s “soft” loan

Five per cent, interest on $lB [lion is a lot of money to pay, but half the rate Fiji would have to et if it raised such a loan on the nmercial money market, fhe loan, coupled with some easy iditions that it hasn’t given any er of its ex-colonies, is what tain has offered in place of the right economic grants that Fiji before independence on October last year. lefore she went independent, Fiji i warned by Britain that she didn’t J ex-colonies free grants but would ►w them to take up loans on “soft” ns.

Tie agreement recently master ed in London by Fiji Finance lister Wesley Barrett amounts to 5 per cent, grant when the dif nce between the 5 per cent, in st rate and prevailing commercial i rates is worked out. he actual level of British capital flowing into Fiji will go up from I million a year in grants received 1 last year to $3.6 million a year oans over the next five years, he new level of aid, an increase !800,000 a year, amounts to more i $4 million in loan finance for 1971/75 development plan. This

reduces by that amount the borrows ings Fiji would need to make on com-r mercial markets where interest rates*: are considerably higher. As a rule,s Britain doesn’t make aid agreements;! of more than two or three years’g duration, but this one will run fon< the five years covered by the develop ment plan.

Flotsam

The people of Niue have said) goodbye to the Tofua which hagj turned up regularly every four weeks: for 20 years. Now she has beem replaced by the Taveuni, but is ex-: pected to go back to Niue when the Taveuni undergoes annual survey.

The last voyage was marked witH simple ceremonies, including a fare-;: well luncheon on board. The Niu© Government made a gift of frozem passionfruit pulp to Captain M.

Mclntyre and officers of the Tofua.i The government’s joinery factory isi also making a wooden plaque fom Captain Peter Bennett, master of the Tofua from 1963 to 1971, to mount! in the cabin of a ship he now com-s mands on the trans-Tasman service. • The 400-ton, 23-year-old ban quentine Eolus, one of the last wooden trading schooners to be built im Sweden, will leave England for Aus-< tralia at the year-end with a crewj of 56, most of whom have con-i tributed $1,400 each for the privilege; of working the ship.

Trading under sail as a general cargo schooner for 12 years, thei Eolus was stripped down as a moton trader in 1960 and brought to England in 1969. She was refitted an a luxury, full-rigged barquentine ak Ramsgate.

She will sail to Port Jacksonr Sydney, via Lisbon, the Canary Islands, Martinique, Jamaica, Panamas the Galapagos, Marquesas, Tahiti, thei Cook Islands, Tonga, Fiji, the Loyalty: Islands, Norfolk and Lord How©' islands.

Ex-Australian farmer and grazieie Hilary Hanslow, who is chairman ok the Eolus Shipping Co., said she will remain in the South Pacific and will cruise from Suva next year, catering i for the luxury tourist market. • A new combined air-sea cargo; service between Europe and Aus-? tralia, which cuts the standard all-ses;; voyage time by more than half, haa been announced by McGregor Swire- Air Services. Consignments will be»f sent by air at special rates to Hongi Kong and then by sea to Australian The transit time from British ancbi

[ainland European airports will be I days, compared with 45 days by a. An associate company, China avigation, which has regular sail gs between Hong Kong and Aus alian ports, will operate the sea ction. • The call signs of all radio ations in Fiji and vessels in Fiji iters, operated or licensed by the vernment will be changed. The RO call sign of the Posts and Tele aphs Department coast radio station Suva will become 3DP. • The New Zealand Shipping Co. d., part of the P and O group, has anged its name to P and O (NZ) d. In the past the NZ Shipping ►. Ltd. serviced a number of ports the Pacific, but now its role there mainly that of an agent. • Western Samoa may have a vercraft working as a ferry before ; end of the year. A licence to srate one between Mulifanua on >olu to Salelologa on Savaii has m granted to Mr. Tusi Taualii, merly of Illinois, USA and now Apia. Mr. Taualii said he hoped rent a hovercraft from the nadian company Pacific Hovercraft I. and have the service in opera n before the year end. The craft uld be capable of making the ssing in less than 18 minutes with passengers and freight.

Next stop Yavau

fonga’s northern island of Yavau ks like becoming a tourists’ adise. After a four-day visit re, P. & O’s passenger planning erintendent in Australia, Mr. R.

Glassford, said he would recom id inclusion of Yavau in the ific cruise itinerary by October t year. Yavau, he said, had every ig for the Australian tourist—a d anchorage, magnificent har r and beaches, good food and lity handicrafts.

> Scandinavian-type log cabins

be seen shortly on holiday sites New Caledonia. A Christchurch I) firm has won a $90,000 con t to supply prefabricated homes ed like log cabins and made of

nanent interlocking boards in

mated natural wood. Wall planks the units are made from kiln d radiata pine. Fraemoh Industries of Christchurch, will send the les in kitsets all ready for as hling.