Shipping Briefs
p. 93 · Read in the full issue
• Wallis Island has a thriving mini boatbuilding industry. Mr Jean Mich on, who is in charge of the Rural Eco nomy Service on the island, and a team of 30 Wallisians, have built 50 skiffs, made from plywood to American design, for local fishermen.
By the end of 1973 they hope to launch two 25 ft by 8 ft diesel powered type dories for deep sea fish ing. 9 Burns Philp (SS) Ltd has sold the last of its Fiji fleet, the Zephyr, to Bill Martin and Barry Cain, of the New Hebrides. Th; new owners will use the Zephyr as a re placement for the Neptune, w.'ich was lost off the reef at Lamap. l>e Zephyr operated as a passenger/ cargo ship in the Fiji inter-island trade. • The Japanese may soon return to Noumea to operate a tuna fleet.
French and Japanese interests re cently discussed this possibility. About 10 years ago, when a freezer ship was moored at Noumea, Japanese tuna boats worked from there. Twenty ships, producing about 1,000 tons of tuna a month for Japan and the US, are involved in the latest move. • Mr R. E. (Ron) Pirani, on July 31, retired from the Union Steam Ship Co of NZ Ltd after
49 years’ ser vice. He had
been general
passenger man ager since 1961.
He served in a number of the company’s ships, and held
shore positions
in several cen tres in NZ. Mr Pirani is well
known to people in the travel in dustry in NZ, Australia and the South Pacific. • Captain M. W. Drew, will be come manager of the marine division of the GEIC Development Authority at Tarawa in October. He was pre viously a lecturer at the School of Navigation at Southampton Univer sity. • An official protest by Governor John M. Haydon of American Samoa,
backed up by Pago Pago businessmen stalled a 23 per cent lift in freight charges proposed by the Pacific Is lands Transport Line and Daikan Polynesia Line for the US west coast and American Samoa run. The two lines agreed to postpone the rise till July 17. Then a price freeze extended the time to August 13. Meanwhile the Federal Maritime Commission is studying the position. • There are now four locally born officers in the Fiji government pilot service. Two recently qualified to pilot ships of up to 480 ft in Suva Harbour —Captains Fred Vollmer and Malcolm Peckham. They will con tinue to train on other port and pilot
age routes to become eligible to handle bigger ships. There are eight pilots in the service. 9 Fiji has three new law-enforce ment boats which will be used to crack town on illegal fishing. They are an independence gift from the NZ Government. Their arrival is timely as there has been a big increase in the dynamiting of fishing in the western areas. The ships, called after fish, are Ika Vuka, which will be based at Lautoka, Sila Sila (Labasa) and Saku (Suva). They are 27 ft long and have 150 hp Fordson turbo engines. They are capable of speeds up” to 18 knots. Each carries a crew of two.