Islands Press

From the Islands Press

A letter from lev Teufolau in the Tonga Chronicle: I wish to submit a request to People’s Representative Taniela Manu and Hon Ma’afu to please realise that his Majesty and nobles are not the only ones requiring a raise in their emoluments. There are civil servants who are suffering under rising costs today, and a perfect example is that mutton has gone up from 17 to 37 seniti a pound.

From the British Newsletter, New Hebrides: Large quantities of custom poisons or nakaimas were thrown into the sea round south-east Ambrym following a campaign by a Presbyterian Evangelical team led by Lay Pastor Jimmy Anson, says a report from Ulei. People who possess nakaimas may use it either for guarding themselves from danger, or to kill enemies. Pastor Anson and his team of 48 people are carrying on with their successful efforts to persuade people to throw away their poisons and lead a new life. They hope to complete their work in south-east Ambrym villages by next week.

The Tohi Tala Niue commenting on a statement by the retiring Resident Commissioner Mr Wilson that Niueans had, at last, learnt the art of social

drinking:

Alas, he was a little too kind. The fact is that quite a number of the drinking population have not, and we might also add that they don’t know when to stop. Drinking 24 bottles of beer on your own in less than two hours, or a mouthful of a mixture of gin, whisky and rum every five minutes, cannot by any stretch of the imagination be called social drinking. It appears also that an all-day all-night session has a particular attraction to some.

From a letter by J. A. Arnott in Atoll Pioneer, GEIC: The Otintai Hotel is not the only, nor necessarily the best, restaurant in South Tarawa. There are several on Betio, one of which, for my money, is streets ahead of the Otintai Hotel. For those who are interested, its toilet facilities are vastly superior to anything the Otintai Hotel has so far been able to provide.

From The Fiji Times: Famous British character actor Robert Morley expressed surprise when a Nadi businessman, Mr Mahendra Patel, of Motibhai and Co Ltd, recognised him in a group of passengers passing through Nadi Airport. Mr Morley, well-known for his upper-crust accent and evocative facial expressions, has returned to Britain with souvenirs of Fiji — Mr Patel gave him some Fiji police dolls.

From the Arawa Bulletin, Bougainville: Arawa may be thousands of miles away from the fashion houses of the world, but the girls here are not lacking in imagination. At a Tuesday night social evening at the Davara over Easter the natural look was certainly predominant, with the eye-catcher of the evening being Mrs C.

Bissett’s magnificent flared matador pants in the military colours of red, white and blue.

From a letter by R. C. B. Clark in Atoll Pioneer, GEIC: The Rest House (at Abaokoro) is more true to its name than the place which bears an eclectic title in Bikenibeu. It’s less than a two-hour launch trip from Betio, and offers the peace of an outer island, and an escape from the noise and dust of Urban Tarawa. Admittedly, there is no stove, lamp, cutlery, table and bed linen in the Rest House, and there are rats in the roof . . . And don’t expect to find a current copy of the Atoll Pioneer. It usually arrives there two weeks after publication.

Mr W. T. Bai, acting Commissioner for Corrective Services in PNG Post-Courier: Mistreatment of detainees in legal custody in Papua New Guinea is not and never has been condoned by the correctional services of Papua New Guinea. However, all human beings can, and sometimes do, err.

From Private Eye in Unispac, the USP students' newspaper: To solve our accommodation problem at USP, the Director of Student Services has suggested students volunteer to get married so that two can share one bed.

Application should be addressed to the office of the Director of Student Services.

From Group Radio News, New Hebrides: The sth of May was a special day for some people round the southern parts of Malekula. Report from Medical Assistant at South West Bay, Mr Willie Anson, said that in the three villages of Bonvar, Wintua and Law a over 100 people gathered in each village to celebrate the New Yam feast.

At Bonvar village more than 100 yams went to the feast. Wintua had over 120 people with one bullock and over 100 yams to eat. But Law a village could not manage a bullock, and provided two pigs for the meat and also many yams for the feast.

From Joe Murphy's Pipe Dreams column,

Pacific Daily News, Guam:

As you drive down Marine Drive this Friday afternoon, are you thinking the same thought as I am, which is, are our Guam auto dealers having the same banner this year that they had in 1972? The fact that the number of private autos on Guam jumped by 11,042 in a single year has been pretty widely publicised. You've got to assume that additional thousands died along the way, although you can also figure that the military brought in a few of the new ones. From 1963 to 1967 the average growth rate was about 1,000 cars a year. In 1971, the jump was 5,000, and the last year it leapt dramatically to 11,000.

I think they must have learned to reproduce.