Nutshell
pp. 119-120 · Read in the full issue
In a Nutshell
Currency Charge.—F I J I
plantation owner and land developer Robert Hunter bade a temporary farewell to his wife and new baby at a Sydney wharf towards the end of October and they returned to their home at Savusavu on Fiji’s Vanua Levu. Mr Hunter had to stay. Ap pearing at a Sydney Petty Sessions Court a few days earlier on a cur rency offence, he was allowed bail on $l,OOO and had to surrender his pass port until his trial at the NSW District Court in November. Mr Hunter was charged with having at tempted to take $16,782 in Australian currency out of Australia without Reserve Bank authority. The magis trate was told that the money was found in Mr Hunter’s suitcase during a luggage check at the airport on September 5 when he was waiting to board a Fiji-bound plane.
Mr Hunter had told a constable he did not know of any regulation requiring him to have Reserve Bank permission before taking out the money which he had received from business associates in Sydney for a deposit on a home unit and which he intended bringing back to Aus tralia within five days. Constable Tonkin said in court that Mr Hunter had been co-operative.
Reefs Recovering.—Corai
reefs in the New Hebrides, which had been badly damaged by the Crown of Thoms starfish, are re covering and the starfish are rapidly
decreasing in numbers. It is believed that the starfish are being eaten by two species of fish which were not thought to include it in their diet, the PuTer fish and the Trigger fish.
Scientists at Cambridge University in England have discovered that these two fish do, in fact, feed on the stomach and egg-producing organs of the starfish.
NEW ‘GASWORKS’.—Fiji looks like getting an elaborate Parliament House in a commanding position on Battery Hill, Suva about a mile from the centre of the city. A joint select committee of both houses of par liament recommended the building be erected in phases over five years.
Without the assistance of designs and plans, the committee estimated the cost at S4million. The final figure, no doubt will be much higher. The committee recommended an inter national competition for the designs and plans for the various buildings.
FLU IN COOKS—AII Rarotonga schools and cinemas were closed late in September because of an influenza epidemic. Public meetings and church services were postponed as part of control measures. By September 28, 636 victims had been treated.
Airline Expansion. Al
though Air New Zealand refused to confirm, or deny reports, it is be lieved agreement is expected with British Airways for Air NZ planes to fly to London. BA would lease Air NZ’s DC 10s for the Los Angeles to London route. At present Air NZ does not operate beyond Los Angeles.
RAFTS WINNING—The three balsa-log rafts which left Ecuador in South America on May 27 to sail to Australia were reported on October
17 to be in Tongan waters. The crews, four on each raft, were keeping the rafts close together and expected to reach Queensland early in November.
They have survived hurricane-force winds and a near-miss when they al most ran on an uncharted reef in the Cook Islands. The voyagers are at tempting to repeat the 1970 voyage of La Balsa which sailed 8,564 miles in 161 days.
Ulawun Erupts—Mt Ulawun
erupted fiercely early in October, and many people in West New Britain were evacuated to safer ground.
Lava poured from the 7,500 ft moun tain and black ash and smoke rose to 12,000 ft. A glowing gas cloud, which incinerated everything in its path, rolled down the mountain.
Boulders, up to 6 ft in diameter, ex ploded into ash as they were thrown from the crater, leaving trails of sparks and smoke.
WARMER WELCOME. —After sit ting for years on requests from the tourist industry to extend the present automatic three-day stay permit for visitors, the Western Samoa Govern ment has decided to make it a seven day permit. Cabinet has approved the extension but parliament meeting in November will have the last word.
Localisation In Png.—The
Papua New Guinea Service Board is aiming at having all posts for de partment heads localised by 1975-76.
There are 18 departments, seven of which are held by Papua New Guineans.
Csr Record.—The Csr Co Ltd,
in the last year in which profits from its Fiji subsidiary, South Pacific Sugar Mills Ltd, were included in the balance sheet, turned in a record net
profit of $23,339,596 in the year ended March 31. The Fiji contribution to the result was about $1.14 million. The effect on the group, which now covers building materials, chemicals and min ing, as well as the traditional sugar, will depend on what the company does with the money it gets from the sale of SPSM Ltd to the Fiji Government, compared with the loss of $1.14 million in profit. There is, however, still a small return from Fiji for services.
NEW BISHOP. —Archdeacon Derek Rawcliff, of the New Hebrides, who has been Archdeacon of Southern Melanesia since 1959, will be con secrated Bishop of the New Hebrides on January 25. He will be the third assistant bishop for the Anglican Dio cese of Melanesia.
No Revaluation.—The Wes
tern Samoan Cabinet has decided against revaluing the tala (dollar) as a result of an earlier Cabinet decision that the Samoan tala would be fixed to the United States dollar. Minister of Finance Sam Saili said this would mean that the tala would be devalued in terms of the three revalued cur rencies of Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. $5 MILLION DEAL.—Fiji’s first chain of hotels, Northern Hotels Ltd, which included the first tourist resort.
Korolevu Beach Hotel near Sigatoka. has been bought by a new Fiji public company, with New Zealand backing, for $5 million. The buyer, the Tourist Corporation of Fiji Ltd, is backed by the New Zealand-based company Trans Tours, which will take over on December 1. Chairman of the Tourist Corporation of Fiji is Mr Roger Probert, managing director of the Fiji Gas Co. In the deal are Korolevu Beach Hotel, the Club Hotel in Suva and hotels in Nadi, Ba, Lautoka and Sigatoka.
NEW AIRLINE.—Cook Islands Airways Ltd, and Air New Zealand- Cook Islands Government joint ven ture, will commence operations on November 25. Using a nine-passenger Britten Norman Islander plane, Cook Islands Airways will make seven flights a week between Rarotonga and Aitutaki, 140 nautical miles, and an hour apart. The service will be extended to the southern Cook Islands of Atiu, Mangaia and Mitiaro when airstrips have been built there. Man ager of the new airline is Mr N. A.
Nisbet, who arrived in Rarotonga re cently and who will combine this position with that of Air New Zea land’s manager in the Cook Islands.