Yesterday

How times change! PlM's cover picture in March, 1954, showed a TEAL flying-boat hostess serving a meal to a Beqa (Fiji) firewalker who was on his way to Auckland with fellow islanders to demonstrate firewalking. Fijians gave exhibitions of firewalking long before Europeans arrived in the South Seas, and if they travelled at all, they paddled their own canoes, and for sustenance sat round a heap of food cooked in a ground oven. TEAL has changed too — in name and type of aircraft. The flying-boats are but a memory, and 600 mph jets are now used for Air New Zealand's many routes.

There was speculation that Qantas would absorb British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines, and that the Australian and New Zealand Governments would buy out the British Government's shares in TEAL. It was also believed that Qantas would sell BCPA's four DC6 aircraft to TEAL for use on the trans-Tasman and Fiji runs instead of Solent flying-boats.

All that duly came to pass, and eventually the NZ Government bought out the Qantas share of TEAL.

The Papua New Guinea Government Gazette, of February 17, 1954, attracted the attention of PIM writers in March.

Virtually all the gazette, more than 50 pages, was devoted to meticulous rules and regulations under which sewerage work might be undertaken. They covered everything—from the definition of a slop-hopper to the form of licence to be issued to sanitary plumbers and sanitary drainers. Somewhere it stated that for natives, an "Asiatic" type of pan could be provided—by which PIM concluded that in those respects, natives and Asiatics were to be regarded as different from Europeans. PIM commented: ". . . As far as we know, there is no sewerage area (within or without 'the meaning of the act') in PNG, nor is any contemplated in the immediate future".

An interesting aftermath of the Royal visit to Fiji, New Zealand and Australia was a report that an Islands trading firm wanted to buy thousands of yards of red and blue cloth used in Sydney for tour decorations. The use—lap laps for Papua New Guineans. And a famous maker of women's foundation garments advertised a new creation under the title "Lap-lap". It is said to

be "with lap-lap thigh ease" and the model in the advertisement was shown skipping around the page in her little elastic girdle.

Raluana natives of New Britain won the first round and looked like winning the second in a bid for inclusion in the village council system. All but the 2,000 Raluana people of the 30,000 Tolais of the Gazelle Peninsula joined the scheme, which was introduced after World War II to encourage the native people to run their own affairs under Administration guidance as a pre liminary to ultimate self-government.

The invariable excuse of the Raluanas for not joining the council was that they were too ignorant to engage in anything so advanced. But PIM had this to say of them: "These natives, however, are intelligent, industrious and have very shrewd leaders, and have shown they are quite capable of running their own affairs. The only difference is that they insist on running them in their own native way".

A proposal that Indian workers should go from Fiji to New Caledonia to solve the labour problem there remained wrapped in official silence. Young Indians interested were frustrated in efforts to get information. Wrote one to a newspaper: "Unless the wage scale is commensurate with the general qualifications of the labourers, and is compatible with their standard of living, and is such as affords ample incentive for ihem to go to an alien country and subject themselves to God-knows what-is-in-store-for-them, our men will never accept any offers, however tempting they may seem on the surface". There was a general impression that the official mission of inquiry from Fiji found that, economically, all that glittered in New Caledonia was not gold—mainly be cause of the inflated csst of living there.

Re-development was under way in Tahiti.

In a programme to replace many old buildings in the business area of Papeete, the block of business premises near the waterfront containing the famous old Tahiti Yacht Club, was soon to be demolished. The building, erected in 1905, was to be replaced by a modern two-storey structure. However, certain old buildings of great historical interest were to be preserved, and they would be reconditioned.

The six Japanese long-line fishing vessels employed by Toky® Marine Products Corporation and fishing on a poundage basis for Van Camp Sea Food Inc, off Pago Pago, were proving beyond a shadow of doubt that there was p'enty of tuna in the South Pacific,

and that the Japanese knew how to catch them. The fish cannery at Pago Pago was canning 48,000 tins a day —right up to capacity. Van Camp was reported to be paying the Japanese $162 a ton for tuna, and slightly more for albacore.

An Ellice Islander, Milaki Tihala, returned home from Suva a qualified Assistant Dental Practitioner. He was the first ADP in the GEIC and his appoint ment was expected to reduce the number of people who went to Fiji for dental treatment.

Another Ellice Islander, Kelepo Kolone, returned at the same time as a sanitary inspector, a subject in which he specialised after being found unsuited for training as an Assistant Medical Practitioner. He had the distinction of being the only sanitary inspector in the GEIC.

Micronesian medical students at the Central Medical School, Suva, might be withdrawn at the end of 1954, according to the official journal of the Trust Territory. While facilities and training at Suva were completely satisfactory, it was felt it would be better in many ways, and possibly less expensive, to train students either at Truk or at the new $5 million hospital being built on Guam. Nineteen TT students were expected to complete training in Suva at the end of 1954.

Tahiti received unwelcome publicity in a court case in Honolulu over the custody of two children. The mother took the children from a mission home in Tahiti where they were held pending settlement of custody, and went to Honolulu. During the proceedings in Honolulu the mother said life for children was insufferable in Tahiti and produced two former residents to support her. Some of her charges about Tahiti were: Billions of rats, billions of mosquitoes, no sanitation, and no doctors she could trust. While the court case went on the Tahiti Tourist Bureau was doing all it could to point out that there were millions more rats and mosquitoes in San Francisco than in Tahiti.

Even 20 years ago land prices were spiralling and this brought a complaint from a correspondent in Rabaul who wrote: "One sometimes wonders just where rising prices will stop. Have just heard that a block of freehold land has changed hands for the sum of £2,700. I expected to hear that a considerable area was involved, but was staggered to find that the land in question was a building block in the town with a street front measurement of 50 ft!"