His Majesty takes a side-swipe

There is likely to be some plain talking at the South Pacific Forum in Rarotonga from March 21 to 23 about Air Pacific. Nauru is itching to spread its wings and now King Taufa’ahau of Tonga is doing some plain speaking over air services.

In a recent special radio broadcast the king explained why Tonga had investigated the possibility of an alliance with Japan for a Tongan airline. The advantages would benefit the Tonga Government and the people of Tonga in many ways, the king said.

An airline would play a most important role in the economic development of Tonga in such fields as tourism, agricultural and handi craft exports. It would develop com munications with the outside world.

TTien His Majesty took a side swipe at the Fiji Government and Air Pacific. He said the Fiji Govern ment was trying to get the islands shareholders in Air Pacific to pool resources with the object of edging out Qantas. BOAC and Air New Zealand. That was all right for Fiji as Air Pacific was based in Fiji, and Air Pacific received the majority of the benefits, he said.

Tonga should not get too involved in such a negotiation; rather it should attempt to set up an airline of its own.

All Nippon Airways sent a high powered team of top executives to Tonga late in January to survey air port facilities and complete negotia tions for the launching of a Tongan airline. The survey followed a recent visit to Japan by King Taufa’ahau Tupou.

Apart from the main airport out side Nukualofa, the party inspected the airfields at Eua and Vavau.

Before leaving for home they were to present a report on their survey, and recommendations for setting up a Tongan airline.

Japan is also interested in the possibility of setting up a colour tele vision network on Tongatapu. An offer has been made by NHK, the largest television and broadcasting service in Japan. To give the Japan ese some idea of what is required a survey is being held throughout Tongatapu. The survey also seeks the number of likely buyers of tele vision sets.