postdoctoral

: Iji Retaliates Against U.S.

Fiji has cut the number of flights J an American Airways operated hrough Nadi from six to four a week. This is in retaliation against he refusal of the US Government to ;rant landing rights in US territories n the Pacific Islands, American iamoa and the Trust Territory, to Pacific.

>Ng Civil Aviation Changes

Papua New Guinea started licens tig its own pilots, air traffic con rollers and aircraft maintenance ngineers on June 1. PNG now also ssues its own certificates of air worthiness. The licence requirements re to Australian standards. Also rom June 1, the Australian air navi ation regulations were replaced by *NG civil aviation regulations. :nighthoods for png men After a 10-year drought, Papua Jew Guinea came back into the usiness of creating knights with a wallop, in the 1974 Queen’s Birthday lonours. Maybe it was another way f PNG emphasising its self-govern ig status.

Australia was very reluctant in le whole post-war period, to re ommend anything higher than a '.B.E. in PNG and the present mstralian Labor Government turns mmbs down on such social distinc ons although its new Governor- Jeneral, Sir John Kerr, sneaked his onour in just before his appoint lent, as a resident of non-Labor few South Wales.

The two knighthoods on PNG re jmmendation went to Paul Lapun, resent Minister for Mines and nergy. He was elected to the PNG fouse of Assembly, in 1964, which lakes him one of the longest serv ig politicians in the current govern lent.

He was born in Bougainville and ;rved as a teacher in Catholic fission schools before entering poli cs. He fought successfully for a srcentage of royalties from the ougainville Copper Ltd enterprise > go to the original owners of the ind and has been in the forefront hen it came to seeing that jssionist-thinking Bougainville gets fair slice of the PNG cake. The anour—the first to a New Guinean

—can be regarded as a sop to the big, now important, island as well as to the recipient personally.

The other PNG knight is Horace Lionel Richard Niall, now living in retirement near Sydney. He went to New Guinea as a cadet patrol officer in 1927, served in every capacity in the field and was a Dis trict Commissioner 1950-1964, dur ing which time he did much to lay the foundations of the very pleasant city of Lae, which had been com pletely obliterated during World War 11. He was elected to the House of Assembly in 1964 and became its first Speaker.

His knighthood is a tribute by Chief Minister Somare’s present government not only to Sir Home Niall but to the old service to which he belonged.

The previous post-war knight hoods in PNG went to Sir Donald Cleland, then Administrator of the territory, in 1961, who now lives in retirement in Port Moresby; and the late Sir Alan Mann, a former Chief Justice.

Four Rescued From

Middleton Reef

Middleton Reef, about 170 miles north of Lord Howe Is and> c aimed another v i ct j m on April 2 8, the 38 ft fem>concrete yacb l so sp ’ an Fach (Welsh for “little saucepan”). But the four people on the yacht were able to find sanctuary in the wreck of a la P anese fishing boat, the Fuku Maru No 4, about a s mi , e away .

TZ was their home till they were found . , A .

“ « Rescued and taken to Ballina, on the NSW north coast, were Irfon Nicholas, 35, owner and skipper of

the Sospan Fach; Christine Braham, 23, of Adelaide; Peter Lindenmeyer, 18, of Melbourne and Geraldine Yorke, 19, of Auckland. The Sospan Fach left Auckland on April 7 to sail for Australia without a clearance from the customs or marine authori ties. It had no engine, or radio and only one set of sails. The Ata, with a Tongan crew, is owned and oper ated by Peter Warner, well known in the South Pacific for his marine interests in Tonga.

Trimaran Rescue

Two men were rescued and their drifting trimaran, the Capricorn, was abandoned off New Caledonia late in May after one hull was gashed by an unidentified object in the sea. The men were 48-year-old Britisher Fred Howard and 24-year-old Dominique Longheon, of France, who were sailing from Brisbane to Noumea via the Surprise Islands, about 190 miles north-west of New Caledonia, when the mishap occurred. They drifted for a week before being saved by a French air-sea rescue operation, after a Japanese ore carrier had picked up their distress signals.

Flying-Boat Salvageable

The Airlines of NSW Sandringham flying-boat which was badly damaged during a storm at Lord Howe Island on June 9 is salvageable. (See report on p 83). The manager of the air line, Mr P. Steadman, said he was very pleased with a report from structural engineers who flew to Lord Howe to examine the flying boat. There would be a consultation with insurance assessors. Mr Stead man said it would be at least two months before the flying-boat was repaired. In the meantime, a tem

porary air link will be maintained with the island with another Sand ringham. That aircraft, sold to West Indies interests, was to have left Australia in June, but her departure has been deferred.

Woodchip Mill Opened

Annual sales of $6 million are expected from the Jant woodchip mill at Madang, Papua New Guinea to the Japanese Honshu Papua Co.

The mill was officially opened in June. Investment in the project over 10 years is expected to total $lB million. Timber for the mill is drawn from a 83,000-hectare lease between 10 and 25 miles from Madang. The company staff, now 424, is expected to reach 1,200 by 1977.

Some of the cleared land will be used for agriculture, but most of it will be replanted with trees. The PNG Minister for Natural Resources, Mr Bruce Jephcott, who officially opened the mill, said the PNG Gov ernment would regulate how forest resources should be used for the maxi mum benefit of the PNG people.

The District Commissioner, Mr Benson Gegeyo, said the opening of the mill showed the great potential of the Madang district. Through co operation, all parties involved, the government, and people and Jant. would reap many benefits from the enterprise.