News in a Nutshell

The University of the South Pacific has reached agreement with the Cook Islands Government for the establish ment of a university extension centre in the Cooks. Agreement followed a two-day conference at Rarotonga between members of the USP Executive Committee, the Cook Islands Minister of Social Services Tupui Henry and ministry personnel.

The centre is expected to operate from next February.

Cane For Crime

Fiji’s courts have sentenced six young men to a total of 34 strokes of the cane after convicting them of crimes involving violence or sexual offences. A magistrate at Nausori, near Suva, gave a 25-year-old man two years in jail and recommended six strokes of the cane when he pleaded guilty to robbing a taxi driver with violence. At Lautoka in Western Fiji, Mr Justice Kenneth Stuart, sit ting in the Supreme Court, sentenced two men to six months in jail and six strokes each, a third to six months and four strokes, and a fourth to five months and four strokes, for an offence against a 15-year-old girl. In another case at Lautoka, the acting Chief Justice, Mr Justice Tuivaga, sentenced a man who pleaded guilty to raping a five-year-old girl to five years and eight strokes.

Sunday Trading Protest

Ab®ut 2,000 Methodist Church members staged a protest march through Suva to deliver a petition to the Governor-General complaining about Sunday trading. In their petition, which they handed in at the gates of Government House, the members called for a ban on Sunday trading and for workers not to be forced to work on Sundays. Later, at an open-air meeting in a city park, church representatives opposed a government proposal to establish a state lottery and another one to allow a Japanese company to make rum from Fiji molasses. Marchers carried banners calling for an end to Sunday visits by tourist ships, for which duty-free shopkeepers are now allowed to open their shops. Organised Sunday sport will be another of the group’s targets.

Skulls For Sale

Human skulls from Papua New Guinea are on sale in a Sydney arti

fact shop with price tags of several hundreds of dollars, a cultural organi sation has claimed. The Sepik Cul tural Committee in the northern coastal town of Wewak claimed that eight skulls were being offered by a Sydney dealer in contravention of an ordinance passed 10 years ago ban ning the sale of skeletal remains. Mr Rick White, executive officer of the committee, said the sale of the skulls had been reported to the organisation by two other artifact dealers, one operating in Papua New Guinea and the other in Australia. Mr White de clined, however to reveal the name of the dealer who was later reported —again anonymously—by radio as denying the charges, although he conceded his company may have offered such skulls for sale in the past.— AAP.

Time Flies

The duty free shop at Teotue in the Cook Islands, owned by South Seas International Ltd, has an attraction for thieves. About mid-July it was broken into for the third time.

The pattern was similar—a large quantity of watches, worth thousands of dollars, was stolen. The police said the thieves obviously had a fair knowledge of the layout of the shop.

A question arises—where would a thief “flog” a large number of watches in the Cook Islands.

$3L Million Suit Fails

Shareholders of Transpacific Lines failed in a $3l million alleged breach of-contract claim against the United States Government. The US Court of Appeals declined to hear the case, saying that the Trust Territory Government was not an agency of the United States for contract pur poses, in spite of controls exercised by the US Department of the Interior, Sixteen shareholders, on March 30, 1973, filed their suit on behalf of about 800 owners of 500,000 ordinary shares. The $3l million figure was the projected market value of the claimants’ stock in 1978, the end of the 10-year Transpac franchise.

Transpac is now insolvent and under a court-administered receivership.

Prince In Fiji

The Prince of Wales, Prince Charles, will spend four days in Fiji

in October for the celebration to mark the 100th anniversary of cession to the British Crown. The main cele brations will be in Suva on October 10. The government will strike a $25 silver coin and a $lOO gold coin to mark the occasion.

Png Changes

Mr Jack Bagita has succeeded Mr Philip Bouraga as District Com missioner for East New Britain in ' Papua New Guinea. He was for merly District Commissioner for New Ireland. Mr Bouraga has been I appointed Secretary of the Depart ment of the Chief Minister.

Only five of Papua New Guinea’s 19 administrative districts are now headed by white commissioners as the country gradually severs more colonial ties with Australia. The ratio favours New Guineans for the first time since colonial administration was first imposed. Minister for Local : Government, Mr Boyamo Sali, con firmed the appointment of nine New Guinean district commissioners to bring the indigenous content of the top regional administration force ! to 14.

Mr Sali said the appointments were a significant indication of the effectiveness with which expatriate district commissioners had been able to pass on their skills and experience

to New Guinean officers.-

Aap.

Spc For Cooks

The 14th South Pacific Conference will open at Tereora College on Rarotonga in the Cook Islands on September 25 and will close on October 8. Following the meeting of the eight member governments in Wellington (NZ) in March when agreement was reached on a merger of the Conference and the Commiss ion, the 14th Conference is expected to alter procedure to merge the two bodies, give all territories represented in the Conference one vote each with the Conference becoming the ruling body.

Bsip Strikers Win

Men employed by the D. J. Gubbay Co on building sites at Point Cruz and Mendana Avenue, Honiara, received better pay and improved conditions in an award handed down after a one-day strike. A hurriedly appointed conciliator, Mr A. D.

Hughie, a senior labour inspector, gave labourers a rise of 20c a day and tradesmen of all clases 13c a day more. Other terms are that the em ployer has to provide a first-aid kit on building sites, and employees have to produce a certificate before they get sick pay. The company agreed to

provide paint and equipment for the men to redecorate their houses, and will provide labour and materials for repairs to houses.

Bsip Travellers Lost

Because of financial difficulties, Air Pacific decided at the meeting in Suva to cut out one service through Honiara and reschedule another. This decision astounded the Honiara Chamber of Commerce. A chamber spokesman said the BSIP was in the unsatisfactory position of being virtually cut off from the rest of the world in travel and mail by a situation over which it had no control. He urged the BSIP Government to give Air Nauru full traffic rights in the

Bsip.

A Day Of Rest

July 12, the date of the founding of the Congress of Micronesia nine years ago, has been declared a “Day of Rest” throughout the Trust Ter ritory to commemorate what High Commissioner Edward Johnston called “one of the most important steps in Micronesia’s political development”.

Pat On The Back

Private Pilimoelagi Tofau Gao teote, of Vatia, American Samoa, is doing an outstanding extra-mural job with Brave Troop, 4th Squadron, 7th US Cavalry in South Korea. The squadron chaplain, Captain Raymond D. Ruddle. recently wrote to Governor John Haydon, praising Private Gaoteote in these terms: “Private Gaoteote has become in volved in a local orphanage, and is providing outstanding assistance to them in their various activities. Vo luntarily, he has undertaken to teach the children various forms of dances from the Islands as part of their educational programme. You can be justly proud of this young soldier who represents your country to the men in our unit, and the Korean community”.

Ship That Never Sailed

A New Caledonian vessel which never fulfilled its original destiny as nickel carrier, or its second project as floating restaurant, has finally been towed off to Auckland for scrap.

The ship, the Sorana del Mar was originally bought by Noumea nickel interests several years ago, when great hopes were held for INCO and other companies to enter the island’s mining industry. After lying

idle in Noumea and then being intended for a restaurant off the Isle of Nou, the Sorana del Mar was towed off by the Fiji tug Tui Tawate, to be scrapped.

Beat The Devil

Tongan boxer, Mani Vaka, scored a technical knock-out win over Charles “Devil” Green, of New York, in a recent heavyweight contest at the Honolulu International Centre.

Vaka twice floored Green—in the first and sixth rounds.

Volunteers In Bsip

Four American Peace Corps volun teers have arrived in Honiara, bringing the number of United States volunteers serving in the Solomons to 12. A government spokesman said that all volunteers had business back grounds and would be working in rural business development. They had recently completed a training course in Fiji where they learnt

about the Solomons and were taught pidgin. There are now nine Peace Corps volunteers working in rural business development. It was hoped to recruit four more next year to help during the census.

Black Gold In Fiji?

Oil rigs one day may stand out in Bligh Water in Fiji. The first ex ploratory well in Fiji will be sunk there late this year by Amoco, a US exploration company, for the Southern Pacific Petroleum Co. Southern Petroleum holds a concession cover ing 3,000 square miles. It was the first company to start searching for oil in Fiji’s offshore areas. It has given particular attention to geolo gical formation near Sawailau in the Yasawas, as the location for the first site, although a firm decision has not yet been made.

From Nauru With Love

Nauru’s President Hammer De- Roburt has given an $B,OOO speed boat to the Western Samoa Head of State, His Highness Malietoa Tanu mafili 11. The boat was handed over in late July at a ceremony on board the Nauruan passenger-cargo ship Enna G which was berthed at Apia.

Receiving the gift from a Nauruan government official, the Head of State said he hoped the President would visit Apia to share the boat with him. At the ceremony was the President’s daughter, Jeannetta.

"A Risk" Gaoled

A man was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment followed by five years’ banishment from the New Hebrides when he appeared at the French National Court in Vila. An toine Fornelli, of Tanna, who was arrested recently after a joint police operation ordered by the Resident Commissioners had been found guilty of being a “risk to state security”.

In the joint court in Vila, Fornelli appealed against a sentence of 18 months’ imprisonment imposed by the Court of First Instance at Tanna on charges arising out of the Joint Public Order Regulation. The sen tence imposed in the French National Court can be appealed against to the French High Court in Noumea.

$L7O Fine For Overcharging

A Port Moresby trading firm, M.

G. and J. A. Seeto, was fined $l7O at the end of July for overcharging at a Tokarara store and for failure to display prices in a mobile store at the Port Moresby General Hos pital. In a similar case the previous week a Rabaul storekeeper was fined $2OO.

These two colourful PNG stamps, re leased on August 7, form the fourth and final stage of the Panorama defini tive issue and, like the previous 17 stamps, feature the country's rich and varied customs. The Pig Exchange (Western Highlands) depicts a common practice when pigs, regarded there as "our hearts", are exchanged by clans as a sign of peace. A sing-sing (Enga District) is another ceremonial occasion connected with religious rites, with pig exchanges and with pig feasts. Stamps to commemorate a century of Postal Union have been issued by Fiji, the Cook Islands and Pitcairn Island. The Cooks and the New Hebrides have also issued stamps to mark the bicentenary of Captain Cook's second voyage of discovery.