Postscripts
p. 108 · Read in the full issue
Unwelcome Guests
Nine Tongan stowaways who arrived in Sydney in the Tauloto early in October are the financial respon sibility of the ship’s owners, the Pacific Navigation Co Ltd, till they get back home. The stowaways, most of them aged 15 or 16, were dis covered hiding under copra sacks during a routine search. They were not discovered by Tongan police who search most ships after they leave Nukualofa. As airlines will not accept them as passengers, they will be taken back to Tonga by the Tauloto, when passages are available. But as paying passengers have priority the stowaways will have to wait till berths are available.
Search Fails
An air-sea search for John Absalom, 33, in Papua New Guinea, ended on October 7 when all hope for his survival ended. He failed to return to Alotau, where he was Deputy District Commissioner, on September 29 from nearby islands.
Wreckage from his speedboat was found five days later. Mr Absalom, married, with three children, was in the public service 11 years.
No Problem Here
Cambridge Credit (New Hebrides) enterprises are not affected by the problems of Cambridge Credit Corp Ltd, in Australia, which is in re ceivership, according to a company spokesman in Sydney.
The New Hebrides company con trols the Hotel Rossi in Vila, and is developing a block of resorts at Undine Bay. It also recently has taken over tourist interests in Tanna from the Paul family. The Undine Bay project is a 10-year-plan, and will be pushed ahead slowly, the spokesman said. The New Hebrides company is not in receivership.
Airline Purchase
The Bougainville Provincial Gov ernment, which is not yet fully estab lished, has purchased a charter air line service previously operated by the Missionary Aviation Fellowship which has its regional headquarters in Melbourne. The Provincial Government is the first of a series of governments which fall just short of statehood and which have been pro vided for under central government
legislation in Papua New Guinea. The purchase price of $200,000 involves three single-engine Cessna aircraft, hangar space and auxiliary buildings and equipment.
Woman Driver Killed
Mrs Diane Faramus, Australian born wife of the Papua Yacht Club manager was fatally injured in Octo ber when the car she was driving in a women’s race in a speedway meet ing in Port Moresby crashed through a safety fence. She died in an ambu lance on the way to hospital. Two spectators were injured.
Png Wage Fixed
After a long inquiry, the PNG Minimum Wages Board recom mended on October 11 that a mini mum wage for urban workers should be $2O a week, with further rises of $2.50 a week in January, 1975, and July, 1975, to make the wage $25, Employers’ immediate reaction was that the rise would lead to more unemployment as staff would have to be retrenched.
Long Row
Anders Sweeland, a Swede, arrived in Apia late in September after row ing an open boat, the Waka Moana, 5,000 miles across the South Pacific from Chile. He passed through the French nuclear test zone off Tahiti.
He planned to spend a few days in Apia and then ship his boat to New Zealand, where he intends to settle.
Goodwill Gesture
Burns Philp recently, as a gesture of goodwill, handed over, free of charge, undeveloped plantation land on Witu Island in West New Britain to the local people. The land, about 5,600 acres of rough and broken country, should meet the people’s needs for some years, said the Minister for Lands, Mr Thomas Kavali. Burns Philp also proposes to release undeveloped areas, totalling about 20,000 acres on other planta tions in Papua New Guinea.
Tabua For Queen
Fijians in Britain celebrated Cession Centenary Year at London’s Commonwealth Institute on October 17 and the chief guest was the Queen.
She received a tabua (whale’s tooth) from Ratu Isoa Gavidi, second sec retary at the Fiji High Commission, who assured the Queen of “the con tinuing desire of the Fijian people to serve under her Majesty’s realm”.
Before touring the Commonwealth Exhibition, the Queen saw a 25minute performance by the Fijian dance group which had been touring the United Kingdom.
Hussey's New Job
Mr Bill Hussey, centre of a row in Western Samoa in July when his job as regional director of the United Nations Development Programme was terminated by UNDP head quarters in Manila, has retired from UNDP and has opened an office in the United States as a consultant on Pacific affairs. As a consultant, Mr Hussey represented the Foundation of the Peoples of the South Pacific Inc at the 14th South Pacific Con ference at Rarotonga. Charging that Western Samoa had been insulted because UNDP in Manila refused to divulge the source of an alleged un favourable report on Mr Hussey, Prime Minister Fiame Mataafa ordered the closing of the agency’s regional offices at Apia.
Honorary Chief
American Samoa’s retiring governor and perhaps the last ap pointed governor. John M. Haydon, left Pago Pago for home in October.
High chiefs presented him with the emblems of a Talking Chief and Mrs Jean Haydon, after whom the new museum, which she founded, is named, received several gifts includ ing a pulatasi (dress) fan and a shell purse bearing her initials.
Drought Disaster
American President Gerald Ford has declared American Samoa a dis aster area as a result of the drought which began on September 7 and has resulted in the closing of the terri tory’s three canneries, throwing 1,260 employees out of work. The United States regional director of the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration has presented the administration there with $185,500 for disaster unemployment assistance.