Islands
p. 44 · Read in the full issue
From The
Press
From the Tuvalu News Sheet: He (Mr M. G. Powell, acting Financial Secretary) described the seriously-mutilated notes as those with more than slight tears, part of the note missing or two half-notes bearing different numbers. Mr Powell has also made it clear that notes with corners bent and crumpled or with missing small corner would not constitute a serious mutilation.
From a speech underlying some drawbacks to custom by Fijian clergyman, the Rev Manasa Lasaro, and reported in The Fiji Times: . . . Any social study of Fijian society would show that a large portion of the family income was spent on social customs resources which could effectively be used in improving the standard of family life, Rev Lasaro said. A newly married couple had to begin life from scratch because the marriage system of exchange gifts during the ceremonies robbed them of a better starting point. The same happened in the event of death, when the closest relatives suffered severely financially, let alone suffering the loss of a loved one . . .
Mr Naboua Ratieta, Chief Minister of the Gilbert Islands, speaking at the opening of a new Bank of NSW office, as reported by the Atoll Pioneer: ... I am sure he (Mr Wright, chief manager of the bank in Fiji) does not fall within the usual definition of a bank manager. That is somebody who will only lend you an umbrella if it is not
raining.
From the Arawa Bulletin: People are still expressing concern at the traffic hazard of drunken men roaming across the road on the way home from the Tavern. It will be the innocent motorist who gets the chop by the pay-back system. If they can’t stop serving them before they get to that stage, then they should pay for bright street lighting.
From the Tohi Tala Niue: The time is ripe for government to appoint a “Commission of Inquiry” into our prison system . . . Can Niue afford to maintain a prison. Can Niue afford to have members of its work force put out of circulation for a few months .. . Being sentenced to prison is like a well earned holiday say some prisoners. “I can play golf, sing in the sun and get a square meal every day of the week.
If I was fined then I would think twice”, says one young man sentenced to 3 months imprisonment.
From a report in the Samoa Times of a visit to Apia of 38 high school students from American Samoa on a “cultural observance tour”: . . . One Apia woman said she had never come across such ill mannered, rude and confused young people before . . . One girl was late turning in Monday night and was later found in one of the nightclubs with a married man, reports said, and she was beaten up by the teachers and ‘deported’ back the next day . . .
From a reply by Peni Vea, economist with the Tonga Government Central Planning Unit, to a question from the Tonga Chronicle, “Soviet Union interests in Tonga is it right for Tonga?”
I feel that any offer from the Soviet Union or any of the Communist countries to build an airport for us .should only be accepted if none of our non-Communist Allies like New
Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom and even the United States are willing to assist Tonga on this when it wants to have it.
From the PNG Post-Courier: Some Dumun villagers in Chimbu Province will inform on people who ambush and steal from trucks —r if they are paid by the government . . . Two Dumun villagers said: “We know the people who steal from the trucks. They are our wantoks. But why should we tell the police? We will only do this if we are
paid.”
The Microneslan Independent reports under the heading ‘The bad news’: This is a short story, being put in the paper at the last minute because what happened just happened a few minutes ago: another young Marshallese man has attempted suicide. He was discovered hanging in a wash house several buildings from where this paper is printed in Majuro. Fortunately he was cut down before suffocating himself and was rushed to hospital in an unconscious state. This incident bears an uncomfortable and undeniable relationship to a rash of such hangings and self shootings by young men there have been five or six since January.
From a statement in The Fiji Times from Taniela Veitata, Industrial Officer of the Fiji Waterside Workers’ and Seamen’s Union, on the dispute between the union and the Fiji Ports Authority: The majority of Fijians must not be classed as still within the throes of backwardness, ignorance and shortsightedness. We are fully conscious and are aware of our identity and have by now acquired the senses and ability of smelling a rat a mile away. So, the rat might now or later find itself the meat in the sandwich, entangled in its own shady dealings, the culmination of bad showmanship . . .
“All councillors in harmonious agreement” ran the headline in the Norfolk Island News reporting an increase in pay for council members: . . . Why the rise should be treated like a hot potato is hard to understand: who else takes so much responsibility and earbashing for around $1 an hour?
From the Cook Islands News: They (the New Zealand people) end up buying very expensive Ecuador bananas rather than cheap Island bananas which, they say, look second-hand because of all their bruises, stains or scars.