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In praise of tinned fish a quote from Fiji Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara when opening a new tuna canning factory at Levuka and reported in The Fiji Times: . . . There is another small point linked with Fijian custom.

Perhaps it sounds rather trivial but none the less real. Presen tations of food are an integral part of our custom for many oc casions. Nearly always that food has to be divided into a number of shares. A carton of 48 tins of fish is infinitely easier for Tuirara to distribute in proportions that all can see to be fair . . .

One method for rehabilitating lawbreakers as reported in the PNG Post-Courier: A local government councillor wants prisoners to work in the streets “where people can see them”. “This will 'make them feel ashamed, and they won’t give us any more trouble,” Mr Gau Henao told a conference in Port Moresby.

And a comment on Mr Henao’s suggestion in the PNG Post-Courier the following day: . . . Shame is often transitory and evidence suggests that many who commit a crime against their fellow men are so un humiliated by the punishment they err again and again. Sadly they often acquire greater stature in the eyes of their colleagues From the Samoa Times: Close to 500 people were served by two doctors at the Apia Hospital yesterday, and many complained of the long wait they went through before finally making it to a doctor. Many claimed that they started waiting from about 10 o’clock until well into the afternoon . . . One of the doctors said the main cause of the inconvenience was the way the system operated. “There are at least 32 doctors at present, but the way they are allocated to the various wards is so poor that some are carrying a heavy load while others who are on duty in other wards sit and play draughts in the common room most of the time,” the doctor said.

Potted history of New Hebrides National Party leader by Father Walter Lini at the meeting of the Legislative Assembly as reported in the New Hebrides News: It is now 70 years since the ambiguous document called the Anglo-French mixed-fruit-salad (or Protocol) was declared and signed by our metropolitan godfathers. Seventy years of Joint Colonial influence that saw a very slow phase of social and economic and political progress . . . Really one cannot help feel ing that surely for a single country to be administered by two nations would achieve more in less years than some countries in the Pacific ... the end result of it is that the indigenous people are its victims. Perhaps this situation is best summed up by a colleague of mine when he spoke of this joint influence, and I quote, “You have brought us this far, you have made us work here, now get us out of this hell!”.

So now you know . . . NZ Prime Minister Mr Muldoon’s view of the Russians’ entry into the Pacific as reported by the Tonga Chronicle: “I suggest that you treat with a grain of salt headlines suggesting uneasiness between New Zealand and Australia and our Pacific neighbours”, he said (in a speech at the Auckland Lions Club).

“The South Pacific Forum proved each time its members met that ‘when the chips are down, old friends are the best friends’.”

Gilbert Islands Atoll Pioneer, reporting visit of

French frigate:

And so ... we have had the French, the Papua New Guineans, the New Zealanders, the Americans, etc . . . but not the British.

They are not sinking are they?

The pitfalls of translation as revealed by the PNG Post-Courier in an article on translating the New Testament into Pidgin: What’s the Pidgin word for “love”? The translations of the New Testament, the “standard” Pidgin work, opted for “givem bel” and hit a lot of problems. In some areas, it was discovered, it has the connotation of “make pregnant”. The consequences of that, some church people felt, could be disastrous! So a revised edition of the “Nupela Testament” is currently being printed, using “laikim tumas” as the main equivalent of “love”.

From the Samoa Times: A young girl was seen being taken by force aboard one of the local boats tied up behind Treasury and the matter was reported to the police. Constables arrived shortly after and a man jumped into the sea at their approach. The agents of the law took after him in a rubber dinghy. When they nearly caught up one of the policemen jumped in and upset the delicate balance of the tiny boat and gave the other two involuntary baths as well. When the sun went down in the western horizon the sea chase was still on with the seaman easily eluding the efforts of the wet, tired minions of the law.

From The Fiji Times: The question of lowering the voting age from 21 was one that needed the most minute examination, the Attorney-General, Sir John Falvey, told the Alliance on Saturday. He said the matter needed study by a statistician or an actuary, while the Alliance had to consider whether it might damage itself by extending voting rights to younger people. The party was not denying the political aspirations of the young. But lowering the voting age was “a very serious matter, a very difficult one and it could be a fatal one”.

A suggestion from Nauru’s President Hammer Deßoburt speaking in the Gilberts House of Assembly and reported in the Atoll Pioneer: . . . small nations like ours must unite if we are to be heard fairly . . . a joint representation of both Nauru and the Gilberts and, if possible, the Solomons, Tuvalu and the Marshalls as well would merit different considerations (in the United Nations)... to en sure that the common interests of the peoples of the Central Pacific were not sacrificed by default . . .