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Planters Defended

The role of the white planter often under attack in Papua New Guinea’s new nationalism has been defended by a government minister, the Environment and Conservation Minister, Mr Stephen Tago. He said the maintenance and opera tion of large plantations had always been an important part of the rural economy.

Despite changing political and economic

conditions, plantations continued to be just as important in the sphere of national development as they ever were. The impor tant point was the manner in which the planters themselves fitted in to the new Papua New Guinea.

He believed the transition had been ac complished in a way which laid good foundations for the future. Mr Tago was opening the 51st annual conference of the Planters Association of New Guinea, held at its headquarters in Rabaul. • PNG legislation expected to become law very shortly will ban all but PNG citizens from owning land. Freehold land now held by non-citizens will be converted into leasehold land. The new law will also determine the term, rent and development :onditions of the leases.

Police Station Siege

Police reinforcements were brought 80 dlometres by air in a hurry in September o break up a siege at the Bulolo police sta i°n in Papua New Guinea. An angry :rowd surrounded the police station claim ng they intended to kill a man being held nside. Trouble erupted when a reversing 'chicle killed a man in the grounds of the )ig veneer factory operated at Bulolo by Commonwealth New Guinea Timbers, 'riends of the dead man attempted lynch aw justice against the driver, who was escued by police and taken under guard to he police station. But the crowd followed houting that they wanted revenge, and locked off the street outside the police tation. Riot police were flown in from Lae

and the crowd was dispersed. Six men were arrested five on charges of riot and one on a charge of having carried an offensive weapon.

Leprosy Survey

After making surveys of the incidence of leprosy in the New Hebrides and the Solomons, a World Health Organisation leprologist is to undertake similar work in Western Samoa.

The scientist, Dr Lopez Bravo, has said that the incidence of leprosy among South Pacific Island populations had never been determined, but it was now known to be surprisingly significant. It was difficult to determine exact numbers, as several islands had a very high incidence of the dis ease while others were totally free of it.

Leprosy is the foremost crippling dis ease in the world since a vaccine was developed to prevent poliomyelitis,” Dr Bravo said. There were estimated to be about 15 million lepers in the world, of whom a large number were untreated.

“With methods of treatment so greatly improved in recent times, the real need to day is to identify sufferers from the disease so that they may be given treatment and cured,” he said.

Dr Bravo’s work is being supported to the tune of $24,000 a year by the Lepers’

Trust Board, headquartered in Christchurch, New Zealand. Donations to the Leper Man Appeal” may be sent to the Board, Private Bag, Christchurch, NZ.

Self-Denial

Fiji’s top public servants recently, as a patriotic gesture, decided to forgo any pay rise this year. The Cabinet decided to follow suit, and urged parliamentarians to do the same. Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara said it was encouraging to see civil servants doing what they could to help overcome difficult times, when so many external factors, beyond Fiji’s con trol, contributed to the country’s financial difficulties. But the Public Service Association decided not to go along with the idea, saying that many civil servants, particularly on the junior and middle levels, had been waiting since the begin ning of the year for a pay review. Nor would the association tolerate any curtail ment of its members’ privileges and fringe benefits.

Come Back Anzus!

Despite strong government objections, the PNG National Parliament has called for negotiations with the ANZUS powers to have Manus Island re-established as a naval and air force base.

The original motion, moved by Mr Michael Pondros (Manus Open), express ed concern at Russian activities in the Pacific and Indian Oceans”.

The Opposition Leader, Sir Tei Abal successfully amended the motion to read

“some other countries” instead of having it name Russia.

Opposing the motion, the Minister for Defence, Foreign Affairs and Trade, Sir Maori Kiki, said it was still obvious the motion was talking about Russia, as the Soviet had interests in both the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

He described the motion as “dangerous

and provocative”.

“We must think about the well-being of our people,” he said. “Once you let the others in, the Russians will want to come in too.”

The Opposition Shadow Minister for Defence, Foreign Affairs and Trade, Mr Anton Parao (Enga), called on the govern ment to give up its non-aligned policy and decide who were its friends and enemies in the East-West confrontation.

The US had a large naval and air force base on Manus during the Second World War, but left the island in 1947. Australia had a naval base in the area but handed it over to PNG in November, 1974.

Nz Stretches Out

New Zealand has decided to upgrade its representation in Tonga to the status of high commissioner. The official represen tation had been confined to an immigra tion attache. When attention to other matters became necessary it was necessary

for the High Commissioner in Western Samoa to visit Tonga. New Zealand now has high commissioners in Fiji (who also covers Nauru), Papua New Guinea, Western Samoa and Tonga, a consulate general in New Caledonia, representatives in the Cook Islands and Niue and trade correspondents in Western Samoa and Tahiti.

Measly Meters

Parking meters are not the money spinners people generally believed them to be, according to the Fiji Commissioner of Police, Mr John Kelland. Apart from his knowledge about their operation in Suva, years of experience with them in the UK convinced him they were “totally un economic”. The wages of the people re quired to maintain them, to clear them and to administer them exceeded the takings from the meters. On top of that they were frequently jammed because people used “dud” coins in them. Then there was always somebody who learned how to open them, and that created problems for the police. Mr Kelland favours a traffic warden system, or a fixed penalty system.

Dry Dock Patrol

Fiji recently received a couple of launches from Australia as an aid gift, and handed them over to the police. One is bas

ed at Suva and the other at Lautoka. They are valuable adjuncts in preventive patrols and life-saving. But, unfortunately, they spend more time out of the water than in it, the Commissioner of Police, Mr John Kelland, said recently. There had been a plague of mechanical breakdowns-. Mr Kelland said that basically there was nothing wrong with the launches, and they had very good engines. But the police did not have people who knew how to maintain and service the launches.

Evasive Island

An air search was mounted in August for the 65-ft coastal ship Fatima Star after she failed to arrive at her destination of Wuvulu Island, 200 km off Wewak on the Papua New Guinea coast. But the ship’s captain had the best of excuses. He hadn’t turned up at Wuvulu because he couldn’t find it.

The ship was eventually sighted from the air on her way back to Wewak to prepare for a second try at finding the tiny, low lying coral island.

Aboard was a party of 37 US students and lecturers who planned to spend several weeks on the island carrying out oceanographic studies. The group, from Pepperdine University, Los Angeles, had paid SUS2OOO each to go on the study tour to PNG.