News

The

In A

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The Gay Fifties!

The number of Fiji civil servants who retire before reaching the man datory retiring age of 60 is increasing.

In 1976, the government budgeted for about $1,380,000 to meet the cost of pensions and benefits, and then found towards the end of the year it had to fork out another $732,000 to meet the bill. The government now finds it practically impossible to forecast the number of retirements because of the trend to leave long before the retiring age.

China On Show

About 40,000 people visited the recent two-weeks-long economic and trade ex hibition of the People’s Republic of China in Port Moresby, according to exhibition spokesman Mr Chiao Mu-jung.

Mr Chiao said several Port Moresby business people had approached him about importing goods from China. Public in quiries had been particularly directed at Chinese farming machinery.

Mr Chiao particularly expressed ap preciation of the assistance of the PNG Government in mounting the exhibition.

Display exhibits made up of agricultural, light industrial and textile products, heavy machinery, foodstuffs, wines and spirits were shown at the exhibi tion.

Floating Scientists

A scientific team in a Russian research ship, the Kalliston, was scheduled to visit Niue Island early in January as part of an international geological study of the Pacific area. Russian, Australian and New Zealand scientists were on board.

Pitcairn 'Museum'

A Seventh-day Adventist college in California has become a major US research centre on the subject of Pitcairn Island following a gift of rare Pitcairn artefacts and books by an American author.

The gift was made to Pacific Union College by David Silverman, author of the 1967 study Pitcairn Island. It includes copies of the Civil Recorder of Pitcairn from 1792 to 1963, typescripts, photostats and pamphlets, and a facsimile reproduc tion of A Voyage to the South Seas, written in 1972 by Lieutenant William Bligh, commander of the HMS Bounty.

Pitcairn is today predominantly Seventh-day Adventist as a result of energetic evangelical efforts by American Adventists in the late 19th century.

Nobel Prize

An American researcher who discovered the cause of the disease kuru (“laughing death”) was awarded the 1976 Nobel Prize for medicine. Dr D. Carlton Gajdusek, a virologist, has been studying the disease for 19 years. Kuru, whose symptoms are uncontrollable facial and other movements resembling laughter, is found only in Papua New Guinea.

He began his research in the 1950 s in the Fore area of the Okapa sub-Province of the Eastern Highlands and his work.led to the identification of kuru. Through his research it became clear that kuru was similar to other diseases such as Parkin son’s Disease and other pre-senile dis orders.

His long-term research on kuru and disease-causing viroid particles was one of the major factors in the award of the Nobel Prize.

His study of kuru has aided medical researchers throughout the world in their study of similar diseases of the nervous system.

Kuru is now disappearing, and the assumption is that it will die out complete ly- Dr Gajdusek, who is employed by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases of the US Health Department, shared the prize with another America virologist, Dr Baruch Blumberg.

Old Bombs’ New Hole

The explosive power of two 200 lb US bombs from World War II was pressed into service late last year to deepen and widen a proposed wharf site on Watom Island, in PNG’s East New Britain Province. In charge of the blast were four members of the PNG Defence Force bomb disposal unit under Lieutenant lan Wegener.

While they were on the job, the men also detonated a 600 lb bomb in the Vunakanau area of the Gazelle Peninsula, and other bombs in Takua plantation in the Kokopo area.

Tower Of Babel

An appeal for an end to the divisive use of the English and French languages in the New Hebrides has been made by the bishop and priests of the Catholic Church in the Con dominium.

In a September, 1976, message to the people of the New Hebrides, they said; “It would be a genuine step towards maintaining peace if we ceas ed to present French and English as being opposed to each other, as if the two languages necessarily divided the people.

“If we accept and respect the fact of bilingualism we are recognising that the New Hebrides has a unique role to play in the future of the Pacific. At the same time we are allaying the fears of many Hebrideans, and mak ing a positive investment for the future development of this country.”

Lae Crime-Fighters

A law and order committee has been formed in Lae to try to solve the problem of crime in settlement areas. Committee chairman, Mr Nathaniel Rerem, who is also Provincial Local Government Officer, said four of the main problems were break ing and entering, urban drift, black marketing in liquor and vagrancy.

The committee consists of represen

tatives from Lae City Council, police, welfare, church leaders and various settle ment areas.

Member for Lae and Papua New Guinea Trade Union Congress president, Mr Tony I la, is the committee’s vice chairman.

Lost At Sea

A planned day’s fishing ended in tragedy for a young Gilbertese early in October.

Tcmango Kialaro and Tebiketake Kireua, both 17, were wading to some rocks to use as a fishing base when a sudden surge swept them out to the breakers and out to sea, about one kilometre beyond the breakers. Their efforts to gel back to shore were beaten by the current, which carried them towards Takoronga, Betio. They saw a canoe in the distance but failed to attract attention. Tebiketake told his companion while they were floating with the current that he fell very tired and had no hope of reaching the shore. Temango persuaded Tebiketake to follow him slowly in an ef fort to reach land. About an hour later Temango set fool on a reef, but on looking back saw no sign of his friend. He felt too weak to return to look for Tebiketake.

Tebiketake is now officially presumed iost at sea.

High-Seas Dirty Work

New light has been shed on the affair of the Taiwanese fishing vessel Kim Heng sing which was arrested in September while fishing illegally in Papua New Guinea waters (PIM, November).

A formal report released in November by the commander of the PNG Defence Force boarding party. Lieutenant J.

Blansjaar, revealed that the Taiwanese attempted to outwit the boarding party.

They first openly disobeyed orders about the course to steer, and later constantly altered course.

A scuffle broke out between a member of the boarding party and one of the Taiwanese, and the four members of the boarding party had to secure themselves in the wheelhouse.

Then the engineer dismantled the engine, claiming it was faulty.

When it became evident that the Taiwanese were stalling for time the boarding party loaded their rifles and one shot was fired.

Lieut Blansjaar has asked the Defence Force to lay down hard and fast rules to govern future arrest situations.

A huge air and sea search, involving Australian military aircraft, was set off when the Kim Heng-sing disappeared on September 14 with the PNG boarding party still on board.

Two days later the ship fetched up on the PNG mainland coast. The official reason given for its disappearance was that bad navigation, a weak main engine and

strong currents had caused the incident.

Meanwhile, the ships’ master, Captain Ang Tai-peng, is still in Wewak goal sweating out his four-month sentence.

Overstayers' Amnesty

The Tongan Government has called for a complete amnesty for Pacific Island overstayers in New Zealand, and the government of Western Samoa has proposed a “trade-off’ agreement against its usual immigration quota to permit overstayers to remain in NZ.

The Tongan appeal was addressed to the NZ Immigration Minister, Mr Gill, during his November visit to Nukualofa by a government delegation headed by the Minister of Labour, Commerce and

Industries, Baron Vaea.

Mr Gill also met a delegation from the Tonga Council of Churches and a delegation of MPs. One MP, Mr V’ahio Vaipulu, said he had told Mr Gill that the “random checks” made on Pacific Islanders in NZ meant they had been treated as “less than human beings”.

In Apia, Western Samoa’s Prime Minister Tupuola Efi, told Mr Gill his government would like to “trade off’ overstayers against the usual annual quota of 1,100 Samoans who are allowed permanent residence in NZ.

On his return home from his week-long trip to Fiji, Tonga and Western Samoa, Mr Gill said he “did not have the opportunity to allay misconceptions” about New Zealand’s actions.