Tropicalities

New Nius in

the Solomons

It seemed as if the Solomons was losing its only independent newspaper when the short-lived Melanesian Nius announced that it was suspending its publication for lack of funds. The Nius was the only competitor to the officially pro duced Solomon Islands News Drum.

The Nius had had an erratic career, obviously being produced on a ‘shoe-string’ budget. This meant that at times its articles were unclear and its facts often astray.

Nevertheless, it was popular because it was irreverent, especially where the government was concern ed.

The Nius was sensationalist and people were curious over what it would say next. It was said that the “leading light’’ behind the Nius was former Chief Minister Solomon Mamaloni, although he has kept very much out of the Nius and the news.

Even the Nius reported that it didn’t know why he had resigned

from parliament.

No doubt there were some sighs of relief in some government depart ments when it seemed that the Nius was no more.

However, the Nius has been re surrected as the Kiokio Nius.

Perhaps the change of title reflected a criticism that “Melanesian” smacked of racial exclusiveness the Solomons contains Melanesians, Micronesians, Polynesians, Chinese and Europeans, as well as various intermixtures thereof.

To the beginning of April the Kiokio Nius has produced two issues. These have been generally more constructive than its pre decessor, but the criticisms of the government and particularly the police, and the ‘pretty-girl-of-the week’ are still there. So far however, the bare-breasted ‘custom-dress queens’ have not reappeared in the pretty girl section.

In its letters to the editor, it has

allowed racial disharmonies to sur face. There have been two rather nasty letters saying that the Gilber tese settlers, brought in by the Bri tish, should be repatriated.

This has been an issue brought up in recent debates in the Legislative Assembly: what is the Gilbertese settlers’ citizenship to be when the

Solomons becomes independent 9

Racial disharmony also appeared recently in expressions of criticism of a half-hour weekly Cantonese broadcast over the Solomon Islands

Broadcasting Corporation.

So, for the time being it seems that the Nius is here to stay. Its latest claim to its readers is that it will be publishing the true story of the reasons for former Chief Minister Solomon Mamaloni’s withdrawal from politics last year.

Although Solomon Mamaloni was connected with the Melanesian Nius, the new Kiokio Nius is a one man effort from George Atkin, a local who trained in New Zealand and has experience with the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Commission.

Good news is

no politics

In the last elections held in Australia, Liberal Party leader, Malcolm Fraser, promised to take politics “off the front page’’ if he were elected. Mr Fraser was refer ring to the then-Labor government’s tendency towards scandal and con troversy.

PNG Prime Minister Michael Somare has been taking a leaf from Mr Fraser’s book, and doing a better job of it!

First, there was the extensive radio coverage of the PNG v Fiji cricket match. The coverage in length and detail would have done an Australia-England test match proud. It certainly kept politics off the front page. But it appears that Mr Somare wanted more. Accord ing to ‘informed cricketers’, when the PNG’s National Broadcasting Commission broke off from the cricket for the news, it received a

curt call from the Prime Minister to get on with the cricket com mentary’.

Then there was the Queen’s visit.

That kept politics off the front pages in PNG for some time.

Added to this, Michael Somare has been asking Solomons country singer Fred Maedola to tour PNG.

With the PNG election coming up, however, politics must begin to hit the front page with considerable

regularity soon.

A welcome for

two champions

Half-past five on a Saturday morning in April could hardly be described as the ideal time to ar range a popular celebration. Yet at New Caledonia’s Tontouta aero drome, a crowd was already waiting the regular UTA flight from Paris.

There were the usual sleepy-eyed relatives or friends of people return ing from a holiday in Europe. But there was also an enthusiastic and chattering crowd of very alert peo ple who had left their homes at 4.30 that morning to offer a particularly warm welcome to two very discreet heroes.

Vincent Kafoa is a powerful but timid man from Wallis. His com panion, a little more self-confident, is Raymond Nebayes, employed in the nickel mines at Thio, on the east coast. But, as the two men stepped into the terminal, the crowd cheered and banners were waved. New Caledonians expressed their joy to see two local boys who are now, re

spectively, amateur heavyweight

and middleweight champions of

France. The territory had sent three

competitors to the championships,

and two had brought back national titles.

The reception at the Chateau Royal was certainly a tiring event for the two boxers, after nearly 30 hours in a DCIO. Fatigue, and above all, natural shyness, pre vented both of them from appearing on the special TV programme that evening.

Making a plane

fit for a queen

How much did it cost to refitan Air Niugini Fokker Friendship aircraft for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee visit to Papua New Guinea in March?

K 26,000 said an unnamed spokes man for the airline who was quoted in the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier on March 17.

Not so, said the airline’s general manager, Mr Brian Grey, in the Post- Courier next day. Only K 6,000 was spent on the actual refitting, while another K 18,000 was for scheduled upholstery maintenance.

He said the airline’s nine other F 27 aircraft were also scheduled for maintenance which would cost a total of K 162,000.

The VIP aircraft, which was assigned a back-up role for the royal visit, had been rearranged with 22 seats six seats at the back of the aircraft for VIPs and 16 at the front.

The six VIP seats cost about K 1,000 each. The VIP area, which is adorned with the PNG crest and the royal coat of arms, has two dropleaf tables, each worth about K 1,000.

Mr Grey said the VIP plane filled a long-felt need for a luxury aircraft in Papua New Guinea for visiting dignitaries. He said the aircraft would be chartered to businessmen in future at a cost of KlOO a flying hour.

Tourism’s magnet

for honeymooners

Japanese couples may soon be marrying in a church built to fulfil a vow by the people of Noumea that they would put up a church if they were spared a Japanese invasion in World War 11.

The church, iEglise du Voeu, or Church of the Vo\£, is on Noumea’s Anse Vata beach. The idea of staging Japanese weddings in it is being con sidered as part of a major promotion of tourism now under way in New Caledonia. It is an idea which is already working well in Guam and Singapore. Young couples arrive from Tokyo in full wedding dress, looking forward to their overseas nup tials if for no other reason than that of avoiding the high cost of a big wed ding back home.

Figures released by the Office of Tourism in New Caledonia show that the territory received 34,983 visitors in 1976, an 11% increase over 1975.

These figures do not include

passengers on cruise ships. The in creasing tourist traffic through Noumea is attributed particularly to Australians, whose numbers increased by 19% to 18,639 in 1976. Visitors from New Zealand dropped 18% on the year, down to 4,379. Traffic from Japan more than doubled, to total 3,- 467 visitors. However, many of these were promotional teams from the Japanese media, so that filling the weekly UTA airlines flight between Tokyo and Noumea continues to be a problem.

Much of the success in the Australian market can be credited to the efforts of Traveland and their Noumea subsidiary Island Holidays.

One of their latest initiatives has been the promotion of drive-yourself through the Caledonian inland, with accommodation vouchers for use at the growing number of small hotels along the island’s east and west coasts.

Povai, a

new voice

PIM has frequently brought to the notice of its readers the appearance of new newspapers and magazines published to cater for the tastes and needs of the various groups that comprise the Pacific Islands reading audience.

In recent years, attention has been given to several newspapers which have been produced as a counter voice to the established private en terprise newspapers or the various government-controlled pub lications. There have been few if any newspapers which could be classified as being the platform of political activists, but 1976 saw the emergence of Povai, which is pub lished in Suva and which describes itself as “the paper of the Pacific Peoples’ Action Front”, aiming to provide information and views on the various struggles of people in the Pacific to determine their own lives.

“Povai contains material not usually found in the regular news media. We are a non-profit making organisation and encourage con tributions from people who think it is important to provide this type of service.” It is published six times a year and in its last issue carried eight pages.

The area of interest of this newspaper makes intriguing read ing, as its proprietors quite ob viously have an all-embracing view of the Pacific.

A Cook’s ship

in Bogart’s wake

How many of us remember the scene from the film, The African Queen when Humphrey Bogart and Kathryn Hepburn were floating down the river and she decided that his cargo of gin had to be jettisoned?

There was that marvellous vista of the long stretches of the river with the emptied gin bottles bobbing in the wake of the steam launch. There was something of a repetition on one occasion when that great old schooner the Tiare Taporo called at Manihiki in the northern Cook Islands and picked up four Europeans, who had been waiting on the island for some weeks for a vessel to take them on to Rakahanga, Penrhyn and other outer island ports.

The skipper, Archie Pickering, was a mutual friend of long-standing, and so it wasn’t long after the vessel had moved away from the landing at Tauhunu, that all five sat down to have a can or two of beer and to yarn away the hours before the sun set.

The old ship, at full speed ahead, could not have been making more than three or four knots. There were three cartons of good Australian beer suitably chilled on the bench in the pantry and everything was right for an

animated and engrossing chin-wag.

The cans were to be opened as required by Ben, the Maori steward, using the now out-dated opener that pierced the top of the can with a smart hiss. Ben was intrigued with the way in which the cans responded to his opener. The quintet of old mates went on with their gossiping, and Ben went on with his opening, without let or hindrance.

When eventually it dawned upon the drinkers that Ben had kept on with his task with the greatest of enthusiasm, something like 60 cans of beer stood in neat rows, all opened. But this did not entirely stump these hardy Cook Islands’ imbibers. For some hours they set their minds to the serious task of making sure that as little of the beer as possible went to waste. It wasn’t too much of a throw to pitch an empty can, up the companionway, across the poop and into the sea. What with the slow pace of the Tiare Taporo and the effects of a following wind the cans took many minutes to pass out of sight and, like the African Queen, the schooner left behind her a long line of tributes to the demon grog.