Islands

From The

Press

From the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier: University of Papua New Guinea women students say they are like prisoners. They are frightened day and night of rape, violence, theft and drunken louts. At night they will not move around the campus without escorts. They have called for police patrols and stronger campus security . . . The women said security guards had turned up to work drunk, sometimes did not turn up at all, slept on the job and ran off when they could not handle trouble.

From The Fiji Times: A man who came to court wearing a pair,of trousers he was charged with stealing was fined $2O by Sigatoka Court ...

Sergeant Ram said Chand had come to court wearing the stolen trousers because the police did not have another to

give him ...

From The Tohi Tala Niue: For a long time now the Niue Government has been concerned at the fall in local productivity from the land and the decline in passionfruit pulp exports, and for a long time also that matter of a shorter working week for all Government employees has been haggled over. It now seems that a trial compromise has been agreed upon. This week employees of the Government began work at 7 am with a half-hour break at 10.45 am to 11.15 am with work finishing at 2.30 pm. The change in working hours now gives the people more time in the afternoon to devote to pollination of their passionfruit areas, lime orchards, bush gardens and

fishing .. .

A down-to-earth exercise at St Patricks

Agricultural Training School, Mabiri, North

Solomons as revealed at graduation day by Premier Dr Sarei and reported in the Arawa

Bulletin:

The Premier remarked that he was delighted to see girls training in pig farming this year. Each girl received two sows and one boar to rear and take home to start their farms. By graduation, the sows were pregnant, so that a ‘lady farmer’ may find herself the proud owner of up to 20 pigs, only two months after graduation a fine start!

From the Uni Tavur, journalism students’ newspaper at the University of Papua New Guinea: A second year law student at the UPNG said this week that the student body should not fight blindly at issues that were of no immediate significance to the people both at the local and regional level. Mr Malipu Bonsai Balakau was speaking on the controversial issue of the Queen being the Head of State. Mr Balakau said students should not make themselves unpopular as highly educated intellectuals of this country by continuing to concern themselves with rather minor items.

From a letter by Martin Kepa (a servant) in

the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier:

. . . The monarchy is a tradition quite diverse to that of our Melanesian chieftainship ... This I think is a foreign system that our forefathers knew nothing of, so why don’t we have the Head of State in a more Melanesian way without any foreign person being involved. That will show that the Government doesn’t ignore the home-made tradition. If this can’t be done now history will prove it later ...

From the Nauru Bulletin: Police have been receiving reports of children going around using slings, better known as sweet sixteen, damaging properties like electric bulbs, louvres and windows of

buildings. Street lights are the prime target ... A final warning anyone caught in possession of slings will be liable for prosecution.

From a speech by the Queen’s Commissioner, Mr Tom Layng, when opening Tokotu, a public bar on Funafuti, as reported in the Tuvalu News Sheet: ... I hope you will run the bar as well as you have built it.

May your bouncer be strong and fearless. You are fortunate in having a deep and muddy swamp on three sides of the building. If those who misbehave themselves are cast head first into this never to be seen or heard of again any trouble should be of short duration ...

From the Solomons News Drum: Small change is disappearing from circulation in Honiara.

Banks and shops have reported a shortage of one cent and two cent bronze coins the brown money. A spokesman of the Australian and New Zealand Bank said the bank imports about $5O worth of coins from Australia every month but “these disappeared in a week ” .. . Staff of the Guadalcanal Bus Company have also run into difficulty finding small change and are reluctant to accept paper money. This could cause price rises. There would be a tendency for shopkeepers to “round up” prices of goods because they could not obtain

enough change . ..

From the Tohi Tala Niue: The shooting season for a period of about three months is now closed, and according to the Police Department anyone caught during the close of the shooting will be prosecuted.

The ban on shooting of birds was lifted last December by the Assembly resolution and since then the war on birds was fought with sharpshooters boasting on how many they bagged . How many birds killed during the season is anyone’s guess. Niue with a population of 3,900 owns close to 800

shotguns of various sizes . ..

From The Fiji Times:

Traditional Pacific Island customs play no part in modern society apart from that of entertainment, according to visiting Australian academic Dr Max Hartwell . . . Considering that the Pacific Islands had been settled for more than 1,000 years, it seemed significant that as yet they had not produced any great cultural tradition, he said . . . The Pacific Way itself was a non-concept and failed to show what was the most important idea of the Pacific, that of pluralism, Dr Hartwell claimed. He said it would be ridiculous to assume that a Pacific Way could be used to describe the varied indigenous cultures of the people, he said. The characteristic feature of the Pacific was certainly not unity, but on the contrary, diversitv.