Islands

From The

Press

From a letter by Esau Tuza in the Solomons News Drum on the projected tour of the

Solomons by American evangelist Ralph Bell:

. . . a crusading campaign is at heart a colonial campaign. It has in its fabric the misconception that Christ can and must redeem a certain culture rather than seeing Christ at work in any given cultural context . . . This idea will give the local people a religious “cargo myth” blessing can only come from outside, and above all from the States!

From an interview with M. Merrot, official of the Land Survey Department, Vila, and a keen

stamp collector, as reported in Nabanga:

In M. Merrot's large red stamp album, even though he has a practically complete collection of New Hebrides stamps, they don’t take up much space —only about 30 pages in tact. He remarked: "The Condominium postal service has had the good sense not to go in for philatelic inflation like certain other countries, which flood collectors with an unending stream of new issues. When a country releases too many stamps philatelists tend to lose interest, if only because the whole thing becomes too expensive.”

From The Fiji Times; He (Mr Apisai Tora, union secretary) objected to the action taken by his members being described as a strike. “This is not a strike, but an extended stop-work meeting, which may be extended indefinitely,” he said.

From an interview with Francis Sanford, Tahiti’s deputy to the French National

Assembly, in Journal de Tahiti, Papeete:

Ah, if only Francois Mitterand had become President of the Republic . . . Today we would have had internal autonomy without any fuss it would have been agreed as between decent Frenchmen. I'll always remember him saying at Papeete Town Hall “If I spoke from the heart. I’d say stay with us. But speaking from my head, using my powers of reasoning, I say: Make up your own minds. You have the right to choose whatever status you wish ...”

From Mary A. Browning’s column in

Micronesian Independent, Majuro, Marshall

Islands: When the newly appointed Liaison Officer of the Congress of Micronesia, Leo A. Falcam, walked into his Washington office suite last September it contained 1) a telephone, and 2) several cartons of COM publications. The cartons provided a stand for the phone, and a borrowed chair completed the arrangements while Falcam began making his contacts.

A warning to bank bandits, maybe, in the Norfolk Island Government Gazette: It is notified that the Commonwealth Bank will be holding a pistol shoot on Wednesday, 18 May, 1977. at Garnet Point, between the hours of 4.00 pm and 5.30 pm. Persons are warned to keep clear of the area during the shoot.

From the New Hebrides News: Visitors to Fonah Village. North Ambrym, to watch the famous Rom Tatabi dance on May 14. also watched seven young men each kill a pig to receive the name "Mwal”, the first step in pig killing . , . The Rom Tatabi dance is normally performed when more than one young man is prepared for it.

The first stage towards it is circumcision. Then he has to look for a Rom Tatabi costume, which is made only by people who have gone through the stages. The costume, made from special banana leaves and fine bush materials must be bought with a specially-made headdress and pigs . . .

From a letter by Geoffrey Price, Master of Lodge Melanesia, in the Solomons News Drum: The Masonic Lodge has been broken into for the fourth or fifth time this year. This is generally the work of vandals and it has not been to their advantage as there is little or nothing of value in this lodge. The general public seem to have the idea that the Masonic Order is a secret society, verging on black magic and composed of a hard drinking set. This is by no means the case and some of our government officials and ministers would do well to learn their facts before going into print on this matter . . .

From “The scourge of the bottle”, a series of anti-drink articles by the Tonga Minister of Police, the Hon ’Akau’ola, in the Tonga Chronicle; .. . Unfortunately, no self-respecting Tongan drunk likes to be detained without putting up a struggle, particularly if there is an audience readily available. Should there be ladies present, the situation develops into a momentous struggle. I put it to you —what is the Tongan male subconsciously still trying to prove?

From the Samoa Times; Some referees in the sub-unions rugby competition for the S.

V. MacKenzie Shield are only “walk-arounds who know nothing about rules” and are a big discouragement to the game, sub-union players and officials complained. The players said that they were tired of trying to play a decent game when an overweight referee, who was always “miles away” from the ball guessed at a decision . ..

Garden parties at Government House, Suva,

in the “old days” as recalled by Mrs Iverna McCaig in The Fiji Times; ... In those early days one felt very special just to drive up to the big gracious building with one’s prettiest frock on. bought just for the occasion. Women and men of those days were much more formal and etiquette was seen to be very important . . . With the band playing in the background, it was always a pleasure to sit on the lawn looking at the ladies’ frocks and talk the afternoon away. Now everything is changed, of course, and people are much more modernised.

Women are just as well groomed and the parties are just as nice but a lot of the grandeur is missing. For instance no one minds if you don’t wear gloves or a hat. People do seem much happier these days at the garden parties . . .

From the Cook Islands News: The hotels and motels on Rarotonga are really full of visitors. It’s getting to the stage now, that if you want a night out. it pays to book a week in advance.