Nutshell

The

News

In A

Nutshell

Tuvalu Elections

A general election for Tuvalu’s House of Assembly was set down for August 29 in an announcement made in late July by the Queen’s Commissioner, Mr T. Layng.

It was announced at the same time that membership of the new as sembly will be 12, instead of eight as in the old House. The four islands with a population of more than I 000 will each elect two Members, and the remaining four islands one each.

Tourist Salesgirls

Papua New Guinea immigration authorities are showing an interest in a number of attractive Australian girls who are in the country flogging subscrip tions for various magazines. They ap parently came in on tourist visas, but are involved in activities that really require a work permit. The Fiji Government tangled with similar operators some time ago and threatened to deport them. They left in a hurry.

Teachers' Sit-In

Teachers in the Marshall Islands stag ed a sit-in over Education Department policy that some employees, not all, should go on furlough without pay.

Under the furlough arrangements they would have been required to go without work or pay for 12 weeks from June 20.

Their main complaint was that everyone in the department was not affected equally by the furlough. Mr Tony Jetnil, principal of the Marshall Islands High

School, made a plea to the teachers to re sume normal work. He said later it was not true to say that only teachers were being affected. He added it would be more appropriate to describe the teachers as “employees without anything to do during the summer”.

Nutty Kind Of Spill

Two large oil spills, Pacific style, have occurred in recent months at Palau’s Micronesian Industrial Corporation.

According to conservation personnel,

the spills, of coconut oil, polluted the waters of Malakal harbour and coated boats and seawalls with solidifying grease. A warning letter has been sent by the conservation authority to MIC, which processes coconut oil from copra produced in Micronesia, the Philippines and elsewhere.

Paddling Back?

Mr Kemi Jimi, 29, and his son Wally, 6, were deported from Townsville to Port Moresby in June by order of the Australian Minister of Immigration. Mr MacKellar.

Mr Jimi, a divorced Papua New Gui nean who has the custody of his son, had entered Queensland 18 months before after paddling a canoe across Torres Strait.

He was in regular employment in Townsville. After being picked up last December as an illegal immigrant he re ported each week to immigration of ficers.

His appeal against the deportation order was rejected.

New Pitcairn Stamps

Pitcairn Island, on September 12, will release the fifth definitive issue of stamps in 11 denominations. They are: 1c (the Island Bell), 2c (building a longboat), 5c (landing cargo), 6c (sorting supplies), 9c (cleaning wahoo), 10c (cultivation on Pitcairn), 20c (grating coconuts and bananas), 35c (the island church), 50c (fetching miro logs on Henderson Is land), $1 (Prince Philip, superimposed over Bounty Bay), and $2 (Queen Elizabeth).

New Newspaper

A new newspaper has appeared in the Marshall Islands, the Marshall Islands Journal, published from Majuro in Marshallese every Wednesday and Saturday. Publisher is Joe Murphy, who

also publishes the English-language

Micronesian Independent. The new arrival already sells 700 copies each issue, exceeding the parent newspaper’s circulation. The editor is Justin Deßrum, son of the District Administrator, but the relationship doesn’t prevent the editor from criticising the government. “My father only talks about things in the paper when I want to talk about them,” says Justin Deßrum, according to the Micronesian News Service.

Square Eyes' In Samoa

Television remains extremely popular

with the people of American Samoa. Ac cording to latest estimates there are be tween 5 000 and 6 000 sets in use in pri vate homes. About 20% are colour sets.

Television is considered the major source of entertainment for the 30 000 people who live in American Samoa. The American Samoa administration con siders that there is probably no other

community anywhere under the US flag

where non-commercial public TV plays such a vital role as it does in American Samoa. It was introduced by Governor H. Rex Lee in the 1960 s as a teaching aid in the schools. Their brothers across the water in Western Samoa, who have TV sets, are also thankful for the free enter tainment.

Water Strike!

The people of Rotuma in Fiji will no longer have to rely on coconuts and rain water for drinking and washing. The mineral resources division of the Lands and Mineral Resources Department, which had been digging for underground water since the beginning of 1977, struck water at 37.19 m. Early estimates were that the source would give about 15 000 litres an hour. Rotuma has a population of about 3 500. The drilling team has since transferred its activities to another part of Rotuma.

Water Shortage!

Although Lautoka is on the “dry” side of Fiji’s main island of Viti Levu it has an annual rainfall of 1 800 mm (about 72 in). Yet that is insufficient to sustain the growth of a centre which recently

became a city. Most major development

projects have been frozen for at least the next five years because there will not be enough water for new factories, hotels or housing estates. In 1976, Lautoka used all the water which came into the city re servoir. In about 12 months there will be some easing of the situation when a new 1 1 000 metre pipeline is built into the system. But the main project, a dam on the Magodro plateau, is not expected to supply water before 1983 at the earliest.

This dam will be the biggest engineering project in Fiji and will cost $4O million to $5O million. Lautoka’s average water consumption is about 8.64 million litres (1.9 million gallons) a year. As the in take is only about 9.1 million litres (about 2 million gallons) it is next to im possible to build up a reserve supply.

Law On Tribal Fights

A Papua New Guinea magistrate, Mr M. Mackellar, has urged a whole new approach to tribal fighting in the PNG Highlands, “without reference to the in troduced law”. Speaking in the Mount Hagen court in July Mr Mackellar said.

“The whole tribal fighting control problem derives from the complete ab sence of any meaningful laws on the sub

ject.

“The origin of all our introduced laws

lies deep in the common law of England.

Yet tribal fighting had ended in England long before the common law was formu lated there. There is therefore no point in looking into common law precedent, practice or procedures to find the answer to tribal fighting in the Highlands, or the role police should play during tribal fights.”

Speakers Meet

Western Samoa in June hosted a meet ing of Speakers and other officials from Pacific Parliaments. They were the Com monwealth of Australia, the Cook Is lands, Fiji, Nauru, New South Wales, New Zealand, Northern Territory, Papua New Guinea, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Tuvalu, Victoria, Western Australia and Western Samoa.

The 12 papers on the agenda included one on “Bribery and Corruption in Parliamentary Affairs” and another on “Freedom of Speech in Parliament; The Effectiveness of Checks Against its Abuses”.

Dogs Drugged

Just four months after its opening, Guam’s greyhound racing track is embroiled in a dog-drugging scandal. On at least three occasions in February and April, dogs were given valium, a depres sant, at the track, according to laborato ry examinations of urine specimens, Guam Greyhound, Inc. president Norm Smith admitted at a committee hearing of the Guam Legislature. And two dogs were scratched from a June 17 race when they became suspiciously ill before race time, he said. Mr Smith, an Australian who has managed tracks in Australia, Macao and Jakarta before coming to Guam, said he fired two kennel boys he suspected in the druggings. But he said it would be almost impossible to prove who the culprits were unless they were actually caught in the act. Following the disclosure, Guam Attorney-General Don Parkinson called for a full police investigation of the incidents, and also recommended that Guam tax investiga tors look into “rumours” that the track may not be fully complying with tax laws.

Nz Helps Usp

The New Zealand Government has agreed to help build a hall of residence for the University of the South Pacific in Fiji. The building, due to be completed early in 1979. will house I 50 students in a multi-storey block of 81 bedrooms with bathrooms and laundry facilities and single blocks containing a total of 61 bedrooms plus six self-contained units tor married quarters. The project will be funded from the regional element of New Zealand's Pacific bilateral aid programme.

Cowed By Quake

People in the Vaivase area of Western Samoa’s capital, Apia, had good warning of the quake which hit the town early in the morning of June 22. A local cow

bellowed and paced around in great agitation for hours before the quake hit.

Like most animals, she could sense it was on its way. No damage was reported.

Nz Sappers Aid Fiji

Sixty Royal New Zealand Army engineers put their training to practical use in Fiji when they undertook to com plete four projects in 14 days in Namosi province in Fiji. The sappers had been on a jungle training course in Fiji. The projects were construction of a dam and water reticulation for Nabukavesi village, a rural nursing station at Waivaka and foot bridges at Mau and Navua. The Fiji Government supplied the materials. Three helicopters were used, one to carry the men to the con struction sites and the others to take in material. If the sappers had had to walk through the thick jungle the time re quired for their work would have been much longer than 14 days. On the other side of Viti Levu, at Natutu. Ba 43 men from the Royal Fiji Military Forces built three footbridges. One of these replaced a 230 mm wide single wooden plank, which caused Colonel Paul Manueli. commander of the RFMF to say of the villagers, “They must have had to do a pretty good balancing act not to fall in the river”.

Russia Accuses U S.

The June hearings of the United Na tions Trusteeship Council in New York heard charges by Soviet delegates that the US was turning the islands of Micronesia into “an American military and strategic base”. The Soviets claimed that the US was planning to build by 1982 an airport, seaport and a head quarter’s base housing 3 000 US military personnel on Tinian Island.

Responding. US representative Erwin D. Canham said: “There is not a single military person stationed on Tinian.

There is not a single piece of military equipment or installation on Tinian or elsewhere in the Northern Marianas.”

Mr Canham admitted that the US had the right to retain a portion of land on Tinian for possible defence purposes, and several pieces of land on Saipan

similarly.

But he said there were no proposals in the Defence Department budget for the years immediately ahead to make use of any of these rights.

What! A Price Drop

Tonga electricity consumers were

given advance notice in June of an unex pected cut of 4% in the price of power from August 15 for Tongatapu and from August 31 for Vavau. The act of generosity by the Tonga Electric Power Board followed a recent decision by the Privy Council to exempt the board from paying customs duty on fuel and lubricating oils. Had the exemption not been granted the board would have been up lor P2l 000 in customs duty.