Islands
pp. 42-43 · Read in the full issue
From The
Press
From an article in Lae Nius titled Brief History of Football in Papua New Guinea: Football the only true code of handling the ball by foot— can claim the longest history of team sports in Papua New Guinea.
From American Samoa News Bulletin:
American Samoa’s beautification program, in preparation for the South Pacific Conference later this month, is paying off in beautiful dividends. A Beautification Committee, sponsored by the Office of Samoan Affairs, toured Manu’a last week and has been busy in the Western District this week. They are finding our villages— through the hard work of the people looking neater and more attractive than they have for years. That doesn’t mean that we don’t still have a lot of work to do . .. Look around. If something still looks shabby, or there are cans and bottles in sight, pick them up and find a trash can.
From the Arawa Bulletin, Bougainville, PNG:
Two break-ins were reported by the Arawa police last weekend, the first being at Ar igua PI antation d ur ing the night of September 4 Thieves forced entry to the plantation’s trade store, stealing cigarettes and foodstuffs. The second break-in occurred at Bougainville Laundry at the Itakara Industrial Estate some time during the weekend and is
the third break and entry at the laundry in the past 12 months. This time, thieves stole a number of football socks and shorts after gaining entry by smashing the fibro wall.
From an interview with veteran Norfolk
Island resident, “Ahlee” Schmitz, in Norfolk
Island News:
Vividly Ahlee remembers the time when the neighbour next to her grandfather’s house (where the Golf Club is now) sent her daughter to get some water from her grandfather’s well. She didn’t return. Finally, her mother sang out, “Where’s Abbey? She hasn’t come with the water.” Ahlee’s mother went to see about her and noticed that the roller on the well was gone. The girl had fallen 90 feet! “My mother went down to get her,” Ahlee recalls. “Both got back out of the well.
She should have had a medal for bravery. The doctor told her her lungs had been affected by the long dive into the well ...”
From a letter in the Tonga Chronicle from Jo
Toga Jr, of Suva:
I was shocked with the incident that occurred at the well-known football ground, Buckhurst Park, in Suva. It appeared to me that a lot of people in Fiji are still bathed in uncivilisation ... The Fijian spectators, a crowd of about 500 to 600 people, showed that they are still cannibals. The mobbing cannibals stormed into the field to beat up the Tongan players ... (A news item in the same paper said): The four Tongan rugby players who were detained in Fiji in connection with the death of a Suva man, have been discharged and the case withdrawn in a preliminary hearing in Suva Magistrate’s court . . . The presiding magistrate, Mr Colin Perrior, ruled that the proceedings against the Tongans be discontinued after the Crown Prosecutor, Mr Tevita Fa, told the court there was not enough evidence to commit the case to the Supreme Court for trial.
From the Gilbert Islands' Atoll Pioneer:
A grim picture of the employment prospects facing school leavers over the next few years was painted by the Hon Teato Teannaki when he spoke in the Assembly on Thursday of last week. There were some 4 350 in the 15-19 age group and in the next five years this would increase to 6 300 young men and women, all looking for jobs .. .
From South Pacific News Services of the
Provisional Revolutionary Government of
West Papua New Guinea:
Old News, Good News. During the recent "elections” in West Papua New Guinea, some old news surfaced. Paprindei, the speaker of the DPR DGR (the puppet Council), was informed by Suharto that he would “give” West PNG its independence in 1980. He made this “promise” in 1974, and claimed that the military and political situation in West PNG left him no choice. Chief running-dog Paprindei is from Serui, the most pro-Indonesian area of West PNG.
M Gauger, French Resident Commissioner in
the New Hebrides, quoted in Vila’s
French/Bislama fortnightly, Nabanga:
“Neither France nor Great Britain can entertain for a moment the notions of secession that have been thoughtlessly embraced by some people. Such ideas might have some force in big, rich and heavily populated countries. But the separation of any part whatsoever of the New Hebrides, which is a small and poor country, would be pure madness ...”
From Pitcairn Miscellany:
At approximately 6.30 a.m. on July 11, the five strokes on the bell sent the men scurrying down to the Landing like ants to launch the launches as an unexpected ship arrived from the south heading north. On reaching the landing however, the men were stunned, for the lower part of the slipway (submerged by water most of the time) had “busted up” making it impossible to get the launches back into the boathouse should they be put to sea. Sad to say, the Danish vessel left without anyone having made contact with it ...
From an article in the Papua New Guinea
Post-Courier:
In the wisespread movement for replacement of European languages by African ones as official languages ... a novel suggestion has been made in the Nigerian press; the use of Pidgin. Pidgin, or Pidgin English, is spoken all along the coast of West Africa and in different forms— in the Far East, where the term Pidgin (derived from “business”) is said to have originated, and in Melanesia ... To make
such a language official in the technological age is not as impossible as might be thought. Pidgin is not just bad English. Linguists hold that it is a real new language developed for convenience because of historical circumstances, and by its nature fairly adaptable . . .
From a leading article in The Fiji Times: Everyone in this country representing all shades of opinion has had a chance to have his (pre-election) say. Now we claim our turn. We are a senior team of editorial staff who discuss all editorial comments before they appear in print in this column. This editorial is no exception. We are not telling anyone how to vote. We believe readers have a right to vote how they feel . . . they (the Alliance) have more or less served us the same team (which lost the April election) again. We believe this to be a worrying aspect of Alliance policy ... so, who is best set to lead us? Weighing this against the other factors . . . our answer must be Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara. He of all is best able to lead us.
From an interview with Ambassador Peter P.
Rosenblatt, President Carter’s personal
representative to the Micronesian Status
Negotiations, in Highlights, Saipan:
I think the Carter Administration’s approach to the subject of Micronesia has to be seen within the context of its entirety— if there is one single phrase that has come to prominence since the Carter Administration took power, and which is terribly important to Micronesia in that it stands among the most firmly held beliefs of the President personally, it is the phrase “human rights”. We believe that human rights have a direct application to the future of Micronesia, in a way that they have direct application to very few other areas of American concern ...
From the Arawa Bulletin, Bougainville, PNG:
On Wednesday, 14th September at about 10.30 p.m, police were called to Section 17. Some nurses had seen, and been embarrassed by, a nude couple outside taking photographs of each other and had reported the fact to the police. The police arrested the couple and took them, still naked, to the police station in Arawa. At Kieta Court on Wednesday, Maiken and Finn Reerslev, both Danish, were charged with exposing their persons in public. They were found guilty as charged and convicted and adjudged to pay a fine of KlOO, in default, to be put in prison for one month with hard labour. Mrs Reerslev said she did not realise it was a wrong thing to do.