Islands
p. 21 · Read in the full issue
From the
Press
Savali, Western Samoa At the offices of Pacific Islands Monthly in Sydney the colonial days live on ... flying boats, never ending stories of what a great time all had during the war and problems with the native servants These residents of the glorious British Empire are only now awakening to the reality of a new independent Pacific. It may well be sometime yet before PIM stops running lengthy raves on the good old days, but at least the old school appears to be dying out in another section of their office. This is the section which has produced the latest issue ... of the Pacific Islands Yearbook ...
Arawa Bulletin, PNG The Prime Minister. Mr Michael Somare, has stated he will not allow Papua New Guineans to become Australian citizens regardless of the fact that they have lived in the Torres Strait for more than 15 years. Mr Somare was commenting on an order from the Queensland Government to deport about 100 Papua New Guineans living in that area. The Prime Minister added that Papua New Guineans who are in the area for traditional purposes cannot be ordered out of the area.
Fiji Times
At last. . . palusami. kai and rourou, lovo pork for lunch. Suva may as well be Peking when it comes to finding ready-made Fijian food in restaurants. Tourists who try to have a Fijian meal as part of their island experience are doomed to settle for chow mein or beef in black-bean sauce, unless they’ve got enough time to go inland. But now a tidy little take-away with fantastic Fijian fare in the heart of Suva. The dalo does come out of the lovo each day, the ota is green and fresh, the rourou thick and creamy, and all at reasonable prices. We won’t say where it is because we don’t like standing in line. But it’s worth looking for . . .
Cook Islands News The Minister of Police Hon. V. Ingram is not amused with the latest prison breakout... He is being criticised for being too lenient with the prisoners of Arorangi. During Christmas all but two prisoners were given a week off to visit their homes and relations. Yesterday 13 warders took all 21 prisoners fora picnic to Wigmore’s at Titikaveka ... The taste of all this free life must have been too much for the prisoners. An hour later they broke out.. .
From the Fiji Times Capital punishment will be one of the first issues considered by a five-man law review committee named yesterday by the Fiji Law Society. At its next sitting Parliament will consider a Bill to amend the Penal Code to impose the death sentence on every person convicted of murder.
Savali, Western Samoa • • J? r Tom Davis (Cook Islands Premier) was recently in Samoa He flew up on the Auckland-Apia service. In Tonga nobody recognised him. although Tonga’s Prime Minister was sitting in the VIP lounge at the airport. Dr Davis had to join the rest of the transit passengers in the tiny airport building. Eventually
Tonga’s PM got on the flight to Apia and both he and Dr Davis were accorded the facilities usually given to Prime Ministers. Has Tonga got something against the Cooks, or did Polynesian (Airlines) forget to tell Tonga of its passenger?
Cook Islands News (By I. Fogelberg - Tourist Authority General Manager) The book Cook Islands Politics, The Inside Story’... is a fascinating tale . . . Having lived through all the tumult and the shouting that was the 1978 election and its aftermath, I enjoyed reading the book immensely. It is largely a political document of course, not an unbiased inside story, and having detected such serious errors in just a few paragraphs, one is left with a fascinating question how much is fact and how much fiction?
Island, newsletter of the Institute for Island Research
and Assistance, Seattle, USA
In some islands a protein-based bread spread called Vegemite is imported from Australia. Because their systems are malnourished, some Island children developed a craving for this product and ate it directly from the jar. In the eyes of expatriates, this ‘indiscriminate’ use indicated that the children lacked discipline and control and that their ‘savage’ heritage was coming to the fore ...
Fiji Times
A bill was gazetted yesterday exempting Fiji’s soldiers serving in Lebanon from income tax on the extra pay they get for serving with the United Nations peacekeeping force.
Advertisement in Lae Nius, Papua New Guinea Lost, believed stolen: One only white Mercedes left-hand (passenger side) door. The suspected thieves were seen driving in convoy round the comer of Aircorps and Milfordhaven Roads,
in the following vehicles .. .
From a letter in Tohi Tala Niue To those ex-visitors to Niue and your article describing Niue as a ‘Paradise of Flies’ may I direct you to pay a visit to Australia’s capital city and even Adelaide where I once was. There you would be able to qualify your article on flies. In Canberra ... I could not stop fanning away the flies from my face, but not here in Niue. In Adelaide too, where we had our picnic lunch, the flies were everywhere. These flies even chased my hand to my dish held high over my head. I had to gulp my food down before the flies devoured it. . .
From a letter in PNG Post-Courier Unemployment in many PNG towns is causing men to ‘sell’ their wives. This is shameful to our traditional way of thinking. If we considered wisely how to run smallscale businesses in our own province or in the village, I am sure that we would make more money than by working for wages ...
Pitcairn Miscellany
(Re the replica HMS Bounty built to make a third film of the mutiny story.) ‘.. . The only small complaint we have here on Pitcairn ... is that the company is not so concerned about authenticity of the film in its final scenes, as it is using an island in the Tahiti group rather than Pitcairn itself.’
The Norfolk Islander Investigations carried out on Philip Island by the Conservation Officer Mr Peter Coyne have revealed that at least 80% of the whalebird chicks had died of exposure during the recent hot spell.
Indiscriminate shooting on Philip causes the parent bird to fly off in alarm leaving the little ones quite unprotected. As you can well imagine, the sun and hot wind cause the death of the young ones.