Islands

From the

Press

PNG Post-Courier comment Lawlessness is the disease that is eating the heart out of Papua New Guinea. The majority suffer because of the idiotic behaviour of a few. The public are uneasy and with just reason. The breakdown in law and order has been the topic of ceaseless debate for more than two years now, but still nothing has been done.

Atoll Pioneer, Gilbert Islands The world is about to give birth to the newest nation with a new name; KIRIBATI (Pron; KIRI-BAS). It is not an original name, in fact it is a Gilbertese word derived from its original English version - Gilbert. The new nation, Kiribati, comprising the Gilbert Islands including Banaba, the Phoenix Islands and the Line Islands, will become independent from Britain to be a sovereign republic on Thursday, 12 July 1979.

News Drum, Solomon Islands The new Director of the South Pacific Fisheries’ Agency, which is to have its headquarters in Honiara, visited the capital last week ... The agency will serve as a cleaning house for the fisheries of all the countries concerned.

Fiji Times, Suva The chairman of the Fiji Kuomintang, Mr Peter Seeto, said ... he would not attend a welcome reception for the visiting Vice-Premier of the State Council of China, Madam Chen

MuhuaattheChinaClub.. .MrSeetosaid.. .hewouldnotgo

because China did not ‘recognise’ the Chinese in Fiji as Chinese.

Tohi Tala Niue Niue is presently facing the problem of accommodating ‘cheap’ tourists who transit through the Pacific seeking low-priced accommodation ... ‘knapsack tagged’ tourists are not catered for here and when they do arrive they are often disappointed . . . (One knapsack tourist) has the cheek to suggest ‘that the people of Niue create an alternative accommodation ... to cater for their needs’... Knapsack tourist needs his head examined! If that type of tourist cannot afford to stay in our hotel then the island can very well do without them.

Les Nouvelles de Tahiti, Papeete Tahiti s new intelligence boss, Roger Maury, writes a novel every weekend ... Isn t there a danger that with his undoubted literary talents and unusual capacity for work, fiction might get the upper hand in the compilation of intelligence dossiers, and there might soon even be a crisis of over-production of dossiers?

Norfolk Island News After a year of soothing assurances about its concern for the people of Norfolk, the Australian Government stopped play-acting and swung an iron fist down on the Island on April sth. Its Norfolk Island Bill was rubber-stamped through Australia’s House of Representatives that night.

PNG Post-Courier, Port Moresby

Thieves broke into the Prime Minister’s Mirigini House at Waigani for the second time at the weekend ... several mattresses and bed sheets were stolen ...

Fiji Times comment This is a requiem for a true Florence Nightingale of Fiji - Loata Wakolo Kacimaiwai. She died in the service of others. No person

can give more than that. . . Sister Kacimaiwai, District Nurse Nayau, was one of the hundreds caught in the fierce, destructive force of Cyclone Meli. . . She was trying to help other victims when she was injured herself. Yet she carried on as best she could, through the hellish days of hoping and waiting for aid from outside. When it finally came, it was too late for Sister Kacimaiwai.

Allans Nius, Rabaul, PNG

A village court magistrate of Mioko village court on the Duke of York Islands of East New Britain, Mr Jack Para, has denied allegations that magistrates on the islands get drunk before

conducting village court cases.

Fiji Times

A teenage girl was choked to death after she accidentally swallowed a fish while fishing in the Ba River on Sunday . . . The river was shallow but as the women were biting the heads off the fish, to kill them after catching them, one of the fish, a 4in long Malaya, slipped into Asenaca’s throat. Efforts by other women to clear the fish from her throat failed.

Arawa Bulletin, PNG I am originally from Buin and I’m not at all happy about what I am based on. Taking other centres of PNG, for an example Lae, in the Morobe Province, where I have lived long enough to realise that getting married there is easy because bride prices are around K6OO and downwards . . . But here in Buin, bride prices are .. . even up to K2OOO and K3OOO ... I got married to one of the girls . .. and her parents asked me to pay KlO5O . .. which I couldn’t afford ... One day I was shocked to see a car parked in front of our house and the father of my wife saying ‘Well tambu, you fail to pay the price’... I was sad to see my wife forced into the car .. . but I’m happy after all that I won’t be bothered . .. about the bride price any more.

News Drum, Solomon Islands Mr David Kausimae, MP for West Are Are, questioned in parliament whether the governor-general and the prime minister should have people to drive their cars for them. He said that since Solomon Islands had become independent, it ‘should do away with all colonial practices’. The leaders should drive their own cars, be free to walk and meet the people to show an example to those who will come after them, he said.

PNG Post-Courier In light of the recent comments by the acting Transport Secretary Mr Gaius and the Transport Minister Mr Wingti about the terrible dangers attached to using Lae airport I was horrified to see the arrival of the Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Mr Somare and his retinue at that very airport. Surely Mr Wingti values Mr Somare’s life; why then does he allow ‘Kumul 2’ to land at an airport which his ministerial department has deemed to be dangerous and unsuitable for further use? ... Mr Wingti owes Lae city and the Morobe Province a full explanation of this grave incident.

Lae Nius, PNG The National Planning Office in Waigani should be given a change of name to ‘the National Panning Office’ because of the way they fry up and burn genuine proposals, serve them up again on a plate disguised as a new dish, sugared with sweet talk.

News Drum, Solomon Islands The fruit tree at Lilisian village, Auki, planted by the Duke of Gloucester during his visit at independence, has withered and died. The tree had grown to a height of 2ft 9in and villagers helped to nourish it by giving good soil. Fenced with cyclone wire, the sapling was safe from children. It was replanted but failed to survive.

Atoll Pioneer, Gilbert Islands The Teinainano Urban Council has increased dog licences from $2 to $5 for males and $5 to $ 10 for females.