This Month’s Features

• STRIKERS IN SAMOA In Western Samoa a wide-ranging strike by public servants has revealed deep-seated problems and has confronted the government of Tupuola Efi with a major political problem 13 • CAN THE ISLAND AIRLINES REMAIN INDEPENDENT AND SURVIVE? A PIM survey looks at Pacific aviation and reports the findings of an expert who believes that without ‘systematic and massive co-operation’ the Island airlines cannot survive on international routes 25 • HIGH HOPES OUT OF ABSURDITY Writing from French Polynesia Marie- Therese and Bengt Danielsson look at the effects of the French elections on the Pacific and predict that the ‘absurd existing system’ of the French territories is now open for change 10 • A FROZEN BUDGET FOR THE SOUTH PACIFIC COMMISSION The Planning and Evaluation Committee of the SPC finds it has to make ends meet with no more revenue than it had last year, prompting a special correspondent in Noumea to ask whether the participating governments are allowing the SPC to die 21 • COCONUTS, CANE AND CASSAVA Papua New Guinea, Fiji and other Island countries are increasingly turning to alternative sources of energy as petroleum fuel prices rise 57

Australia in the Pacific 59, 61 Aviation in the Pacific 25 Books 47 Cook Islands 8, 19, 53 Deaths 73 Fiji 14, 15, 18, 57, 58, 62 France in the Pacific 10, 43 French Polynesia 8, 10 Hawaii 15, 47 Irian Jaya 7 Islands Press 45 Letters 7 New Caledonia 7, 43 Malden Island 9 Maori community 49 Micronesia 15, 17, 18

Noumea Notebook 43 Pacific Report 5 Papua New Guinea 17, 57, 58, 61, 62 People 40 Political Currents 19 Postmark Papeete 10 Shipping schedules 69 Solomon Islands 51, 59, 61 South Pacific Commission 21 Tradewinds 57 Tuvalu 17 Tropicalities 14 Vanuatu 14, 17, 40, 41 Western Samoa 5,8, 13, 19 Yachts 63 Yesterday 53