Islands

From the

Press

From Comment by Sports Editor Numa Alu in the

Papua New Guinea Post-Courier, Port Moresby

Representative teams all over the world wear national emblems on their uniform. And those sporting organisations do not seem to have any hassle with their governments on the use of those emblems. Although our Kumul rugby league team can wear the national crest, the Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Department, Mr Fred Reiher, in his wisdom, has seen fit to refuse the PNG Commonwealth Games Committee the privilege. His reason for the refusal is that the crest represents the Government and not the country. If that is so, what is our national emblem, or don’t we have one? . . .

From The Observer, Apia

Western Samoa “tala” cannot buy a carton of herring any more at Chan Mow & Co. Ltd. wholesaling outfit at Saleufi.

Buyers are turned away if they do not have U.S. dollars to do their purchasing. According to the manager of Chan Mow’s wholesale department, Komisi Chan Mow, “the idea is to help out the banks with their foreign revenues” ... He said the move had been decided upon when his company found out that a lot of small store owners in the villages were buying their cartons of herrings direct from American Samoa.

Komisi said those U.S. dollars should not keep pouring out to American Samoa. They should be banked in local banks, he believed.

From Marianas Variety News & Views, Saipan What the Northern Marianas needs is fewer political science majors and lawyers and more plumbers, carpenters and electricians. At least that’s the view of Rep. Mike Sablan who made the comments during a House committee hearing into a bill to establish post secondary education assistance. “It seems in the near future we’re going to have 100 political science majors and 50 lawyers and nobody cares about learning to fix up houses and parks,” he said.

From The Fiji Times, Suva If you’re wondering why Suva City Council workmen are painting the city’s manholes white, here’s the answer. The Government Lands Department wants to plot the city’s sewer and stormwater manhole system from the air. So the manholes have to be clearly identifiable on aerial photographs that will be taken in the next two weeks.

Hard-working Cook Islanders, as instanced by

Prime Minister Sir Thomas Davis and reported in the Cook Islands News, Rarotonga Sir Thomas gave the example of Aitutaki, whose 2000 people, he said, have managed to produce more bananas than Samoa or Tonga.

From the Samoa Times, Apia “The marriage between Polynesian Airlines and the Australian internal carrier Ansett has been consummated”, is the graphic description used by the Minister of Economic Development, Lauofo Meti, to express delight at the satisfactory development now reached for the purchase of the Boeing 737 jet “Sina” from the government of Nauru through its financial arm RONFIN (Republic of Nauru Finance and Investment Corporation).

From a speech by President Ati George Sokomanu during a visit to Ambae and Maewo, reported in

Tam-Tam, Port-Vila

He said since independence people don’t really understand the meaning of independence and are still expecting the Government to supply all their needs as the British and French Governments (did) during the colonial days.

From an editorial in the Samoa Times, Apia His Highness the Head of State broke protocol yesterday, according to our understanding anyway, by greeting the Governor-General of New Zealand, a mere representative of Her Majesty the Queen, the constitutional Head of State of New Zealand, and his proper counterpart. Further, His Highness was forced, more by ill-prepared underlings than his own doing, to yield even his proper place as host, when a Foreign Affairs liaison officer and a Police Officer misdirected the Governor-General to the left hand seat of the Head of State’s limousine.

From the Pitcairn Miscellany When Pastor Petty came ashore, he brought with him a carton which has somewhat changed evenings on Pitcairn. It was a video TV and a mass of recorded programs. The first showing was in the Court House, and the locals were able to see a video tape Thurman (Pastor Petty) took of various Pitcairners now living in New Zealand. There was many a happy tear in the Court House that night as relatives and close friends were recognised, some after an absence of many years. Since that time there have been regular showings of the “Muppets” and first-rate feature films such as “Blue Lagoon”, “Kramer v. Kramer” and “Sink the Bismarck”. Thurman says he has around 60 feature films as well as other programs; so there are a few nights’ entertainment in store yet. Certainly everyone on the island has been enjoying these showings, although I sometimes reflect that it is perhaps a little sad that TV has invaded even this remote spot.

From the “Crew didn’t like it”, by C. Hoepper, in the Cook Islands News, Rarotonga It was going to cost, if they wanted to bring them through customs. That’s what the flight crew of last Thursday’s plane from Tahiti found when they tried to bring French bread into the country. They were told they would have to pay a “use” tax of $2 per loaf, never mind that the long, thin loaves had only cost 300 francs (about 30 cents) back in Papeete. Well, the off shot of this was that the crew took their bread back with them on the plane rather than pay the duty, and friends of the crew here lost out on the chance of getting some French bread.

From “an unemployed youth’s view of things”, by columnist Mika in The Observer, Apia . . .You people sit on your “ivory towers” and pontificate to us, telling us what is wrong with us; what’s good for us. How would you know when you haven’t experienced what it’s like to be unemployed? When you have to steal to live. You people talk about justice, about honesty, about everything else that we are not. How can you talk about justice when those of you who commit offences like smuggling, defrauding government of revenues are not brought to justice . . .

From a news report on Radio Vanuatu Mr Robert Early, a linguist who comes from the Summer Institute of Linguistics in New Zealand, is now on Epi. He is there to do translation work. Pastor Willie Oli, an Epi man, said this morning that Mr Early will undertake a project of translation of hymns, parts of the Bible, and custom stories into the Epi language. However, he said, Mr Early will firstly be learning the Epi language before beginning his work. The last translation from English to Epi language was done in 1906. Mr Early has previously done translation work in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Western Samoa.