Islands

From the

Press

From a letter signed ‘Watch Out’, Wellington, NZ, in The

Observer, Apia

I commend you on your great editorial (see attached clipping) but as usual only words, the crafty Samoan windbag rhetoric again! Low profile is not necessary, you could not sink any lower! Any banana republic has a national identity, but you people sell it for 30 pieces of silver any day. Every New Zealander knows that the only reason you want our citizenship is not because you like the country or us, but for what you can get out of us. As for me, I pay enough taxes, and I am fed up with you bludgers! . . .

From the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier, Port Moresby A day-old baby was recovered alive from its grave seven hours after it had been buried in East New Britain Province on Wednesday. Kokopo police found the baby’s six-foot deep grave at Karavi village, Kokopo. They had rushed to the village following reports that the baby’s mother had buried it alive.

From a letter in the Cook Islands News, Rarotonga from a New Zealand woman visitor married to a Cook Islander On arrival at the airport I was told I would have to have a visitor’s permit to stay although my husband and children didn’t because they were of Cook Islands blood ... I would like to know why a Cook Islander is issued with a NZ passport and can leave for NZ as they wish with NO restrictions and using all the facilities NZ has to offer, with no questions asked, but when a New Zealander arrives in the Cook Islands they have to get a permit.

From the Marshall Islands Journal, Majuro If you didn’t know, you should know. It is illegal to drink alcohol in the outer islands of the Marshalls. Of course, penalty is varied from atoll to atoll. On some atolls, for example, they’ll fine you $25 and give you maybe a month in jail. But since all the outer islands don’t have jails of their own, they usually send in their prisoners to Majuro. Today, Helsar Maijon, 22, and Allison Kaiko, 30, both of Utirik Atoll, were flown in from Utirik Atoll for drinking and doing something else besides disturbing the peace of peaceful Utirik Atoll. And for doing that naughty thing, they will be locked up in the Majuro jail (which is something else again) not for the rest of their natural life but just two months.

From Uni Tavur, newsletter of the students of the University of Papua New Guinea The Ondobondo poetry recital this week was organised by Sampson Ngwele and Russell Soaba. The purpose of these monthly recitals is to create an awareness of the value of reading and writing poetry and prose. One of the poems on campus this week advertising the event was by Ngwele, a Vanuatuan poet. It was called Confession of a Student. “Last week’s assignment, overdue. This week’s readings, incomplete.

This morning’s lecture, bloody boring. Four solid years of this, what a bore! Too much studies on this campus, said he. There should be more, more sex in studies and more studies in sex.”

From Cook Islands News, Rarotonga Don’t knock ceremonies is a message that Minister of Internal Affairs laveta Short would like to take hold amongst the community ... He said there are some who are actually

knocking these ceremonies (opening of parliament) and saying “It is a waste of time and anachronism and a hangover from the old colonial days.’’ “If we maintain this attitude this country will find in the future that it has lost its own traditional culture and also its modem history,” he said.

From The Norfolk Islander After many years of effort and hard work, the island this week received a new set of up-to-date road traffic laws which should come into operation within the next few weeks . . . One of the groups who will no doubt feel a bit put out by the new laws will be the senior pupils of the school who were looking forward to their 15th birthday when, in the past, they could get a licence to drive a certain size motorcycle. Unfortunately for them, this privilege has now been revoked and they will have to twiddle their thumbs and ride pushbikes or go in the bus for another 12 months.

From The Times of Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby Within hours of Michael Somare winning back the Prime Ministership of Papua New Guinea, clouds began forming over parched Port Moresby, in the middle of a dry season, and poured down welcome rain until the weekend. For this, more than one citizen proclaimed, hail “The Chief”.

From Te Uekeraa, Tarawa, Kiribati There will be a state luncheon on 23 October, 1982, on the occasion of the visit to Kiribati of HM Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip. Importers of fresh food are invited to tender for the provision of the following foods which are required fresh on Friday 22 October 1982; 50 Head of Lettuce, 50 lbs of Tomatoes, 40 lbs of Onions, 50 lbs of Cabbage, 25 bunches of Celery, 40 lbs of Carrots, 10 lbs of Apples, 2 lbs of Garlic, 62 litres of Ice-Cream, 20 lbs of Butter.

From the Tongan Chronicle, Nukualofa The new electronic Seiko clocks installed at the tower of the Centenary Church in Nukualofa began functions at 5 p.m. on Wednesday. The SUS2O,OOO clocks were a generous gift of Mr Koo Cheng Kang, of the Sino Farm Store, Nukualofa. It was presented to His Majesty by Mr Clement Tsien, the Republic of China’s Ambassador to Tonga . . . His Majesty said the clocks with their musical chimes in Taiwan would normally remind the people to consult their own wrist-watches for the exact time.

However, in Tonga, His Majesty said, it would be necessary to install a special addition to the mechanisms enabling the clocks to chime out each hour for the benefit of the Tongan people, very few of whom own wrist-watches.

From The Fiji Times, Suva Police have warned people to expect instances of computer crime following wide introduction of computers in financial and business activity in Fiji . . . The latest issue of the Royal Fiji Police magazine “On Call” says Fiji is fast entering the stage where large sums of money are stored in computers and represented only by binary patterns or “A Pattern of Bits” . . .

“The computer has come to stay,” the editorial says. “It is up to us to try and understand, before it is too late, that the computer stores large sums of money represented on it as nothing more than a pattern of bits.” With a cashless society around the bend and transactions which used to involve payments by cheque or cash to now revolve around the magnetic imprint on a small plastic disc, it would be a “very tempting target” to the computer criminal.

From Radio Vanuatu’s news bulletin, Port-Vila There was only about 86 percent of the normal sunshine during the first six months of the year . . . The lack of sunshine has had an effect on local produce. Vegetables like cabbages and tomatoes have been much more subject to rotting in the ground, along with peppers and carrots. The lack of sunshine has meant tnat the ground is more than usually waterlogged. And we have learnt, too, that it’s been a bad season for strawberries. The normally excellent Port-Vila strawberry has been affected by the rotting, and fruits have not been ripening as they should, and have also been deformed.