Niue’s top postie
pp. 9-10 · Read in the full issue
posts a letter
I would like to comment on what was written in your PIM, May issue, Pacific Report, about the Niue Post Office.
You are quite correct with your heading “Niue Post Office Busy”, but the rest of the information is incorrect. For the record: (i) The Niue Post Office is not a branch of the New Zea land Post Office. It is part of the Niue Public Service. The NZPO Savings Bank services are pro vided on an agency basis; (ii) The report you referred to was not that of the last financial year. It was for the previous financial year, the
period from April 1, 1983, to March 31, 1984; (iii) The figure of $1,979,808.00 is not the finan cial support the island received from Niueans living in New Zealand. The figure was for cheques, either deposited into Savings Accounts or payments for money orders sent by businessmen to NZ to pay their accounts. In 1983/84 the Island received only $282,900 from NZ by Money Orders.
Sir, I do believe that your readers are entitled to know the facts.
Alofi Niue
F. K. Ikimotu,
Postmaster.
The paragraph was based on an item in the March 15, 1985, issue of Tohi Tala Niue which began: “The Niue branch of the New Zealand Post Office trans actions in the last financial year showed steady trade ...” No mention was made of the post office being part of the Niue Public Service. The figure of $1,979,808.00 was a mistake, the writer of the paragraph having looked at the entry under Receipts of Money Orders. Instead of writing $1,864,297.35, which was the amount shown under Receipts, he took the figure $1,979,808.00, which was the entry under Payments for Che ques. He assumed, wrongly, as the Postmaster points out, that the Money Orders had been received in Niue from expatri ates in New Zealand. The PIM report described the amount as
“an indication of the financial support the island gets from Niueans living in New Zea land”, not that the figure given was the actual amount sent by Niueans to their relatives.
Editor.
“No” to nuclear
ship visits
In the June, 1985, issue of PIM a particular article caught my eye. This article was titled: Nuclear Cruiser Visits W.
Samoa and it told of the Amer ican nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser the U.S.S. Texas being received into Apia Har bor on May 4 for a “goodwill visit”.
Western Samoa’s Prime Minister Tofilau Eti Alesana said that he “did not believe that this visit will cause any danger to Samoa.” With all due respect, I’m afraid the prime minister was very wrong.
Between the Soviet Union and the United States there are over 50,000 nuclear weapons targeted at spots throughout the world and, rest assured, even American Samoa, as an Amer ican territory, is surely targeted, not because it is of any real military importance, but simply because there are so many of these weapons that the biggest problem is where to target all of them. The total power of these weapons is over 18,000 mega tonnes, or the firepower of about 6000 World War lls.
Now, what can Western Samoa do about this? Very simple. Instead of welcoming any of these nuclear ships from any nation with open arms, the government and country need to make a strong stand against such insanity by refusing to allow these ships into Western Samoan waters. Western Samoa would then be uniting with New Zealand in a plea for peace and sanity for our earth.
Sam Burris
Hilo Hawaii