The Island Press

Reports from the papers, compiled by John Carter

WE SHOULD be ashamed of ourselves!

Our beautiful public beaches and parks are rapidly becoming havens for rats and other vermin not nice places to enjoy the gifts of Nature. Stinking smells of gar bage and blowing papers are replacing fresh aromas of clean sea air and blowing palm fronds because of the trash being dumped on the ground and into the sea.

From the Marianas Variety News & Views, Saipan.

A MOTION in the House of Assembly which would require all of Niue’s Public Servants to take an oath that they will work diligently and conscientiously was de feated when the Assembly met on Thurs day of this week. The motion which generated a lot of discussion was put by the Member for Tuapa, Mr Tama Posimani, in what he described as an effort to make Public Servants realise that they have a re sponsibility to put in an honest day’s work.

From Tohi Tala Niue, Niue Island.

Dear Lifeline,

After I beat my wife up, following a do mestic argument, she took our child and went back to her village. I have tried un successfully several times to get them back.

Once our pastor was with me when I said I would forgive my wife for the wrongs she did against me but she still refused to come back.

I have been praying for my wife to re turn, as I miss my child a lot and feel that he needs care from both his mother and his father.

From the Lifeline column in the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier .

PARTS OF Alofi North were rocked by a loud explosion on Monday evening of this week. It turned out that the explosion occurred in an old pit-latrine which had been filled in and was being used as a dump for rubbish which could be burned.

Those in the know reckon that the explo sion resulted from a buildup of methane gas; when the rubbish was burned, the leaking gas ignited and a fairly interesting reaction occurred. Fortunately no injuries were reported.

From Tohi Tala Niue, Niue Island.

PROBLEMS WITH young Cook Is landers in New Zealand have reached peak point in the local communities there. Vol untary social worker and former golden voice of the ’6os Tereau Putoko (now Mrs Tokahere) said educating youth has be come a great problem as a lot of young people prefer to hang around town instead.

From the Cook Islands News, Rarotonga.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA jails are schools where bad boys learn to become professional criminals, prisons chief Pious Kerepia said in Lae. Addressing correc tional officers at Buimo Jail on Friday Mr Kerepia said he was concerned about the lack of maximum security for hardcore criminals at Buimo and many other jails throughout the country. “Our jails pro mote the criminal profession,” he said.

“Hardcore criminals mix freely with the rest and they all eat and live together every day. This is where lessons about how to commit rape, break and enter, robbery, murder and other serious crimes are taught to petty criminals and juveniles.”

From the Papua New Guinea Post- Courier, Port Moresby.

FIJI’S MILITARY leader Colonel Ra buka has called on his country to respect the religious beliefs of all races in Fiji. In a statement marking the Hindu festival of Diwali, the start of the Hindu New Year, Colonel Rabuka said the religious festi vals of the ethnic groups had made Fiji a rich and vibrant multi-racial and multi cultural nation. He gave an assurance that freedom of worship would continue to be guaranteed in Fiji.

Colonel Rabuka said indigenous Fiji ans who were Christians had been gener ous in permitting all people religious freedom.

From a Radio Australia report on a statement by Fiji’s Brigadier Rabuka.

THREE BROTHERS have been jailed for 11 years after admitting they chopped up a man they had suspected of killing their father through sorcery.

The National Court in Lae sentenced Kensy Iwing, 25, and his brothers Efsy, 21, and Piria, 20, all of Pindiu in Morobe Province, after they pleaded guilty to a charge of wilful murder. The court heard that on or about April 1 this year the three were with their father in the garden when they saw a man named Bahauke Witing, who was said to be a well-known sorcerer.

That afternoon, after the boys and their father returned home, the father became ill. He died three days later while they were taking him to hospital. . . In court yester day they asked the court for mercy, saying they had cattle, chickens and ducks they had to look after.

From the Papua New Guinea Post- Courier , Port Moresby.

TERMITES IN the Cook Islands and Tuvalu are to be studied in a South Pacific Commission project to determine why the insects are a problem in the Cooks.

According to a report from Tuvalu the

termites there leave coconut trees alone, although the same insects cause consid erable damage to coconut palms in the northern Cook Islands.

From the Cook Islands News, Rarotonga.

MILNE BAY Premier Navy Aule has brought a lot of shame on the Trobriand islanders by saying that the “free-love” life style of people could contribute to the spread of AIDS.

His provincial Finance Minister and Member for South Kiriwina, Mr Timothy Kaidama, said the premier had under mined the good work of the church work ers in the islands. “The church people have worked really hard so many people have accepted that sex is limited to marriage,” said Mr Kaidama.

Only a few girls slept with tourists, and such girls were considered as outcasts in traditional Kiriwina society, Mr Kai dama said.

From the Papua New Guinea Post- Courier, Port Moresby.

TWO MOTHERS in Labasa, who gave birth to babies which were not of the sex they wanted, made a secret deal to swap their babies! They managed to deceive everybody at the hospital, but the plot was revealed when one of the mothers re turned home with a baby boy, when her husband had been told by the hospital that she had had a baby girl!

From The Coconut Telegraph, Savusavu, Fiji.

THE GOVERNMENT will soon pass legislation to set up offshore banking here, a Government source told The Samoa Times. Details of the proposal are not yet available but the source said the operation will enable anybody with money to use the facility without explaining to anybody where his money came from.

From The Samoa Times, Apia.

APIA’S FIRST ever strip-tease was rather bare of support, according to spec tators at last weekend’s Miss South Pacific Pageant at the Tusitala Hotel.

People were reaching for ashtrays as the stripper, especially imported from Hon olulu, was fiddling around with the string holding up his “jock strap”, the only bit of clothing preventing him from wearing his birthday suit.

“The stripper would have been bom barded with ashtrays,” one spectator said, “if he had dared to take that thing off.” In fact, he would have been lucky to get out alive, he said.

From The Samoa Times, Apia.