Marshall Islands

Modern toddy

THE Forum Secretariat has hired a Fiji engineering firm to provide machinery for a modern toddy fermentation plant

in Tarawa. The machinery, designed by

Albho Engineering Works, of Lautoka, is made of stainless steel to withstand Kiri bati’s corrosive weather.

Albho engineer Albert Ho said the plant would initially cater for the local market “then possibly at a later stage they will consider export to Australia”.

Toddy is an alcoholic drink made from the sap of coconut palms.

Earlier police in Kiribati had cracked down on illegal plants making toddy for sale in Tarawa. The operation resulted in the discovery of those selling toddy without a licence and others whose li cence had expired. □

Making friends

COOK Islands announced last month it expected to sign a Treaty of Friendship with France soon. This followed talks in Tahiti last September and in Paris in October between Cook Islands Prime Minister Geoffrey Henry and his French counterpart Michel Rocard.

Cook Islands legal adviser Jim Gosse lin was reported as saying the proposed treaty would cover such things like de velopment assistance, social and cultural exchanges, education, and maritime mat ters of interest to the Cooks and neigh

bouring French Polynesia.

Gosselin sees such a treaty as leading to cooperative arrangements for the pat rolling of more than six million square kilometres of ocean covered in the exclu sive economic zones of Cook Islands and French Polynesia. □