Pacific Islands Monthly
PIM SEPTEMBER. 1978 American Samoa USS1.25 i Australia AS I. OO* Fiji FX1.0C Hawaii US$1.50 New Cal. & Fr. Pol.CFP 140 New Hebrides AS 1.00 N2. Cook Is. & NiunNZSI.OO Norfolk Island AS 1 .00 Papua New Guinea K1.00 Solomons SSI .00 Tonga PI. 00 USTT & Guam USS1.Z5 Western Samoa 11.00 I tRKommended retail pnea only.
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Shell has also aided development in mining, aviation, fishing, tourism, ships’ bunkering and other vital areas.
It’s development that has benefited the Pacific region and its people as a whole.
Shell Papua New Guinea Pty. Limited, P.O. Box 169, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.
Shell Company (Pacific Islands) Limited, Box 168, Suva, Fiji.
Societe des Petroles Shell des lies Frangaises du Pacifique Boite postale L 2, Noumea, New Caledonia.
II 5H1778 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY SEPTEMBER, 1978
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August, Is7B
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Pacific Islands Cookbook
Hundreds of practical recipes using ingredients found in most parts of the South Pacific, including a big section on fish, and fish selection. Interesting recipes with taro, yams, kumala, breadfruit, cassava, tropical fruit, coconut, ferns, shellfish and raw fish, as well as rice, meat, poultry, breadmaking, etc.
Nutritionists Susan Parkinson and Peggy Stacy, provide practical advice on meal planning, kitchen budgeting. 120 pages, with colour illustrations. 5A7.00 (SUSS.SO) Posted anywhere
The Tongans
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Png Handbook & Travel Guide
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Pacific Islands Monthly
Vol. 49 No. 9 September 1978 Elsewhere. $A16 Payment b y personal cheque is accepted in Australian, US, New Zealand, UK and Fiji currency For other remittences please obtain a bank draft in Australian dollars Avp d m.» ay cf h® t0 *a® ANZ Bankin 9 Group. 88 Wentworth Avenue, Sydney, Australia A11CTDA1 REPRESENTATIVES R RAL in : °i? ,r ' bution - Gordon & Gotch (A asia) Ltd, Sox 40, PO, Rosebery, NSW 2018 Advertising - Melbourne - Pacific Publications (Aust) Pty Ltd 2nd Floor, Herald and Weekly Times Building, 61 Flinders n a wn^ e A°H rne A 3000, telephone 652 1565; Brisbane - ' 9ency ’ Box 1918 ’ Gp O. Brisbane 4001 t 4 3485 ’ 44 1546 Ad elaide - Harry Hastweli AH ed .' a ’^S !)X 301 399 Glen Osmond Rd, Glen Osmond mSia Adeltide elePh ° ne ™ 1869 ' 79 5956: Cables Has *‘ PO t |£!r?2f ,t ? n an c 8ubscri P‘ions - Desai Bookshops, PO Box 160, Suva, Fiji, telephone Suva 23036 Advertis- X 1 20 Goraon st - s - a ' > eie - FRENCH POLYNESIA: Distribution - Hachette HAWAH e ii^rp V n CTAT=o apee,e ' telephone 2 5610 ?,™ TES: Distribution - PIM, Hawaii I»n 2 .^ ahawai st ’ H °nolulu, Hawaii 96822 , APAN: Advef1isin 9 and subscriptions - Universal 5^3036° rPOratiOn ' CP ° B ° X 46 ' T ° kyo ’ telephone CALEDONIA; Distribution — Depot Centre dp ?7^S4.^4 e 729 PenteCOSt ' BPC2 ’ N ° Umea ’ telephone ' ls * rib Jf ,ion ~ Gordon & Gotch, PO Box )84 ;f R ?f. d ' Mt Rosk| H. Auckland 4 Advertising - International Media Representatives Ltd, PO Box 3880° Auckland telephone 73 880, telex NZ21157 (Auck 40) tuSd 0 ™ - PaCi " C Publicati °"s. SPO £,« 22m': •APUA NEW GUINEA: Distribution — Robert Brown & dtertWna B ° X Sir- 5 ' o°1 telephone 2 5855 SS" n 5,eph„ P „?2, P 2 0 5 S 7 , ) P ° B ° X 85 ' P °"
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Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
COVER; Sheree Upton’s photograph captures Sir Albert Henry, sacked premier of the Cook Islands, in a characteristic pose a jaunty, confident, fun-loving man.
PIM
Pacific Islands Monthly
FROM THE PUBLISHER PIM has a new editor, Bob Hawkins, who is well-known in the Pacific Islands. Originally from England, now at the age of 39 he has had wide editorial experience in this part of the world.
Bob, at one time, edited the New Guinea Times- Courier in Lae (it was afterwards absorbed into the Papua New Guinea Post- Courier, Port Moresby), was a reporter on The Fiji Times, and sub-editor at dijferent times on both the Far Eastern Economic Review in Hong Kong and The Bulletin in Sydney. He was, until just before agreeing to join us, Counsellor for Information at the Australian High Commission, Port Moresby.
PIM is not noted for a quick turnover of editors. In almost 50 years of publication (our first issue came out in August 1930), Bob is only the fifth.
He takes over from John Carter, who happily is not leaving the organisation. Because of his wide knowledge of the Pacific, John has been given responsibility for our expanding production of Pacific handbooks and travel guides. He won 7 sever his relationship with PIM he’ll continue to act as PIM adviser.
In the next few months you’ll see some changes in PIM indeed, they’ve started with this issue. This is not because every worthwhile editor leaves his own stamp on his publication. It is a natural development of the changes in format and style which began in January and which, from the number of letters and comments we receive, have been welcomed by readers everywhere.
This Month
• Japan and the Pacific Are we on the brink of a shift in the world’s economic centre to the Pacific Basin?.29 • Cook Islands The house of Sir Albert Henry has fallen.
What does new Premier, Dr Tom Davis, offer his people? -| • Irian Jaya - Indonesia has taken a sledgehammer to crack a nut. A province in turmoil 18 • Fiji The Fiji Indian family, sometimes cruel, sometimes kind 15 • New Hebrides It’s all change at the top for the French.
Is Paul Dijoud’s message from Noumea getting across?. 14 • Tuvalu Princess Margaret is the Queen’s emissary for this tiny group’s independence celebrations 17 CONTENTS Afterthoughts 75 Books 83 Cook Islands n Cruising Yachts 87 FIJI 15 Irian Jaya 13 Islands Press 73 Japan 29 Letters g New Hebrides 14 Pacific Report 9 People 80 Political Currents 19 Shipping 91 Tradewinds 86 Transport 88 Tropicalities 25 Tuvalu 17 Yesterday 77 In: Dr Tom Davis Out: Sir Albert Henry Bob Hawkins Princess Margaret. . . emissary 7 ACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY SEPTEMBER, 1978
LETTERS CO-OPS IN PACIFIC I recently received the February, 1978, PIM and was perplexed by Harry Jackman’s review of “Co-operative Movements in the Pacific: The Tubiana Workshop” (p 47).
While he focuses on the Rochdale Principles and scores the report’s lack of concentration on co-operative principles, he misses the point of emphasis which was to bring together a group of Melanesians who are involved in a variety of cooperative “movements”.
Rather than being “elitist” in nature, the group represented a cross section of men and women struggling with various alternatives currently existing in Melanesia along with those involved in co-operatives following Rochdale Principles.
Another uniqueness was the input from Dr Alexis Sarei, Father Momis, and incidentally, Bishop Gregory Singkai and the leadership of the Buin Co-operative. A very intentional reason for holding the meeting at Tubiana on Bougainville was to experience the pros and cons of the struggle of the North Solomons Province which at the time of the meeting (June, 1976) was a very real microcosm of the Melanesian development dilemma.
Mr Jackman’s assumption “that North Solomon’s clergy, inexperienced in co-operatives, carried the day” is totally inaccurate and distracts from the essence of the report. The report highlights the many different co-operative experiments going on in Melanesian countries, pointing to their strengths as well as weaknesses as seen by the men and women involved in them.
Contrary to Mr Jackman’s conclusion that this report is of little help as a contribution to the developments of cooperatives in the Pacific, I would commend it to your readers as a fair assessment of the struggle of Melanesians to develop appropriate models for indigenous development.
In reports from New Hebrideans, we see the pitfalls of European top-heavy management which nearly destroyed the co-operative movement in Vanuaaku (New Hebrides). From the Solomons, we gain insight into the frustrations caused by the lack of marketing channels within the Pacific. We also are made aware of co-operative agricultural experiments such as Youngpela Didiman in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Finally, I would commend the Co-operative Movements in the Pacific: The Tubiana Workshop for the very reason that Mr Jackman criticises it; because it affords us the chance to hear from Melanesian leaders regarding their dreams and struggles.
The report is NOT by Father Pat Murphy. It is the work of the participants with extensive notes of their presentations, discussions, and observations.
The inclusion of remarks by Father Momis, Dr Sarei, Bishop Gregory and notes on the field trips to Buin in south Bougainville and the Bougainville Copper Mine was on the insistance of the workshop participants. They are well worth reading for anyone who would like first-hand reflection on those confusing days when Bougainville was viewed as secessionist upon the advent of independence in Papua New Guinea.
William L. Coop (formerly Co-ordinator of Inservice Training Programme, Pacific Conference of Churches Rabaul Recorder at the Tubiana Workshop) Valley Cottage, NY
Png’S Wartime
HANGINGS Your paragraph headed The ‘Darkest-Kept Secret ’ (Pacific Report, June), is somewhat misleading because it does not refer to the issue I raised in my speech in the House of Representatives on May 5, namely the disappearance of all relevant trial records. I did not pretend to have uncovered the story of the wartime hangings, which I have known about since 1960 and first wrote about in 1968 in my book The Penalty is Death.
However, the destruction of the records was only confirmed by Mr Ellicott’s answer to a question on notice.
I was well aware of Tom Grahamslaw’s articles in PIM during 1971 but they do not answer the basic questions which need to be examined; • Were the trials military or civil and under what law were the Papuan New Guineans charged? • Who defended them or were they undefended? • Did they understand the nature of the offences they were charged with? • How was the prosecution’s evidence evaluated or corroborated? • Who reviewed the sentences? • Was there a right of appeal? • Why were the sentences not referred to Canberra? • Was the Australian law of treason regarded as appropriate for unsophisticated indigenes? • Why have virtually all the records disappeared? • Why has the incident gone unrecorded by historians and other writers of the period?
Barry O. Jones
House of Representatives, Canberra.
When Smithy
Was Sighted
I received my June copy of PIM, this morning and as I sat and read the Yesterday section (p 83) featuring the Pacific flight of Kingsford-Smith, Ulm and crew in the Southern Cross the radio announced the landing in Brisbane of Smithy’s son on completion of his commemorative flight across the same ocean.
My thoughts went back 50 years to June 9, 1928, on which date I was a passenger aboard the Bums Philp steamer Montoro heading for New Guinea.
A little before 10 o’clock that morning the old 10-knotter was abreast of Ballina on the NSW north coast steering from headland to headland to dodge the prevailing southerly current when the drone of aircraft motors came from seaward.
This was an unusual sound in those days before air services existed in Australia and certainly of no aircraft arrivals from overseas and it was an unforgettable sight when a Fokker trimotor monoplane burst out of a cloudbank, passed low over the ship, and crossed the coast prior to heading north for its historic landing at Brisbane.
We of the ship’s company were certainly the first to make an Australian sighting of the Southern Cross’ landfall. To New Guinea old-timers and B4s it could be mentioned that on that particular voyage Montoro was skippered by “Jazz”
Williams with Bertie Walford as chief engineer, Ben Allen as purser and Bob Pollard on radio watch. The passenger list included two of New Guinea goldfields pioneer pilots in Les Trist and Bill Wiltshire.
After the sighting most of us trooped into the ship’s bar and kept drink steward Harry Stone busy until lunchtime as we toasted the event.
BERT E. WESTON, Wollstonecraft, NSW
A Rare Can
WANTED I am seeking what must be a rare item, but perhaps a souvenir-hunting reader may be able to help me. I am attempting to locate one or more of the olive-drab tinted beer cans issued to US troops during the war.
These were supposed to prevent the reflection of sunlight off* the can from giving the drinker’s location to snipers, etc. If any reader would consider parting with any of these I would be happy to purchase or trade some other military item. Thank you.
David Stegman
Apt. 114, 4730 Bradley Blvd.
Chevy Chase, MD20015, U.S.A. 8 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY SEPTEMBER, 1978
Pacific Report
Japan And The Pacific
The spread of Japanese influence in the Pacific, the subject of special investigations in this issue of PIM (see Japan and the Pacific, beginning on p 29), has gone a stage further with the recent signing of a fisheries agreement between the Gilbert Islands and Japan. The agreement was signed for the Gilberts by Mr Taimati luta, Minister for Natural Resource Development, and for Japan by Mr Shintaro Abe, Acting Foreign Minister. Mr Abe said later his country hoped to “contribute generously” to the economic development of the Gilberts.
Cooks’ Unhappy Historic “First”
Commonwealth constitutional history was made when the Chief Justice of the Cook Islands in July unseated the government of Sir Albert Henry for what he termed “corruption of a magnitude unknown in the electoral history of New Zealand, Australia or Britain”. (Full report, p 11.)
Go-Ahead For Micronesian Constitution
Four of the six districts of Micronesia voted strongly in the July 12 referendum in favour of the proposed constitution of the Federated States of Micronesia. They were Kosrae, Ponape, Truk and Yap. The vote on Yap was 95% in favour “No” votes were recorded by the Marshalls and Palau, both of which are already involved in negotiations with the United States for separate status. The way is now clear for the formation of the FSM. Article 16 of the constitution provides that it will take effect a year after ratification unless the Congress of Micronesia “by joint resolution specifies an earlier date”.
Margaret For Tuvalu, Fiji
Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, will represent the Queen at Tuvalu’s independence celebrations on October 1. (Full report, p 17.) She will later pay a two-day official visit to Fiji.
Jakarta’S Border Raids Worry Usa
Concern at Indonesia’s overkill tactics on the Irian Jaya- Papua New Guinea border rur\s all the way to Washington.
US Senator John Glenn, in Honiara for Solomon Islands independence celebrations in July, indicated that use by Indonesia of US-supplied OVFIO turbo-prop aircraft in border bombing raids could possibly lead to a congressional veto on the promised supply of FSE and Skyhawk aircraft to Indonesia. The OVFIOs were incorrectly described as jets in a report in PIM, August. (See p 18.)
Somare Survives Opposition Challenge
PNG Prime Minister Michael Somare, according to Opposition leader lambakey Okuk, could ‘resign with honour’ or meet defeat on the floor of the Parliament. That was before the August sitting.
Minutes after the new session began on August 7, Mr Okuk tested his numbers by moving that business on the agenda be set aside. When Speaker Kingsford Dibela ruled the motion had been defeated on the voices Mr Okuk protested. Mr Dibela asked those supporting the Opposition to stand. Mr Somare was still in control.
Tonga’S ‘South Sea Bubble’ Bursts
Tonga s Bank of the South Pacific, in so many ways reminiscent Df the eighteenth century’s South Sea Bubble, finally went bust n July. The ordinance for its establishment was first withdrawn by ruling of the country’s Chief Justice, then revoked by Parliament. The defunct bank’s controversial American governor, Mr John Meier, was, meanwhile, having personal problems. He was arrested in Sydney on July 28 at the request of the US Embassy which sought his extradition to the USA to face tax evasion charges. Triumphantly producing a Tongan diplomatic passport, Meier succeeded in beating the rap, and the presiding magistrate ordered his release. But this handy “diplomatic immunity” was short-lived; word from Tonga is that Meier’s passport has been withdrawn. The problem of what the kingdom will do about a contractor’s claim for SA6OO 000 for work done, at Meier’s instigation, on Nukualofa’s international airport will take longer to solve.
Links Grow With North Korea
Western Samoa has established diplomatic relations with North Korea, following the example of Papua New Guinea and Fiji. The North Korean Government, for its part, in a message to Solomon Islands Prime Minister, Mr Peter Kenilorea, has announced its decision to recognise his newly independent nation.
Short Stint For Hebrides’ Pottier
After only six months in the post, the French Resident Commissioner in the New Hebrides, Mr Bernard Pottier, has been recalled to France. (See p 14.)
Hope High On Atea Kanada
Hopes remained high in early August that the cavers exploring Papua New Guinea’s Atea Kanada cave system (PIM July) would achieve their goal of proving it to be the world’s deepest.
Petro-Dollars For Tonga?
Arab investment in Tonga was discussed in Wellington in July when the kingdom’s Minister of Labour, Baron Vaea, met the Egyptian Ambassador, Dr I. Z. Sorour. They talked about cooperation between Tonga and the Arab countries as a whole, and Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states in particular. Projects discussed included a bulk oil depot in Tonga to enable Saudi Arabia to deliver refined oil direct to its customers.
Bad News From Fiji For Bart, Francis
The Fiji Court of Appeal has dismissed appeals by Bartholomew Ulufa’alu, Leader of the Opposition in Solomon Islands, and Francis Saemala, special secretary to Solomon Islands Prime Minister Mr Peter Kenilorea. The men were convicted in Honiara earlier this year on charges of disorderly behaviour and sentenced to two months gaol. The Fiji court has been empowered to hear appeals from court rulings made in Solomon Islands and a number of other territories since the days of the British High Commission for the Western Pacific.
Sports Glory For American Samoans
American Samoan sports personalities are hitting the high spots: 14-year-old Angie Langkilde won the world and international titles in the world and international junior golf championship in San Diego, California she clinched the title by sinking a snaky 7 m putt to birdie the last hole; and American Samoan-born sportsman, Jim Kneubuhl, who went to Hawaii when he was nine, has been voted Hawaii’s greatest track and field athlete by the selection board of the Hawaii Sports Hall of Fame and Museum. 9
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
Nauru Blots Its Philatelic Copybook
“Nauru’s previously unblemished philatelic reputation is now in tatters,” according to a stamp expert writing in an Australian newspaper. The writer posed a number of pointed questions about a Nauru set of overprinted stamps issued in late March. With a face value of 27C, some sets were selling for up to $4O just three months after issue.
Somare Shops For Low Technology Funds
Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister, Mr Michael Somare, had a new industrial strategy well in mind during his July visit to Singapore. Noting that Singapore was moving out of some low technology areas into more sophisticated types of production, Mr Somare was looking around Singapore for low technology investment in his country simple textile production for instance that could provide high degrees of employment.
Air Niugini’S Underwater Plan
Air Niugini plans to be the world’s first airline to operate a submarine. The 40-passenger, $2 million undersea craft will be capable of diving to 50 m. Through its large circular windows tourists will gaze at coral reefs, tropical fish and historic wrecks. Political opposition to the project was soon evident. (See p 88.)
Spc Focus On Pacific Education
Two main themes for discussion have been chosen for the eighteenth South Pacific Conference in Noumea in October; “Education for what? Preparation for real life are community high schools the answer?” and “The special problems of small Island countries”.
Un Women’S Meeting In Suva
The Pacific Women’s Resource Centre, Suva, hosted a meeting in July of the United Nations Asian and Pacific Centre for Women and Development (APCWD). The centre seeks to identify the critical needs of women and ways of increasing their integration into the development process.
$5O Million Plan For Viti Levu Water
The Fiji Government will spend more than SFSO million over the next five years to get water to the north and west of Viti Levu, the country’s main island. The drought-prone area is heavily populated, embracing Lautoka, Nadi and nearby Nadi international airport.
Shipping Take-Over In Png
Two Papua New Guinea statutory authorities the PNG Investment and Shipping Corporations have taken up a 76% interest in a major coastal shipping operation serving the country’s main ports. Mainport Cargoes Pty Ltd will lift 100 000 tonnes of cargo a year. The operation will also train Papua New Guineans as ships’ officers. The original private owners of Mainport, including Mr John Edwards of Port Moresby and a group headed by Mr Harry Brutnall of Rabaul, will hold the remaining 24% interest.
Suva Just Misses A Big Bang
A July fire in a tanker, the R. A. Emerson, which was discharging oil for the Shell Co in Suva, could have blown up the ship and destroyed the wharf, according to chief fire officer Harold Henderson. He repeated earlier pleas for a separate berth for oil tankers. On this occasion, prompt action by the Suva fire brigade and the Emerson’s crew prevented the blaze spreading.
Mr Gill On Polynesian Telltales’
New Zealand’s Immigration Minister, Mr Frank Gill, has told parliament that many prosecutions of Island overstayers arose from the tendency of Polynesians “to tell tales on each other’’. It might be a Niuean “putting up the weights’’ of a Samoan, or a Tongan putting up the weights of a Fijian, he said. Most such information was passed to his department by telephone.
No Grass Skirts On Fiji’S Lebanon Men
Fiji’s soldiers had impressed other army units in the United Nations peace-keeping force in Lebanon, according to their commander, Colonel Paul Manieli. Commenting on reports that some UN officials regarded the Fijians as “grass-skirted spearthrowers’’, he said; “You don’t want to believe all you see or hear.”
SOLOMONS CHALKS UP UN’S 150 Attainment of independence by Solomon Islands, and its admission as the 150th member of the United Nations, have been hailed by UN secretary-general Kurt Waldheim as yet another milestone on the road to decolonisation. A question; If Solomon Islands has brought the UN three-quarters of the way to a membership of 200, which country, if any, will turn out to be the 200th? And when?
Vanuaaku Party’S Hilda Lini In Usa
Miss Hilda Lini, prominent activist of the Vanuaaku Party in the New Hebrides, attended the recent United Methodist Women’s Assembly in Kentucky, US. She also attended a consultation on women political prisoners in New York, and visited Washington where she discussed the situation in her country with prominent American political figures.
Png, Aboriginal Youths Dance Together
Papua New Guinean and Australian Aboriginal youth dance groups were among participants in an arts festival in Adelaide, South Australia, in August.
New Zealand: The Bugs Are Biting
Tiny unwanted Pacific Island immigrants are still “bugging”
New Zealand. The latest picked up by officials include kumera weevils from Fiji and Samoa, and Mediterranean fruit fly from Noumea.
Australia To Use Png Hydro-Power?
Papua New Guinea wants to sell hydro-electricity from its planned giant Purari River scheme to Australia. Envisaged is the supply of power by undersea cable to the aluminium towns of Weipa and Gove, and perhaps even Darwin. All three centres now use expensive oil-fuelled turbines to generate power.
Hebrides To Have Its Eez
A 200-mile exclusive economic zone is to be set up around the New Hebrides, according to an agreement reached in Paris between the responsible ministers, Mr Paul Dijoud of France and Lord Goronwy-Roberts, Britain.
Sydney Honours Solomons’ Big Day
Solomon Islands independence was feted in July in Sydney, Australia’s major city, with an Inevana (traditonal Island feast) attended by 200 people.
Tanuli’S Last Fling
Samoan boxer Tanuli Mose finished his televised lightheavyweight fight with New Zealander Lance Revill in Auckland in spectacular style. The July bout ended when Mose aimed a kick at Revill’s groin, then thumped the referee a couple of times before seconds and managers hauled the contestants apart. The melee brought a ruling from the South Pacific Boxing Association banning Mose from its rings in future. . . .I/MITUI v/ OCDTCMRPR IQ7ft
Fall Of The
HOUSE OF HENRY From STUART INDER, in Rarotonga The atmosphere in these islands following the dramatic change of government is a mix of relief, shock, puzzlement, joy and bitterness. But what proportions of each of those varied ingredients make up the final recipe, I don’t know not even after a week in the Cook Islands.
I suspect it is too early for anybody to really know. Sir Albert ‘Papa’ Henry’s Cook Islands Party (CIP) government, in absolute power for 13 years, disappeared in a puff of smoke on July 24.
It was replaced, almost magically, by a government of the opposition Democratic Party led by Dr Tom Davis.
Sir Albert’s party had got back into power at the general elections of March 30, the party’s fifth election win in a row. In the 22-member Legislative Assembly the victorious CIP got 15 seats to the Democrats’ seven, against 14 seats for the CIP at the 1974 election. But the real interest was in the personal defeat at the March poll of Dr Tom Davis.
Dr Davis, 61 (his degree is in medicine), is a Cook Islander who spent 20 years as an expatriate, mostly in America, before returning home in 1972 to enter politics. He wanted to change the direction in which he believed the country was headed under Sir Albert. As Opposition leader he was the only real thorn in Sir Albert’s side. He rejected several overtures from the wily Sir Albert aimed at getting him to join forces with the CIP and thus shut him up.
Suddenly, Tom Davis was gone. But, although down, he wasn’t out. His supporters launched actions in the Cook Islands High Court under the Electoral Act, alleging electoral corruption against Sir Albert and seven of his fellow party politicians in the vital Rarotonga constituencies which provide nine of the assembly seats. The hearing in the electoral court under Chief Justice Gaven Donne lasted 18 sitting days in May and June five in Auckland, three in Wellington, the balance in Rarotonga.
The Rarotonga sittings provided a sensation as star witness. Sir Albert, unfolded to the court, under examination, an extraordinary tale of do-or-die electoral compaigning and international finance. A key figure, who to popular regret never appeared in person, was Finbar Kenny, the New Yorker boss of the controversial Cook Islands Philatelic and Numismatic Bureau which, for years, has made a mint out of its government-supported monopoly on Cooks’ stamps.
The petitioners claimed that eight CIP politicians bribed electors to vote for them, particularly by giving voters free or subsidised air travel from New Zealand to the Cook Islands, and that they were also guilty of “general corruption of a widespread and general nature, including the corrupt use of public money”.
Much of the evidence concentrated on one particularly large sum of money 5337,000 advanced by Kenny and $290,000 of it used by Sir Albert for six Ansett charter flights stuffed with selected CIP supporters who were told ftow to vote. Apart from paying S2O each for food en route from NZ to the Cooks and return, they got the flight free. The Democrats also flew in voters, hopefully their own supporters, who had to pay full charter rates for their seats and were given no voting instructions.
The flying voter is peculiar to the Cook Islands which has more of its population out of the country than in it. An estimated 20,000 Cook Islanders live in New Zealand, only about 19,000 at home.
They retain their voting rights but must cast their vote in the Cooks, because there is no absentee ballot.
Was Sir Albert’s $337,000 cheque government money used for illegal party-political purposes? Sir Albert said the money was a personal loan from his good friend Finbar who knew what he needed it for. Sir Albert had merely “laundered” it through a new Cook Islands Government agency set up for the exercise to protect Kenny from the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. introduced in the US in 1977 following the Lockheed scandals, which precludes Americans from advancing money to political parties. Finbar Kenny, in a message to the inquiry, violently disagreed.
Chief Justice Gaven Donne held that Kenny’s cash was paid and was meant to be paid as an advance from the Philatelic Bureau to the government against 1978 stamp revenue, and thus Sir Albert had illegally used public money for the charter.
Mr Justice Donne said it wasn’t for him to decide whether or not there had also been a breach of US Federal law. He was not obliged to rule upon the validity “of self-serving explanations given by Sir Albert Henry or Mr Kenny after the event”. The fact was that in his use of the money the Cook Islands premier was guilty of unlawful conduct “of monumental dimensions”. (See separate report on the judgment.) If Mr Justice Donne’s decision was a shock, what followed it was nothing less than stunning.
At the instant the chief justice completed reading his lengthy judgment to a packed Rarotongan court room shortly before 12.30 pm on July 24, the Cook Islands was without a government. What the judgment did was to declare void all the votes cast by the illegal CIP fly-in voters. With these removed. Sir Albert and his seven cohorts immediately lost their seats to the next highest votegetters, who were Dr Davis and seven others.
In addition, the chief justice removed from his seat the member for the island of Mitiaro, David Tetava, over other allegations of corruption, and ordered a by-election.
The cabinet ceased to exist once the premier was unseated but the judgments reversed power in the assembly from 15-7 for the CIP to 15-6 for the Democrats. Democratic Party leader Dr Davis had to be invited to form a new government.
The machinery to make this possible began operating with The victory kiss that’s turned sour: Sir Albert and Lady Henry celebrate, prematurely, the March 31 Cook Islands Party election victory - Photo: Bob Wallace 11 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY SEPTEMBER 1978
extraordinary swiftness, thanks to the fact that Mr Justice Donne wears two hats.
The Cook Islands since 1975 has had no high commissioner representing the Queen as head of state. But a post called Queen’s Representative was established and is held by the chief justice who exercises the function of high commissioner under the constitution. So the moment he finished his judgment he put on his Queen’s representative hat, taking charge of the islands as temporary head of state.
Mr Justice Donne, 64, with 40 years of law behind him, 20 at the New Zealand Bar, and with extensive judicial experience in the South Seas (he’s a former West Samoa chief justice) is a quiet, considerate personality who wouldn’t relish the responsibility in finding himself a national dictator.
Examination of events after 12.30 pm on July 24 indicate he handed back power to a new government so swiftly that he probably created some sort of constitutional record. Chief Justice Donne legally held the reins for less than an hour-and-a half.
But, because of the nature of the operation, his brief authority had dramatic repercussions lasting for several days and brought some public mumblings about overkill.
Certainly the detailed planning would have done credit to any African power broker mounting a sudden palace coup. Here is the order of events; • As Mr Justice Donne began reading his determination, six senior New Zealand police were already on the way from Auckland by Air New Zealand in case of violence. (They arrived later that day and, as it happened, had a pleasant few days in the sun.) • When he completed reading his Mitiaro judgment at midmorning, court officers accompanied by police rushed a legal notice revoking the election to the Government Printer with instructions to stay there until it was printed in the Government Gazette. (Two printers walked out.) • As he completed reading his main Rarotonga judgment, additional legal notices of revocation were also raced off for gazettal, together with a vital proclamation by Mr Justice Donne proroguing the Legislative Assembly pending appointment of a new premier and cabinet. • Officials rushed copies of the proclamation to the assembly which had been due to open a new session at 1 pm, that is, within minutes, they gave a copy to the speaker, posted others on the notice board and another on the main door after having locked it. A police guard was placed on the building to prevent anybody entering. • A legal associate of Mr Justice Donne handed to Dr Davis a note asking him to go immediately to a room of The Rarotongan Hotel, alone. • The manager and all board members of the government-owned Cook Islands Broadcasting and Newspaper Corporation were handed letters directing that no one except the chief electoral officer was now permitted access to the radio station without authority of the Queen’s representative; that at 2.30 the Queen’s representative and a new premier would tape messages to the people that were to be played every hour on the hour up to 8 pm and in place of all local news broadcasts the next day. Only regular overseas news broadcasts were to be relayed, together with music and weather and shipping information, or police messages.
These instructions were to remain until countermanded by the relevant minister in the new cabinet, and anybody who disobeyed them would be dismissed on the spot. • By this time Mr Justice Donne was also at The Rarotongan, where copies of the Government Gazette, rushed straight from the printer, were handed to him. Now with legal requirements met, and Dr Davis only too willing, he swore him in as premier in Room 208. Within half an hour the new premier had gathered his fore-warned cabinet, who were also sworn in. (Dr Davis says he had chosen his cabinet many weeks earlier when it had become obvious to him from the court evidence that Sir Albert was in trouble.) • Chief Justice Donne and Premier Davis now went off to the studio to broadcast messages. The chief justice explained the circumstances of the change of government. The new premier, naming his cabinet, said it was time to look to the future; “The time for rebirth and renewal that I spoke of on New Year’s Day has arrived ... I promise you that I will lead your new government to work towards the welfare of all the people and not just a chosen few . . . The time for dependency on others is finished.”
This was a reference to Sir Albert’s style of leadership in which party supporters are promised the good life if they follow him.
Under Sir Albert, government was a one-man band, with ‘Papa’ involving himself in every level of decision-making, sometimes reversing decisions of cabinet, which one former cabinet minister says he attended infrequently. There was also widespread criticism of his nepotism, with the ‘Henry clan’ filling key positions, which had caused resentment, particularly in the public service. (Sir Albert’s answer to the nepotism charge is that he picked the best people for the job often with the best education, irrespective of family relationships.)
Sir Albert-Bitter
But Obliging
-BOWS OUT To the advantage of the new govemment the changeover came on the eve of the weeklong celebrations for the thirteenth anniversary of the promulgation of the Cook Islands constitution. While Rarotongans attended dance festivals, sports events, carnivals and a grand ball in holiday mood, the new cabinet a satisfactory mix of old campaigners and new young blood - met almost daily to lay the new administrative foundations. Most Rarotongans, relieved that the long and divisive period of the court dispute had ended, were happy to let them.
Sir Albert - who was disappointed and shocked, and sometimes bitter in private eased Tom Davis’ task by asking for national co-operation and goodwill at every public opportunity. He stressed that the law had made its decision, and that he supported the rule of law. He and Dr Davis shook hands on the dais at the packed official constitution ceremony, and Sir Albert demonstrated he could still wag a wicked bottom in a dance, to the delight of the crowd.
Nothing that has happened, or is yet to happen (charges are probably pending against him as a result of the judge’s findings), can detract from the fact that Sir Albert Henry has left an indelible mark as a South Pacific leader and personality.
Whether he is more fool than Premier Tom Davis (right) with the man whose decision made him the Cook Islands boss, Chief Justice Gaven Donne. 12 ACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY SEPTEMBER, 1978
knave, or something else again, history will decide.
Hundreds of people waited outside his house on the night of the court decision, in a spontaneous gesture of condolence and support. He plans to get back into the assembly at the Mitiara by-election within a few months, and meantime may make a direct appeal to the UN to decide whether Mr Justice Donne was acting in the best interests of justice in a decision which replaced a whole government, giving the new administration almost a full term in power. Sir Albert told me that in settling “such a tender matter, in such a small country”, justice, as distinct from the letter of the law, would have been better served by installation of a caretaker government pending new byelections “to give the people a chance to say what they think about it”.
He is also bitter about what he thinks might have been New Zealand government influence on the events that followed the general elections, and a belief that some of the Democrat fly-in voters also arrived for free (which Dr Davis firmly rejects).
There is no legal appeal to Mr Justice Donne’s decisions, and in any case his lengthy judgment quotes legal precedents for all the various alternatives that were open to him, including the calling of by-elections. He appears to have been strongly influenced against this alternative on the basis that new elections would cause hardship to honest candidates, party workers and general voters, especially those who came from New Zealand at their own expense, and that the principle is “he who breaks the rules should bear the brunt”.
He said the time period before the elections would also mean a continuing atmosphere of uncertainty and apprehension in the islands. The allegations were serious, as the amount involved in the bribery was equivalent to 2.8% of the total Cooks budget expenditure and involved 9.3% of the total votes cast in the three Rarotongan constituencies involved, so he held that “it is better that there be an unequivocal denunciation of the misdeeds of the offending candidates and their agents than that by-elections be ordered which may allow the transgressors indirectly to profit from their misconduct which, especially in the case of the main perpetrators of the whole scheme, was of vast proportions”.
Meanwhile Premier Davis is showing the much-needed administrative experience that even his detractors acknowledge he has, and has said that the new government’s most urgent task is to bring to life again island exports, and reverse the present trend of an import bill seven times higher than exports. He also plans to change the constitution to make it unneccessary to fly in voters, and has the two-thirds parliamentary majority to do it.
Apprehension in Rarotonga that great numbers of public servants would be sacked by the new administration turned out to be unfounded, as ministers told their departments that people who were efficient had no fears irrespective of their politics.
The new parliamentary Opposition leader is Sir Albert’s cousin, Geoffrey Henry, and Sir Albert’s son, Tupui, is deputy leader.
“As Her Majesty’s loyal Opposition, we certainly intend to do a better job in opposition than the opposition of yesteryear,” commented the quick-witted Geoffrey Henry in the assembly. “Then you will be doing well!” replied the new premier, with equal goodwill.
Who’s who in the Cooks cabinet Premier (and Minister of Finance and Economic Development) Dr Tom Davis had his seven-man cabinet ready and waiting when Mr Justice Donne delivered his judgement. W. G. Coppell gives these biographical notes: Dr Pupuke Robati (53), Deputy Premier, Health Minister Native and representative of Rakahanga in northern Cooks.
Trained at Fiji School of Medicme - Tangata Simiona (57), Minister of Education and party president —High-ranking chief on Atiu. Head teacher of Nikao Maori school before joining Department of Education as chief inspector of schools, Henry demoted him to assistant government anthropologist.
Papainama ( ‘ Pa ’) Pokino (4 1), Minister for Supportive Services - Son of former assembly member Pokino Aberarama.
Represents Mangaia. Gained BE in New Zealand. Was Cooks project engineer and re-
Justice Is Donne
Ordering the unseating of the government of Sir Albert Henry, the Chief Justice of the Cook Islands, Mr Justice Donne, accused it of corruption of a magnitude unknown in the electoral history of New Zealand, Australia,or Britain.
In a 70-page decision handed down in July he ruled that Sir Albert and other members of his Cook Islands Party had bribed voters by providing virtually free flights to Rarotonga for the general election of March 31 in return for electoral support.
He concluded that the flights had been unlawfully paid for out of public funds “a clear breach or breaches of the Public Moneys Act”. “I can imagine no greater perversion of representative democracy,” said Mr Justice Donne, “than that huge sums of public money be secretly used by candidates to facilitate bribery of hundreds of voters and thereby secure their reelection.”
In a separate judgment on allegations of the “corrupt practice of treating” by the successful Cook Islands Party candidate on the island of Mitiaro, Mr Justice Donne found a case had been established and ordered a by-election.
On the main charges Mr Justice Donne found that on January 12 Sir Albert wrote to Mr Finbar Kenny, an American with a major interest in the Cook Islands Philatelic Bureau, seeking financial help for his election campaign. His letter advised Mr Kenny that he intended chartering aircraft to carry party supporters to Rarotonga to vote. As a result, Mr Kenny’s representative in Rarotonga, Mr J. W. Little, was told to make an advance available against stamp bureau revenue.
With this assurance of finance, Sir Albert went to New Zealand later in the month and spoke about free flights for voters at meetings of Cook Islanders in Tokoroa, Wellington and Auckland.
In February, Sir Albert visited Melbourne, where he arranged the charter of three aircraft from Ansett Airlines, before flying to Hololulu to report the result of his negotiations to Mr Kenny.
On March 13 he wrote to the director of the stamp bureau in Rarotonga to say the Cook Islands Government New Projects Co Ltd a company incorporated a week earlier “wishes to assist in the financing of a major project in the Cook Islands”.
“Substantial finance will be required and I would be pleased if you would forward to me a cheque in external funds for SNZ327 000 made out to the above company,” wrote Sir Albert.
The letter said the sum was to be regarded as an advance to the Cook Islands Government against future stamp bureau revenue.
Sir Albert received a cheque from the bureau for $337 000 not $327 000 as mentioned in the letter and it was paid into the company account in New Zealand. On March 17, the sum of $335 000 was transferred from the account of the Cook Islands Government New Projects Co to another account in the name of the Ipukarea Development Co Ltd. It was from this account that Ansett Airlines was paid $290 000 for six return flights to Rarotonga. 13
Pacific Islands Monthly - September. 1978
cently has been concerned with outer island airport construction. laveta Short (34), Minister of Agriculture and Tourism Represented Takitumu on Rarotonga since December.
New Zealand trained lawyer; practises on Rarotonga.
Vincent Ingram (31), Minister of Justice and Police New Zealand-trained lawyer. Practises in the Cooks and manages family business interests on Rarotonga.
Tangaroa Tangaroa (57), Minister for Internal Affairs Represented Penrhyn since before 1965 self-determination election. Shadow minister of education before Cook Islands Party took power.
BRYCH BATTING AVERAGE Advent of the Davis government will hasten the end for the Cook Islands practice of controversial cancer therapist Milan Brych.
He is likely to be forbidden the use of the Rarotonga Hospital, thus reversing the decision of the Henry government which allowed Brych to practise in the hospital but forbade it to the only three fullyqualified medical practitioners in private practice, Drs Davis, Joe Williams and Archie Guinea.
Milan Brych’s cancer practice is already running into serious trouble from an Australian Government decision to cease paying medical fund benefits to Brych patients from October 1. Most of the patients are from Australia.
They get refunds of from 70% to 80% of their medical bills, plus all their hospital bills. The average bill for Brych’s medical and hospital treatment is $l2 000, of which $7OOO to $BOOO is paid back to the patient by Australia.
In August there were 25 people being treated on the island, with two more awaiting treatment (Brych was absent in Los Angeles). The number of new arrivals is expected to be reduced as a result of the Australian decision.
Brych’s first patient was admitted to the Rarotonga hospital on April 3, 1977.
By August this year, 249 patients had completed treatment or were still being treated. Of these, total number of deaths on the island was 57, with scores more having died on returning home. The island deaths do not include those who arrived so ill as to be virtually dead before Brych saw them.
Brych aims to set up clinics in Los Angeles and Brisbane, to work in association with his main Rarotongan clinic. He is not registered to practise in the US or Australia. He is registered to practise in the Cooks, where he has a government house and car.
Brych has announced that he will reveal details of his treatment methods for the first time in October, in Honolulu, when he is scheduled to present a series of papers at a seminar arranged by the Northwest Academy of Preventive Medicine, Washington. The seminar is at the Intercontinental Hotel, from October 16-20.
All change at the top in the New Hebrides Sweeping and unexpected changes in top French personnel in the New Hebrides in July gave some hint of dramatic developments in stores for the troubled condominium.
Mr Bernard Pettier, who took up his post as French Resident Commissioner only in January, was recalled to France without explanation.
His work has been taken over by one of France’s most senior civil servants, Mr Jean-Jacques Robert, Inspector-General of Overseas Departments and Territories, who came specially from Paris for the purpose, as he put it on his arrival, “of carrying out the government’s directives concerning the accession to independence of the New Hebrides”.
Also in July, Mr Louis Mermet, chancellor at the French Residency, who had been in the post only since December last year, was recalled to Paris.
Official French sources offered no comment on the changes, but in light of the striking redirections of French policy announced by the responsible minister, Mr Paul "Dijoud, during his visit to New Caledonia (see PIM, Political Currents) it is impossible to avoid reading political implications into them.
Chief Minister Kalsakau expressed “astonishment” that the two senior French officials had been replaced without the New Hebrides Government being consulted. “Does this signify a change in French policy?” he asked. “Is what we have worked on with Messrs Pettier and Mermet, in all seriousness, to be reconsidered?”
On the British side, it has been announced that Resident Commissioner, Mr John Champion, will leave in October at the end of his threeyear term. He will be replaced by Mr A. C. Steward, at present counsellor at the British Embassy in Jakarta.
Apart from these developments - and a go-slow strike in the public service - main focus of attention in the New Hebrides has been the extraordinary session of the Representative Assembly which opened on July 18. Its chief business concerned the report of the ad hoc committee on electoral reform, on which representatives of the Vanuaaku Party have been working together with those of the government of Chief Minister Kalsakau.
The assembly rapidly approved more than half of the 37 recommendations made by the committee, including one that the voting age be lowered from 21 to 18, which will add about 8 000 voters The assembly rejected the idea that each assembly member should represent a clearly defined constituency. Noting that this system already applied on the island of Efate, the assembly pointed out that most islands were represented by a bloc of several members.
On the crucial point in the report, on which the decision of the Vanuaaku Party whether or not to take up the offer of three seats in the government could well depend, the assembly said “no” to the committee’s recommendation that the next general election be held on April 16, 1979.
The 10 members of the committee had been evenly divided on this point, but decided that the April 16 recommendation should go forward. Five didn’t agree that a date should be fixed, in case the government could not keep to it. Those in favour thought that a fixed date would serve as a target, which, if it proved to be too early, could be put back.
The assembly, for its part, decided that the election should take place as soon as possible after the census produces information for electoral lists.
It is no secret that the French colon interests represented in the assembly are opposed to an early election. They feel that much more time is needed for the new government to consolidate its position, and that an early election would greatly favour the Vanuaaku Party.
Abandoned grave markers in the ‘cancer’ section of Rarotonga cemetery 14 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY SEPTEMBER, 1978
Looking at the family institution among Fiji Indians SOCIETY —The lot of Fiji Indian children, especially girls, is not always a happy one. A RIM correspondent in Suva, herself of Fiji Indian origin, examines the present state of Fiji Indian family life.
The empty whisky bottle miraculously missed his head and shattered on the concrete floor in countless tiny pieces.
Enraged by her failure, she advanced towards him menacingly, grabbing the nearest thing to hand, an old wooden rolling pin. While the boy recoiled in fear and covered his face with his hands in the universally-protective gesture of children, she lunged with her first blow.
He cried out in pain. As the child’s screams increased so did the blows. She seemed like a woman possessed.
To Kamla Reddy, sevenyear-old Raj for a while was no longer her son. In him she found an outlet for all her pent-up emotions, her frustrations, failures and unhappiness. After beating him up to her heart s content she locked him in a room without giving him dinner. Her two other children, mere toddlers, scared by what they had just witnessed and fighting back tears under their mother’s threats, gulped down a few bits of food and went to bed.
As Kamla sat on the doorstep of her house fanning herself with her dingy veil, did she feel guilt about what she had just done? Was she wondering what imprint she was leaving on her children, and how these experiences would affect them when they grew up?
Far from it. Kamla felt a strange sort of satisfaction. As a result of beating up her son she had simmered down. All afternoon her thoughts had aeen centred on Wahab, her over with whom she had been supposed to go on a secret picaic. Wahab had forgotten heir date again. At first as he seconds ticked away on he kitchen-wall clock, she >ecame impatient, worried, ealous, then angry.
When the phone finally ang she was jittery and rushd to answer it, thinking it was Vahab at last. But the call was rom Sami, her husband, who drunk as usual. He orered Kamla to prepare some hot chicken curry and put beer in the fridge. He announced he was going to bring home some friends for a boozing party. When Kamla replied there was no chicken or beer in the house he shouted “Get it from somewhere’’ swore at her and slammed the receiver down in her ear.
Torn between hatred for Sami, who had been chosen as her husband by her parents, and anger at Wahab, Kamla did not need much of an excuse to vent her wrath. A minor squabble among her children in which Raj appeared the culprit provided the catalyst.
Kamla, like thousands of Indian parents in Fiji, uses her children as “emotional beds”.
Cruelty to children is a common thing among the Indian community, although a small section of educated and illiterates are among the most wonderful parents any child could have anywhere in the world.
All Indian parents rejoice when a child is born. The celebrations are more marked when the baby is a boy. He is considered a “gain”, while the girls continue to be looked upon as “burdens”.
It is not that the structure of Indian society, its culture or religion, advocates ill-treatment of children. The child has indeed been idolised by Hindu saints, philosphers and leaders.
But once a child reaches the age of seven he or she is expected to act, think and, particularly in rural areas, work like an adult. This means waking up with parents at sunrise, toiling on the farm, tending goats, cattle, chickens, looking after vegetable gardens and selling produce.
But not every child is submissive. They try to support rebellious arguments with what they learn at school (most of them spend at least some years in high schools), from what they have read in books, or seen in movies. But most often rebellion is no use as the parent has the money and disobedience means being booted out of the home.
Most of the younger generation do not believe in religious differences or in the caste system. But Hindu parents continue to oppose marriage to Muslims and vice-versa, and the caste system is still practised.
For example northern Indians are expected to marry northern Indians, similarly Punjabis, Gujeratis and southern Indians must all marry within their castes.
There are many young people who defy this and marry outside. Often this means total banishment by the girl’s parents, but most such marriages are quite happy.
Cruelty also extends into later stages of a child’s life.
One of the most glaring examples of this is Indian marriges.
Many Indian parents, including so-called “educated" ones, choose their sons’ and daughters’ wives and husbands. To qualify, a girl has to good at housework. Sewing is an advantage. She must not be too fat or too thin, or have any Some of the lucky ones among young Fiji Indian womanhood 15 ACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY SEPTEMBER 1978
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Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
abnormalities such as a missing finger, and she must not be Westernised. A well-off family and fair skin are definitely advantages.
Before agreeing to marriage, her prospective motherin-law samples her work and cooking. Cruelty to teenage daughters-in-law is worst among Fiji’s affluent Gujerati community, although they will furiously and firmly deny this. The Gujerati mother-inlaw more than any other tries to wield power in the household and hold first place in her married son’s affections.
The daughter-in-law usually assumes the role of a “housegirl”.
The mother-in-law buys her clothes and underwear and even chooses the colour of things the girl should wear. If the son wants to take his wife out for a social occasion she must get her mother-in-law’s permission first. In most cases this is refused, but the daughter-in-law is not allowed to tell her husband that. Instead she must plead a headache or some such excuse. Often the young woman becomes fanatically involved with religion for consolation.
Daughters who live with fathers who have de-facto wives end up leading Cinderella-like lives. Unfortunately there are no fairy godmothers or Prince Charmings to come to their rescue.
Daughters whose mothers have de-facto husbands often end up having to put up with sexual advances from them. In Suva recently a teenage girl, who was adopted by a man as his daughter, was forced to have sex with him. The father was goaled for 10 years. In mitigation he said shamelessly that he had sex with his adopted daughter because he knew other men had already had her.
There are institutions in Fiji where a child in distress can go for help. But not many turn to them. Most children are unaware that the law and these institutions can helo them. F Ironically, the very parents >vho ill-treat their children ire usually the first to expect iternal gratitude from them.
Phis means the children are expected to care for them for he rest of their lives. In most 'ases this is what happens, -laving been subject to blind )bedience for so long, the hildren generally accept the esponsibility without [uestion.
Now It’S Eight
Standing Alone!
Tuvalu, nine islands with a total land area of 25.9 square kilometres scattered over 1.3 million square kilometres of the Pacific Ocean, and 9 000 people, will go independent on October 1 after three days of celebrations, writes John Carter.
And the Queen’s sister. Princess Margaret, back in circulation after illness will be there to hand over the documents establishing Tuvalu as a sovereign, independent country. To date there is no news of the programme for the junket but the islet of Fongafale, administrative centre of the capital, Funafuti, will be crowded. It’s only the size of two or three football fields and canoe-loads of Tuvaluans will be making for the spot. There’ll also be the VIPs from the South Pacific countries and further afield.
As accommodation is limited and there’s nothing on Funafuti of Buckingham Palace standard to house the princess and her party of five, she will be the guest of the Royal New Zealand Navy on a warship which will grace the celebrations.
There may be fireworks like the ones which gave the Solomon Islanders a big thrill at their independence celebrations in July. There’s sure to be dancing but the big thrill for the Tuvaluans will be Princess Margaret. Even in faraway Funafuti, 400 miles south of the equator, they’ll have heard of her Royal Highness’s headline-making divorce from Lord Snowdon and her friendship with Roddy Llewellyn, a pop singer.
The princess will leave London on September 24 and arrive at Funafuti, via Fiji, early in the afternoon of September 29. She will return to Fiji after the celebrations end around noon on October 1 and is expected to spend a few days in Fiji.
Independence comes to the former Ellice Islands exactly three years after separation from the Gilberts, with whom they formed a crown colony, and only four months after becoming self-governing the shortest term of selfgovernment in the history of the Commonwealth.
Fearing domination by the Gilbertese, who outnumbered them seven to one, the Tuvaluans opted for separation even though they had been warned they’d get nothing out of the partnership assets except one small ship. The one thousand Tuvaluans working in the Gilberts were told they might have to look elsewhere for jobs but they still decided to go it alone hopefully with help from Britain.
Now Tuvalu - which means ‘eight standing together’ - will paddle its own canoe from October 1 with some financial help from Britain, around $8.2 million of it, for a special development fund, for continuing developmental aid, the budget and technical aid. This will foot bills until 1980.
No one knows what Britain will hand over after that, but the Asian Development Bank, United Nations agencies and other agencies are expected to come to the party.
Without aid, Tuvalu would find the going very rough. It has 300 well-trained seamen working all over the seven seas and it contributes to the work forces in the phosphate industry on Ocean Island and Nauru. There’s a little subsistence farming but there’s no future in scratching a living from the meagre soil which barely covers the coral.
Fishing has great promise.
Tuvalu, as a sovereign state, will now declare its 200-mile economic and fisheries zone.
An agreement has been signed with mineral prospecting firms but the prospects of finding mineral wealth in Tuvaluan waters is remote.
The new nation is also negotiating for its own airline with a Wellington (NZ) firm and Britain has been asked to fund this service to the tune of $B6 135.
There’s every indication that New Zealand and Tuvalu will move to form a special relationship involving aid.
Which is only to be expected, perhaps. New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Rob Muldoon, is making amends for his crack a year or so ago. Someone mentioned Tuvalu and Mr Muldoon remarked that Tuvalu was only a group of a few islands with coconuts that no one wanted. But Australia and New Zealand will help Tuvalu.
If they don’t, maybe Russia and China will.
The man who will take Tuvalu into independence, Chief Minister Toalipi Lauti (left), and Her Majesty’s Commissioner to Tuvalu, Tom Layng 17
’Acific Islands Monthly ~ September 1978
INDONESIAN
Overkill In
Irian Jaya
May to July saw another peak in Indonesian military activity to counter rebel operations in the republic’s most easterly province, Irian Jaya. PIM editor, Bob Hawkins, who has twice visited the province, once for the ‘Act of Free Choice ’ in 1969, and again in 1971, considers the implications of recent events.
Money couldn’t buy the publicity Indonesia’s heavyhandedness has presented to Irian Jaya’s rebel movement in the past two months. Despite all protestations that dissidents in Indonesia’s most easterly possession number only 2-300, sledgehammer tactics have left more than just the cynical wondering how big a thorn in Jakarta’s scheme of things are Irian Jaya’s jungle freedom fighters.
Bombing sorties by Indonesian counter-insurgency, US-supplied OVIO Bronco aircraft; the burning of villages on both sides of the Irian Jaya- Papua New Guinea border; Irianese refugees fleeing to the sanctuary of PNG’s West Sepik Province; and, belatedly, expression of Australian and US concern at Jakarta’s tactics, have brought the cause of the ‘de facto government of West- Papua New Guinea’ back to the headlines in a manner not matched since the ‘Act of Free Choice’ days of 1969.
The latest bout of hostilities in Irian Jaya was sparked in mid-May when rebels, inadvisedly many guerrilla tacticians would suggest, ambushed an Indonesian helicopter carrying top military and civilian officials, and kidnapped seven of them.
In the weeks that followed, Jakarta flew in hundreds of troops who embarked on a land, sea and air manhunt which brought fear and confusion to villagers along the northern areas of the PNG border. Throughout July, Jacob Prai, president of the ‘De Facto Revolutionary Government of West Papua’ and his men, apparently evaded their pursuers with ease, spiritedly maintaining their demand for a round table international conference to discuss an independent ‘West Papua’.
Whatever the fate of Prai and his men, whatever the consequences a break by Irian Jaya from Indonesia would have for the largest Moslem nation in the world, the aspirations of the movement, as stated by the ‘Foreign Affairs Minister’ in exile of the ‘de facto government of West-Papua New Guinea’, Nicolaas Jouwe, have a strong moral flavour to them, if not, within United Nations terms, legal.
Jouwe sees his fellow Melanesians of Irian Jaya as much ‘colonised’ as Jomo Kenyatta saw his people in Kenya, as Ho Chi Minh saw his people in Vietnam in his long war against the French. Whatever merit the Indonesianstage managed Act of Free Choice may have had in terms of Southeast Asian stability, enough foreign observers came away from the 1969 Act convinced that the ‘unanimous’ vote for union with Indonesia did not fairly reflect the wishes of the Irianese people.
My own most vivid memory of the Act was of an Indonesian military man prodding the bared buttocks of a delegate at the Wamena vote with a slender cane. And then, in Merauke, the merry-makers in the streets of the town, celebrating the ‘unanimous’ vote to join Indonesia, were almost entirely of Malay stock while Irianese looked on, either sullenly or in simple puzzlement.
In the years since 1969, Indonesia’s ‘transmigration’ program has had a profound effect on both the population make-up of Irian Jaya and on the ability of the Irianese to partake in their own economy.
A sideline development to the Irian Jaya turmoil has been a marked groundswell of support for the rebels from neighbouring Papua New Guinean letter-writers to the PNG Post- Courier , the national daily.
Letters of sympathy and sometimes anger at the PNG government’s apparent willingness to go along meekly with Indonesia on the Irian Jaya question have heavily outweighed those from readers who feel ‘appeasement’ toward Jakarta is the best line to take.
Irianese hostility toward Jakarta has been apparent since 1962 when former Indonesian President Sukarno wrested control of Dutch West New Guinea, first by the tactic of blackmail by threat of military invasion, and then by agreeing to a demand by United States diplomat Ellsworth Bunker that Indonesia should only be given control on the condition that by 1969, at the latest, the people of the province should be allowed to decide by plebiscite with whom their future should lie.
Australia, the United States and the Afro-Asian bloc of the United Nations, refusing to recognise that they were agreeing to the substitution of one form of colonialism for another, went along with the Bunker plan.
The Irianese rebels, despite the risk they took in the kidnapping episode and the consequences they and thousands of uninvolved border dwellers have suffered are now talking more confidently of the possibility of considerable foreign finance to help them pursue their dream.
Nicolaas Jouwe in exile and Jacob Prai in the jungle have no illusions about the future: their struggle will be no easier than that of the many secessionist movements which ebb and flow across the Indonesian archipelago.
What they feel in their own minds must be something akin to the determination with which the French underground resisted Nazi domination. They see themselves as the liberators of their conquered nation; as the victims of a people whose destiny was determined for them by alien opinions. The hopelessness of their situation must make the hearts of the Melanesians of the Pacific grieve for them.
Irian Jaya rebels guard a naked and bound Indonesian with the captured helicopter in the background. This photograph, brought out of Irian Jaya to Australia via Papua New Guinea, is reported to have been taken by a member of the Free West Papua Movement 18
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
POLITICAL CURRENTS NOISELESS N-TESTS France resumed its controversial nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll, French Polynesia, in July, but readers of the printed media in Australia would hardly have known. Although the news was featured in some radio reports, the country’s major newspapers showed remarkable reticence on the tests, which in the past have caused big headlines and thrown heavy strain on relations between the French and Australian Governments.
A possible clue to this strange reserve on the part of the press lies in the fact that in the same month a visit was made to Australia by the French Delegate-General for Energy, Mr Paul Mentre. His mission was to discuss with Australian authorities the French interest in buying Australian uranium and additional steaming coal, and in supplying mining equipment for Australia’s Northwest Shelf oil and natural gas exploration projects.
Mr Doug Anthony, Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Resources, in a statement on Mr Mentre’s visit, said that despite its energy conservation programme France would still be importing 60% of its energy needs by 1985. In the same year France would be producing half of its electricity in nuclear power stations.
Mr Anthony went even closer to the bone when he added: “It is clear that France’s commitment to nuclear power is such that Electricite de France the French electricity authority will be a major and perhaps the single most important user of uranium in the world. The indications are that France is looking to buy between 10% and 15% of her uranium needs from Australia involving something like 1000 tonnes a year in the second half of the 1980 s.” (Canadian and African suppliers are France’s other main sources.) That Mr Anthony’s complaisant approach to this prospect is not shared by all Australians was clearly shown by a brief letter from a reader appearing in a Sydney daily newspaper. The letter said, in full; “If the federal government is planning to sell uranium to the french, the first condition of sale should be an immediate stop to their nuclear testing in the Pacific regions.”
SOLOMONS’
West Issue
The Moderator of the United Church in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, Bishop Leslie Boseto, has spoken out on the political issues affecting the Western Solomons, writes Peter L. Young from Honiara.
Bishop Boseto is from the Western Solomons. His public standing is such that his name was widely canvassed earlier this year as a candidate for Governor-General of Solomon Islands.
Separatist sentiment in Western Solomons led to incidents during the new nation’s independence celebrations in July. Two men were taken to hospital and 43 arrested at Gizo, the main town in Western Province, following a brawl in which people from the Western Solomons tried to prevent the raising of the new Solomon Islands flag.
In a long letter to the Solomons government newspaper. News Drum, Bishop Boseto called for responsible action and sympathetic consideration concerning the call for state government by the Western Province. In particular. he called for greater communication with the people of the province so that they may understand the issues involved. He urged “unity first, and negotiations second”.
He said that if the Honiara central government proved unable to accommodate the concerns of the Westerners then the province might be excused for considering breaking away from the Solomons nation. But, he added, “now is not the time”.
In an interview on Papua New Guinea’s National Broadcasting Commission, Bishop Boseto also commented on the future relationship between PNG and Solomon Islands, saying; “One of the things I think the two governments should look more closely into is free access between Bougainville and the Western Solomons because most of the people who are from the Shortlands. Fauro Island and Mono on the Solomon Islands side, and those inside Bougainville, are related. They belong to the same tribe, some of them, and it will be very important for the two governments to recognise these ties.”
Speaking to overseas journalists after the independence celebrations in July, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Peter Kenilorea gave the impression that Western Province people should have little to fear on this score. Mr Kenilorea said his government had already held talks with the PNG Government about it, and that it was his government’s policy to encourage free travel between groups with traditional ties on either side of Mr Jacques Chirac, Mayor of Paris (in glasses, looking over shoulder) at breakfast in Papeete in July: a man who says bravo lor big bangs, when they are French ones Prime Minister Kenilorea: Westerners should not worry 19
Pacific Islands Monthly - September. 1978
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the border. This would be the principle on which his government would operate.
Mr Kenilorea also said that health administrators from both sides had been in consultation on the problem of certain “illegal immigrants” into PNG malaria-bearing mosquitoes from Western Solomons.
MOTHBALLS FOR DIORS The forecast in these columns (PIM July) that France’s new Secretary for Overseas Territories, Mr Paul Dijoud, would spring some surprises on New Caledonians during his July visit to the territory was amply borne out by events, writes Andre Chaville from Noumea.
Most people had expected the usual cocktail party, a trip to the Isle of Pines and the farewell dinner party at which the Minister would hand over the badly needed cheque.
In fact, there never was a cocktail party with Rotary, the Lions or any of the other expensive charitable organisations favoured by the local aristocracy. Instead, Mr Dijoud had a drink with Polynesian immigrants who were building their own social and cultural centre. He visited the technical school and sat down to a tray lunch in the cafeteria with students. He even walked through the Department of Labour, shook hands with unemployed workers queueing for jobs, and talked to them about their problems.
Watching all this with mounting dismay, the supporters of Rightwing leaders such as Lafleur put dinner jackets back in their wardrobes, while their wives packed away their Dior dresses for a hoped-for “next time”.
Dijoud’s speech to the Territorial Assembly was a masterpiece a 90-minute ad lib delivery of the sweetest package of home truths members had ever heard, with the Minister aided only by a few statistics jotted down on a piece of paper.
He announced that France would plough FF4,GOO million into the Caledonian economy during the next 18 months, provided the territory itself made some efforts at improving its own revenues. The money would be spent in such a way as to benefit the underprivileged, first of all.
Wealthy businessmen, landholders and miners would not be forgotten, he said. Indeed, they would be expected to make the biggest contribution to territorial revenues. He suggested that instead of transferring their money to discreet overseas investments which weakened the territory’s economy, the wealthy minority should contribute to the development of the island itself, creating jobs, and improving communications.
The motto should be; Courage, Solidarity, Fraternity, he said.
Dijoud also spoke of the Melanesians, and the difficulties he encountered in visiting some of the reserves. “These people feel deserted.” he said.
“They are abandoned, ignored, or forgotten by the central administration in Noumea.”
When rumours began to circulate of the displeasure of certain political leaders at Mr Dijoud’s line of argument, he responded by visiting the Loyalty Islands in the company of two representatives of the Union Caledonienne, the party which is promoting Melanesian emancipation and had recently stated that independence was inevitable in the long term. Mr Dijoud pointedly observed that when some people speak of independence they might not necessarily mean independence from France, but from certain customs and traditions. He expressed the view that most Melanesians did not want independence, but respect for their traditions and their customs, and true equality of rights and opportunities.
Mr Dijoud has not yet solved any problems. But he has declared a radical change in the policy of the Metropolitan government which will meetstubborn resistance from the Rightwing parties, jealous of their privileges, and the Leftwing parties, whose thunder he has largely stolen.
Insult was added to injury for the Rightwing when, two weeks after the Dijoud visit the specially invited guest of Mr Lafleur, Mr Jacques Chirac, Mayor of Paris, affirmed his unqualified support for Mr Dijoud’s ideas.
NORFOLK’S
Clear Vote
Norfolk Island voters have so far been denied a referendum on their future form of government, but the biennial council election in July was almost as good as one, writes Ed Howard.
The six councillors who led an 18-month fight against Australia’s proposed take-over of Norfolk were swept back into office. President of Committees Bill Blucher, and Cr Duncan Mclntyre, who drew up a draft constitution for a distinct territorial government earlier this year, romped back in with 69% and 62% of the votes respectively. Along with them went the other four incumbents who had voted to resist any forced integration of the island into Australia, Bruce Mackenzie, Greg Quintal, Geoff Bennett and Lisle Snell.
The two councillors who had abstained from voting on the council’s key “resistance” resolution in April, John Ryves and Roy Smith, were displaced by two first-time candidates, David Buffett and Bryan Nunn. Smith was tenth in the voting for eight councillors.
Former councillor Ryves tied for eighth position with Lisle Snell and lost on the tiebreaking draw of lots. Candidates who had agitated for Norfolk’s integration into Australia and for the acceptance of Commonwealth social service payments and taxes were thrashed at the polls, none gaining more than 15% of the vote.
New councillor David Buffett is the top-ranking Pitcairn descendant in the Norfolk Island administration, conducted by Australia’s Department of Home Affairs. Mr R.
J. Ellicott, the reponsible federal minister, made a surprise ruling in May allowing all regular residents employed by the administration to run for office. Three offered for election, but only Buffett won a seat, dispelling an island concern that administration employees and their families would vote as a bloc for fellow public servants.
Bryan Nunn, the other new face on council, is a former British supermarket mogul who retired to Norfolk seven years ago at the age of 51. He holds a master’s degree in economics from Cambridge, and will give council a level of financial skill it has lacked in the past.
The new council is to be Norfolk’s last, with a Legislative Assembly planned to begin making local laws and taking over the Island’s budget in July next year. Council has begun negotiating the details of this future system of government with Mr Ellicott, who announced in May that Australia had decided not to take over the island.
PACIFIC PRESS: HOW FREE?
The Fiji Government recently used a piece of legislation the Press Correction Act for the first time in the 30 years it has been on the country’s statute books.
At the order of the Minister of Information, the Fiji Sun, one of the country’s two daily newspapers, published wordfor-word a statement in which the government denied a Sun report claiming that there had Norfolk’s Cr Bill Blucher: almost a referendum 21
Political Currents
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
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been a meeting between government officials and representatives of a company whose affairs were under official investigation.
The newspaper had published a previous government denial, as an ordinary news story, a few days earlier. The act compelled it to print another.
In an article in Pacific Islands Communication Newsletter, Robert Keith-Reid, chief reporter of the Fiji Times, who is now on a Pacific Islands News Association Fulbright Fellowship at the University of Hawaii, describes the incident as “a definite milestone in the development of journalism in Fiji”.
He writes: “It is far too early to see the government’s action as the writing on the wall for a free press.
“But it is evidence of growing government irritation with the Fiji press and is cause for the country’s journalists to start asking whether this irritation is justified and whether, in the long term, there is any threat to press freedom in the Pacific Islands in general and Fiji in particular.”
Noting that the Fiji press is probably more free than in any other third-world country, and that journalists there need really consider little more than the confines of British libel law, he adds: “But as they become more venturesome, they are finding out that, like smalltown journalism, smallcountry journalism has its pitfalls.”
He goes on: “In Fiji, a country which has been independent for eight years, local journalists are now becoming used to being told by indignant politicians and government officials that it is their ‘duty’ to assist national development.
“There is a distinct impression that this means ‘don’t criticise’ or ‘only report what makes us look good’.
“There’s no doubt that many Island politicians are nervous, distrustful and unsure of themselves in dealing with reporters, and have not yet woken up to the realisation that they can use the press in furthering their own affairs by working up a little coziness with its representatives.”
Exceptions to this negative approach to the press cited by Keith-Reid include Fiji’s Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, Western Samoa’s PM Tupuola Efi, the young leaders of the Gilbert and Solomon Islands, and figures like Mahe Tupouniua, director of the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Cooperation.
Keith-Reid concludes: “Island governments seeking to curb or control the press would not have to resort to naked censorship. Newspapers could be easily brought to heel by the suggestion, for instance, that there might be difficulty in importing newsprint; that government advertisements might stop finding their way to a paper’s columns; that there might not be an immigration work permit coming for that temporarily but badly needed overseas journalist. These forms of retaliation have not been used in Fiji yet, but there have been suggestions that they could be ...
“In coming years, Pacific Island journalists, native and expatriate, without being subservient, will have to develop a style of operation that sees all the news, good and bad, gets into print, yet making some allowances for Pacific Island sensibilities.
“They will have to learn how to get local leaders to accept criticism coolly and with the realisation that a free press must often be cruel to be kind.”
Blunt Talk
From Japan
Pointed comments on the Japan-New Zealand-Australia relationship have been made by the leading Japanese daily newspaper, Asahi Shimbun.
The paper was editorialising on the repairing of Japan’s trade relations with New Zealand, and a recent broad statement made by the Japanese in conjunction with Australia and New Zealand.
“Relations between Japan and New Zealand have not matured as much as relations between Japan and Australia.” the paper said. “This is due in part to the fact that New Zealand, after it lost a stable market when Britain joined the European Economic Community, has only let its living standards gradually drop and has not searched out a new way of life.
“Australia established both its position as a member of the Asia-Pacific region and a mutually complementary relationship with Japan. But New Zealand does not have mineral resources like Australia. Also, Japan’s eating habits are basically different from those of Britain, and Japan cannot replace Britain as a market for foodstuffs,” it said.
“But despite such difficulties, Japan is sincerely searching for a way to establish a longterm situation of mutual dependence between the two countries. As in the case of the Asian countries, constant dialogue is necessary with Australia and New Zealand.”
Australia’s new relationship with Japan was vividly confirmed by the special visit to Australia made in July/August by Japan’s Minister of State for External Economic Affairs. Mr Nobuhio Ushiba. His mission was to report to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser on the recently concluded summit meeting of the leaders of the United States, the major West European countries, Canada and Japan held in Bonn.
Following his talks with Mr Ushiba, Mr Fraser said; “It is significant that of all the countries at the Bonn summit it is Japan that takes the trouble to come here to discuss it. Going back in the past one might have expected that the UK might have played this role. But it is a sign of 1978 that it was not the UK that saw fit to do this, but the government of Japan.”
SPY RING AT EWC?
Honolulu’s East-West Center would hardly rank as a hotbed of student protest activity, but the month of June saw a student rally, a picket line and a small-scale student invasion of a meeting of the EWC Board of Governors. The issue was alleged Kuomintang (Taiwan Government) spying on campus, and student demands that the board take strong action to put an end to it. Existence of the KMT spy ring was first denounced by Chen Yu-hsi, a Taiwanese student.
Following the rally and picket line, which involved about 100 EWC students, representatives converged on the governors’ meeting to present their protest. The meeting was hastily adjourned, but by dint of blocking most entrances to the meeting room demonstrators obliged a number of the governers to hear their protest.
It was eventually agreed that the board would set up an “information-receiving mechanism” to hear complaints and advise any victims of their legal rights.
Honolulu’s East-West Center: “spy ring” charges P A ICI r' IC I AMPv O KAf\ K IT 111 \/ r~ tr— 1 1 » ■—v j
Political Currents
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TROPICALITIES A road rolls over a family A Western Samoa family from the village of Faleatiu, after a court ruling that they be evicted from land required for a road, armed themselves with bushknives, sticks and stones, and demanded that the Public Works Department halt construction of the road on land which the family claimed as their own.
The Central Investigative Branch of the police described the situation as “intense, violent and dangerous” and called in more police to help keep order. It was not long before six people, including two women, were arrested, and charged with having provoked a breach of the peace.
The court had ruled that the land legally belonged to the Western Samoa Trust Estates Corporation. When the family refused to budge, the matai of the family, Leniu Faisauvale, was gaoled for having failed to recognise the court ruling. He said in court the family would not leave because “we have lived there all our life and we will die there”.
The action of the family brought work on the road to a halt, with men and machines waiting for the signal to resume.
Fiji looks to the Mideast There’s plenty of work available in oil-rich Arab countries and the Fiji Government is interested in getting some of these well-paid jobs for its unemployed nationals. But there’s a catch. Strict Islamic law provides for gruesome penalties for what would, in some cases, be regarded as petty crime in most other parts of the world.
Ratu David Toganivalu, Fiji s Labour Minister, said there will be talks this month between Fiji and British contractors operating in the area.
Work could be available on port development and the installation of a new telephone system in Saudi Arabia.
King Khaled of Saudi Arabia, a non-smoker and nondrinker, enforces the ancient Islamic law rigidly. There were the recent notorious cases of two British workers being publicly flogged and seven other Britons and Americans gaoled for possessing alcohol. Ratu David said that before he committed Fiji to anything he would make a close study of Islamic discipline. He would exercise great caution in negotiations because of Islamic law.
He said he would not like to see Fiji workers submitted to the possibility of public floggings, even beheading, for petty offences.
Potted Pacific history PlM’s publisher Stuart Inder treated an audience of Sydney University graduates to a potted history of South Pacific regional organisations when he spoke at the university.
Said he: “The Islanders’ knowledge of other people’s hangups their understanding of human psychology has helped Island leaders in their ongoing campaign to change opinion in the metropolitan countries. They’ve particularly concentrated on transforming the South Pacific Commission (founded in 1947), establishing their own Forum and an economic arm, SPEC, so as to alter traditional trade patterns by strengthening Island-based trade.
“The Islanders themselves kept alive the South Pacific Commission. Before the commission was out of its teens it was dying of hardening of the arteries, but in 1965 it got a lifesaving injection following an attack on it by Fijian leader Ratu Mara, who described it as an exclusive club of metropolitan powers run by a committee of stuffy colonial administrators, which was true.
“His fearless lead got the Establishment on the run, and as a result the SPC is today a success accepted by all states what it can’t do as for what it can do. Its inherent weaknesses have been recognised, and its strengths used.
“It was the Islanders who established the Pacific Islands Producers Association, and in turn the South Pacific Forum.
PIPA was established by the major Island governments of the day as an effective arm of regional commercial ambition a simple pressure group which had as its aim the task of getting the best commercial deal for Islands produce, with the added and necessary responsibility of making Island producers more efficient.
“This organisation has developed into the larger, far more powerful South Pacific Bureau for Economic Cooperation (SPEC), which also sells services. The Islanders created the South Pacific Forum, again outside the commission, but not working against it, so they could discuss sensitive racial, social, commercial and political issues at top level.
“The need for these new arms only became obvious as a result of their experience with, and their understanding of, the weaknesses of the SPC.
“The South Pacific Forum was launched in Wellington in August 1971 with a membership of five fully involved nations, plus Australia and New Zealand on the sidelines.
I was there in Wellington and I can assure you the Australian and New Zealand delegates were wearing tolerant Friendly Uncle expressions. They were ‘observing’, as the saying is.
“Within 12 months, the second meeting, in Canberra, broke up with seven fully involved members Australia and New Zealand had found themselves among the chess pieces!
“The Island leaders of Fiji, Western Samoa, Tonga, Nauru and the Cook Islands had simply asked New Zealand for ‘a little advice’ about planning a loosely organised meeting of Island heads with Australia and New Zealand, ‘lsland fashion’. New Zealand invited this harmless group, without agenda or any real form, to meet in Wellington. The press wasn’t invited, nor have they been to any Forum since.
“Around the table Ratu Mara said that one of the main Island problems, which they would like some help with, was that Pacific trade patterns were inherited from the colonial period, and this wasn’t a ‘suitable arrangement’ for independent territories. (One can hear the charm even at this distance.) The colonial territories had produced for the factories of the colonial powers and any change or modification of the trade pattern could best occur if the people who controlled it could be influenced that is, Australia and New Zealand.
Although the Islands accepted aid gladly, he said, they preferred trade to aid.
“I haven’t the time, and you haven’t the inclination, to hear me go into the achievements of the South Pacific Forum over the last six years. But what the Islanders created was a new power bloc covering a huge area of the world’s surface.
“No important decisions affecting this area of the world can be made without the involvement of the South Pacific Forum.
“The full emergence of the Forum has finally banished the isolation of the Islands.’’
Which doctor knows best?
Among the many enlightened laws in Papua New Guinea is one which distinguishes between curative and malicious sorcery. The role of the magician or sorcerer and his powers as a healer have now won the support of PNG Health Minister Korowi. However, the minister is not as enthusiastic as Mr Nuglai Frazer, president of the Highlands United Front, who believes the law in PNG should be changed 25 ACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY SEPTEMBER, 1978
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to allow magicians and sorcerers with recognised skills to practise in the Health Department.
Commenting on Mr Frazer’s call, Mr Korowi was quoted as saying PNG’s culture was rich in the traditions of customary approaches to the cure of illhealth. ‘I have a great respect for the curative powers of many of our traditional medicines,’ he said. Senior officers in his department, said Mr Korowi, were discussing traditional medicine and the topic would be raised at the August meeting of the World Health Organisation’s Western Pacific region members.
Colonel Hefford signs off Colonel Eric Hefford (below, second left) organised the independence ceremonies for Solomon Islands and won himself some Melanesian brickbats for insisting on too much British spit and polish and not enough of Melanesians dancing and shaking royal hands; too many whites did that. The colonel has been compering independence shindigs since the early sixties.
Solomons, it seems, was his last on-the-spot performance, though we believe he’s offering words of wisdom from afar for Tuvalu’s transition. With the colonel from left are Attorney- General D. Barwick and Solomons Ministers Waita Ben (Agriculture) and Mariano Kelesi (Public Works).
Photo: Oliver Strewse.
Post-scripts on independence Independence celebrations in Honiara prompted a Pacific itinerant. Dr Jim Boutilier, to pen a few sidebars to the celebrations. Here are three: “In the rear of the Air Pacific BAC 111, bound for Honiara from Port Vila, sat ex-sergeant Eddie Twohill from Yonkers, New York, looking rumpled and tired after 31 hours’ travel.
He ordered two whiskies, adjusted his marine corps ‘wedgy’ and settled back to recall when, almost 36 years before. he waded ashore on Red Beach as an 18-yea‘r-old soldier in the allied landings on Guadalcanal...
“There were, in practice, two levels of celebration one for the official ‘by invitation only’ guests and one for everyone else. Chief ministers, plenipotentiaries and high commissioners moved in a rarefied, self-congratulatory atmosphere almost entirely divorced from the Solomon Islanders themselves. True to the traditions of colonial stratification, they remained aloof and insulated in the Mendana Hotel, a hostelry off limits to the general public. When they did venture forth it was usually in carefully orchestrated convoys of official cars which denied them access to the very people for whom independence was being celebrated . . .
“The setting is the town ground. In the middle is a little wooden-fenced compound housing a thatched hut and two large-calibre Japanese field guns . . . Standing around are a number of grim stalwart Guadalcanal men - the ‘guard’ for the cult leader Moro who holds sway over some of the villages on the ‘weather coast’ of Guadalcanal and the outskirts of Honiara. About five in the afternoon of Wednesday, July 5. the Chief Minister, Peter Kenilorea, visits Moro’s compound in the company of a European aide.
Moro standing stolid and unblinking, festooned in shell ornaments, at the entrance to his hut, greets the Chief Minister. One of Moro’s lieutenants reads a prepared speech to the effect that Moro has long enjoyed independence and that he is delighted to see that Kenilorea too is now independent.
Joh feels a sense of loss Opinion would be divided on hearing Queensland Premier Bjelke-Petersen’s lament that Australia had lost cancer man Milan Brych to the United States. Mr Bjelke-Petersen said Sir Albert Henry, before he was removed as premier of the Cook Islands, had told him this while on a visit to Brisbane. He said Sir Henry had told him Mr Brych would be setting up a cancer clinic in California before the year was out.
The Queensland premier was reported as saying that “within the next three months”
Mr Brych’s cancer formula would be “world news”. Mr Bjelke-Petersen said he was still hopeful that “Dr Brych will someday start a clinic” in Queensland.
One more poser on Easter Island Did the giant stone statues of Easter Island once have eyes?
The question arises as a result of the work of Easter Island-bom archaeologist Sergio Rapu, 28, who, with assistants, has been sifting through the sand of Anakena Beach, on the island’s north coast.
As reported in an Australian newspaper, they found four mysterious pieces of white coral, put them together and concluded they represented a fish.
Said Sergio: “I thought about it for several days. I wasn’t really convinced it was a fish because it had an opening in the centre which looked as if it served a special purpose.
I remembered another of the students had what could be an iris back at the laboratory we were using.” The spherical redbrown volcanic scoria rock he was thinking about fitted perfectly into a groove in the 32 cm by 19 cm white coral piece. Together, they had an uncanny resemblance to a giant, almond-shaped eye, which fitted exactly into one of the stone heads on the digging site.
PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTH! Y _ spptcmocd m-70 TROPICALITIES
Rapu discovered that when the eyes were inserted and the great stone figures raised on their temple platforms, they would have been looking up to the sky. “This makes sense of the old traditional name for Easter Island Mataoho mila al siervo ‘the island with the eyes looking up to the sky’,” he said. So. There’s yet another angle to the time-honoured question-and-answer game about Easter Island.
Tall tale about a deep hole A vivid imagination is a striking characteristic of one of the 32 Papuan New Guinean porters working with the party of cavers who are exploring the Atea Kanada cave complex in Papua New' Guinea (PIM July).
Purpose of the expedition is to determine whether the caves in fact are the deepest in the world.
Entering into the spirit of the enterprise, the porter related how when in the area one morning not long ago he came upon a hole and threw a rock into it. He came back the next day, and it was not until late afternoon that he heard it hit the bottom ...
Cash to change?
Shop around Back in Sydney after six days in Port Moresby, PI M’s Bob Hawkins could have been forgiven for thinking he was witnessing an unexpected boom in Australian prosperity. The Bank of New South Wales teller at the airport offered him only $62 and a few cents for the 60 Papua New Guinea kina he had brought back with him (a rate of about 96 toea to the dollar or about $1.04 to the kina).
He hadn’t heard anything on the radio suggesting a reversal of fortunes for the ailing Australian dollar; there had been nothing in the newspapers. He suggested the teller should check the day’s exchange rate again. Back came the same answer. Not being a believer in miracles, Hawkins took his money back, waiting until he got to a bank in the city.
At the ANZ branch on York and Erskine he was offered more than $72 for his K6O a sum he happily accepted.
Australia’s dollar was, as he had expected, still in the doldrums. After pocketing $72.31, he rang the City branch of the New South Wales to see if their airport teller had erred. It seemed he had. The City branch was offering a rate of about 86 toea to the dollar or $1.16 to the kina which would have returned him about $69 for his K6O. It seems, in this day of floating currencies, it’s worth shopping around the banks with your foreign paper cash. Islanders take note.
Truk steps aside for old Mangaia Evidence that Mangaia, in the Cook Islands, is the oldest island with outcropping volcanic rocks in the Pacific, is offered in a report by two geologists from the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska. Drs D. L. Turner and R. D. Jarrard, who worked in the southern Cook Islands last year, say that Mangaia’s age, according to the dating of radioactive elements in its rocks, is 21.4 million years.
Truk, in the Caroline Islands, was previously regarded as the oldest. In their report the geologists were profuse in their thanks for the help of Cook Islanders, especially Ngametua and Krudeem Kareroa of Mangaia and the Reverend Taa Kimi and Mrs Kimi of Atiu.
New assault on dress barrier Standard of dress, long a point of black-white friction in Papua New Guinea and other Islands came up again in the PNG Parliament recently. A bill was before Parliament which would outlaw the practice of refusing admission to licensed premises because of unacceptable dress standards.
Outspoken Member for Y angora-Saussia John Jaminan introduced the Discriminatory Practices Amendment Bill. He said proprietors and managers of hotels, taverns, restaurants, clubs, theatres and other establishments, frequently imposed rules about dress which required people to wear clothes which were entirely foreign to the culture of Papua New Guineans and unsuited to the climate.
Most Papua New Guineans, he said, could not afford to spend the amount of money Europeans spent on clothes, “yet dress regulations usually lay down a standard which non-nationals are more likely to satisfy than nationals”. The result, he said, was discrimination, ostensibly on grounds of dress but really of a racial and economic nature. Mr Jaminan’s bill did not get to a vote in the last session of the PNG Parliament but few would dispute that he has a point.
A glass or two among friends The longer the pub stays open the more likely there is to be a fight. And, even more likely, at least one of the combatants will be an Islander. Without splitting hairs, that’s the message which emerges from the findings of a two-year study of drinking behaviour in New Zealand by two Auckland University research psychologists.
Mrs Vernetta Heem and Mr lulai Ahsan, both born in Samoa, spent more than 500 hours studying the habits of more than 200 drinkers European, Maori and Islander.
They found that the average staying power of a European was 71 minutes at a rate of 7.5 glasses an hour; of a Maori 109 minutes at 12.68 to the hour; and an Islander 108 minutes at 10.1 to the hour.
Of 400 incidents in pubs, the researchers found that the more serious clashes were between different racial groups Islanders versus Maoris or Islanders versus Europeans.
Noting that disputes got worse as drinkers got drunker and that there were more disputes in the final two hours before closing time than in any other period, the psychologists suggested some way should be worked out to prevent people spending so much time in hotels.
These stamps, issued to commemorate Solomon Islands independence on July 7, depict the national flag (6 cents), the governor-general’s flag (15 cents), the cenotaph in Honiara (35 cents) and the nation’s coat of arms (45 cents). 28 TROPICALITIES PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY SEPTEMBER, 1978
PIM
Pacific Islands Monthly
JAPAN AND THE PACIFIC If the predictions by the head of the Nomura Research Institute in Tokyo are fulfilled, the ascent of Pacific Island communities to the role of shareholder in the economic leadership of the world will make Europe’s industrial revolution look like a saunter. Mr Jiro Tokuyama sees “within 10 to 15 years”, the world being led by a Pacific Basin Economy — with West Coast United States, Japan, Pacific Asia and Australia and New Zealand as its cornerstones. Whatever the future, the Pacific communities’ destiny lies more in than out of affairs political, economic and social of the world as a whole. Japan is playing an increasing role and is having a growing influence on affairs Pacific. With the partial retreat of colonial authorities, markets are opening up for Japanese manufacturers and investors; opportunities to provide aid to Island nations are developing. In many ways, Japan will leave its mark on Pacific communities. In this feature, Japan and the Pacific, PIM looks specifically at Japanese influence in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Fiji; at the remarkable forecast of Mr Tokuyama; and at industry which is synonymous with Japanese interests — tuna fishing.
Also highlighted is the Japan Floating Fair ’78 which leaves Tokyo on August 30 bound for Oceania, with calls at Port Moresby, Suva, Auckland, Wellington, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, before heading off to Southeast Asia via Fremantle and the Indian Ocean.
CONTENTS This is Jiro Tokuyama, managing director of the Nomura Research Institute, Tokyo, who sees the ‘Pacific Century’ on the way up. He says the Pacific Basin — with Japan, Pacific Asia, the west coast of the United States, Australia and New Zealand playing pivotal roles — will become the world’s most viable economic centre in as little as 10 to 15 years. • Papua New Guinea 37 • Solomon Islands 41 • Pacific Century 43 • Fiji 61 • Floating fair 63 • New Hebrides 65 • Tuna fishing 67 29 dfsdfd
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Png Cautious To
Keep A Share
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It’s a sure bet when you start talking about Japanese commercial involvement in Papua New Guinea today that someone will trot out the old line of ‘‘losing the war and winning the peace”* But the rise of Japanese commerce, investment and technical expertise in the South Pacific, and particularly in PNG, is a story in its own right which didn’t really begin until 12 years ago, writes Gus Smales in Port Moresby.
World War Two has become a fast-receding piece of history in relations with Japan and the now politicaliy-independent PNG, although its echoes create some ironic twists on today’s scene. Japan's biggest export drive, for instance, could still be called the huge volume of aircraft, ships, Side by side, Japanese and American landing barges as they were left In PNG after the Pacific War. Now they’re ‘objects of national ... value’ 37
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
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equipment and supplies poured into PNG during wartime occupation.
The aircraft lying around after the war were first valuable salvage, then rubbish on the face of the land, and now, suddenly perhaps keeping up with the new image of Japan they are being legally defined as “objects of national, cultural and/or historic value”.
An old Japanese Zero at the bottom of the garden can mean money in the pocket from tourists, so the government has moved legally to protect what wrecks remain and to define the rights of villagers now considered to own them. If the new breed of visiting Japanese businessman has the time which is rarely he likes to take a good look at these relics and to go into their history.
This in itself is a sign of changed times because until recently Japanese visiting PNG on business carefully shied away from any subjects connected with the Pacific War.
It was not until about 12 years ago that the echoes of the Pacific War ceased to be important in the PNG national scheme of things, and today’s Japanese involvement dates from about then. Electronic goods, electric goods and motor vehicles were the first sign of the change in a move which at first was merely a swing to Japanese exports by already-established retailers.
The revolution on the roads was incredibly fast, with Australian and British vehicles giving way to Japanese in a move which has now made Japan the main vehicle supplier to PNG.
A few Australian operators who could see the trends entered into business arrangements with Japanese interests but initially retailing of Japanese manufactures remained the main enterprise.
One vehicle distributor flew to London, argued with manufacturers there, and then dropped his entire UK franchise lines in favour of Japanese vehicles.
By the time the eve of selfgovernment had come in 1972, the emerging PNG Government had already taken steps which allowed the consolidation of Japanese investment and involvement as well as the handling of Japanese exports.
Japan became one of the first countries to establish an embassy in the newlyindependent PNG, followed by an increasing program of involvement in the economy.
Banking officials describe the flow of Japanese money into PNG projects as “restrained but quite significant, and likely to increase”.
There are now 23 Japanesebased companies actively operating on a significant scale in PNG, although many are not highly capitalised as they represent export-import dealing rather than development and production. But the rise of Japanese-based development and production interests in PNG is just round the corner, and is expected to produce a flow of new capital over the next two years.
Mitsubishi, Mitsui and Nissho-Iwai have come onto the PNG scene through their Australian subsidiaries, dealing in building and construction materials, steel, machinery, chemicals, equipment and some smaller retailing operations. But the real Japanese presence in PNG today is in the timber and fishing industries, where PNG itself is anxious to get a share of the expertise and the control.
PNG is anxious to establish its own fisheries industry, but in the meantime it is licensing Japanese operators in a deal which this year alone is worth more than SAS million.
New Guinea Sohbu is one of the most widely-spread Japanese-based companies at present operating in PNG.
Through its own books it exports tuna and prawns, but the company’s strength lies in the subidiaries it holds. These include the famous old PNG firm of Commonwealth New Guinea Timbers, a pioneer manufacturer of plywood and also a cattle station owner. The company’s history goes back many years before Japanese interests achieved control.
Japanese technicians are now widely used in the plywood works, but an intensive training program is bringing in increasing numbers of Papua New Guineans. Sohbu also has its fisheries in Gulf Sohbu and Pacific Sea Foods, the two operating companies in seafood production. Open Bay Timber Company, a logging and milling operation, is also part of the Sohbu string.
One of the major Japanese establishments is Jant Pty Ltd, the company with brought large-scale woodchip operations to PNG. Its chip mill is at Madang, and the chipping is being conducted in conjunction with a large reafforestation programme.
In keeping with the general practice of the motor industry, the Japanese vehicle giants are not involved in retailing but there have been two tentative appraisals for possible vehicle assembly projects which would require wider capitalisation.
Japan is now one of Papua New Guinea’s major trading partners, and its involvement in the PNG economy, as well as being a buyer and a seller, seems certain to increase although only on terms dictated by PNG. A number of factors have permitted this sudden rise to prominence in only a few years, some obviously connected with Japan’s industrial and export expansion of the past 15 years. But the PNG situation was also affected by simultaneous changes which turned an Australian territory into an independent country.
This meant PNG widened its own horizons, looking for new buyer and seller markets. It was prepared to take in other brands rf investment and expertise which could help its economic development.
Australia has never been a fishing nation, and island PNG. with waters teeming with fish, naturally began to talk business with one of the world’s most advanced fishery technologies.
Japan has become an aid donor to PNG since independence, and Papua New Guineans have been trained as technicians.
But for all this, and despite increasing investment, there are signs that both countries have a long way to go before any deep rapport is achieved.
Japan has been criticised by PNG politicians for tying its aid to specific projects or targets. Coastal Papua New Guineans are frequently angry at Japanese fishing operations, tacitly criticising the licences issued by their own government.
And one recent criticism is that the Japanese spend too much time sticking to the letter of agreements rather than to the spirit of them. Much of the criticism may be ill-founded but it is indicative of the problems PNG is facing as it tries to strike a balance between developing its resources on the one hand and keeping a share of them on the other.
The Matthias Toliman, a Japanese gift to the Papua New Guinea Government, is based at Kavieng, in New Ireland Province, and used as a training vessel for students of the National Fisheries College 39
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
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Tokyo-Honiara Ties
Grow In Diversity
Last year the joint fishing venture between the big Japanese Taiyo group and the government earned Solomon Islands 7% of its recurrent revenue and contributed possibly as much as 10% to the country’s cash gross domestic product. In the same year Japan took around one quarter (SSI 7.4 million) of all Solomon Islands exports.
Japan is Solomon Islands’ most important export market by a long way and its fourth largest supplier of foreign goods, accounting for one-eighth of the country’s imports last year.
While Japan has been a vital export customer for many years, its role as a major investor is much more recent. As an important aid donor, its role is about to begin. With about $6 million tied up in the joint skipjack tuna fishing, and canning company, Solomons Taiyo Limited, plus another $2 million that Mitsui Mining has sunk into the exploration and processing trials of Solomon Islands bauxite, Japan now ranks behind Britain as the second most important foreign investor and is matched only by the United States which has invested about $8 million so far in a wet paddy rice project on the North Guadalcanal Plains.
Australia, although a major trading partner, has neither invested substantial capital nor disbursed much aid so far.
With the recent Japanese aid promise of $2 million this year, rising to $5 million over the next three years, Japan is likely to become the country’s second most important source of bilateral aid funds after Britain.
Japan’s interests in this scattered archipelago, densely forested and surrounded by 1.25 million square kilometres of ocean teeming with life, are only too obvious. Japan is a major importer of a wide range of raw materials and foodstuffs, among them timber and fish, both of which are plentiful in Solomon Islands. With exploitation of these natural resources only in its early stages or — as in the case of bauxite — not yet begun, the Japanese have the unique chance of coming in on the ‘ground floor’, able to influence developments according to their needs.
The backbone of Japan- Solomon Islands trade is timber. Well over 80% of Solomon Islands’ annual loggings of between 230 000 and 260 000 cubic metres go to Japanese sawmills. Unlike Europe, which seeks the higher quality Indonesian and Malaysian timbers, Japan is, at least so far, prepared to take the rather lower quality Solomon Islands’ timber.
Unfortunately for Solomon Islands the nicely shaped, easily workable dipterocarp, which abounds in South-east Asia forests, it totally absent from Solomon Islands’ forests.
But serious marketing problems may be looming. Southeast Asia timber producers, for example, Sarawak, have begun to log their lower-grade timbers and have started to undercut Solomon prices.
Provided this competitive threat can be countered, Japan should remain an important market for Solomon Islands’ timber for a good many years to come. The development plan’s goal of an annual logging rate of 400 000 cubic metres is expected to be exceeded in the early 1980 s by about 10%-15%, provided the country’s largest timber company, Unilever subsidiary Levers Pacific Timbers, manages to complete successfully its present leasehold negotiations with customary landowners for two new, large logging areas on New Georgia.
At an annual logging rate of 400 000 cubic metres the country’s present natural timber reserves are estimated to last at least until the beginning of the next century. After that, logging on reafforested areas should take over.
So far Japan has not invested in any substantial way in the forestry sector. Kalena Timbers, the second biggest logger with a volume of 45 000 cubic metres last year, all of which was shipped to Japan, was owned by a Japanese trading house until it went bankrupt.
Now the only Japanese involvement consists of two trial plots one on Kolombangara and one on Guadalcanal near Honiara—for the experimental cultivation of eucalyptus and pine for pulp. The Japanese say the trials are inconclusive and, with the Japanese pulp industry in disarray and sitting on huge overcapacities, a Japanese pulp mill in Solomon Islands is not likely to be considered seriously for some time. In the longer term, however, demand for pulp is likely to focus attention on tropical countries and Solomon Islands may benefit.
So far, Japanese involvement in Solomon Islands is synonymous with Solomons Taiyo which has changed the country’s role as a fish producer and exporter beyond recognition. To the early seventies, Solomon Islanders either ate fish they had caught themselves (or bought from somebody else in the village) or bought imported canned fish.
Last year Solomons Taiyo (STL) caught 13 000 tons of skipjack tuna which not only replaced imports more or less completely, but earned $8.3 million on export markets.
About 75% of the catch was exported fresh or frozen, mainly to canneries in American Samoa, the United States and Puerto Rico.
So far only about 10% of annual fish exports go to Japan some small quantities of frozen fish plus the much sought after, high-value smoked fish or arabushi. In the longer run though fish exports Symbol of the Japanese presence in Solomon Islands, the Gyoshu Maru catcher boat (above) and (right), with the skipjack as a backdrop, the managing director of Taiyo’s fisheries division, Mr Takeo Fujii opening the Taiyo plant 41
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
to Japan could increase substantially if longline fishing (for which a three-year experimental phase is to begin in September) brings up yellow fin and big-eye tuna in sufficient quantity and quality for the highly-priced raw fish or sashimi market in Japan.
Since 1973 the Japanese partner in the joint venture has put up to $6 million into two shore bases (at the pre-war capital of Tulagi and at Noro on New Georgia), substantial freezing facilites at both places, a 3 000 tonne a year cannery at Tulagi. and four catcher boats.
The remaining 16 boats of the catcher fleet are chartered.
In return for giving STL exclusive fishing rights in the 12-mile zone, particularly the fish-rich ‘Slot’ between the two chains of islands, Solomon Islands government has received a 25% stake in the company. From this year onwards it has been given the option to increase this stake to up to 49% by share purchases.
STL is planning to set up a third shore base on the Shortlands in Northern Solomon Islands and envisages a further investment of about $3 million over the next two to three years. In the longer run it may well put up a second, much bigger cannery, possibly at Noro, while its catcher fleet will be expanded substantially, partly in conjunction with the newly-set up National Fisheries Development Company (NFDC). It is envisaged that by 1982 there should be 35 tuna catcher boats, 11 of which would be owned by STL.
Another 10 would be owned by the NFDC and be on charter to STL. There should also be four, preferably local-owned, freezer-catcher boats, with the remaining 10 boats being chartered.
In 1968 Mitsui Mining proved deposits of around 25 million tonnes of high grade bauxite on the island of Rennell to the south of Guadalcanal. They were reckoned to justify a 480 000 ton a year alumina refinery over 20 years.
A year later. Pacific Aluminium Pty Ltd (PAL), a subsidiary of Rio Tinto Zinc, proved deposits of similar quantity and quality on the island of Vaghena at the southern end of Choiseul and a joint refinery with an annual output of around a million tonnes of alumina on Rennell was discussed. But both companies had not bargained with the formidable technical problems of refining Solomon Islands’ bauxite and PAL decided to withdraw.
Solomons bauxite is very low in silica but high in phosphorus, organic carbon and moisture, requiring a special refining process, quite different from the usual Bayer method. Mitsui experiments in Tokyo proved that Rennell alumina produced under this new process could still be competitive despite the initial high investment. But by the time the technical problems appeared to have been solved, the market in Japan, where there is a large surplus of high-cost smelter capacity, had deteriorated so much, that no Japanese smelter wanted to buy the alumina.
Meanwhile Mitsui, having spent $2 million has shown great determination to hang on. despite a third set of obstacles in the form of strong fears that a mining operation will cause untold harm to the unique Rennellese way of life.
Because of all this, the government is undecided on what course to choose.
While the prospects for a major Japanese involvement in mining are very hazy at this stage, Solomon Islands can be sure of a sizeable contribution to its annual aid funds from this year onwards. Since Prime Minister Peter Kenilorea’s visit to Tokyo last October, aid missions and Japanese experts have been pouring into the country and Japan-Solomon Islands relations have taken a big step forward. This year’s aid package of Yen 500 million (about SSI 2 million), which was finalised by early March, was formally signed on Independence Day, July 7. The money will go into three projects, all in the fisheries sector.
Japan will provide two skipjack catcher boats, one of 30 metres and one of 24 metres.
Both will be on loan to the NFDC. STL has undertaken the on-the-job training of local fishermen in skipjack fishing.
A third Japanese vessel will solve the present serious problem of getting fresh fish, caught by fishermen in the Marovo Lagoon in the West, Isabel and Malaita, to Honiara.
Japan has not yet committed itself for next year’s aid budget, but has indicated a probable increase to $5 million a year over the next three years. The next instalment in Japanese financial support is likely to go into telecommunications where the improvement of both external telecommunications (by an earth satellite under construction) and urban telephone exchanges (to be financed by the European Development Fund) is in hand, but that of telecommunications within the island group is still outstanding.
Since Tokyo refuses to commit any aid more than a year in advance, there is no certainty beyond next March, end of the present Japanese budgetary year. As elsewhere, aid negotiations with the Japanese tend to be tough going.
Solomon Islands officials have yet to work their way through the maze of Japanese bureaucracy with at least four ministries directly involved in aid administration. But an important concession to the principle of tied aid was won in the negotiations earlier this year in that Japan has agreed to finance local costs.
There are several other areas, where Japan might get involved in trade and investment in years to come. Recently a big Japanese leisure group enquired about the possibility of building a holiday resort in the West.
If such developments occur, the number of Japanese visitors, probably mainly ‘packaged” honeymooners, would probably increase rapidly.
Solomon Islands needs Japan as an economic partner.
But it must be careful not to move too much into the Japanese sphere of influence.
A skilful balancing act, between its key economic partners - Australia, Britain and Japan - in this crucial postindependence phase, seems to be required.
Solomon Islander with catch in the cold storage room at Taiyo’s plant at Tulagi 42 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY SEPTEMBER, 1978
Pacific Century
On The Way Up
Mr Jiro Tokuyama, managing director of the Nomura Research Institute, Tokyo, was in Australia in May on a lecture tour sponsored by the Australian Administrative Staff College. His comments below outline his view of the Pacific Basin as the world economic centre of the future. They also offer many insights into the civilisation which has shaped the Japanese view of the world.
These are of importance to all Pacific Island and other people who have dealings with Japan.
Mr Tokuyama’s remarks are based on an exclusive interview with PIM staff writer Malcolm Salmon and his various public lectures in Australia.
Let me explain the idea of the “Pacific Basin economy”, which embraces Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific coast of the United States, Japan and Pacific Asia.
My basic perception is that in 10 to 15 years this region will become the world’s most viable economic centre, where Australia. Japan and the United States will play a pivotal role.
And I am among those who are probing the conditions and ways to materialise this idea as a major task of Australia, Japan and the United States from now on into the twentyfirst century.
What considerations, then, prompt me to envision a century of the Pacific Basin economy, including the western half of the American continent, which will be the centre of world economy and industry?
The first is the history of civilisation as viewed by Arnold Toynbee. According to his view of history, a civilisation rises and falls in a cycle of about 800 years, with the Occidental and Oriental civilisations taking turns. As a matter of fact, the Greeks and Roman civilisation from the fourth century BC to the fifth century AD was followed by the Far Eastern civilisation that blossomed in the fifth to thirteenth centuries, The succeeding European civilisation in the thirteenth to twentieth centuries is in turn to be followed by the Asian civilisation in the twenty-first to twenty-eighth centuries.
Indeed, this cycle is long enough to make our heads spin. But what is significant is that this theory points out the take-over of European civilisation by Pacific civilisation during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. If this point proves to be true, we may well expect Pacific civilisation. or non-European civilisation, to begin to prosper in the coming years. In fact, the former US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, speaks about the “beeline of the West” in the manner of Oswald Spengler.
The second reason to foresee the century of the Pacific Basin economy lies in the historical consequences of changes in the world’s economic prime movers after the Industrial Revolution, Norman Macrae, associate editor of The Economist, made this point symbolically when he said that the British century of 1775 to 1895 based on the steam engine technology and the Bessemer steelmaking process was replaced by the American century supported by advanced technology on automobiles, aircraft and computers, and that the coming 100 years would the the Pacific century on the basis of electronic communications, Such a view of history may be difficult to believe or support, depending on where one stands. Yet, if we see the present as a stage towards the emerging globalism, the concept of the Pacific century will become clearer, Since World War II colonial states have won independence one after another in many parts of the world. Today, some 150 different national flags flutter in front of the United Nations building in New York. However, since these states are too small to solve the problems of an international scale individually, there has been a growing inter-dependence in a trend towards regionalism.
This is an intermediate stage between individual states and globalism, and. at that, an “open regionalism” and not the blocs of prewar style.
We already have the Atlantic community in our vocabulary. and to link with it in the future there may well be the Pacific community and the Indian Ocean community. Such communities of course are difficult to realise, but they are worth attempting to visualise.
In terms of regionalism, the Pacific Basin economy excels others. For example. Africa will continue to hold considerable political and economic uncertainties for some time. and so will the Middle East, The problems of famine and destitution that confront India, Bangladesh and Pakistan today will not allow them to take off m the next 10 to 15 years. Latin America, plagued by recurring revolutions and persistent inflation, does not seem to rely on economic viability.
Europe is also in stagnation as exemplified by Britain. Italy and the Scandinavian nations, Due to great emphasis on welfare, Europe, while in the grip of serious political difficulties typified by Eurocommunism. has lost its social and economic dynamism. The North Sea oil seems to have helped rejuvenate Britain temporarily, and the defeat of the Socialist- Communist grouping in the recent National Assembly election in France is welcome, Europe as a whole, however, has reached a certain maturity at the cost of its former dynamism.
All in all. only the Pacific region may be able to ensure major developments in the next 10 to 15 years. As I said be- Mr Jiro Tokuyama - “the Pacific Century” is on its way. 43 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY SEPTEMBER, 1978
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TELEPHONE: (03; 274-3251'8 TELEX: 222-3343. J 23559 fore, this region should include the western part of the United States because, in postwar years, there has been an unmistakable westward movement of American major industries.
As a matter of fact, 72% of American industrial production came from the traditional industrial areas in the northeast of the country in the late 19405. In the 19705, the percentage declined to 46-47%, giving way to what is called the “sun belt” in the south, southwest and west of the country.
Leading aircraft manufacturers have set up their headquarters on the Pacific coast, Boeing in Seattle and Lockheed in Burbank near Los Angeles. California is also the site for many computer and electronics manufacturers.
Texas is a huge production base for oil and natural gas, encompassing Houston, the centre of the space industry.
This westward movement of American industrial production bases is significant when we look over the future of the Pacific Basin economy ...
I understand that the establishment of a joint assistance committee by the governments of Australia and Japan has been proposed to facilitate a joint approach to the development of, and assistance to, Asia and Oceania.
The Japanese
And The Role
OF LAW There is a fundamental difference between the role of law in Japanese society and in the West. As in many other areas of Japanese culture, the underlying principles of the contractual relationship and the legal system are flexibility and carefully nurtured ambiguity.
In other words, rather than settling matters in black-andwhite terms, the Japanese prefer to leave some areas intentionally grey so that there will be room for modifications and adaptations later on. As a result, despite a comprehensive legal code, the Japanese people’s daily lives, both public and private, are still largely governed not by laws but by non-legal, social norms. For evidence one need only look at the small number of lawyers in Japan. Whereas the United States has nearly 400 000 lawyers, Japan, with half the population of the US, has fewer than 15 000.
According to the Western way of thinking, the law represents the world as it should be, with the aim being to close the gap between the law and the reality of daily life by changing or refining one or the other. By contrast, the Japanese view the law as something to be revered but not invoked except in the most extreme instances. It is something like a treasured family sword handed down from generation to generation. The sword is not for killing; rather it serves as a symbol of the family’s unity and social standing, For a member of the family to use the sword in anger is a clear sign that he has exhausted all other means to solve his problem and has failed. Likewise, the Japanese even look with disfavour on reminders of the law’s presence. In contrast to the US, Europe. Australia, and even many parts of Asia, one seldom sees signs in Japan reminding the citizenry what fines will be levied for littering or jaywalking or other legal in f ract ions.
The Japanese feel that the application of an identical norm to all is not fair. People and cases simply vary too much from one to another for that, On the surface, the result of that approach might seem to be lawlessness. But the fact is. of course, that Japan’s crime rate is one of the lowest in the world, and Japan has far fewer labour disputes than most other industrialised nations, The very precision of the law is alien to the Japanese. They 45
Pacific Islands Monthly - September 1978
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Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
are reluctant to quantify human relationships, to reduce them to predictable constants in the way the law often must.
In nearly every instance, human relationship takes precedence over legal rights and responsibility. If a Japanese is involved in an automobile accident, his first reaction is often to send apologies and perhaps a gift to the victim. But such gestures should in no way be interpreted as an admission of guilt. It is simply a matter of form.
Needless to say, Japanese abroad are often shocked by the foreigners’ penchant to go to court. The dismay is understandable. At home, most problems are settled by reconciliation or mediation. The idea is to strike a balance between the two sides of a dispute, rather than necessarily determine the right and wrong of a situation. Compromises are of course not unknown in Western law, but the degree of concession is uniformly much greater in Japan.
In recent years, Japanese firms have seriously considered direct overseas investments. An increase in such investments will require Japanese firms to work closely with attorneys of the host country, as they will have to comply with local laws as well as foreign exchange regulations. Added to this is Japan’s responsibility to play an active role in assisting the economic development of the entire Pacific region, especially South-east Asia. Since Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Japan must work together to bring stability to this region, we have major tasks ahead concerning capital investment and other aspects of international business.
INDIVIDUALISM
Is Not For
JAPANESE Exchanges between the West and Japan have multiplied many times during the last few decades. Yet, for all that, there still seems to persist outside Japan a feeling that the Japanese are exotic creatures whose behaviour is hard to predict.
The chief, reason for this. I believe, lies in the human tendency to interpret all facts and figures within the context of one’s own culture and experience. That works well enough when the facts and figures relate to a culture broadly similar to one’s own. But it does not work very well with a culture that has a unique frame of reference which is the case with Japanese culture.
There are, I believe, at least three major environmental factors that help to explain the uniqueness of Japanese society. The first of these may be found in the fact that historically, Japan had an agrarian culture, while Western European culture was based on hunting and cattleraising.
In Japan, as long as people worked diligently, the land was rich enough to enable them to settle in a single spot and stay there. As a result, the ancient Japanese seldom had to fight “An example of the Japanese liking for ‘sameness’ is the übiquitous imposition of uniforms upon schoolchildren all the way from kindergarten to high school.’’ Above: Opening day at a primary school.
Below: High school students do a veterinary experiment. 47
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
other tribes to get food and did not develop the aggressiveness required of hunting tribes.
Instead, they conceived their surroundings to be basically benign.
The most serious threats to the existence of the ancient Japanese were natural disasters such as typhoons, floods and earthquakes. Since there was no way of predicting the occurrence of such disasters and no means of effectively controlling them, the Japanese people accepted them with resignation. Over the years, they developed the resilience to cope quickly with changing environment.
By contrast, the productivity of land in most of Europe is only a fraction of what it is in Japan. Therefore, the ancient Europeans had to roam from place to place to acquire sufficient food. And although they turned from hunting to cattleraising quite early in history, they often had to fight other tribes to secure pastureland or food. In the process, Europeans developed a realistic approach toward estimating other people’s strength. Moreover, as nature was more stable in Europe than in Japan, people there were able to map out plans to conquer it. Hence, Europeans came to place great emphasis on being prepared and on taking initiatives, but it did not develop the adaptability the Japanese acquired.
Japan is also unique among major nations in that it has only one ethnic group, one language and one culture. A consequence of the ethnic homogeneity is a lack of individualism among the Japanese.
Because people did not have opportunities to mingle with other groups, they did not develop tolerance for individual differences in thought or behaviour. An example of the Japanese liking for “sameness” is the übiquitous imposition of uniforms upon schoolchildren all the way from kindergarten to high school.
On the other hand, because they have been trained from early childhood to subordinate their personal likes and dislikes to those of the entire group, the Japanese have developed an unrivalled ability to work in groups . . .
Although Japan’s overall population density (280 persons per sq km) is less than that of Belgium or the Netherlands only 16% of Japan’s total land area is arable, and only 3-4% is habitable, with the result that its people have always been heavily concentrated in narrow coastal strips. Today, approximately 70% of the nation’s population lives in cities in the Pacific coastal zone which comprises only 3% of the total land area.
One impact of this population pressure is a lack of economic opportunities. This, in turn, results in an emphasis on harmony a basic agreement that “I won’t take your opportunities, so please don’t take mine”. Most Japanese organisations are structured in such a way that it is difficult to pin responsibility on a specific individual. Rather, decisions are made by a group of persons, each suggesting minor changes here and there. By the time a proposal assumes its final shape, there is a general consensus regarding the objectives and manner of execution of the project.
Ethnic homogeneity and lack of personal economic opportunities have also shaped Japanese attitudes towards competition and struggle. Because Europeans have had a long history of wars among ethnic groups and nation-states, they have come to accept them as a fact of life. On the other hand, the Japanese avoid open competition and struggle as much as possible. In an island country, all struggles tend to end in savage in-fighting. To avoid this, the Japanese have devised means of ritualising open confrontation so that at the end it is not clear which side has won. Even in legal cases, the Japanese emphasise conciliation and arbitration, whereas the Western concept of law requires adjudication as to which party was at fault.
THE THREE
Main Social
TRENDS There are three outstanding social trends in contemporary Japan. The first is equalisation of income, the second the rising educational level, and the third the gradual ageing of the population composition.
Before World War 11, the income levels of the urban and rural populations were so different that Japanese society was never really stable.
By contrast, in the early 1970 s the average income of a Young women university graduates ... a ratio of university enrolments second only to that of the United States 48 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY SEPTEMBER, 1978
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TELEX NO.: 0-222-3377 JAPAN NEW GUINEA: AGQUIP. NEW GUINEA, P.O. Box 1121, Rabaul/ FIJI: PRAKASH MOTORS LIMITED, P.O. Box 370, Suva/ TAHITI: ETS. ROBERT, B.P. 1047, Papeete/ NEW CALEDONIA: 5.1.D.A., B.P. 2548, Noumea/ NEW HEBRIDES: SANTO BUS COMPANY, P.O. Box 45, Santo, GARAGE RANTV & JAMMES, B.P. 627, Port Vila/ SOLOMON ISLANDS: HERTZ CAR RENTALS LIMITED, P.O. Box 333, Honiara/ REPUBLIC OF NAURU: NAURU COOPERATIVE SOCIETY/ NIUE ISLAND: NIUE ISLAND I 7JP« ENTERPRISES - P °- Box 4/ NORFOLK ISLAND: W.W. SANDERS & SONS LTD., P.O. Box 86 Burnt Pine/ GILBERT ISLANDS: JONG KUM KEE BROTHERS' STORE, P.O. Box 504 Betio Tarawa 49
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
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Pacific Islands Monthly - September 1978
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rural household exceeded that of an urban household for the first time in history. The diffusion rates of such consumer durables as automobiles, colour television sets and refrigerators are higher in the countryside than in large cities, although even on a nationwide basis almost all Japanese homes possess a washing machine, a refrigerator, a colour television and a vacuum cleaner (the ownership ratios of these products are well over 90%). Nearly half of the country’s households have an automobile.
The increased income of the farming household can be attributed partly to the rice price-support system and partly to growing employment opportunities at automobile parts, electronics and other plants built near farming communities. Subway and skyscraper construction in large cities absorbs a great number of farmers during the winter.
Consequently, today only 27% of the agrarian household income is derived from farming activity.
City dwellers have not fared badly, either. The living standards of industrial workers have improved substantially during the last 15 years. For example, in 1960 they had to work 63 minutes to earn the price of a bottle of beer. In 1975 that time was reduced to 10 minutes. The amount of labour required to buy a refrigerator was reduced from 37 days and four hours in 1960 to five days and four hours. For a colour television, the cut was from 94 days in 1960 to 18 days in 1975.
The dramatic improvement of the Japanese living standards since the war is attributed to rapid development of her industries. In Europe and the United States, such mass production industries as automobiles and home electrical appliances developed before World war 11. In Japan, prewar production was geared almost entirely for military use and development of consumer industries had been suppressed. As a result, when reconstruction began after the war, the Japanese economy benefited from the simultaneous development of these products and those that were newly brought to the market by the “ g ' Cal breakthroughs of the 19505, such as electronics chemicals and petrochemical , v P ro uc s ‘ Despite the fact that the country was very poor then due to wartime destruction, Japan was able to absorb and develop new technology as its workers were highly educated and welldisciplined. The domestic market expanded rapidly, helped by a large population of 110 million and the robust appetite of consumers for new conveniences. Since Japan had renounced war as a sovereign right of the nation, the Japanese focussed their aspiration on economic development. Their efforts were helped to a great extent by the spirit of free trade that prevailed among the advanced industrialised nations. By the mid-19605, Japan emerged as a nation with a vast middle class.
A recent report by the organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) asserted that Japan, along with Sweden and Australia. had the smallest income gap between rich and poor.
A , with income- (he levd of educ | tion has risen sharpl „ Tf r J In 1960, 60% of young persons newly entering the job market had only nine years of schooling. Today they account for less than one of every 10 job- "seekers. The proportion of senior high school graduates rose from 30% to nearly 60%, while that of graduates from tertiary institutions rose from a mere 8% to 33%. Japan’s ratio for attendance at tertiary institutions is second only to that in the United States. The rapid expansion of higher education can be attributed to the The traditional Japanese game of go helps pass the time in a home for senior citizens ... the marked ageing in Japan’s population composition is expected to increase the need for better social security provisions.
One way of coping with the housing shortage the Takashimadaira apartment complex, built on a former rice paddy area in northern Tokyo, consists of 10 170 apartments. 57
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
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Frontier Bldg., 3-13 Hirano-cho, Higashi-ku, Osaka, Japan.
Phone : 06(227)0422(Rep.) Cables : "MARIQUEEN” Osaka. Telex : 522-3896 Kyowa 0. absence of a rigid social class system in Japan and reflects large inter-generational social mobility. In this sense, along with the United States. Japan can be called the most democratic society in the world.
The proportion of older people has been rising due to increased life span and a sharp drop in birth rates since the mid-19505. During the next 10 years, people between the ages of 50 and 60 are expected to increase by approximately 50%, while the proportion of those over 65 is expected to increase from 7.9% of the population in 1975 to 9.6%,
The Future
Politics Of
JAPAN The most conspicuous trend of modern Japanese politics is the long-term erosion of the power of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the emergence of pluralism. For the first time since 1955, the LDP is now faced with the situation in which it must try to manage the Diet without an assured legislative majority.
Although many voters rejected the LDP in the last election, this does not mean that they' turned to its major opponents, the Japan Socialist Party and the Communist Party.
The primary factor that obviously motivated many voters was the change in Japan’s economic environment. During the greater part of the last 30 years, the LDP has been able to maintain oneparty rule because it has been able to promise everimproving standards of living in a rapidly growing economy.
But despite the country’s rapid economic growth, problems of urban congestion such as housing shortages and inadequate public facilities have been left largely unattended. And what appears to be the end of Japan’s era of rapid economic growth has now dispelled the illusion that such problems can be solved more or less automatically over time as a byproduct of ever increasing prosperity. Public support has veered towards political forces which advocate gradual restructuring of social and economic programmes.
The second factor is the change in the age composition of the Japanese public. Most of today’s Japanese leaders have been playing key roles in Japan’s reconstruction and growth since World War 11.
They were in their middle or late thirties when the war ended. And while such men still form the top echelon of the Japanese political and business communities, they and their contemporaries people aged 65 or older now account for somewhat less than 10% of the population. And both Japan’s young people and its middleaged citizens (who account for 30% of the population) are increasingly rejecting gerontocracy of either the Left or the Right. No less important to consider is the fact that today’s Japanese youths have grown up under a system of diversified values and refuse to see the world in terms of blackand-white dichotomy. Unpersuaded by the conventional view of politics as a struggle between conservatives and progressives, they seem to be Japanese Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda ... for the first time since 1955, his Liberal Democratic Party has no assured legislative majority. 58 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY SEPTEMBER, 1978
searching for new alternatives.
The decline in the conservative party’s strength has given new encouragement to the opposition. Faced with the possibility that they might actually run the government, the opposition parties have been growing more and more flexible in their policies, and their proposals concerning domestic and foreign affairs have become more and more realistic.
This, in turn, allows the government and the opposition to discuss important issues on the same, or almost the same, wavelength. Coupled with the Liberal Democratic Party’s realisation that it must henceforth engage in dialogue with the opposition in order to manage parliamentary proceedings, this will almost inevitably result in a more open form of government.
In the future, the Liberal Democratic Party, with cooperation from the New Liberal Club, the Democratic Socialist Party, and the Clean Government Party, will maintain single-party rule. But the coventional distinction between the conservatives and the progressives will become blurred, as the conservatives, in an effort to maintain public support, will become more flexible and reflect a broader spectrum of views. It will be conservatism with a new style and new nuances.
There are three major reasons for the prospect of continued conservative rule. The first of these lies in Japan’s affluence and the relatively narrow gap between rich and poor in Japan. Having achieved prosperity and relative equality, the Japanese do not want any radical changes in their political and economic system. In addition, the high expectations that the Japanese entertained during the years of Japan’s rapid economic growth have been dampened by the oil shock and the recent global recession. As a people, the Japanese have come to realise that no economy can grow rapidly forever and, having witnessed the high cost of the social-welfare programmes that Japan has previously undertaken, they have become aware that there must always be trade-off's among various economic and social goals. As a result, a great majority of Japanese seem ready to content themselves with gradual improvement of the existing system.
A second reason for the conservatives’ probable survival as the ruling party is essentially negative: the obsolete nature of the Socialist Party, which is the largest of the opposition forces. Despite all the changes that have taken place both at home and abroad during the last 30 years, the Japan Socialist Party has stubbornly clung to an outdated ideology and has not budged from its advocacy of “unarmed neutrality” for Japan.
Because of this and the party’s permanent opposition status, most Japanese are sceptical about the Socialists’ ability to run the government.
In fact, although the Socialists’ power base lies in the labour unions, a survey of union members last year revealed that only a quarter of them believe in socialism and nearly half actively prefer capitalism. And to dampen Socialist prospects still further, support for the party among young people has been declining.
In any event, since the public’s desire to maintain the present economic system is very strong due to affluence, the two Leftwing parties, the Socialists and the Communists, will further lose their strength, and the political picture in Japan will develop in a way very different from that in Europe.
WHAT'S IN
It For The
ISLANDS In his interview with PIM, Mr Tokuyama foresaw important benefits for Pacific Island countries as his “Pacific century” got under way. He said: “I believe that in the short term there will be a quite dramatic increase in the number of tourists visiting Pacific Island countries. In the medium term, I foresee major developments in the part-processing and processing of the raw material exports of these countries.”
Among the most important obstacles to these developments, in MrTokuyama’s view, is the high cost of air travel in lie Pacific. This is an issue on which he feels strongly. He said: “In projecting the Pacific Basin economy, we must not overlook the remarkable progress that has taken place in the means of transportation and communication.” He listed the various stages by which trans- Pacific travel time had been cut from the 12-day sea voyage required to go from Tokyo to San Francisco in pre-war days to the 4.5 hours in which the Concorde could make the same trip today.
“Such rapid progress has turned the Pacific into a ‘lake’ so to speak,” he said. Transport costs had also come down sharply. But none of this had been reflected in lower air fares. “Because of the IATA agreement, the air fares in the Pacific are exorbitant,” he said, “I was amazed to learn that the Australia-Japan Foundation paid a round-trip fare for me, Japan-Australia, Australia- Japan, of 443 600 yen (about SAI 730). I just cannot understand why you have to pay more to fly to Tokyo than to London. If the fare is lowered.
I am sure both Qantas and Japan Air Lines will get more passengers and more profits.”
But there’s light at the end of the tunnel, according to Mr Tokuyama. “President Carter’s decision to let the market decide rates has made it likely that air passenger fares and air cargo rates in the Australia- Japan-US-Pacific triangle generally will be cut by half in the next two or three years,” he said. “This would be an important factor in stimulating the Pacific Basin economy, and could bring striking changes within the region in perhaps as little as three to five years.”
Easy comradeship is the spirit of relations between chief engineer Shiroshi Nakana (right) of the Japanese catcher boat Shinpo Maru, and his second engineer, John Wesley Vovose, of Choiseul Island, Solomon Islands. 59
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
Hands Across The Sea
A message to the people of Micronesia from the fishermen of Japan. ar '<? ci> oo d. d & o r?
The world has entered an era of 200 mile fishery zones, and it is only a matter of time perhaps within this year or the next before the nations of the South Pacific will have established their own 200 mile zones. The Micronesian islands also may be expected to declare in the near future the establishment of a 200 mile zone wherein they will have the jurisdiction to manage the marine resources for their effective and rational utilization.
The fishermen of Japan have for many years traditionally fished in the waters surrounding the Micronesian islands. But if and when the Micronesian islands do establish their own 200 mile fishery zone, we are ready and willing to recognize your rights on conservation and management authority in such waters. We will respect the conditions for fishing that will have been agreed upon between you and us and hope that we will be able to continue fishing in these waters.
The clear, blue waters of Micronesia are a treasure trove of marine resources that differ from other natural resources in that they are renewable and can be utilized forever .given proper management. On the other hand, if they are not properly utilized, large amounts of vital food resources will go to waste.
The nations which establish a 200 mile zone, therefore, must bear the responsibility for the conservation, management and optimum utilization of such fishery resources.
We are ready to cooperate wholeheartedly with the people of Micronesia in conducting research for the scientific assessment of fish stocks. We would also like to contribute to the development of the Micronesian fishing industry by extending economic and technical assistance.
The Micronesian fishing industry, which employs many people who depend on it for their livelihood, is fulfilling its role of supplying fish to the people of Micronesia. But if the present basis of the Micronesian fishing industry could be promoted and the scale of its operations expanded, the people of Micronesia could have one of the best fishing industries in the South Pacific which, in turn, would contribute to Micronesia’s economic development.
We Japanese have inherited from our forebears much knowledge and skill in fishing, and we wish to have the opportunity to provide you with this know-how in addition to valuable economic assistance for the promotion of the fishing industry of Micronesia and for the people of Micronesia.
This strong cooperative relationship between you and us, we feel sure, will contribute greatly to attaining the true objective of the new oceanic era for the rational management and effective utilization of fishery resources in your 200 mile zone.
For information on the fishing industry in Japan, please contact us at the address below. Also we would like to hear your opinions on the above.
Japan Fisheries Association
9-13, Akasaka 1, Tokyo, Japan 60
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
Fiji: More
THAN ‘BLACK SEX’
Japanese investment in Fiji continues to build up, particularly in the area of land and tourism investment.
As the money moves in, so do the Japanese tourists, mostly on tickets paid for at home, to stay in accommodation with a strong Japanese interest. Why they come, according to Fiji tourist industry operators keen to cash in, varies from sun, sea, cheap golfing facilities, just a new place to go and an interest in “black sex”.
The suggestion of black sex as a drawcard has been hotly denied by United Tourist Fiji Ltd which has been promoting Fiji in Japan, and by the chairman of the Fiji Visitors Bureau, Mr Mahendra Patel, who denounced the idea of trying to attract tourists with “such publicity”.
When Taisei, one of Japan’s biggest construction groups, bought into the resort development of Pacific Harbour, 55 km from Suva, steady, if not furious, development was expected to result and the possibility of the scheme attracting more Japanese investment was considered likely. At that stage, Taisei formed the SPP-Taisei Ltd with Southern Pacific Properties of Hong Kong, in which the British P&O shipping group is a large shareholder. They paid out $5 million for 2 400 ha of the 2 800 ha section which South Pacific Properties owned at Pacific Harbour.
Taisei took the bulk of responsibility of planning and developing the resort, and had plans for small village-type complexes similar to that already established at Pacific Harbour. A resident Taisei planner now lives at Pacific Harbour although no building has actually begun.
It now appears that the Japanese yen-backed investment is to be joined by the petro-dollars of the Arabs.
Saudi Arabian multi-millionaire Adnan Kahshoggi’s Triad Holdings Corporation is buying out the SPP shareholders in Pacific Harbour and the chain of Travelodge hotels in Fiji.
The already-established sections of the Pacific Harbour resort, operated by Hotels and Development Ltd, a whollyowned subsidiary of SPP, will now be fully owned by the Saudi Arabian group, with Taisei International Corporation Ltd “developing other sections of land at the Pacific Harbour complex”, an SPP spokesman said.
On the other side of Fiji’s main island of Viti Levu, near Nadi, Fuji Kon Fiji Ltd. a Fijibased subsidiary of a Japanese consortium, is planning to build Fiji’s biggest hotel on Denaurau Beach.
Fuji Kon Fiji has a sublease on a 10 ha piece of developed land at Denaurau Beach complex. The planned capacity of 400 rooms of the new hotel would outrank Denaurau’s other hotel. The Regent, as Fiji’s largest. It is understood that the proposed $2O million hotel could also involve one of two major names in international hotel business Sheraton or Hilton. Managing director of Fuji Kon Fiji, Mr Denis McElerath. said development of the hotel depended on water.
The 263 ha Denaurau project was master-planned in 1970 as a destination resort.
The 300-room Regent of Fiji hotel was just the first step. Mr McElerath said.
Also on that side of Viti Levu is the island resort of Man, 80% owned by Todeco (Fiji) Ltd, a private company formed by more than 30 large Japanese corporations as a vehicle for investment in a wide range of fields in Fiji and possibly other areas of the South Pacific.
Managing director of Mana Island Resort Fiji Ltd is Mr Motoo Koyasu. He has applied for permission to build 800 000 worth of extensions to the resort complex, which are still in the planning stage.
In another sphere, fishing, business is booming for the Japanese investors. The Pacific Fishing Co, formed by C. Itoh and Co Ltd of Osaka and Nichiryo Ltd of Tokyo, opened a freezing factory at Levuka 13 years ago to handle tuna landed by Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese vessels. Four years ago they and the Fiji government signed an agreement under which the freezing facilities were expanded to can fish. The government acquired a 25% holding in PAFCO, with C. Itoh retaining 60% of the shares and Nichiryo’s holding dropping to 10%. Another 5% is owned by 20 local shareholders.
Last month PAFCO announced it had won a record $4 million contract to supply canned albacore tuna to Canada’s biggest food distributors, British Columbia Packers, of Vancouver. General manager and director of PAFCO, Mr Hiro Tanaka, said it was a significant achievement which showed Fiji could compete with other world tuna producers. Japan has always been chief supplier of canned albacore to BCP. But last year Japan had a bad season and failed to meet its quota. Last year PAFCO provided BCP with $3 million worth of fish and when Japan was hit by a bad season again earlier this year, supplied another $3 million worth. BCP has now signed a $24 million contract because it was satisfied with the quality of Fiji canned albacore. he said.
Meanwhile, the Fiji Government has taken 20% share in Fiji Can Company Ltd, formed with Toyo Seikan Kaisha Ltd. to produce cans in a newly completed factory which expects to reach an annual output of a million cans by 1980.
Fiji’s “green gold”, its pine plantations, are due for first harvest in 1980. The Fiji Pine Commission is looking to Japanese markets to take much of the wood and pulp products.
While there has been little major increase in Japanese investment in Fiji in the past year, it is now a wellestablished fact of tropical life and is obviously in the country to stay.
And with it come the Japanese tourists, 6 000 last year, mostly on Japanese airline charters, and the Ministry of Tourism estimate there will be more this year. Locals say you can tell where the Japanese money is by the number of Japanese guests at the hotel.
Part of the Pacific Harbour holiday complex in Fiji - now the Arabs are joining the Japanese in the venture 61
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
A MESSAGE FROM FIJI Message from Mr M. Ramzan , Minister for Commerce and Industry, Fiji: On behalf of the Government and the people of Fiji I have pleasure in extending a warm welcome to the floating fair which is being promoted in the South Pacific with the ship Shin Sahara Mara which will be visiting Fiji this month.
Trade between Fiji and Japan was established some years ago but it has grown considerably over the years, particularly after the decade following the end of World War 11. It is a well-known fact that Japan is now a major trading nation and a fully fledged partner in the world economy.
Japanese fishermen have been fishing in Fiji waters for a number of years and we now have a Japanese fish cannery at Levuka. Within recent years Japanese textile materials and precision optical and electronic devices such as cameras, radios, binoculars and microscopes have also become popular among our people. Our timber exports to Japan have shown a marked increase during recent years and trade in other items has also increased considerably.
I do hope that trade between Fiji and Japan will continue to grow and I am sure the visit by Shin Sahara Mara will go a long way towards promoting goodwill, better understanding and friendship among the peoples of Oceania and Japan and possibly enhancing twoway trade.
Japan Floats Its Wares
Around The Pacific
Japan comes to the South Pacific in a big way in September.
First ports of call on the Japan Floating Fair ’7B cruise of the 13 200-tonne ship Shin Sahara Mara will be Port Moresby (September 8-10) and Suva (September 15-16). Later, it will visit Australia and New Zealand and the five ASEAN countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Philippines).
Since the inception of the floating fair voyages in 1956, there have been 12 cruises during which the products of Japanese industry have been displayed in 131 ports in 112 countries around the world.
For the first three floating fair voyages converted cargo vessels were used. In 1962, however, the specially designed floating fair ship Sahara Mara was constructed for the Japan Industry Floating Fair Association, laying the foundation for stronger development of the floating fairs.
Then, in 1972, the Shin Sahara Mara was built, using Japan’s most up-to-date shipbuilding techniques, and in its turn replaced the Sahara Mara.
The new ship is a high-speed craft with a computer-run, highly automated engine and controllable pitch propeller. It incorporates various newly developed facilities such as the Navy Navigational Satellite System (NNSS), and modem circulation-type sanitation facilities conforming to the requirements of Japan’s sea pollution prevention laws.
Exhibition space extends over the second and third decks and a hold covering a total area of 3391 square metres. Visitors ascend the gangway, move through the entrance hall and go to the exhibition floors by escalator. Exit is also by escalator.
The programme at ports is along the following lines, with the necessary adjustments for length of stay: First day: Preview display and press conference, inaugural ceremony to which about 400 people, representing political and economic circles, will be invited.
Second day: Specialists’ day, to which government officials, businessmen, industrialists and people concerned with education and culture will be invited. About 5000 expected.
Third day: Public day. The fair is open to the general public, including students and schoolchildren. About 7000 expected.
The Shin Sahara Mara is owned by the Japan Industry Floating Fair Association Mr M. Ramzan President of the floating fair mission, Kanichi Oshima, of the Nippon Steel Corporation M.S. "SHIN SAKURA MARU" (13,082 6. T[?] Japan floating Fair Ship 62
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
(JIFFA) and operated by Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd. JIFFA was formed following the original initiative of the Japan Machinery Exporters’ Association in launching the floating fairs.
The floating fair voyages have the full backing of the Japanese Government’s departments of Trade and Industry, Foreign Affairs and Transport.
IT’S A TWO WAY FAIR Message from Mr Yoshizo Ikeda, president, Japan Industry Floating Fair Association: I am very happy that the Japan Industry Floating Fair Association, under the guidance of the Japanese Government, is able to stage the thirteenth floating fair voyage to countries in Oceania and South-east Asia.
The purpose of the floating fair is to promote mutual understanding between Japan and the countries visited through the presentation of the society of Japan as it is today, and also the exhibition of our latest industrial products and modem technology which, we hope, will be helpful for these countries, which are now promoting economic development plans.
As a trial we are at this time exhibiting local products of some of the countries we are visiting in the hope that we may be able to contribute to an increase in mutual trade and economic exchanges between these countries and Japan. I hope that this floating fair will be a token of tomorrow’s prosperity, and will represent our contribution to friendship.
Machinery Exporters Launch
Japan’S Trade On
The High Seas
Message from Mr Shigeru Otsuka, executive director, Japan Machinery Exporters' Association: It gives me great pleasure to send my greetings to all the people of the South Pacific Islands through this September issue of PIM. The South Pacific Islands and Japan have had increasingly close relations in recent years as exemplified by joint activities in various fields such as resource development, regional development, trade, and tourism, so that now mutual exchange in various fields has become very extensive.
In addition to trade, Japan is also engaged in various economic aid programmes such as the hydro-electric development on the Purari River, fisheries development, and forestry operations in Papua New Guinea, and development of the fishing industry in Tonga and Western Samoa. In the field of personal exchange, also, more than 20 000 Japanese people visit the South Pacific, including Australia and New Zealand, each year, on business trips and for tourism, and it appears that this number will grow.
We, the Japan Machinery Exporters’ Association, are an organisation established in 1952 by some 600 major machinery manufacturers and trading companies in Japan with the objective of sound development of Japan’s machinery export, on the basis of the Export and Import Trade Law.
Since its establishment 25 years ago, the association has performed various functions and activities to foster sound machinery export practices and to prevent unfair ones. In 1956, the association designed and built the world’s first “floating fair” ship, sending it to nine South-east Asian countries from December 1956 through February 1957. not only giving a strong impression of the high quality of Japanese machinery to the people of these countries, but also surprising many people all over the world. This was the start of the Japan “floating fair” ship which is still very active.
In the meantime, the idea of the floating fair has been expanded to include all types of Japanese products, and the operation has been transferred to the present Japan Industry Floating Fair Association. But we are proud that this unique concept was originated by our association.
I would like to invite our friends in the South Pacific to take up our proposal to establish links with the Japan Machinery Exporters’ Association for improved mutual exchanges and the mutually beneficial development of our trade.
Operation Import
The Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) this year launched a campaign to promote imports from industrial countries and developing nations as part of a drive to offset increasing trade frictions arising from Japan’s huge trade surplus.
JETRO carries out import promotion activities in more than 70 overseas offices, at its Tokyo head office and at 28 trade information centres within Japan. Among its current import-related operations it liaises on import inquiries, publishes information on the Japanese market, stages seminars and exhibitions to promote sales to Japan, makes arrangements for overseas missions to visit Japan, sponsors exchange programmes of experts and professionals with other countries, produces films useful to exporters to Japan, assists meetings of trade promotion groups and conducts research for Japanese importers.
Japan’s overseas offices receive 200 000 trade inquiries a year from foreign businessmen hoping to buy goods from, or sell goods to, Japan. JETRO is concerned that only 4% or 5% of the inquiries involve sales to Japan. It is planning to upgrade its import promotion division.
Mr Yoshizo Ikeda Mr Shigeru Otsuka 63
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
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Yen Gathers Pace
In New Hebrides
Japanese involvement in the New Hebrides is officially regarded as ‘considerable’, writes lan Mclntyre in Vila.
And it is increasing monthly as new areas of commerce are explored, existing production facilities are expanded and more yen investment flows in.
The most tangible evidence of a Japanese presence can be seen at Palekula on Espiritu Santo, where there is a large, self-contained fishing base, and at the Le Lagon Country Club and Hotel on the shores of Erakor Lagoon near Vila.
But there are many less obvious signs of Japanese interest. Strong Japanese ties can be found in ‘offshore’ companies registered under both the British and French tax haven legislation. These companies are involved in shipping, mineral exploration, copra production and processing, timber, beef and some small scale manufacturing.
The fishing base at Palekula has been in operation since 1957 when the South Pacific Fishing Company (SPFC) took over the wartime US Marine base. The Japanese have modified and extended it and are now using it to process fish, caught in the Coral and Solomon Seas and destined for American markets.
Using longline fishing boats from Taiwan and South Korea plus their own catchers, the Japanese land and process around 10000 tonnes annually.
The export tax contributes substantially to the condominium’s budget.
Recently the New Hebrides Government took a 10% interest in SPFC and a seat on its board. Shares were acquired under an agreement whereby export duties payable by SPFC were reduced and the Minister of Finance became the government’s ex officio board member.
The value of fish exported in 1977 was FNH 1056.9 million, making the industry the New Hebrides’ second biggest after copra. Last year FNH 1107.3 million worth of copra was exported, FNH 63.7 million worth to Japan.
In February the green light was given to Mitsubishi- Sumitomo to set up a SA6million-plus woodchip mill in Santo. Native limbers and specially-grown stands will be used. This decision, one of the first major decisions by Chief Minister George Kalsakau. came after several years of study sponsored by the Japanese Government.
Mitsubishi-Sumitomo is interested in timber stands on other islands but so far no firm agreements have been reached with land owners, villagers and custom chiefs on a formula for removing timber and transporting it to the Santo mill.
Japan has agreed to buy around 1000 tonnes of locallyproduced beef over the next year. The meat will be frozen at the SPFC base and shipped to Japan. Freezing facilities at SPFC are to be expanded to enable it to hold up to 900 tonnes of beef. Indications are that Japan will be increasing its order in years to come.
Last year 2700 Japanese tourists visited the New Hebrides out of a total tourist turnover of 24 545. This was an increase of 187% on the number of Japanese visitors in 1976.
The stimulus for this jump has been Japanese control of Le Lagon Hotel, owned by the Tokyu hotel organisation.
More than SASOO 000 was spent on a facelift and reorganisation of management and services.
Nowadays, in a package deal, engaged Japanese couples jet in, celebrate an Island-style marriage in a Melanesian Christian church and then stay on for the honeymoon. 65
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
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Japan Rolling Stock Exporters' Association is comprised of major Japanese rolling stock manufacturers, related parts manufacturers and trading firms. All backed by years of hard-earned experience. Your inquiries are welcome.
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Skipjack Tagging
Please report.
Car o Th. p>.
E£ /I reward will be given for the Tag plus this information The South Pacific Commission has commenced tagging Skipjack and other Tunas in the tropical central and Western Pacific. Yellow Plastic Dart Tags are being used Should you catch a skipjack orTuna with a Tag (or Tags) on its back, please return south Pacific commission i the Tag(s) to : —Noumea, Mew Caledonia j This programme began field operations in October 1977 with the Hatsutori Maru with a full complement of scientists and crew who were disappointed with catch rates in the waters north of New Ireland New Hanover Papua New Guinea. In three weeks less than 100 skipjack were tagged and released but they had better results later south and west of Bougainville when more than a thousand fish were tagged and released in four days.
Tuna: Much more than just another four-letter word Writing from Honolulu, Fiji Times man Robert Keith-Reid takes an in-depth look at the problems faced by the proposed South Pacific regional fisheries agency in particular, the quest by Island Nations for the right to exploit the vast tuna resources inhabiting their economic zones.
Pacific Island historians may record the 1970 s as being, among other things, the decade of the great tuna rush. Nations inside and outside the South and Central Pacific are scrambling for the right to control or fish for the tuna that chum through the region endlessly in schools adding up to millions of tonnes.
The retail value of fish, mainly tuna, being hauled out of the region is now touching $1 000 million a year, according to a conference which met in Suva in October 1977 to discuss the setting up of a regional fisheries agency. But emerging Island nations are unhappily aware that this great catch, much of it made within a few miles of their shores, is not benefiting them greatly. Most fishing is being done by the United States, Russia, Japan, Taiwan and Korea, and the 15% proportion of the value of the catch staying in the region is going mostly to Australia and New Zealand.
For Island countries which in many cases import large quantities of tinned fish, and which see tuna as one of the few really significant resources exploitable by them, the pickings are relatively lean.
They come as a few canneries, fish-freezing stations and related facilities which are usually owned, wholly or partly, by Japanese interests.
There is also a little business in the way of supplying fuel, food and some services to Asian fishing vessels. A bonus for Fiji has been a thriving salvage and ship repair trade generated by the frequency with which Asian fishermen find themselves hard aground on coral reefs and the odd reef-bound vessel abandoned by her owners to become a cheap prize for the salvager who has bought her “as is, where is”.
Now the Island governments have decided that they must have a much bigger share of the trade in tuna the lion’s share in fact, if this can be managed.
But their efforts in this direction have quickly become a tricky international issue, if not yet quite a dispute, which could, for a start, lead to a confrontation with the United States.
Complications cropped up last October when, at the direction of the South Pacific Forum, the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Cooperation (SPEC) convened a meeting in Suva for negotiations on the founding of a regional fisheries protection agency.
Everyone was there the Islands, a big French delegation (reflecting the importance France attaches to its vast tuna-rich area of jurisdiction in Polynesia), an even bigger American delegation, and interested observers from Japan, Chile, Canada, Korea and others involved in the tuna stakes.
The meeting seemed to be going well. “We’re 90% agreed,” a SPEC official said in its early stages.
Then came the hurdle that is still to be surmounted: all agreed generally on 200-mile economic zones for each country, and on the broad terms of a constitution for the projected fisheries agency.
But what the Americans would not go along with was the inclusion of tuna in the list of fish to be subject to 200-mile zone controls. As a “highly migratory” fish, the US delegation blandly explained, tuna was not suitable for control by individual nations. Only controls exercised by a major international organisation would be accepted by the US. Otherwise, any tuna scooting around inside the zones were for anyone to catch as far as America was concerned.
The Americans claim that their policy is tied up with a desire to achieve sensible international conservation policies covering tuna stocks.
But as some Hawaiian observers agree, there is more than a touch of hypocrisy in it.
For a start, although US legislation covering the proclamation of an American 200-mile zone from last year specifically excludes tuna, it includes billfish.
The reason: there’s a strong American sports fishing lobby, and the big game fishermen get mad as hell when they see Japanese longliners hauling in hundreds of 450 kg (1 000 lb) marlin that otherwise might adorn a spot over their mantelpieces.
But the main reason is that America’s big West Coast tuna fleet does much of its fishing close to the shores of other countries. If the US accepted a South Pacific precedent affecting tuna, it would have to do so for other areas as well.
America’s influential tuna lobby, which is already having difficulty maintaining its traditional grounds, opposes the South Pacific concept.
Other pressures may, however, change the US stand, particularly if some tuna boat companies operating out of California begin to try their luck further out in the deep Pacific, rather than fishing down the South and Central American way.
Hawaii, American Samoa and the US Trust Territory want to back the South Pacific agency, complaining that they also are being deprived of fish by the busy Asians.
Hawaiian-bom Miss Patsy T. Mink, who led the US delegation to the Suva conference as Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, officially put over the US stance on tuna. Since then, however, back in Hawaii and in Washington, she has been saying that she really believes America’s Pacific Island territories would gain from the controls sought by the South Pacific Forum group.
The Hawaiian tuna fishing fleet, about 14 old boats fighting to land a piffling 5 000 tonnes a year, agrees with her.
Hopes remain that the US may modify its policy in a way 67
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
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International Department m. 5-1, Kanda Tomiyama-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101, Japan Telephone: 03-252-4111 Cable Address: PIGEQNBABY TOKYO Telex: J 26569 that will allow the proposed agency to get cracking in the knowledge that it won’t have problems from America’s direction, at least.
“I think we’re prepared to try to manage tuna,” said Mr Doyle Gates, an official of the National Marine Fisheries Service in Honolulu who was on the US delegation to Suva.
Figures from a yearbook issued by the United Nations’
Food and Agriculture Organisation give some idea of what is at stake as the South Pacific Forum and the Japanese, Americans and others manoeuvre for a secure tuna stakeout. In 1974, the region yielded 979 000 tonnes, including 481 000 tonnes of skipjack, 247 000 of yellowfin, 140 000 tonnes of albacore, 82 000 tonnes of bigeye and 29 000 tonnes of bluefin.
Perhaps about half of this catch was taken in and around Micronesia, which is most easily accessible to the most active tuna fishers, the Japanese fleets.
For skipjack, which are much smaller than the other species and tend to frequent shallower areas, the harvest is considered to be well below a sustainable annual yield of between 800 000 and 1 000 000 tonnes.
About 30 000 skipjack are being caught each year, tagged and released, and those caught again are yielding data of help in planning the launching of embryo fishing fleets.
If and when the South Pacific Fisheries Agency gets off the ground a number of Island countries hope to make money by licensing foreigners to fish for tuna in their economic zones.
They would also boost local economies by requiring licences to build, say, a cannery employing so many local people, processing so much fish, and probably having a minimum of local equity.
The New Hebrides, the Solomons, Fiji and American Samoa already have canneries or freezing plants in operation, with Fiji and the Solomons having finally managed to persuade Japanese companies to accept joint venture deals.
American Samoa has two USowned canneries served by chartered Korean ships.
Papua New Guinea, which has particularly rich tuna grounds to its north, is negotiating with American and Japanese interests on the precise form to be taken by their future exploitation.
Meanwhile, Fiji seems to have grabbed a lead in maximising the value of skipjack fishing for its own economy. A cannery, jointly owned by Japanese interests and the Fiji Government, opened last year at Levuka and the government is building up a fishing fleet.
Last year the governmentowned Ika Corporation caught 1 700 tonnes of fish with four boats, and in the first three months of this year, with a fleet of six, landed 978 tonnes.
The Fiji blueprint is one which other Pacific Island governments will want to match.
Some have already taken steps to do so, with Japanese help. Japan has recently supplied Western Samoa with $550 000 in fishing aid, including a skipjack catcher; Tonga is receiving a $ 1 500 000 grant from the same source; Saipan is yet another recipient of Japanese fishing aid; and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency has been engaged in a tuna baitfish survey for the Gilbertese Government.
The Americans, for all their coyness about tuna, are taking steps to make sure they have a leg in also. They have created the Western Pacific Fisheries Commission, based in Honolulu, to prepare fisheries management plans for billfish, precious corals and lobster; bottom fishing; and fishing on the small but quite rich grounds centred on seamounts the tops of submerged mountains, of which there are many near Hawaii.
Then there is the Pacific Tuna Development Foundation, launched in 1976 to promote fisheries development, and particularly tuna fishing, for the benefit of Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa, the Trust Territory and the Northern Marianas.
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Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
From the ISLANDS PRESS From an offering entitled Polynesian Time by Taha Talagi in Tohi Tala Niue What can we do? Either be a Polynesian or a citizen of New Zealand to keep up what is called a Palagi time which is 7.30 meaning 7.30 and not 8.30 Niue time. What is time to a Niuean?
Time is not important as far as we exist, but spoilt by so-called timepieces.. .
From the Fiji Times A devout Muslim civil servant who regularly goes to pray at lunchtime at the Toorak Mosque found to his dismay yesterday that the day’s prayer had cost him $ 16.25. A new pair of shoes which he had taken off outside the mosque had disappeared by the time he had completed his prayer. The man had to go out and buy a pair of flipflops for 75<f to wear back to work, in place of the shoes which had cost him $ 15.50.
From an editorial in Tohi Tala Niue Annual licensing of firearms on Niue sounds a bit out of place even though it is a requirement by law. Firearms on Niue meant to be shotguns but what is the use of paying for the annual licence when guns are hardly used. Last year people who own guns only use them for three months, therefore the payment is warranted, but this year guns were never used because there were no ammunitions available at the Treasury bond store . . .
From Arawa Bulletin, Papua New Guinea Are we really interested? Apparently not, if the number of votes cast in the recent Arawa Town Council is any criterion. Just on 10% of those entitled to vote made use of their power. A sad reflection when one considers the amount of criticism that is heard of the council and its activities . . . Still, council elections throughout the world are notorious for the apathy of voters, and Arawa is not alone . . . Three councillors polled 22 votes or less and were successful. . .
Cook Islands News didn’t say who they were or where they came from but insisted that Ernie, Frank and Jean had a ‘new life ahead' One Saturday was a day to remember for years to come for some more of Dr Milan Brych’s cancer patients. On that lovely sunny morning an almost unprecedented number of oncology patients and their relatives were at the airport to farewell three more patients who had successfully completed their course of treatment. Mingling in the crowd at the airport no one would have known that Ernie, and Frank . . . had only a few months ago been seriously ill. There was also Jean from Tasmania, who only some six months ago had come over for treatment as a last resort never expecting to return home . . .
From a profile of Lae businessman Mr Muttu Gware in Lae Nius, Papua New Guinea Mr Gware recalls ‘way back in his childhood in 1945 or 46 that his father took the whole family to Voco Point soon after the war broke out. The family sat on the beach watching planes bombing the ships. In return the ships fired their giant guns at the planes. The smoke of the machine-guns covered the face of the sun, they couldn’t see at all and the whole place was very dark. They were all very frightened.
From New Hebrides News A black object believed to be a meteorite, fell between Merelava and Gaua on Saturday morning June 17. Merelava people reported seeing the flying object with a tail of fire falling from the sky at a great speed. When it hit the water there was a huge explosion which snook the islands. The people thought it was either a bomb explosion or the Gaua volcano erupting.
Meteorological Department officers are certain it was a meteorite. . .
From the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier Rabaul police are investigating reports that some village court magistrates are using money from fines for their own use. East New Britain Provincial Government’s Minister for Justice, Mr Anton Bos, said yesterday an investigation on one court area had shown thefts of this kind.
From the government publication News Bulletin, American Samoa The 15.0% unemployment rate in American Samoa for the calendaryear 1977 was 4.4% below that of 1976 and 3.0% below that of 1975. The significant reduction has been attributed largely to the outmigration of young American Samoans for economic opportunities and to further their education. The figures were released by the ASG’s Development Planning Office in its recently published Statistical Bulletin, a semi-annual report on economic indicators.
The Bulletin states that there exists some controversy over the interpretation of employment/unemployment figures. “Some (people) are of the opinion that although the Territory records high unemployment figures, it does not carry with it the same connotation as in the Mainland, USA. The rationale behind this thought is based on the fact that although many Samoans are able to work, they are contented staying home and working off the plantation to provide staple food for the family. The other membersof the family working in paid employment help to support them. It is also their contention that culture demands that the wives stay home and look after the children. These persons, accordingly, should not be counted in the labour force.”
From the Atoll Pioneer, Gilbert Islands (reporting an exhibition of Australian Aboriginal art arranged by the Australian High Commission) There are three “nos” to this show: there are no boomerangs, there are no spears, and unfortunately none of the exhibits are for sale .. .
From a letter in the Arawa Bulletin, Papua New Guinea ... lam an ex-member of the police force stationed here in Arawa and I am not at all pleased with the help the Premier, community leaders and peace officers are offering to curb crimes committed in both urban and rural areas throughout this province of North Solomons. We seem to be disgraced by the Bougainvillean politicians in the Bulletin saying police are not working properly to fight crimes committed in the North Solomons Province, if we delay investigation due to other serious crimes being committed which require more investigation. We are not gods.
We make reports on crimes or offences committed and investigations are carried out soon after. Offenders may be arrested and detained with the help of the public giving information to us . . . Most of these crimes are done by community and high school dropouts . . . Highlanders are not to be blamed all the time . . . 73
Pacific Islands Monthly - September. 1978
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Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
AFTERTHOUGHTS with Percy Chatterton in Port Moresby One of Papua New Guinea’s most popular vogue words at present is ‘decentralisation’. Along with John (now Sir John) Guise I was one of the early advocates of decentralisation at a time when such ideas were regarded as highly heretical by the colonial establishment, and in 1969 I read a paper at the PNG University’s Waigani Seminar on the subject. It was called The Possible Role of Regional Assemblies in Papua New Guinea.
Of course we have always had decentralisation of a kind in PNG, that is, decentralisation of administration. Colonial Papua New Guinea was divided into four administrative ‘regions’, and each region into a number of‘districts’. The number of these districts rose from 15 in the immediate post-war years to the present tally of 19, some districts having been split into two. The demand for further sub-division is still being heard, sometimes clamorously.
The four regions Papua, Highlands, New Guinea Mainland and New Guinea Islands had a kind of rationale. The districts might be described as kiap- sized bites, in other words, areas of a size which a kiap (district commissioner) could effectively administer.
The function of district administration, in theory at any rate, was the implementation of centrally enacted laws and regulations by means of an administrative hierarchy ranging from the prestigious district commissioner down to the humble patrol officer. These gentlemen were supposed to work by the book, but some of them showed considerable ingenuity in devising rules and even punishments which were not in the book but which they regarded as suitable for the local situation ‘ kiap law’ it was sometimes called. As the governed didn’t know what was or was not in the book, the kiaps generally got away with it.
But what Sir John and 1 were after in the late sixties was not decentralisation of administration, which we already had, but decentralisation of decision-making. My 1969 paper envisaged that the regional assemblies would be decision-making and law-making bodies. I adopted Guise’s suggestion that the units of decentralisation should be called ‘provinces’, and tentatively suggested that the number of these provinces should be somewhere between the four of the administrative regions and the (at that time) 18 of the administrative districts. In a PIM article in the same year I suggested a split up into seven or eight provinces. And five years later, in a submission to the Constitutional Planning Committee (CPC), I proposed five the four traditional regions, but with Bougainville as a separate province from the rest of the New Guinea Islands.
What finally came out of the CPC cooking pot was a proposal that the, by then, 19 districts should be re-named ‘provinces’, and that each should have its own provincial assembly. I have no doubt at all that this proposal accurately reflected the public sentiment of the time.
Now, in 1978, the formation of the 19 provincial governments is proceeding apace, and national government has got to learn to live with it. The Public Service has got to learn to live with it too, and that may be harder.
Whether it is really a good thing to have so many provinces is a matter of opinion. I think it isn’t. But for the moment it’s the ‘will of the people’, and we’re stuck with it. Somehow or other it must be made to work; its breakdown on any widespread scale could have serious consequences.
First, there seems to be a widespread lack of understanding of the fact that the power to make decisions is of little use without the expertise to implement them. Is there enough expertise available to be spread over 19 provinces? And will the experts we have got go mad trying to serve two masters the provincial and national governments respectively? Yet a failure in implementation will generate a lot of discontent, some of which will rub off on the national government, which will be accused of having let the provinces down.
In the second place, with common roll provincial and national elections held separately, the chances of jealousy, tension and even confrontation developing between provincial and national legislatures and politicians are considerable. Already ill-feeling has surfaced between the interim (ad hoc) provincial assemblies and the national parliamentarians who represent those provinces.
These tensions may well increase when fully elected provincial governments replace the present ad hoc bodies.
Next, if so many provincial governments were necessary, one wonders whether it would not have been a good idea to structure them more simply. In 1964 the colonial power established the House of Assembly as an embryo national government, importing to it all the panoply and complexity of Westminster.
Now our national parliament has established provincial government on the pattern of the Australian state governments, with premiers, deputy premiers, speakers, deputy speakers, and all the other trimmings. Maybe this has given some of the participants delusions of grandeur; certainly it has led some of them to place a high monetary value on their services to their province.
Anyway, six state premiers in Australia is one thing; 19 provincial premiers in PNG is another. It seems a pity that a more Melanesian pattern could not have been worked out.
I have on several occasions suggested that if and when provincial governments become well established and take over a substantial part of the legislative work load, a national legislature of the size of our present national parliament will become an unnecessary burden to the governmental structure. A smaller body might be more suitable, and would certainly be cheaper. Moreover, if the members of this body were chosen by the provincial assemblies instead of by direct election, the chances of friction between provincial and national governments would be lessened.
But it’s probably too late now for such a change. There are too many people around with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. So it looks like we are stuck with a very expensive system of government.
Perhaps the saddest part of the whole thing is that fewer and fewer people seem to be willing to do anything for nothing. At all levels people want to be paid for service to their community, their province or their country. They even want to be paid attendance money (far in excess of genuine out-of-pocket expenses) for turning up at meetings which their election to office places an obligation on them to attend anyway.
It wasn’t always so. In Sir Hubert Murray’s Papua we had a Village Council at Hanuabada. It was one of the many forward-looking experiments of that now much rubbished era.
The councillors were not remunerated for their services, nor were they paid for attending council meetings. They were quite happy with the opportunities the job gave them for improving the life of their community.
It’s all very different now. And in the long run it’s the wage earners and villagers who, through direct and indirect taxation, will foot the bill. 75
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
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Island governments must act to keep Suva archives in the Pacific The ravages of tropical climate and wars, and the simple passage of time, have posed problems enough in the task of maintaining adequate records of Pacific history. But now human indifference threatens to rob the region of a priceless source of documentation on the history of the past century in a number of important Pacific Island groups. C. Guy Powles, of the Monash University’s Department of Law, makes a strong appeal for action to stop the planned transfer to Britain of most of the contents of the Western Pacific Archives in Suva.
It has been announced that the Western Pacific Archives in Suva will be closed by the end of this year. I understand that most of this collection is being sent to the other side of the world, to the United Kingdom, without being fully microfilmed.
The Western Pacific Archives contain the only substantial record available in the Pacific of the history of the Solomon Islands, the Gilbert Islands, Tuvalu, the New Hebrides and Pitcairn the evidence of 100 years of history. As far as the Kingdom of Tonga is concerned, some records were retained in Nukualofa, but there are many gaps in them. The records of the British Consul in Tonga, and of the High Commissioner (stationed in Suva) relating to the affairs of Tonga, are part of the Western Pacific Archives.
As the Western Pacific High Commission was the administrative centre for the Island groups in the region, (other than Fiji), its papers and documents recorded much of their history. Although some local material may be allowed to remain in the Pacific, I understand that all the High Commission records (and microfilms already made), and the bulk of the total archives, are to be sent to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London.
It is true that a large part of the written material which comprises the history of this vital 100-year period was recorded by British officials, but the political process of which they were part contributed to the history of what are now independent, or soon-tobecome independent, nations.
The history therefore belongs as much, if not more, to those nations as it does to Britain’s colonial past. The British Foreign Office already has its own documentation in the form of reports which were sent to it at the time from its representatives in the Pacific.
Britain can have no need for these Pacific records, and, even if it did, do not the Pacific nations have a better claim?
I write this for fear that the records may be leaving the Pacific without the governments and others interested in them being fully aware that the removal is actually now taking place.
British justification for the removal may be that proper housing for the records cannot be found in the countries concerned and, if this is so, cannot immediate consideration be given to the construction or adaptation of suitable premises in the Pacific? It is sometimes difficult to separate out those parts of the material which ought to belong to specific Island groups. Much, however, clearly relates to particular areas. It may be appropriate for one or two central repositories to be maintained until such time as the more general documents may be copied, so that each country to which they relate will eventually have a complete set of its own historical records.
In Honiara there is a suitable building large enough for all of these records. Altenatively, I understand that the Australian Government once offered to look after the papers temporarily. The Fiji Government may perhaps be prepared to permit the Western Pacific Archives to remain temporarily in Suva. Of course, the proposal that the records be allowed to remain in the Pacific means that costs will have to be met locally. The wealthier nations would provide assistance if concrete proposals are put forward.
There is a compromise, and that is for the records to be microfilmed before they are moved.
I have lived and worked in the Pacific for many years and am fully aware that official documents are by no means the only source of historical information about the Pacific. Oral history and vernacular manuscripts, linguistic analyses and archaeological research, provide their own systems of explanation and emphasis. But the perspective provided by official written records is an essential part of historical reconstruction.
A rapidly growing number of Pacific Island citizens are interested in undertaking academic research into their countries’ past. Historical documents should be available to senior school pupils and students from Pacific tertiary institutions in the same way that those of other countries are available to their students.
Local people unconnected with schools or universities may wish to refer to archival material for various reasons, and should be able to do so.
The removal of this source material from the reach of the citizens of the countries to which it pertains is, in a sense, to deliver the responsibility for the interpretation of the Pacific’s past into the hands of those academics, mostly non- Pacific citizens, who, with study leave and large grants from overseas universities, can travel to Britain.
For some time this issue has been the concern of a few people in the Pacific who are aware of the problem. Unfortunately, I believe that the plans for removal and the actual removal of some documents have already gone so far that the only action which can now be effective is direct representations at government level from Pacific nations to the United Kingdom.
A former Fiji Governor-general, Sir Ronald Harvey, and wife, come ashore in style on Taveuni - the writings of such men belong to the people of the Pacific 77 YESTERDAY
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
A record broken, a life lost, in bridging Fiji’s Rewa River Fiji recently heard the depressing news that shortage of funds will delay until the next development plan completion of the section of the Queen’s Road between Deuba and Sigatoka on the island of Viti Levu. The delay in particular means a further postponement of the hoped-for prosperity from the full-fledged operation of the Pacific Harbour tourist complex at Deuba. But when the road is finally completed, it is doubtful whether it will be greeted with any greater joy by the Fiji population than was the completion 41 years ago of the bridge at Nausori over Fiji’s longest river, the Rewa. Ken James, who with his wife taught for several years at the secondary school in nearby Davuilevu, recounts the history of the bridge over the mighty Rewa.
The Rewa River is the longest in Fiji, and most road traffic uses the 12-span concrete bridge at the township of Nausori to cross it. However, not many regular users or tourists realise that last year, 1977, marked the 40th anniversary of the opening of the bridge, whose construction took more than two years, caused the death of at least one workman, and set a Southern Hemisphere record for the deepest sinking of a bridge pylon. . * Crossing the river at Nausor, at the end of last century was a matter of either swimmmg or travelling across by canoe, rowboat or punt. Indian ferrymen operated a service across the river, and, depending on time of day and the weather, one could be charged from 3d to 2/6 for the crossing. b The opening of the road between Suva and Nausori at the turn of the century led to an increase in traffic seeking to cross the river, and in 1902 a hand-driven pontoon was put into service. It was operated privately and a toll was charged for crossing between the township and Mission Hill (Dilkusha). The journey took about 45 minutes, This service proved adequate for many years, although complaints did arise concerning the speed of the service. In 1912, Mr Scott, member for the Southern Division in the Legislative Council moved a resolution urging that a steam-driven pontoon replace the existing hand-driven ferry. The resolution was carried, the Colonial Secretary agreeing that the matter needed looking into. But it was not until 1917 that a change . o ver took place. i n Janu a r y I 9 I 7 th e government took over the fer- * scrvice from Hill and Co of J : A crossing toll was ... . . . ® . 1,1 charged, but the new steam-driven pontoon took only five minutes to make the ‘ r , oasraB ’ Th . e servlce °P erated 15 hours a day.
The opening up of a number of roads in the Rewa area (e.g. Nausori-Naduruloulou, Nausori-Wainibokasi Hospital, Wainibokasi-Bau), and the subsequent increase in car ownership in the area, meant continual growth in the traffic seeking to cross the river. As only four vehicles could be accommodated in the ferry at one time this often meant delays at the river of an hour or more. Although the pontoon size was increased on several occasions it was “no uncommon sight to see 40 or 50 motor cars waiting on either side of the river to be taken across”.
In the mid-20s the ferry crossing had to moved 200 m (600 ft) downstream to the 12mile post cm the Suva-Nausori road. This was made necessary by the changing nature of the riverbed, for a large bank of sand had formed in the river across the path used by the service. At times it was impossible for the pontoon to reach the landings, for where in 1913 some places had two metres of water, by 1923 there was only a little more than one metre.
The first positive consideration of the possibility of a road bridge replacing the ferry service came in 1925 when Mr Barker, junior member for the Southern Division, moved “that in the opinion of the Council, it is desirable in view of the increased vehicular traffic that consideration should be given by the government to the question of erecting a bridge over the River Rewa at or in the vicinity of Nausori.”
Traffic certainly had increased. Whereas average weekly motor-car crossings in December 1922 were about 330, by October 1928 such crossings had exceeded 2 000.
Over the same period the number of passengers of all types making the crossing rose from just under 4 000 to well over 17 000.
The concept of a road bridge was well received, the Governor promising to have an estimate made for the cost of a bridge. In 1926 a loan committee supported the idea, while a select committee in 1928 recommended that the bridge was “a genuine necessity”. This judgement was based upon the fact that vehicular traffic in the Rewa area was about to increase still further with the opening of the Tailevu road, and also, even more importantly, that the continual silting up of the river in the vicinity of the township was threatening to cut back operating times of the ferry service to peak-tide periods. A telegram in 1933 from the Secretary of State for the Colonies gave his support: The opening of the bridge over the Rewa River at Nausori in 1937 78
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
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Work on the bridge began in early 1935. The plan was for a 12-span concrete bridge, the materials to come from England. The first task was the sinking of the bridge pylons, and it was here that lengthy delays were encountered, extending the construction period to well over two years.
Unexpected difficulties arose when the solid sandstone which provided firm foundations on the Mission side of the riverbed gave way to a very deep layer of soft clay halfway across the river. The result was that the pylons on the Nausori side had to be sunk to a depth two or three times greater than anticipated. One pylon was sunk to a depth of 37.5 m (123 ft), while another was sunk to 49.4 m(162 ft), at that time a record pylon depth for the Southern Hemisphere.
In late 1936 a Fijian workman, hit by a moving bucket, fell to his death 30.5 m( 100 ft) inside one of the pylon casings. His body was recovered but only with great difficulty.
The sinking of the pylons was completed in March 1937, the structural work in early May, and the roadway laid in tome for the opening of the bridge on June 12, 1937, by the Governor, Sir Arthur Richards. The opening of the bridge left only the Navua- Sigatoka road to be completed to create a highway around Viti Levu.
The Nausori bridge was thus 40 years old last year. It has certainly seen plenty of service, withstood a multitude of floods, and served an outstanding apprenticeship on Fiji’s mightiest river.
Just before the ribbon was cut. The view from Mission Hill 79 YESTERDAY
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
PEOPLE Whoever succeeds Mahe Tupouniua as director of the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Co-operation (SPEC), will have a hard furrow to hoe.
Mahe, who has run SPEC since it was created by the South Pacific Forum in 1972, gave it guts and ideas for all sorts of schemes designed to lift the Forum members’ living standards, and gave the South Pacific Commission a few headaches, stealing their thunder and taking over some of their projects. Now Tonga has recalled him. Before going to SPEC he was the kingdom’s finance minister, the first commoner to hold a portfolio, and he has been sorely missed. It’s not so long since some of the higher-ups in Tonga grumbled out loud about his long absence. So, as a loyal Tongan, he’s going back home. The Forum is advertising widely for a replacement but putting a period to the terms of engagement three years.
Mahe’s wife is sister to the Queen Consort of Tonga.
Dr Ako Toua of Papua New Guinea has “gone home” to Fiji as his country’s high commissioner. His links with Fiji are very close. He graduated from the Fiji School of Medicine in 1962 and is married to a Fiji girl from Vanua Levu.
Before joining the PNG Foreign Affairs Department this year, he had held several senior appointments, including Director of Health and Commissioner of the PNG Electricity Commission. He and his wife have four sons.
Senator Neville Bonner, the only Aborigine in the Australian Senate, had a few things to say about the premier of the state he represents in the Australian Parliament, Queensland, when he visited Port Morseby in July. Early in his senatorial career Neville Bonner earned himself a lot of criticism among Aborigines for his apparent willingness to go along with his Liberal Party’s policies toward his people. But with a few years in the Senate under his belt Senator Bonner these days is far less ready to toe the line of either his party, or that of his party’s allies, the variously named Country, National-Country or National Party. In Port Moresby Senator Bonner accused Premier Bjelke-Petersen of hypocrisy over the proposed Australian- Papua New Guinea settlement of the Torres Strait dispute.
Saying he totally supported the Torres agreement. Senator Bonner said that while Mr Bjelke-Petersen was championing the cause of Torres Strait Islanders who disagreed with the settlement, he had never at any time offered them true freedom.
What Senator Bonner didn’t say, what Mr Bjelke-Petersen would never dream of admitting, and what Australian Foreign Affairs Department officials would privately concede, is that Australia has come out of the Torres dispute very well; Some observers are surprised that Papua New Guinea has settled for an ‘international’ boundary which barely differs from the status quo, a seabed resources line which is much less than they asked for and a swimming fisheries resources line which is far from generous. Australia would be well advised to wrap up the agreement before Port Moresby changes its mind.
Allan Taki, winner of a recent by-election for the Solomon Islands House of Assembly seat of West Kwara’ae on Malaita, will bring some colour and custom to the Assembly meetings.
He believes that it is his duty to represent the Solomons people as they are, not as European copies complete with suit, shoes, collar and tie.
His shorts, however, are very much in the western-style. Mr Taki appeared like this at most of the independence functions in Honiara. Another minister, Waita Ben, Minister for Agriculture, went barefooted at most of the functions including the visit to the Agriculture Department offices by the Duke of Gloucester. Photo: SI Information.
Waving palms and tropical sunsets, no matter how superb, will never sell the South Pacific to the hard-headed businessmen of Europe. But a combination of Karl-Heinz von Stellmach’s movie photography and running commentaries in Germany by Gilberts-bom Aborina, Karl-Heinz’ wife, are proving a hit. Aborina is pictured in the process of showing another of her husband’s films about the Pacific to a gathering of German businessmen. Bom on Tarawa, Aborina was described by one businessman as the finest unpaid ambassador the Pacific has in Europe.
When you’re the King of Tonga your birthday can last four days. It did this year, anyway, when King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV celebrated his sixtieth birthday. Flying in for the July event was an all-star cast including the likes of President Hammer Deßoburt of Nauru, Ratu Sir George Cakobau, Governor-General of Fiji, Ratu William Toganivalu and Sir Josua Rabukawaqa representing the Fiji Government, Geoffrey Henry of the Cook Islands, Togia Viviani of Niue and Tom Koraea of Papua New Guinea.
The bells of the Centenary Church, Nukualofa, called the people of Tonga to a combined Asi Eikini, Western Samoa Minister for Economic Affairs and Development, has acquired his second matai title.
At Safotulafai he was given the title of namulauulu, one of the several top ranking orator titles in the district. He is now in his second term in parliament as representative for Safotulafai.
Above; Aborina Stellmach; below: Allan Taki
thanksgiving service on the Sunday, supplementary services being held in towns and villages across the nation.
Monday saw military displays by detachments of the army, navy, police and royal guards followed in the afternoon by a variety of sporting events. In the evening the Dateline Hotel was the venue for a royal ball culminating in the cutting of a gigantic cake by the King’s tiny, sleepy, only granddaughter.
Tuesday, the actual birthday, began with an 8 am flag-raising ceremony followed by official calls on the King at the palace.
At 1 pm 1000 guests, assembled in the palace grounds, valiantly failed to eat their way through endless offerings of Tongan delicacies.
On Wednesday the emphasis was back on sport: offshore races under sail and power, basketball and rugby union. In the early evening the Indian Cultural Group from Suva gave a recital of Indian music, dancing and singing.
Politics in Papua New Guinea as three ex-ministers have been reminded in recent byelections is a tough game.
Three former ministers Sir Maori Kiki, former deputy prime minister, Mr Patterson Lowa, former police minister, and Mr Gavera Rea, former labour minister all failed in recent by-elections in Port Moresby to regain seats in parliament (PIM, Aug).
Now Sir Maori has announced his retirement from public life.
At 47, Sir Maori has been around a long time and it’s difficult to think of PNG politics without him. Political observers before last year’s general election felt he was unwise to challenge the charismatic Miss Josephine Abaijah for the National Capital District seat.
Indeed, the Papua Besena leader handsomely thrashed the then deputy prime minister. It is also thought that, had Sir Maori tackled the Northeast seat last year he would have had no difficulty in winning it. As it turned out in the by-election, a vigorous, foot-slogging campaign by Besena candidate Dr Goasa Damena earned him just enough votes to keep Sir Maori out.
Tonga’s capital, Nukualofa, has seen much pageantry but none so holy as the array of some of Rome’s upper crust, a covey of archbishops and bishops, along with clerics of the lower ranks. They were there with 5000 other people to celebrate the silver jubilee, as a bishop, of Bishop John Hubert Macy Rodgers, a New Zealander and one of the bestknown religious figures in the South Pacific.
Bishop Rodgers, who is now assistant bishop to Bishop Mackey of Auckland taught for 12 years at St John’s Catholic School on Tongatapu after his ordination in New Zealand in 1940. In 1953 he became Vicar Apostolic in Tonga and, with the establishment of a hierarchy in the Islands in the 19605, Bishop of Tonga. He was ‘translated’ (a word used for a bishop shift) to Rarotonga.
His successor. Bishop Patrick Finau, who was at the celebration, was a pupil at St John’s School (then called St Peter Chanel’s) along with another youth. John Foliaki.
To further their education.
Bishop Rodgers (then a priest) sent them to New Zealand and they stayed with Bishop Rodgers’ sister. Later, they were both ordained priest by the bishop.
Their reunion was a highlight of the jubilee celebrations which began with a kava ceremony, then a jubilee mass, and ended with a massive feast and a dancing display.
Papua New Guinea’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Frederick Reiher, seemed to be taking a sideswipe at the Western churches’ propensity to maintain a state of Christian disunity when he addressed a public rally organised by the PNG Church Partnership. The unlikely venue was Knightsbridge, London. In attendance were no fewer than one archbishop and four bishops from PNG. Mr Reiher, among other things, said: “In these days when the columns of The Times newspaper are taken up with sharply contrasting views on the criticism directed at the statement made by a member of the Royal Family (Prince Charles had earlier indirectly criticised Papal attitudes to the Vienna marriage of Prince Michael of Kent to Austrian Baroness Marie-Christine von Reibnitz, touching off Anglican-Roman Catholic controversy Ed, PIM), it is gratifying to address representatives of churches in Papua New Guinea where controversy by and large has not boiled over into acrimony and the state of the churches which you represent reflects goodwill and mutal respect.”
Mr Reiher thanked those churches “which have contributed so much both spiritually and materially to our country for nearly nine decades”. Later, on a damp London summer day, Mr Reiher (third from left) was pictured with the PNG church leaders (from left); Bishop Rhynold Sanana, Bishop Bevan Meredith, Archbishop David Hand, Bishop Jeremy Ashton and Bishop George Ambo.
The reunion - Bishop Finau (left), Bishop Rodgers and Fr Foliaki. - Photo: Tonga Chronicle.
PNG High Commissioner Reiher and church friends 81
Pacific Islands Monthly - September. 1978
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Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
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Write to us for specialist PNG’s birds through a lens - patiently Those who do not know or have only a slight aquaintance with the birds of Papua New Guinea will welcome this beautifully-produced book. It does not pretend to be a handbook or a field guide/but presents, with an informative text, a cameo of the birdlife of PNG’s islands which are so rich in avifauna.
Papua New Guinea, with a land mass only a fraction that of Australia, boasts almost a hundred species more birds, including such avian celebrities as the birds of paradise. Of this family there are a number of outstanding photographs, including several plates of the Raggiana which must be some of the best ever taken of this bird.
But it is not only in its photographs that the book excels. All the illustrations show the work of a talented and patient photographer. As with a number of the country’s species, there is no regular nesting season. Any bird photographer will appredate the time and devotion required to photograph a bird when it is not possible to adopt the tried method of setting up a hide at a nest, If this sounds too adulatory, it could be that the reviewer’s practical experience of Papua New Guinea birds, having, been gained during a brief visit some years ago following somewhat cursory observations during war service, does not qualify him to comment on any shortcomings that may be apparent to the expert. However it is to be remembered that the greater readership of this book will be among those outside the islands, with knowledge similar to or less than my own. It will present to them a fine picture of all the birds Brian Coates has chosen to portray and it will stimulate an interest in people who may be only casual birdwatchers.
The book often touches on the rather sombre facts about the future of these magnificent birds but does not overaccentuate them. Increasing population pressures, destruction of habitat, and human persecution for food and ornament, has put many of the species in jeopardy.
Perhaps this book may make some of the people who can do something to preserve these birds more conscious of the need to do this. It is to be hoped BOOKS that in future it will still be possible to see in the field the birds so well portrayed in Brian Coates’ book. — J. J. FRAN- CIS, New South Wales Field Ornithologists Club.
BIRDS IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA. By Brian J. Coates, Published by Robert Brown and Associates, Port Moresby, 1977.
A warm but critical view of the Gilbertese If a summary of the Gilbertese character, written about 40 years ago by a French Roman Catholic missionary still holds good, then one may well wonder what the future holds for the Gilbert Islands, due to become independent in a few months.
The missionary, Father Ernest Sabatier, sums up both the strengths and the weaknesses of the Gilbertese in his book Sous VEquateur du Pacifique which has just been published in English under the title. Astride the Equator: An Account of the Gilbert Islands.
He says; ‘lt’s useless to ask whether the Gilbertese is lazy.
He has no idea about making up his mind or organising his life ... In fact he is like a child in that he needs constant direction and instructions. The renewing of thatching has become a government task, for left to himself the Gilbertese would be quite happy with a hut or dugout where he would sleep with his feet sticking out.’
Elsewhere, he says: The Gilbertese worker has no balance in his day between rest and doing his job. If he feels like a break, a rest or a siesta then he simply takes it ... Planting babai, catching fish, making up a sack of copra are all tasks which can be done tomorrow ... or in a month’.
Sabatier’s book consists of two separate parts, the first being a detailed account of life and customs in the Gilberts, the second a history of the Sacred Heart Mission during its first half century in those islands.
The book was written to celebrate the mission’s jubilee in 1938. Sabatier had then spent about 25 years in the Gilberts. As the book was written in French, it has been inaccessible to most English-speaking readers until now.
The English translation is brilliantly done by Ursula Nixon, who spent three years in the Gilberts in the 1970s.
While blunt in his criticism of the Gilbertese with respect to certain European-oriented and appreciated daily tasks, Sabatier is quick to point out that the Gilbertese is not a Brian Coates’ view of the New Guinea eagle, one of the world’s largest and a true forest bird. 83
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
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On the credit side, Sabatier describes the life and conditions of the Gilbertese with great understanding, warmth and sympathy. He shows that the lot of the Gilbertese was not an easy one when he was writing, for the islands were extremely poor in resources and with few home comforts.
Sabatier’s love for and sympathy with the Gilbertese is manifest. After weighing up the strengths and weaknesses of these islanders, he concludes that in them one can sense something ‘very humane, sensible and polite, dating from the distant past’.
Sabatier says at the beginning: ‘My intention in writing this book is to describe the Gilbertese people in particular . . .
Unfortunately they are not, as yet, united by the one true faith!’
At the time this was written, the ecumenical spirit of today was a long way off, and the rivalry and hostility between Protestant and Roman Catholic in the mission fields had been a fact of life since mission beginnings in the 19th century.
Sabatier’s crusading evangelical zeal is never far from the surface, but one tends to discount it in the face of his warm yet critical appreciation of the Gilbertese.
In the first part of the book, Sabatier describes with real feeling the environment of the Gilbertese, their islands, the flora and fauna, the seas and the elements.
Astride the Equator also contains a comprehensive account of the myths, legends, beliefs and superstitions of the Gilbertese. For much of this; Sabatier gives due acknowledgement to Sir Arthur Grimble as his source.
Sabatier the missionary shines through at times, though, especially where magic and sorcery are concerned.
Satan is blamed for all the unpleasant supernatural phenomena — Darrell Tryon (ASTRIDE THE EQUATOR: AN ACCOUNT OF THE GIL- BERT ISLANDS. Translated by Ursula Nixon from Sous I’Equaleur du Pacifique by Ernest Sabatier.
Oxford University Press. Melbourne. SA23.50.) 85
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
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The Party’S Over
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Belt Says Mara
A tough November budget seems likely in Fiji. Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara has warned that slow growth in government revenue will certainly mean tighter government spending and perhaps increased taxation.
Ratu Sir Kamisese said that in the years since independence the government had been very gentle on the taxation front. However, in the past four or five years during which Fiji had gone through a difficult time, direct taxes had grown at a slower than anticipated rate, job opportunities were less and private investment had fallen.
To counter these trends, the government, since 1974, had deliberately expanded its investment programme to fill the gaps left by private investment, said Ratu Sir Kamisese.
This policy had enabled Fiji to weather the economic storm with little discomfort.
Large sums had been invested in rural development.
Good progress had been achieved in some areas of agriculture and sugar, and pine forests had become a large industry. Expansion was planned for the fishing industry. Other large government projects included the Suva- Nadi highway and the Nadrau hydro-electricity project. This kind of government investment had helped counter the drop in the private sector labour market.
An area in which Ratu Sir Kamisese would like to see more development is rice growing. It was important, he said as he has so often done in the past for Fiji to increase local food output and cut back on imports. Fiji had the climate and resources to grow most of its own food, he said.
What Fiji needed, said Ratu Sir Kamisese, was “reawakening because toil, goodwill, hard work and perseverance are essential ingredients of nation building”.
A day or two later came another warning to expect some belt-tightening. The Finance Minister, Mr Charles Stinson, said there would have to be a “breathing space” in the government’s social service budgets for the next two years.
Government departments would have to contribute to moves to tighten expenditure and the people would have to decide how much they were prepared to contribute toward the services they demanded, said Mr Stinson.
Fiji, he said, was “extremely well-off’ by world standards but greater productivity was needed for the country to hold its ground.
BRIEFLY • Fiji has reached agreement with a number J Pacific , slands , them with ~J t , ™gar. but the new quotas and P nces have not been announced. The previous agreement entered into for the su PPty of su § ar has been extended to 1982. • Levers Pacific Timbers Ltd 0 f Ringi Cove, Kolombangara marked independence for the Solomon Islands by the donation of $5 worth of equipment and books to Honiara Technical Institute . •,.. , , t The gift included a heavy duty floor crane from ran ? e °, f eqittpment for the institute s diesel fuel injection re P a * r workshop and a comprehensive collection of text books on building, electrical, commercial and engineering subjects. 86
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
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CRUISING YACHTS • SOLO, the 17.3 metre steel yawl, which took yachtsman, navigator and author David Lewis to the Antarctic at the end of 1977, is up for sale. At present, it’s on research and survey work in Torres Strait skippered by Dr Lewis’ son Barry, but by September it will be at the Neutral Bay marina, Sydney. Solo was acquired by the Lewis team 18 months ago for $6O 000, having been surveyed only a short time before.
Any takers? • FRUITION, 9.1 m sloop registered in Auckland, arrived at Rarotonga from Auckland on June 14 with skipper R. G.
Thornbury and one crew member. They left for Papeete via Aitutaki on June 21. • MANDOLIN WIND owned by Canadian Fred Lanauze, went aground on Namalata Reef, Kadavu, late in June.
Lanauze with his crew, Australian Paul Burns, 25, and American Don Cole, 24, managed to refloat the yacht and, with the help of villagers from nearby Driu, get it on to the beach. As the propeller was damaged they considered it would be necessary to have the Mandolin Wind towed to Suva for repairs. • MORSKOUL II sailed from Norfolk Island in early July bound for Auckland, then France. Calling into Norfolk from New Caledonia, Morskoul II had rudder damage which was repaired before it continued. • ULYSSES, 26.3 m motor yacht was a July visitor to Suva. Owned by Keith Williams, managing director of Seaworld, of Surfers Paradise, Queensland, it is equipped with a wide variety of navigation aids. On board were three qualified masters, including the owner. Apart from cruising, the Ulysses is used for research and collecting specimens for a marine park owned by Mr Williams. • NIHO, 8 metre Canadian sloop arrived at Rarotonga on June 17 from Raiatea with Gary and Kay Urwin. Their voyage started from Montreal in August 1976 and took them down the eastern seaboard of the US, then to the Bahamas and Caribbean Islands. After spending the hurricane season in Puerto Rico they passed through the Panama Canal and called at the Galapagos and French Polynesian islands. They left Rarotonga on June 25 for Niue, Tonga, Fiji and New Zealand. • PASSING CLOUD. 20.1 m schooner-rigged timber fishing vessel registered in Victoria, BC, arrived at Rarotonga from Papeete on June 18 bound for Hawaii. On board were owner-captain Brian Walker, his wife Dora, and daughter Tara. Their cruise started from Victoria, BC, on December 4, and they spent two months in San Diego and Mexican ports. • AQUILON 11, 9 4 m Canadian sloop registered in Montreal, arrived at Rarotonga on June 23 from Tubuai with single-hander D. Trickey. • ODYSSEY, a New Zealand-owned trimaran, was wrecked in Cakaulevu Reef, about 50 km east of Kabara in Fiji’s Lau Islands. The Fiji Government ship, Kaunitoni, rescued the captain and crew, and salvaged the engine. The captain, Craig Hunter, of Auckland, said he had no intention of salvaging the Odyssey, worth about $2O 000. The Odyssey had set out from Auckland two weeks earlier and had run into bad weather all the way. For more than a week the crew worked in shifts to bail water out of one of the cracked pontoons. The Odyssey was 255 km off course when it struck the reef.
After grounding, the crew sent out a distress call which was picked by an Air Pacific aircraft which directed the Kaunitoni to the scene. With Hunter as crew were Richard Taylor, David Ward, Raymond Keys, Keith and Morris Johnston and Barbara Balderstone. 87
Pacific Islands Monthly - September. 1978
A Little Flyer
Buzzes Two
Pacific Bullies
The attitudes of Australia and New Zealand in civil aviation and shipping “often had little basis in logic or morality”, said Western Samoa’s Prime Minister Tupuola Efi in a speech of welcome in Apia to the South Pacific Regional Aviation Council.
He appealed strongly to larger nations to take into consideration the problems of the smaller. “The gut of the issue is that we are small,” he said.
“We have to define the rules as we see them to protect our interests.” The Prime Minister gave chapter and verse to back his charges. • Western Samoa wanted to take up its agreed right to operate two flights a week to Auckland but New Zealand was giving his country the “run-around”, and “selling it short”. • Western Samoa had asked Australia to drop its objections to Continential Airlines flving across the Pacific. Five or six additional flights through the South Pacific by Continental would bring considerable spinoffs to smaller countries in the region. In Western Samoa’s case, they could mean the difference between life and death for its hotel and tourist industry- He said he was not asking Australia to throw in the towel, but only to take some account of his country’s interests. “If regional co-operation is to mean anything, the larger countries have to take into account the views and concerns of the smaller,” he said. • Western Samoa’s Faleolo airport was built, on the advice of foreign experts, to take Boeing 7375. Then, again on foreign expert advice, his country had been told tht there were a host of technical reasons why a Boeing 737 could not land there. But, in the final analysis, when it was decided in 1978, after seven years of waiting, to proceed, the technical objections disappeared.
“We wonder if we have been sold short somewhere along the line here too,” Tupuola said. • Most Island countries can only offer one airport when negotiating with other countries. It was ironic that when some countries fly to the South Pacific from several exit points at home, the Island countries are allowed access to only one entry point in return.
The Prime Minister said: “In a strict sense, of course, the position of the larger countries is correct. But the other fellow also has a basic right. We need to define a new morality so that the smaller countries have a role in making the rules.”
The meeting was attended by transport ministers of 11 countries and chaired by President Hammer Deßoburt of Nauru. Its main theme was a proposal for the formation of a South Pacific Regional Airlines Association, similar to regional airline associations in other parts of the world.
The meeting recommended the setting up of such an association, which should initially concern itself with standardisation of equipment used in the region, rationalisation of schedules and tariffs, pooling of resources, and joint marketing.
The meeting was the third held by the aviation council, Earlier, an almost identical group of representatives had taken part in the sixth session of the South Pacific Regional Shipping Council.
Jaundiced eyes on Air Niugini’s grand plans Honolulu, Jakarta, cruise boats, another Boeing 707, another F-28 just a few ideas being tossed around the boardroom in Air Niugini House, Port Moresby. They’re enough to give the bureaucrats in the Finance Department in Waigani, just over the hill, an attack of vertigo. But, as Air Niugini manager, Bryan Grey, says, “airlines cannot mark time they have to grow to survive.”
That Air Niugini is surviving, and growing, is evident in passenger traffic figures released for the six month period to last June. International figures showed an overall passenger traffic lift of 7%, despite Philippine Airlines decision to begin operations on the Manila-Port Moresby route.
The big lift in international loadings came on the Kagoshima (southwestern Japan) to Port Moresby hop 34.6%. F-28 Fellowship jet services from Port Moresby to neighbouring Honiara in Solomon Islands and Caims in northern Queensland also showed a big rise in passenger traffic. Honiara passengers jumped from 1749 to 2227 (27.33%) and Cairns loadings were up from 5514 to 6973 (26.4%).
Overall, domestic passenger traffic improved from 170 713 to 199 859 (17.1%). The fastest growth areas were Popondetta 4026 to 5431 (34.9%), Mount Hagen 7695 to 10 315 (34.05%), Madang 10 334 to 13 767 (33.22%), Wewak 7350 to 9430 (28.3%) and Gurney 2745 to 3509 (27.83%). Traffic at Port Moresby rose from 55 805 to 64 458 (15.51%). Only Lae, with traffic operating out of Nadzab, 40 kilometres up the Markham Valley, showed a poor growth rate 4.16%.
Mr Grey, claiming that third level airlines were pirating traffic out of Lae, said it was ridiculous that “parallel services should be permitted to dilute the performance 0f... a nationally-owned enterprise.
Figures like these would appear to warrant a green light for development. But Air Niugini’s last major expansionary move to buy F-28s from Air Nauru didn’t get through without a dogfight involving the Finance Department and the National Planning Office (NPO), both receiving support from certain politicians on the government benches.
There’s no reason to think it will be plain sailing this time when Air Niugini in theory a statutory body but in practice extremely subject to the whims of the bureaucracy moves toward acquiring one more Boeing 707 and one more F-28.
The F-28 will be the easier of the two. So successful have the first two been that Minister for Transport Bruce Jephcott told Parliament earlier this year that domestic jet services would be extended to five more centres Dam in Western Prime Minister Tupuola Efi - sold short somewhere? 88
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
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Ultimately the F-28s will be going into Goroka which is at the moment under investigation by the Civil Aviation Agency and Rabaul. Clearly, the present fleet of two F-28s cannot cope with this burden.
It was hoped to have the third F-28 in service by November but there was a lot of talking still to be done last month. NPO officials were believed to be pushing the line that flying is ‘elitist’, air fares should go up and fast coastal commuter vessels should be introduced instead.
It’s the Boeing 707 which is likely to seriously strain Air Niugini-Public Service relations. While Air Niugini are saying nothing about looking for another Boeing, it’s clear they will need one if the airline’s application for rights to fly into Hawaii is approved by the US. American sources last month said there had been no reaction so far from Washington.
It is understood that Air Niugini’s quid pro quo would be rights into Port Moresby from Guam for an American airline with both Air Niugini and the American operator flying both routes in the long term.
The Honolulu link would give Air Niugini the opportunity to take up another option a Port Moresby- Jakarta service, a route on which Indonesia’s Garuda would be unlikely to take up its reciprocal rights for some time to come. Air Niugini officials are confident both the passenger and freight traffic would justify the Port Moresby- Honolulu route.
What they ought to be worried about is the impression the American tourist is likely to take away after a tour of Papua New Guinea. Both the airlines and hotel industry must combine to get down the cost of a Papua New Guinea holiday.
The hotel industry must work harder to get the standard of its service up. There are exceptions, but generally service in Papua New Guinea hotels is casual to the point of irritation.
Which leads to the cruise vessel concept. It’s a bold idea.
If it is to work it’s got to be good and reasonably-priced.
Are there any accommodation industry operators ready to take up the challenge? Air Niugini thinking envisages flysail-fly holidays on a domestic and international scale. If an enterprising entrepreneur is ready to launch a cruise vessel, Air Niugini is ready to handle the marketing side.
The international scenario is basically this. Tourists fly into Port Moresby and are taken to Madang where they board a comfortably-appointed oceangoing cruise vessel bound for a variety of ports to, say, Noumea or Vila. Holidaymakers could get off along the way, depending on how much time they have available, to catch flights back to the nearest international airport.
The domestic vision is a coastal cruise vessel picking up Air Niugini passengers at Popondetta in the Northern Province and dropping them off at Alotau, just down the coast, where an aircraft would be waiting to take them back to Port Moresby.
It all sounds very nice. Probably it won’t all happen. But, if airlines which don’t expand go under. Air Niugini’s fertile imagination is going to do it no harm at all.
Air Niugini’s Mr Bryan Grey airlines can’t mark time 89 TRANSPORT
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
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Norfolk Is
Compagnie des Chargeurs Caledoniens operates four-weekly cargo service Sydney - Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island.
Details Hetherington Kingsbury Pty Ltd, 37-49 Pitt Street, Sydney (27-1671).
SYDNEY - NZ - FIJI - HAWAII -
Canada - Us
P & O liners call at Auckland, Suva, Honolulu and Vancouver on eastbound and westbound voyages between Sydney and the US.
Details from P & O Booking Centre, World Travel Headquarters Pty Ltd, 33 Bligh Street, Sydney (231 -6655).
Australia - Nz - Fiji - Tonga
N. Hebrides - Noumea - Png
Solomons-Samoas
Sitmar Cruises operates a yearround cruise programme to include most of the above countries.
Details from Sitmar Cruises, 47 Elizabeth Street, Sydney (232-7511).
Royal Viking Line, with first-class cruise ships Royal Viking Star, Royal Viking Sky and Royal Viking Sea, cruises the Pacific from Sydney and Cairns calling at a variety of Pacific and Asian ports.
Details from Wilh, Wilhelmsen Agency Pty Ltd, 13-15 Bridge Street, Sydney (2-0517).
P & O liners call at Apia, Auckland, Bay of Islands, Honiara, Lautoka, Noumea, Nukualofa, Pago Pago, Papeete, Port Moresby, Santo, Savusavu, Suva, Vavau and Vila on cruises from Australia.
Details from P & O Booking Centre World Travel Headquarters Pty Ltd, 33 Bligh Street,-Sydney (231-6655).
AUSTRALIA - FIJI - SAMOAS -
Tonga - Norfolk Island
Pacific Navigation of Tonga operates a five-weekly refrigerated general cargo/container service from Sydney and Brisbane, to Suva, Lautoka, Apia, Pago Pago, Nukualofa and Norfolk Island.
Details from Beaufort Shipping Agency Co, 2 Castlereagh Street, Sydney (221-2388).
Australia-Newcaledonia
(And/Or) New Hebrides
Daiwa Line operates a container service from Sydney to the New Hebrides.
Details: Union Bulkships Pty Ltd, 333-339 George Street, Sydney (2-0238).
Karlander operates a monthly service from Sydney to Noumea.
Details from Karlander (Aust) Pty Ltd, 19-31 Pitt Street, Sydney (27-6301).
Sofrana-Unilines ships serve Noumea every three weeks from the main ports along the east Australian coast.
Details from Sofrana-Unilines, 37 Pitt Street, Sydney (27-2031), Trans-Austral Shipping Pty Ltd, 570 Bourke Street, Melbourne (67-9162), ACTA Pty Ltd, Brisbane (221-3116), Elders-ANL Pty Ltd, Port Adelaide (47-5688), ANL, Newcastle (049-24364), Clements & Marshall, Burnie, Tasmania (31-1833).
Compagnie des Chargeurs Caledoniens operates a threeweekly containerised cargo service from Sydney to Noumea.
Details Hetherington Kingsbury Pty Ltd, 37-49 Pitt Street, Sydney (27-1671).
Compagnie Generate Maritime operates a monthly service from Sydney to Noumea, Port Vila and Santo, using Ro-Ro vessels.
Details Compagnie Generate Maritime Head Office 4-6 Bligh Street, Sydney (221 -2522), Freight Dept, 261 George Street, Sydney (241-2872).
Australia - Fiji
Karlander (Aust) Pty Ltd operates monthly cargo services from Sydney to Suva and Lautoka.
Details from Karlander (Aust) Pty Ltd, 19-31 Pitt Street, Sydney (27-6301), Dalgety Shipping, 461 Bourke Street. Melbourne (60-0731), Burns Philp (SS) Co Ltd, Suva and Lautoka.
Sofrana-Unilines (Fiji Express Line) operates to Suva and Lautoka every three weeks from the main ports on the east coast of Australia and monthly to Lautoka from Melbourne and Sydney.
Details from Sofrana-Unilines, 37 Pitt Street, Sydney (27-2031), Trans-Austral Shipping Pty Ltd, 570 Bourke Street, Melbourne (67-9162), ACTA Pty Ltd, Brisbane (221-3116), Elder-ANL Pty Ltd, Port Adelaide (47-5688), ANL, Newcastle (049-24364), Clements & Marshall, Burnie, Tasmania (31-1833).
Australia - W Samoa
Compagnie Generate Maritime operates a monthly service from Sydney to Apia, using Ro-Ro vessels.
Details Compagnie Generate Maritime Head Office 4-6 Bligh Street, Sydney (221-2522) Freight Dept 261 George Street, Sydney (241-2872).
AUSTRALIA - FIJI -
Samoas- Tonga
Pacific Forum Line operates a container, unitised/palletised and reefer cargo service from Melbourne and Sydney to Lautoka, Suva, Pago Pago, Apia and Nukualofa. Other ports are included on inducement.
Details from ANL Melbourne and Brisbane, Union Bulkships, Sydney, Hobart, Port Adelaide and Fremantle, Burns Philp (SS) Company Ltd, GPO Box 355, Suva, Fiji (311-777) or Pacific Forum Line, PO Box 655, Apia, W Samoa. 91
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
ISLANDS TRANSPORT LINE
Ms Camellia Venture
Express Freight Service between Pacific Coast Ports of U.S.A. and...
Tahiti 6 Samoa
Papeete - Apia - Pago Pago
Full container service including reefers.
GENERAL STEAMSHIP CORPORATION LTD.
General Agents 400 California Street, San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
APIA: Bums Philp (South Sea) Company Ltd.
PAPEETE: Agence Maritime Internationale, Tahiti PAGO PAGO: Polynesia Shipping Services Inc.
NIUE
Cook Islands
TAHITI to and from
New Zealand
Regular service using pallet load ships TIARE MOANA and FETU MOANA. Refrigerated and general cargo between Auckland and Niue, Rarotonga, Aitutaki, Papeete. Other nearby ports by inducement.
Area Agents
Niue: Government Shipping Office, Alofi.
Cook Islands: Waterfront Commission, PO Box 61, Rarotonga.
Telex Shipping RG 2002 Tahiti: Agence Maritime et de Voyage, B P 131, Papeete.
Telex AMAV 251 FP The Shipping Corporation of New Zealand Limited Sea carrier to the nation AUCKLAND: Phone 379-430. PO Box 3420. Telex: NZ2822 WELLINGTON; Phone 728-500. PO Box 3344. Telex; NZ3495 CHRISTCHURCH: Phone 795-760. PO Box 777. Telex: 4434 DUNEDIN: Phone 76-076. PO Box 904 Telex; 5228. 1436 jJlsu Tliv Pacific Navigation of Tonga Limited
Serving The Pacific From Australia And New Zealand
NUKUALOFA:
Pacific Navigation •
OF TONGA LTD.
The Administrator •
Norfolk Island
SUVA, LAUTOKA, APIA,
Pago Pago Agents: •
Burns Philp
(S.S.) CO. LTD. f
Beaufort Shipping
G.P.O. Box 3988, - Sydney, N.S.W. • Australia.
Mckay Shipping Limited •
P.O. Box 1372, Auckland, New Zealand. #
Regular Sailings
Owned Tonnage
CONTAINERS FREEZER
Deep Tanks
Continuous Pre-Receiving
Hea Vy Lifts
92
Pacific Islands Monthly - September. 1978
PACIFIC FORUm Line
Owned By The People
Of The Pacific Islands
j/ar Monthly Liner Services from Australia and New Zealand to the South and Central Pacific FOR INFORMATION CONTACT AGENTS: AMERICAN SAMOA: Polynesian Shipping Services Inc. P.O. Box 1478, Pago Pago AUSTRALIA: The Australian National Line, 50 Queen Street, Melbourne.
Union Bulkships Pty.Ltd., 333-339 George Street, Sydney.
GILBERT ISLANDS: Gilbert Islands Shipping Corp. P.O. Box 495, Tarawa.
FIJI; Burns Philp South Sea Co. Ltd. GPO Box 355, Suva.
NEW CALEDONIA: ETS Ballande, BP. C 4, Noumea.
NEW HEBRIDES: Burns Philp New Hebrides Limited, Vila.
NEW ZEALAND: The Shipping Corp. of N.Z. Ltd. P.O. Box 3344, Wellington PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Steamships Trading Co. Ltd. P.O. Box 1, Port Moresby.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: Sullivans S.l. Ltd. GPO Box 3, Honiara.
TONGA: Union Steam Ship Co. P.O. Box 4, Nukualofa.
Rem Express Freight Service between U S. Pacific Coast Ports &
Papeete - Apia - Pago Pago
Full Container Service including Refrigeration
General Agents
Furness Interoce4N
465 CALIFORNIA STREET SAN FRANCISCO CA 94104 Cable INTERCQ) • TV9X 7350 • RCA 27S 207 • TEL (415) 398 2000 O # POLYNESIA LINE, LID.
AGENTS PAPEETE - MORGAN; Vernex Boite Postale 449, Papeete Phone: 309 Cables; MOREX PAGO PAGO ■ POLYNESIA SHIPPING SERVICES. INC.. Pago Pago Phone: 633-5169 Cables. POLYSHIP APIA - UNION S.S. CO., of N.Z. Ltd.. P.O. Box 50. Apia, Western Samoa Phone: 570 Cables. UNION
Australia - Northern
Marianas - Micronesia
Nauru Pacific Line operates a regular container service from Melbourne to Saipan, Truk, Ponape and Kosrai.
Details Nauru Pacific Line, Nauru House, 80 Collins Street, Melbourne (653-5709), Nedlloyd Swire, 8 Spring Street, Sydney (2-0522).
AUSTRALIA - TONGA -
Samoas - Tahiti
Karlander operates a monthly cargo service from Melbourne and Sydney to Nukualofa, Apia, Pago Pago, Papeete, US west coast.
Details: Karlander (Aust) Pty Ltd, 19-31 Pitt Street, Sydney (27-6301).
Australia - Tahiti
Daiwa Line offers a six-weekly service from Australia to Papeete.
Details: Union Bulkships Pty Ltd, 333-339 George Street, Sydney (2-0238).
Compagnie Generale Maritime operates a monthly service from Sydney to Papeete using Ro-Ro vessels.
Details Compagnie Generale Maritime Head Office 4-6 Bligh Street, Sydney (221-2522) Freight Dept 261 George Street, Sydney (241 -2872).
Australia - Png
Containers Pacific Express (Burns Philp and AWP Line) and NGAL/PNGL Operate chief Container Service from Australia to PNG-Solomon Islands ports on joint slot sharing basis. Three container vessels operate on 28-day turn-around from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane to Port Moresby, Lae, Rabaul, Kavieng, Wewak, Madang, Kieta and Honiara.
Details from Burns Philp & Co Ltd, 51 Pitt Street, Sydney (20-547) and Interocean Swire, 8 Spring Street, Sydney (2-0522).
Farrell Lines operates a service every month from Tasmania, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane to Lae and Rabaul.
Details from Wilh Wilhelmsen Agency Pty Ltd, 13 Bridge Street, Sydney (2-0517), 60 Market Street Melbourne (61-3031), J. C. Waller (Rabaul) Pty Ltd, Rabaul, Robert Laurie-Carpenter (NG) Pty Ltd, Lae.
New Guinea Express Lines operates three-weekly conventional and container services Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Port Moresby, Lae, Rabaul, Alotau.
Details from New Guinea Express Lines, PC Box R 73, Royal Exchange PC, Sydney (241 -3991) MacArthur Shipping Agency Co, 82-92 Eagle Street, Brisbane (229-3777), New Guinea Express Lines, 327 Collins Street, Melbourne (61 -3053), Niugini Express Lines in Port Moresby (214436), Lae (42-1536), Rabtrad Niugini Pty Ltd. Rabaul (92-2911).
Karlander New Guinea Line’s cargo vessels call at Melbourne, Sydney, Port Moresby, Lae, Madang, Wewak, Manus, Kimbe, Rabaul.
Details from Karlander (Aust) Pty Ltd, 19-31 Pitt Street, Sydney (27-6301), Dalgety Shipping, 461 Bourke Street Melbourne (60-0731).
AUSTRALIA - SOLOMONS -
Gilbert Is - Micronesia
Daiwa Line operates a container service every 30 days from Sydney to Honiara, Kieta, Tarawa and Guam. Gizo cargoes transhipped at Honiara, Saipan, Majuro, cargoes transhipped at Guam.
Details from Union-Bulkships Pty Ltd, 333-339 George Street, Sydney (2-0238, telex AA20397).
AUSTRALIA - NAURU - MAJURO Nauru Pacific Line operates regular cargo/passenger service from Melbourne to Nauru and Majuro.
Details Nauru Pacific Line, Nauru House, 80 Collins Street, Melbourne (653-5709), Nedlloyd Swire, 8 Spring Street, Sydney (2-0522) US - PNG Farrell Lines operates regular services from all US west coast ports to Lae and Rabaul.
Details from Wilh, Wilhelmsen Agency Pty Ltd, 13 Bridge Street, Sydney (2-0517), Farrell Lines, 1 Market Plaza, San Francisco. L.A. (9-4105). J. C. Waller (Rabaul) Pty Ltd, Rabaul, Burns Philp (NG) Ltd, Kieta, Robert Laurie-Carpenter (PNG) Pty Ltd. Lae.
PNG - US - CANADA Farrell Lines operates regular services from Lae and Rabaul to US west coast ports and Vancouver.
Details from J. G. Waller (Rabaul) Pty Ltd, Rabaul, Robert Laurie-Carpenter (PNG) Pty Ltd, Lae, Farrell Lines, 1 Market Plaza, San Francisco, L.A. (9-4105), Wilh, Wilhelmsen Agency Pty Ltd, 13 Bridge Street, Sydney (2-0517).
NORTH EUROPE - TAHITI -
New Caledonia
Hamburg-Sued operates monthly cargo services from Hamburg, Dunkirk and Le Havre to Papeete, Noumea, via Panama.
Details from Columbus Overseas Services Pty Ltd, 333 George Street, Sydney (290-2966), Columbus Maritime Services, 17 Albert Street, Auckland (75-509).
Europe - Pacific Islands
Compagnie Generale Maritime operates services from Europe and Mediterranean ports to Papeete and Noumea using three Ro-Ro and three multi-purpose vessels thus ensuring a bi-monthly sailing to and from.
Details Compagnie Generale Maritime, 4-6 Bligh Street, Sydney (221-2522).
EUROPE-TAHITI-W. SAMOA-
Fiji-N. Caledonia
Nedlloyd offers regular cargo services from Northern Europe and UK to Papeete, Apia, Fiji and New Caledonia.
Details Nedlloyd (Aust) Pty Ltd, 8 Spring Street, Sydney (27-3801).
JAPAN - GUAM - FIJI - TAHITI - SAMOA-N. CALEDONIA-
Solomons - Gilberts
Daiwa Lines runs a monthly cargo service from Japan via 93
Pacific Islands Monthly - September. 1978
o O
Global Service For Shippers
THE LINE i • Monthly Services United Kingdom and Continent to:
Papeete • Noumea • New Hebrides
Papau New Guinea And Solomon Islands
■* Papua New Guinea to:
North America • United Kingdom And Continent
Solomons - Fiji • Tonga • Samoa and Tarawa to:
United Kingdom And Continent
For particulars apply: THE BANK LINE (AUSTRALASIA) PTY. LTD. 18th Floor 1 York Street SYDNEY NSW 2000 Australia Tel: 272041 Telex: 24063 94
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, -1978
EX poßllM PACIO?
THE TO Breekwoldt & Co Pty Ltd Suite 1909, 19th Floor, King George Tower, Corner King & George Streets, Sydney.
G.P.O. Box 5027, Sydney 2001.
CABLES; 'BREWO' SYDNEY. TELEX: AA22890.
TELEPHONES: 233 2366, 232 2315, 233 1462.
Pacific Island Offices'
BRECKWOLDT & CO (PNG) PTY. LTD.
PO BOX 1549, BOROKO, PORT MORESBY.
PO BOX 222, RABAUL PO BOX 72, KIETA PO BOX 178, WEWAK PO BOX 185, MADANG PO BOX 237, MT. HAGEN PO BOX 1188, LAE BRECKWOLDT & CO., PO BOX 47, APIA BRECKWOLDT & CO. (SI) LTD. PO BOX 140, HONIARA BRECKWOLDT SARL BP 2369, NOUMEA OFFICES IN: HAMBURG LONDON MILAN
& West Africa
ALSO AT: SINGAPORE
Kuala Lumpur
BANGKOK
& Hong Kong
ENQUIRIES FROM OVERSEAS MANUFACTURERS INVITED.
Guam to Lautoka, Suva, Papeete, Pago Pago, Apia, Sydney, Noumea, Honiara, Tarawa, Guam.
Details from Burns Philp (SS) Co Ltd, Suva.
Nz - Fiji - Tonga - Samoas
Union Steam Ship Co of NZ operates a roll-on, roll-off, unitised service from Auckland to Lautoka- Suva-Pago Pago-Apia-Nuku’alofa on a 14 day frequency.
Details from Union Steam Ship Co of NZ Ltd, PO Box 12, Auckland or from Branch offices/agents in Fiji, Tonga and the Samoas.
NZ - N. CALEDONIA - N. HEBRIDES - PNG - SOLOMONS Sofrana Unilines with three ships operates to Vila and Santo, to Honiara and Papua New Guinea and to Noumea.
Details from Sofrana Unilines, 18 Customs Street, Auckland (773-279), PO Box 3614, Telex NZ2313.
NZ - AUSTRALIA - NEW CALEDONIA - SOLOMONS - GILBERTS - MICRONESIA Union Co/Daiwa Line operate a container service from New Zealand through Sydney to Noumea, Honiara, Tarawa and Guam, Transhipment to Saipan, Majuro and Gizo.
Details; Union Steam Ship Co of NZ Ltd, PO Box 12, Auckland, or Union Bulkships Pty Ltd, 333-339 George Street, Sydney, (2-0238).
NZ- PNG Farrell Lines operates regular service every 30 days from Auckland to Lae and Rabaul.
Details from Dalgety NZ Ltd, 41-45 Albert Street, Auckland (7-1859) J. C. Waller (Rabaul) Pty Ltd, Rabaul, Robert Laurie (NG) Pty Ltd, Lae.
Nz - Fiji - North America
(WC) Blue Star Line Crusader service to West Coast North America. Only direct service to and from New Zealand. Blue Star vessels call at Suva and Honolulu on NZ-US- West Coast voyage,s.
Details from Blueport ACT (NZ) Ltd, PO Box 192, Wellington (739-029), Burns Philp (SS) Co Ltd, GPO Box 355, Suva, Fiji (311-777).
NZ - FIJI Reef operates a regular 18-day service from Auckland to Suva and Lautoka.
Details from Reef Shipping Agencies Ltd, PO Box 3382, Auckland. NZ (7-1221-3).
Pacific Line with one ship operates monthly cargo service New Zealand, Lautoka, Suva.
Details: Sofrana Unilines, 18 Customs Street, Auckland (773-279) PO Box 3614, Telex; NZ2313.
NZ - FIJI - GILBERTS -
Solomons - Png
Pacific Forum Line operates a container, unitised/palletised and reefer cargo service from Lyttelton and Auckland to Lautoka, Suva, Tarawa, Honiara, Madang, Lae and Moresby. Other ports are included on inducement.
Details from Shipping Corporation of NZ Ltd, Auckland, Christchurch, Lyttelton, Wellington. Burns Philp (SS) Company Ltd, GPO Box 355, Suva, Fiji (311-777) or Pacific Forum Line, PC Box 655, Apia, W. Samoa NZ - FIJI - SAMOAS -
Tonga - Australia
Pacific Forum Line operates a container, unitised /palletised and reefer cargo service from Timaru and Auckland to Lautoka, Suva, Pago Pago, Apia, Nukualofa and Melbourne. Other ports are included on inducement.
Details from Shipping Corporation of NZ Ltd, Auckland, Christchurch, Lyttelton, Wellington, Burns Philp (SS) Company Ltd, GPO Box 355, Suva, Fiji (311-777) or Pacific Forum Line, PO Box 655, Apia, W. Samoa.
Nz- Samoa - Tonga
Pacific Navigation of Tonga operates a four-weekly cargo service, Auckland - Nukualofa - Pago Pago - Apia - Auckland.
Details from McKay Shipping Ltd, Downtown House, Queen Street, Auckland (33-656).
Warner Pacific Line services Onehunga - Nukualofa - Vavau fortnightly, and Timaru - Nukualofa - Vavau monthly and Onehunga - Apia and Pago Pago every 21 days carrying general and freezer cargoes and Timaru - Apia every 21 days carrying freezer cargo.
Details from Air Marine Services (NZ) Ltd, PO Box 2505, Auckland (796-841).
Png - Uk/Continent
Bank Line operates regular cargo service from Kieta, Rabaul, Kimbe, Madang and Lae to Liverpool, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Antwerp and London.
Details from Bank Line (A’asia) Pty Ltd, 1 York Street, Sydney (27-2041), Burns Philp (PNG) Ltd, PNG ports.
PNG - US Bank Line operates regular cargo service from Kieta, Rabaul, Kimbe, Madang and Lae direct to San Francisco: calls at US Gulf and East Coast ports on inducement.
Details from Bank Line (A’asia) Pty Ltd, 1 York Street, Sydney (27-2041); Burns Philp (PNG) Ltd, PNG ports.
SOLOMONS - FIJI - TONGA -
W. Samoa - Uk/Continent
Bank Line operates regular cargo service from Honiara, Suva, Nukualofa and Apia to Liverpool, Hamburg, Rotterdam and Antwerp.
Details from Bank Line (A’asia) Pty Ltd, 1 York Street, Sydney (27-2041); Burns Philp (SS) Co Ltd, Fiji, Tonga, W Samoa; Trading Co Honiara. 95
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
Mamma .
The South Seas Express.
The first regular roll-on roll-off express service between N.Z.and the .
The introduction of Marama to the Islands trade will enable exporters to greatly increase their export potential by providing faster, more frequent sailings as well as the greater cargo handling flexibility which a roll-on roll-off service can provide.
Departures every 14 days from Auckland to: Lautoka. Suva. Pago Pago Apia. Nukualofa 4 Nukualofa / X Co-ordinated transhipment facilities from other N.Z. centres Intermodal coastal roll-on roll-off services as well as rail and road services can be utilised by shippers in other New Zealand centres to take advantage of the new Marama schedule. Your nearest Union Company office can assist you in organising the most efficient transhipment method.
International Transhipment Facilities Flexibility in cargo modules catered by this new service can provide for shipping operators and exporters the advantage of reaching international markets using onforwarding services through Union Company contacts and expertise.
Additionally Union can also arrange for cargoes originating from overseas sources to be transhipped at ports covered by Marama' to their final destination to the benefit of the importer in New Zealand or the Islands. m.v. Marama Your new export incentive 6350 deadweight tonnes.
Mi JAle. f Capacity 340 seafreighter units or their equivalent, plus space for wheeled vehicles, livestock, etc.
Greater Flexibility Means a more satisfactory and versatile way to ship your consignment.
The following equipment is provided free to shippers Standard dry general cargo ISO containers 20' xB' x B'6" box container 20' x 8' x B'6''Opensided container.
Seafreighter Units For movement of general and bulk cargoes. (Internal) Length 13'9"(4.24M) width 7*6"(2 29M) height 5' (1.52 M) N B. Units are fully collapsible and open topped to facilitate loading cargoes in excess of 1.52 M height. A shower-proof cover is also provided free with every seafreighter.
Newsprint Flats These units are specifically designed for carriage of forest industry cargo but are also suitable for the carriage of other specified types of cargoes. (Internal) Length 15'6"(4.77M) Width 6' (1.830 M) W. Containers These containers are totally enclosed suitable for the movement of smaller consignments or valuable ones. (Internal) Length 5'7"(1.75M) Width 4' (1.22 M) Height 5'6"(1.70M) Unit Loads This covers cargo that is unable to be containerised or is not covered by the term mobile equipment .
These unit loadings must be of a secure nature to facilitate handling by a forklift with 5" gluts (loading forks).
Refrigerated Cargo The following containers will be available: Cold wrap containers 20' x 8' x 8' Integral containers 20' x 8' x B'6"
Livestock Livestock stalls are available for the carriage of all types of stock.
Wheeled Cargo The versatility of Marama means that all types of wheeled cargoes including cars, trucks, tractors, scrapers, machinery on mobile tracks, cranes, trailers etc can be catered for.
Hazardous Cargo The majority of hazardous cargoes will be accommodated on the vessels upper deck either in seafreighters, ISO containers or W. Containers. Full details are available on application. union compnnq n moving 96
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
o H V A/ o
In Our 84Th Year Selling ‘Service’
TO THE PACIFIC ISLANDS...
Nelson &Robert son PTY. LTD. (Established 1895) Plantation House, 197 Clarence Street, Sydney.
Cables: ‘IVAN 5 , Sydney, Brisbane. Telex: AA22381, Sydney.
FOR: INDENTS FOODSTUFFS SOFTGOODS HARDWARE MACHINERY SHIPPING TRAVEL INSURANCE
Real Estate
...FROM AUSTRALIA & OVERSEAS.
BRANCH OFFICES: Nelson & Robertson Pty. Ltd., 303 Adelaide Street, Brisbane, Qld.
Nelson & Robertson Pty. Ltd., P.O. Box 2092, Gout. Bldg., Suva, Fiji.
Nelson & Robertson Pty. Ltd., P. O. Box 258, Lautoka, Fiji,
Papua New Guinea
REPRESENTATIVES: Rabtrad Niugini Pty. Ltd.
RABAUL LAE MADANG KIETA Q
Far East - Fiji - New
ZEALAND New Zealand Unit Express (CNC, MNOL, RIL) operates a three-weekly cargo service from Hong Kong to Lautoka, Suva, NZ ports, Manila. Kaoshiung, Keelung, Hong Kong.
Details from Nedlloyd, 8 Spring Street, Sydney (2-0522).
Nedlloyd operates monthly cargo service with three ships from Surabaya, Jakarta, Bangkok, Port Kelang and Singapore to Suva and NZ ports.
Details from Nedlloyd (Aust) Pty Ltd, 8 Spring Street, Sydney (27-3801); Burns Philp (SS) Co Ltd, Suva and Lautoka.
JAPAN - NZ - PNG China Navigation Co, with three ships operates a monthly cargo service from Japan to New Zealand calling at Lae on return journey.
Details Nedlloyd, 8 Spring Street, Sydney (2-0522).
Far East - Mid-S. Pacific
China Navigation Co’s vessels operate a regular cargo service from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore to Rabaul, Wewak, Madang, Lae, Port Moresby, Honiara, New Hebrides, Noumea, Papeete and Samoa.
Details from Nedlloyd, 8 Spring Street, Sydney (2-0522).
Kyowa Shipping Co. Ltd, operates monthly services from Hong Kong, Taiwan, S. Korea and Japan, to Guam, Siapan, Solomons, New Caledonia, Fiji, Western and American Samoa, Tahiti, Cook Is., Tonga and New Hebrides and 45-day container/ break bulk cargo service from Kobe, Nagoya and Yokohama to Guam, Suva, Lautoka and Noumea.
Details; Hetherington Kingsbury Pty Ltd. 37-49 Pitt Street, Sydney (27-1671).
NYK Line, in conjunction with Daiwa Line, with container ships operates 30-day service from Moji, Kobe, Nagoya and Yokohama to Papeete, Pago Pago, Apia, Suva, Lautoka, Noumea, Sydney, Honiara, Kieta, Tarawa, Guam and Taiwan.
Details: Union Bulkships Pty Ltd, 333-339 George Street, Sydney (2-0238).
NZ - COOK IS - NIUE - TAHITI Shipping Corporation of NZ Ltd operates cargo services based on pallets and similar units from Auckland to Niue, Cook Islands and Tahiti.
Details from the Shipping Corp of NZ Ltd, PO Box 3420, Auckland (797-210); Waterfront Commission, PO Box 61, Rarotonga, Lighterage and Stevedoring Co, Aitutaki, Niue Govt Offices, Niue Island Compagnie Maritime Polynesienne, B’P’ 368, Papeete.
UK/N. CONTINENT - TAHITI -
N. Caledonia - N. Hebrides
Bank Line operates regular cargo service from Hull, Hamburg, Bremen, Antwerp and Rotterdam to Papeete, Noumea and Vila.
Details from Bank Line (A’asia) Pty Ltd, 1 York Street, Sydney (27-2041); Ets A M Fare UTE, Papeete: Ets Ballande, Noumea, Burns Philp (NH) Ltd, Vila.
UK/N. CONTINENT - PNG - SOLOMONS Bank Line operates regular cargo service from Hull, Hamburg, Bremen, Antwerp and Rotterdam to Port Moresby, Lae, Madang, Kimbe, Rabaul, Kieta and Honiara and on inducement to Yandina, Tarawa and Nauru.
Details from Bank Line (A’asia) Pty Ltd, 1 York Street, Sydney (27-2041); Burns Philp (PNG) Ltd, PNG ports; Trading Co Honiara.
SAN FRANCISCO - HONOLULU -
Nauru-Micronesia
Nauru Pacific Line operates regular conventional/container service from San Francisco and Honolulu to Majuro, Nauru, Ponape, Truk and Saipan.
Details from Nauru Pacific Line, Nauru House, 80 Collins Street, Melbourne (653-5709); North American Maritime Agencies, 100 California Street, San Francisco, California 9411 (981-0343).
US - FIJI - TAHITI - NZ - AUSTRALIA Bank and Savill Line Ltd, operates regular cargo services from US Gulf ports to Australia and NZ.
Calls at Suva, Lautoka and Papeete on demand.
Details from Bank Line (A’asia) Pty Ltd, 1 York Street, Sydney (27-2041) or Howard Smith Industries Pty Ltd, 1 York Street, Sydney (27-5611).
US - A. SAMOA - NZ - AUST Farrell Lines LASH ships operate regularly from US to Australia, via Pago Pago and Auckland and Canada.
Details from Wilh, Wilhelmsen Agency Pty Ltd, 13 Bridge St., Sydney (2-0517); 60 Market Street, Melbourne (61-0301); Farrell Lines, 1 Market Plaza, San Francisco, L.A. (415-777-3300); Dalgety NZ Ltd, Auckland (7-1859); Kneubuhl Maritime Services, Pago Pago (633-5121).
Us - Tahiti - Samoa
Pacific Islands Transport operates a five/six weekly cargo service from North America west coast ports to Papeete, Pago Pago, Apia.
Details from Trans-Austral Shipping Pty Ltd, 19 Pitt Street, Sydney (27-2441).
Polynesia Line operates container and general cargo service from US west coast ports to Papeete and Pago Pago.
Details from Polynesia Shipping Services Inc,. PO Box 1478, Pago Pago (9-6799). 97
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
The Australian Trade Commissioner can open doors to greater profits Do you wish to boost business by adding new products to your range? Are you seeking new sources of supply for the products you already handle? Or is it new plant and equipment that you’re after? Then most likely the Australian Trade Commissioner can help you. Australia’s industries make a great variety of quality goods.
Machinery, agricultural equipment, electrical goods, automotive equipment and accessories, chemicals, sporting goods, scientific equipment, materials handling equipment. These and many more have proved successful in international markets. They can prove successful in your own.
Find out what Australia has to offer you.
Quality and value that’s only hours away The Australian Trade Commissioner can give you details of suppliers. He can also advise Pacific Islands exporters on ways to research or develop markets in Australia. You can contact him at:— FIJI: 7th Floor, Dominion House, Thomson Street, Suva. (Post Office Box 1252.) Telephone: 312844.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Australian High Commission, P.O. Box 9129, Hohola. Telephone: 259333.
T m Ask the Australian Trade Commissioner
The Wild System has everything.
I * Li HEERBRUGG For solving your survey problems Special tasks need special approaches. So we've developed an instrument system: it's a range of basic theodolites and levels plus a variety of interchangeable accessories for solving your problems economically and without having to buy special instruments.
GLO Laser Eyepiece for laser alignment: Distomats for infra-red electronic distance measurement; GAKI North-Seeking Gyro for orientation anywhere and anytime; Parallel Plate Micrometer for precise levelling and optical tooling; GOA Eyepiece for autocollimation; Pentaprism for plumbing; Diagonal Eyepieces, Filters and Solar Prism for astronomy; Optional Eyepieces for different telescope magnifications. These are some of the accessories for standard Wild theodolites; a few of the aids we provide for solving your problems in a practical and economic way.
Please write for further details.
WILD (Australia) PTY. LIMITED Ss P.N.G. BRIAN BELL & COMPANY PTY. LIMITED, BOROKO, NSW: 45 Epping Road, North Ryde. Telephone 888 7122 VIC: 83-85 Palmerston Crescent, South Melbourne. 69 2263 OLD: 212 Boundary Street, Spring Hill. Telephone 229 6744 S.A.: Trevor Ley, 28 Gertrude Street, Glandore. 293 6454 Agents in all states. 99
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
Classified Advertisements
Per Line $5.00 Aust. Minimum 4 tines.
MARINE MOTORS
Marine Surveyed
RECONDITIONED 100 to 300 h.p. mostly General Motors PRICES EXTREMELY COMPETITIVE Inquiries to: EUROSPARES
New Zealand Limited
P.O. BOX 116 WAITARA,
New Zealand
TELEX EUROSPARES NUPUBTX 31383
For Sale By
TENDER R 822 RB3O
Grabbing Cranes
The Nauru Phosphate Corporation offers for sale by Tender the following redundant Phosphate Mining Equipment. 1. 2 only Ruston Bucyrus R 822 Series I Grabbing Cranes (1962) Island Nos. 1 and 2. 2. 2 only Ruston Bucyrus R 822 Series II Grabbing Cranes (1964, 1965) Island Nos. 3 and 6. 3. 5 only Ruston Bucyrus RB3O Series I Grabbing Cranes (1958, 1962) Island Nos. 21, 24, 26, 28 and 29. 4 4 only Ruston Bucyrus RB3O Series II Grabbing Cranes (1962, 1963) Island Nos. 30, 31, 32 and 33.
The machines are offered F.O.W.
Nauru and are available for inspection by prior arrangement. All machines are offered in their present condition and no guarantee is given or implied in their sale.
Tenders clearly stating plant description are to be marked “Tender" and addressed to: Operations Manager, Nauru Phosphate Corporation, Head Office, Aiwo, Republic of Nauru, Central Pacific.
Tenders will be received up to 4.00 p.m Friday, 29th September, 1978.
The Corporation reserves the right not to accept the highest or any tender.
“WAIKIKI”
Vacation Apartments, 2 bedroom, clean, air-conditioned, near beach, bus, zoo, and entertainment.
For more information write to:
Lealea Hale Hotel
2423 Cleghorn Street HONOLULU, HAWAII 96815 We are Exporters of Original Handmade CARVINGS Please ask for leaflets photos & price-list.
Blue Lagoon
ARTIFACTS Munda/New Georgia, Solomon Islands
Peter Fisher
TRADING Pty Ltd 321 PITT St., SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 2000 Telephone: 261109 Cables; "FISHERION" SYDNEY
Exporters To The
Pacific Islands
The Papua Hotel
Port Moresby
o • Right in the business centre • A tradition for comfort and fine food • All rooms air conditioned • Restaurant • Bars • Banquet Hall Telephone 21 2622 Cables PARTEL A. C. NEUMANN Manager COINS WANTED Pays twice to 8 times face value for pre-decimal coins.
Also wanted English, American, Chinese and other coins.
NUMIPHIL 1 Ellerslie Place Toorak, Vic, 3142, Aust.
Stay at Aggie Grey's the South Pacific's legendary hotel.
Situated right in the heart of Western Samoa. Enjoy Polynesian-style friendliness and service, in cool surroundings, superb entertainment and food. Magnificent white sand beaches only a short drive away. Airconditioned rooms, swimming pool and full bar facilities.
Bookings through Union Steamship Company of NZ, Pan Am, Air New Zealand or direct to Aggie Grey's, Apia, Western Samoa.
Cables: AGGIES. APIA.
FOR SALE Diesel engines, brand new 2 complete units Lees Marine Four/75 (Ford 2712 E) 75 bhp at 2100 rpm C/W fresh water Longlife, heat exchanges, separate sea water pump, wet sump engine oil cooler, 12 volt generator and starter. Twin Disc gear box also propeller, tail shaft, coupling, controls, etc.
In original packing cases, genuine sale, good price.
Enquiries: A.T.A.S.I. P.O. Box 101, Honiara, Solomons Islands.
Enquiries are invited from agents servicing high quality giftware and decorator shops throughout the Pacific, including P.N.G. and N.Z., by a small countrybased Australian Importer, established since 1970.
Items include wooden kitchenware and utensils from W. Germany, pine lighting from Finland, kitchen cannisters from U.K. and a small range of our own manufactured goods.
Stock will be dispatched through Sydney or Brisbane.
Enquiries in writing quoting reference should be sent to: Hon ima Imports P.O. Box 200, BOWRAL, N.S.W., Australia 2576.
Join The Club
Send today for our magazine containing descriptions and pictures of lonely and sincere lad ies and gentlemen wishing companionship and marriage. Order Now! Send $2.00 to Civic Center Services, 205 South Broadway, Room 100, Los Angeles, CA 90012.
Position Wanted
Qualified teacher (English) High School experience Australia and U.K. Write to David Cowen, 12/27 Arcadia St, Coogee NSW 2034 Australia.
FOR SALE FLEETS 36ft steel ketch bit. 1973. MD3 diesel, s.s. rigging Dacron sails, 6 berths, toilet.
Good anchor gear. $27,300.
FLEETS, 221 Esplanade, Wynnum, Central Brisbane.
Cable: FLEETS BRISBANE. 100
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
rf New Cats2B winch,, * ? r**&nif- . **»• - ■" ,| *': ** i- - * ° *>. ■ > * New Cat 528 log-skidder 7 *>■ ** wm It's another step ahead towards more profitable, more efficient logging operations: Cat 528 Skidder with major improvements.
Now rear wheel caliper disc brakes increase service braking pad contact surface by 78%, thereby extending brake life. There are three master cylinders, one each for front, rear and driveline systems. All four wheel brakes engage first; additional pedal depression engages driveline brake.
Caterpillar 528 Winch has power control design to allow "winching on-the-go". Winch and skidder can be operated simultaneously.
Other features include oil disc clutch and brake to extend service life; complete sealing maintains rated capacity; winch brake accumulator allows load release from dead engine; adjustable free spool drag lets operator pull line uphill or down without cable balling. Other helpful features too!
Send for literature or talk to your Caterpillar representative.
Caterpillar Dealers in South-West Pacific.
Hastimes Deeding
Lae: Milford Haven Rd.
Phone 42 2355.
Port Moresby: Phone 21 2122.
Bougainville: Itakara Industrial Park, Arawa. Phone 95 9077.
C carptrac Lautoka: Labasa: Veitari Lautoka Vulovi Labasa Phone 61877 Phone 81888 Suva: Carptrac Carpenter Street Raiwai Suva Phone 381622 Telex FJ2190 Cables CARPTRAC HD 657 101
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
I STATESMAN STATESMAN CORONA FANATELIA 5 LONG PANATEOA STATESMAN Smooth, mild cigars. © W. D. & H. 0. WILLS (AUSTRALIA) LIMITED E6BO 102
Pacific Islands Monthly - September, 1978
Wot just a pretty face i * The high performance section of the Bridgestone circuit.
Sure Bridgestone tyres look good, but that’s not he only advantage they have on their side, n fact, every Bridgestone tyre is the product of in extensive development and testing )rogramme. And Bridgestone place so much mportance on tyre development they invested >5 million in the construction of one of the world’s most advanced tyre proving grounds, ‘his means that when you fit Bridgestone tyres o your car, you have the assurance of intensive levelopment and research. Mileage, )erformance, wet weather handling, noise svels and riding comfort are all subjected to lemanding test conditions.
So next time you are attracted by the wide, low, porty look of a Bridgestone tyre ... remember, t is not just a pretty face. m ■ I *
Tokyo, Japan
Bridgestone Distributors in the Pacific Area ( n W An aerial shot of the Bridgestone tyre proving ground, just north of Tokyo. ustralia: Marubeni-Bndgestone Tyres (NSW) Pty Ltd /Kingstone Tire Agency Pty. Ltd./Bridgestone Tyres (W A ) Pty. Ltd./Bridgestone Tyres (OLD ) ty Ltd./Marubeni-Bridgestone Tyres (S.A) Pty Ltd. Papua New Guinea: N.G.G. Trading Company/Lae Tyre Service/Madang Tyre Service/Moresby yre Service/Rabaul Tyre Service/Kieta Tyre Service New Zealand: Bridgestone Tyres (N.Z.) Ltd Fiji; Caines Tire Ltd Western Samoa: Gold Star ransport Co , Ltd New Hebrides: Fung Kuei New Caledonia: Pacific Import Export Co., Ltd Solomon Islands; Lee Kwok Kuen & Co., Ltd Guam: ujan Tire Shop American Samoa: G.H.C. Reid & Co, Ltd /Haleck’s Service Center. Tahiti: Tahiti Automoto. Norfolk Islands: Martins Agencies Ltd
All roads lead to Datsun’s destination. m A 3 r - L i - Z3C A ' r*.
How many kilometers does your car do to the liter? However long you’ve owned it, that’s always a tricky question to answer. Because it depends on so many factors; wind conditions, your speed, whether you’re carrying a load, and—very important, this one—what kind of road you’re travelling on.
Datsun’s fuel economy tests are designed to take all those different factors into account. Hot only is consumption measured during idling, acceleration and cruising, but the same tests are repeated on level highways, narrow, winding lanes, long uphill and downhill runs and some very rough roads as well. The result is Datsun’s top-class ranking in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s fuel tests and Ist position in all five classes of Australia’s 1978 Total Oil Economy Run—truly consistent performance under all road and traffic conditions. - /6 That’s why, when you ride with Datsun, you’ll always findyoyrself heading for the very best in fuel economy. Which is a welcome destination, wherever you may be going, in! iihii, 111 Jii uiiui iiiiiiii linn ini—— And all roads lead to it.
Tough tests: the Datsun way to total economy. nATCIII DATSUN NISSAN
Nissan Motor Co Ltd
Datsun Distributors: Boroko Motors Ltd. P.O. Box 1259, Boroko, Port Moresby. P.H.G./Suva Motors Ltd. G.P.O. Box 34. Suva, Fiji/Morris Hedstrom Ltd. P.O. Box 189, Apia, Western Samoa/Cinited Enterprises Ltd. P.O. Box 262, Honiara, British Solomon Islands/Sirius Motors P.O. Box 34, Norfolk Island, South Pacific/Jacob Enterprises P.O. Box 4 Republic of Hauru/Cook Islands Motor Center Ltd. P.O. Box 74, Rarotonga. Cook Islands, South Pacific/Pentecost Pacific S.A. P.O. Box 119, Port Vila, New Hebrides/Agence Alma S.A.
B.P. A 3, Noumea Cedex, New Caledonia/TAHITIBGLL S.A.R.L. B.P. 359, Papeete, Tahiti/Gilbert Islands Government, Supply Division P.O. Box 71, Bainki, Tarawa, Gilbert Islands 104 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY SEPTEMBER, 1978