PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY JUNE, 1983 Niue . . . " ' % Norfolk lsla.^B| Papua NewZgffl Solomon iKJm Tahiti fZM Tonga W : vv Tuvalu ?

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ATC2OOE ATCIBSS ATCIIO Pty. Ltd. Lot 95 Sharps Road, Tullamarine, Vic., 3043/Bennett Honda Pty. Ltd. 250 Victoria Road, Wetherill Park, 2164/NEW ZEALAND: Blue Wing Honda i/Vellinqton Auckland/PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Steamships Trading Company Ltd. P.O. Box 1, Port Moresby/TAHITI: Honda Distribution S.A-R.L. B.P. ibfab, AUSTRALIA; Honda Australia I Ltd. 99-101 Carbine Road Mt. Wellington, Auckland/PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Steamships Trading Company . 0 tdhct TcooirnDv- iinitoH Papeete/FIJI ISLANDS: Carpenters Motors Private Mail Bag Suva. Fiji/KIRIBATI: Atoll Motor & Marine Services P.O. Box 49 TRUST TERRITORY. United Micronesia Development Association P.O. Box 238, Saipan Mariana Islands 96950/COOK ISLANDS: Cook Islands Motor Centre Ltd. P.O. Box 74, Rarotonga AMERICAN SAMOA. Holiday Motors, Parts and Service P.O. Box 968 Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799/Haleck’s Service Certre Ltd. P.O. Box 1138, Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799/GUAM: Mark s Motor Co. Inc P.O_Box UV, Agana/WESTERN SAMOA: Motor Distributors (Samoa) Ltd. P.O. Box 576. Apia/SOLOMON ISLANDS; Guadalcanal Garage Limited P.O. Box 537 Honiara/NEW CALEDONIA.

Establissements Ballande Boite Postale No. C 4 Noumea Cedex/NAURU: Nauru Cooperation Republic of Nauru/TONGA: Tonga Industrial Traders P.O, Box 1035, Nukualofa longa

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American Samoa $US21 $18 Australia $A18 $18 Canada SUS27 $25 Cook Islands $19 Fiji $18 French Polynesia $22 Guam SUS23 $20 Hawaii $US23 $20 Japan $20 Kiribati $19 Micronesia $US23 $20 Nauru $21 New Caledonia $22 New Zealand $NZ24 $18 Niue $19 Norfolk Island $15 Northern Marianas $US23 $20 Papua New Guinea $23 Solomon Islands $19 Tonga $19 Tuvalu $19 United Kingdom Stg 15 $25 U.S. Mainland SUS27 $25 Vanuatu $19 Western Samoa $18 Elsewhere $A25 Cover picture: Alan Weeks, whose pictures of people have been used by PIM before, photographed this smiling girl in Papua New Guinea.

Pacific Islands Monthly

Vol. 54 No. 6 June 1983 (USPS 952480) REPRESENTATIVES AUSTRALIA: Distribution: The Herald and Weekly Times Ltd , 44-74 Flinders St., Melbourne, Vic., 3000. Advertising Reps Brisbane D. Wood, Anday Agency, Box 1918, GPO Brisbane, 4001, telephone 44-3485, 44-1546; Adelaide Hastwell Williamson Rouse Pty. Ltd., PO Box 419, Norwood, SA, 5067; 59 Kensington Road, Norwood; telephone (08) 332-3322, telex 87113, FIJI: Distribution and subscriptions Desai Bookshops, P.O. Box 160, Suva, Fiji, telephone Suva 23036.

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Pacific Islands Monthly

INSIDE • THOUGHTS OF PRESIDENT SOKOMANU Vanuatu’s President Ati George Sokomanu, the former leading Vanuaaku Party politician George Kalkoa, gives an interview to an Australian newspaper which amounts to an all-round challenge to the policies of Prime Minister Father Walter Uni 10 • MORUROA N-TESTS: THE FRENCH CASE The French Embassy in Canberra has issued an official statement on French nuclear testing. The statement followed a protest against the tests by the new Australian Government elected on March 5 31 • THE WHONSBON-ASTON PAPERS In the last extract from the memoirs of the late the Venerable Charles William Whonsbon-Aston, he writes of how he devised the inscription for the foundation stone of Apia’s Anglican church, and of his role in the mysterious Joyita affair 35 • THE MONTH Marie-Therese and Bengt Danielsson write on French Polynesia’s unprecedented series of cyclones and speculate on the reasons for them; Floyd K. Takeuchi comments on some peculiarities of Micronesian politics; Robert L. Kiste pays tribute to the late U.S. Congressman, Phillip Burton, who was perhaps the Pacific Islanders’ best friend in Washington: Helen Fraser reports on latest developments in New Caledonia, and Christine Coombe writes on the Vanuatu economy as the third anniversary of independence looms close .. 17 • FIJI’S POLITICAL ROYAL COMMISSION Robert Keith-Reid in Suva describes the work to date of the Royal Commission inquiring into alleged dirty work in this year’s Fiji general election. The question: Will the commission do more harm than good by arousing new tensions between the Fijian and Indian communities? 29 American Samoa 55 Books 58 Cook Islands 12 Deaths 73 Fiji 29, 44, 48, 57 French Polynesia 21, 31, 64 Guam 47 Islands Press 33 Kiribati 49 Letters 7 Matthew Island 7 Micronesia 8, 19, 53, 64 New Caledonia 15, 27 Niue 49 Notes from the North 19 Noumea Notebook 15 Nuclear Issues 31 Pacific Report 5 Papua New Guinea 45, 48, 57, 58 People 44 Political Currents 27 Postmark Papeete 21 Shipping Timetables 71 The Month 15 Tonga 51 Tradewinds 60 Tropicalities 48 Tuvalu 57 Vanuatu 8, 10, 18, 64 View from Honolulu 25 Voice of Vanuatu 18 Western Samoa 35, 49, 55 Yesterday 35 Founded 1930 by R. W. Robson Editor Angus Smales Associate Editor Malcolm Salmon Advertising Manager Stephen Brandon Editorial Adviser John Carter A Pacific Publications production 76 Clarence Street, Sydney, 2000, GPO Box 3408, Sydney, 2001.

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Pacific Report

French Polynesia’S Re-Building Effort

French Polynesia is setting up a special agency to handle reconstruction following its devastation by six cyclones in five months. The storms caused damage estimated at SUSI3O million, with the worst devastation caused by the most recent cyclone, Veena, which struck in April. The territory’s 30-member Territorial Assembly has created the new agency and given it a provisional budget of about $55 million to be provided through new taxes and funds from other budgetary sectors. The Vice- President of French Polynesia’s Government Council, Gaston Flosse, said the devastation presented the territory’s people with their biggest challenge in memory. (See also Postmark Papeete.)

Call For New Caledonia Census Boycott

New Caledonia’s Independence Front has called on its supporters not to participate in a census which got underway in the territory in April. In an open letter to French High Commissioner in Noumea Jacques Roynette, the Front claims that the category in the census concerning ethnic origin has been manipulated to establish the Kanaks as a minority in their own country. The census does not have a separate category for people of mixed race, who are included in the European category. The Independence Front says this unfairly bolsters the number of socalled Europeans in New Caledonia and decreases the Kanak percentage.

W. SAMOA GETS FIRST SAMOAN C.J.

The Western Samoan government has announced the appointment of a former minister of agriculture and minister of finance as the country’s new chief justice. Vaovasamanaia Filipo has said he will resign from parliament, his partnership in a law firm, and from several company directorships, to become the first Western Samoan to hold the post. Mr Vaovasamanaia has been in private practice as a lawyer since he graduated from a New Zealand university in 1953.

New Land Price Dispute On Tinian

Landowners on the island of Tinian, Northern Marianas, have rejected a cash offer for land which the U.S. Government wants for its armed forces. The landowners are asking the United Nations Trusteeship Council to help them get fair compensation.

They have rejected an offer of $lO a square metre. A few months ago the U.S. navy gave the Marianas government $33 million as payment for a lease on nearly one third of Tinian 17,000 acres. The 50-year lease may be doubled at no extra cost. Since then the Marianas government has been trying to reach an agreement with the 33 landowners who now say they will resume price talks once a Guam company they have engaged has valued their land. The landowners say they oppose government moves to place a fair market price on the land because a 15-year government moratorium on using it has artifically depressed development on Tinian.

Fiji Blast For France On N-Test

Fiji has strongly criticised France over an April nuclear test explosion at Moruroa, the first in the delayed 1983 testing program. Fiji’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mosese Qionibaravi, said that the test was a clear sign of France’s insensitivity to the feelings of Pacific Island people, and it was most regrettable that the French Government had decided to resume testing and he again urged them to stop.

Australian Aid Attitudes Reviewed

Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Bill Hayden said in April that his government is committed to maintaining the highest possible level of overseas aid. Speaking after attending the first meeting of a new committee set up to review Australia’s overseas aid program, Mr Hayden said Australia had spent more than $7OO million in aid last year. Mr Hayden said it was in Australia’s interest to support the economic and social future of developing countries, especially in the Pacific region. The minister said there had been serious flaws in Australia’s past approach to providing foreign aid. He said there had been instances of investment in projects chosen more for their political significance than their economic benefit. Mr Hayden said Australian aid should be directed towards serving the interests of the poor and economically deprived.

Britain To Pay Up For Santo Damage

Britain agreed late in April to meet a third of the bill resulting from damage caused by the unsuccessful Santo rebellion In Vanuatu in 1980. Vanuatu’s Prime Minister Father Walter Uni said he had been informed by the British Government that it will accept responsibility for a third of the damage compensation claims.

Rebels on Santo blew up a copra mill, destroyed bridges, stole cars and looted warehouses, homes and businesses in the rebellion at the time of Vanuatu’s independence. After the rebellion had been put down by troops from Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu proposed that the former joint rulers of the country Britain and France each pay one-third of the damages and the Vanuatu Government pay a third. Father Lini said he was grateful that the British Government had now agreed to pay its share of the compensation.

Irian Java Road Crosses Png Border

Indonesia said in April that a complaint from Papua New Guinea that a new Indonesian road crosses into its territory “might be justified’’ because the border with Irian Jaya is “badly marked out”. Papua New Guinea’s Foreign Minister, Rabbie Namaliu, had asked Indonesia to explain why the road crosses the border from Irian Jaya twice and runs inside PNG for a total of eight kilometres. The issue was later to be discussed by the two countries at a meeting of their border liaison committee at Merauke in Irian Jaya.

Png: Judge Orders Jail Closure

A judge in Papua New Guinea has ordered the immediate closure of the maximum security division of Bomana Prison outside Port Moresby. Bomana’s “B“ division is the only maximum security prison division in PNG. The prison has been the centre of controversy for more than a year. Former inmates of “B” division at Bomana have repeatedly alleged that prison warders beat them up. Two judges who interviewed 28 prisoners at the jail late last year reported a common thread of complaints including assaults with baseball bats and electrical cords. Mr Justice Bredmeyer ordered in April that “B” division be closed immediately and that its 19 maximum security prisoners be moved back into other sections of the jail. He also ordered that “B” division remain closed until new regulations are drawn up governing prison officer behavior.

Scandal Hits Papeete Port Authority

After months of rumors of scandalous goings-on in the multimillion dollar operations of Papeete’s Port Authority, its director Rodrigue Legayic was arrested and jailed on March 27. Joining him on the prison trail was prominent local businessman Philippe Chungall. The two men face charges of corruption and misuse of public funds in connection with harbor improvement works. In particular, it is alleged that Mr Legayic established a “front” company, Sopomat, which won tenders to do earthmoving and embankment work around the harbor. Two other companies engaged in work for the authority, Sotrelec and Polyphone, are alleged to have won their tenders by corrupt means. Mr Chungall has links with all three companies. The local English-language weekly, Tahiti Sun Press, said that there was “speculation that the information thus far made public is only the tip of an iceberg of a major scandal involving several prominent persons.” Jean Juventin, Papeete’s mayor and one of French Polynesia’s two deputies to the National Assembly in Paris, publicly accused the Vice-President of the local Government Council, Gaston Flosse, of pressuring one of Papeete’s two daily newspapers into withholding the story of the Port Authority scandal and the two arrests. Flosse replied by accusing Juventin of receiving the sum of CFP3O million (about $U5235,000) from the Port Authority a few days before the March municipal elections in the territory. Juventin claimed there was nothing illegal about the money, which had been owed by the Port Authority to the city under contract since 1981. After the territory has endured six cyclones in as many months, French 5 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983

Polynesia’s political and business communities are now bracing themselves for a storm of another kind.

Hawaii Urges Stronger Islands Links

The Hawaii State Legislature in April adopted two resolutions designed to stimulate greater activity and interest by the US Senate and the Reagan administration on issues of concern to Pacific Islanders. The first urges the US Senate to “advise and consent to” the treaties with a number of Pacific Island countries which are now held up due to the opposition of a number of conservative senators, and, as the resolution states, to “misinformation published by such publications as The Washington Times which is owned by Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s New World Communications, Inc.”. Countries concerned include the Cook Islands, Tokelau, Tuvalu, Kiribati, and American Samoa. The treaties essentially concern renunciation of US claims to Pacific territories under the Guano Act of 1856. The second resolution urges the appointment of two additional US ambassadors to Pacific Island nations and territories. It called for appointment of “an ambassador-at-large to the South Pacific island nations of Western Samoa, Niue, Cook Islands, Vanuatu, Wallis/Futuna, and French Polynesia, who shall be headquartered in Pago Pago, American Samoa or in Hawaii; and an ambassador-atlarge to the Western and Central Pacific island nations of the Federated States of Micronesia. Palau, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu, and Nauru, who shall be headquartered in Agana, Guam or Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.” The resolution said appointment of the additional ambassadors “will further the understanding of Pacific problems and improve US policy in the area.” The two resolutions, which were adopted by the House of Representatives on April 21 and the Senate on April 22, were proposed by Frederick W. Rohlfing, House Minority Leader and US Alternate Representative on the South Pacific Commission.

Fiji: Company, Govt., In Flour Fight

A row has broken out between the Fiji Government and a local company which owns the majority of shares in the company, Flour Mills of Fiji. The company, Punja and Sons, said it had been told by the Fiji Government to reduce its 56 per cent shareholding in Flour Mills of Fiji. Punja and Sons refused to do so and accused the Fiji government of victimisation, because it is a strong supporter of the opposition National Federation Party. The company says it has refused to reduce its shareholding but has offered to sell all its shares to the government. Punja and Sons is Fiji’s largest food processing company, and Flour Mills of Fiji is the country’s sole producer of flour.

Png: Unlucky Meeting With A Minister

Papua New Guinea’s Minister for Minerals and Energy Francis Pusal on May 1 personally confiscated the passports of four Australians and one Briton suspected of illegal gold mining in PNG’s Enga Province. Mr Pusal said he had gone to Porgera, an alluvial gold mining area, to look into the possibility of setting up a bank where people could take their gold. Locals told him there was a group of foreigners nearby looking for gold. Mr Pusal said: “I went down to see these people and they told me they had permission from the Minister for Minerals and Energy in Port Moresby. They didn’t know who I was. Then I said I was the Minister for Minerals and Energy, and ‘you haven’t seen me’.” He then confiscated the passports. Illegal gold buying and smuggling is at present under investigation by PNG’s National Intelligence Organisation.

Kiribati Buys Back Some Land

After negotiations spread over several years, Burns, Philp & Co.

Ltd. of Sydney (Australia) and the Kiribati Government have agreed on the purchase by Kiribati for SAI.S million of the freehold land on the island of Tabuaeran (Fanning) and all the island of Teraina (Washington) in the Line Islands of Kiribati.

They had been owned by the Burns Philp subsidiary, Fanning Island Plantations Ltd. since 1936. Teraina is completely covered with coconut palms, about 200,000 of them. The company owned most of Tabuaeran, which is an atoll.

Waterfront Strike In Moresby, Lae

Waterside workers in Papua New Guinea’s two major cities, Port Moresby and Lae, staged a four-day strike in April. They walked off in protest at an arbitration tribunal’s dismissal of almost all their claims for better pay and conditions. Among other things they have been seeking a trebling of overtime pay, increased leave bonuses and accumulated sick leave. The only claim granted was a recommendation that the waterside workers should get more variety in their meals than tinned fish, tinned meat and rice.

Money Needed For Jesus Centre

A special school named the Jesus Centre being built at Morata, Port Moresby, may fail through lack of money. The school, the idea of a Christian religious group, will cater for reformed, exmembers of the many gangs roaming the towns of Papua New Guinea and will have a classroom, carpentry and mechanical workshops, a sports oval, and land for agricultural pursuits. The project needs KlO,OOO ($A13,000) to complete it.

Oz Cyclone Aid To Tahiti, Moorea

Australia has given $lOO,OOO in humanitarian aid to victims of the April Cyclone Veena on Tahiti and Moorea islands in French Polynesia. Cyclone Veena caused widespread damage, particularly to housing. Australia was providing urgently needed roofing materials and fasteners for the building of temporary shelters.

‘I’M Not Going Yet Somare

Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister Michael Somare moved in late April to quash speculation that he is about to retire. Mr Somare announced that he will lead the Pangu Party into the next elections in 1987. In a statement clarifying earlier comments he had made about retirement, the prime minister said he would be around for a lot longer than most people expected. Mr Somare, 47, is one of the oldest politicians in the PNG Parliament, but he said he was still young by international standards. Mr Somare’s statement that he would lead Pangu into the next elections differed from earlier statements he had made about getting out of politics before the elections. There is no clear successor to Mr Somare and groups have been developing in the party around several possible candidates.

Good News In Copra Price Movements

Recent movements in the world price of copra have benefited copra growers in the South Pacific who have been suffering from poor prices for two years. The price for Philippines copra shipped to Europe has risen 17 per cent in recent months. The Philippines price is used as a world guide, and stood at $371 a tonne in April. For copra producers in countries that followed the recent devaluation of the Australian dollar, the improvement in copra prices is even more dramatic.

Former Png Minister Jailed For Rape

A former cabinet minister in Papua New Guinea has been jailed for four years for rape. John Jaminan, still an MP, was convicted in the national court at Mount Hagen on four counts of rape committed against a 16-year-old girl. He had denied having raped the girl at a hotel in Mount Hagen in October 1981. In 1980, Mr Jaminan was health minister in Sir Julius Chan’s government. He was also head of PNG’s National Intelligence Organisation during its formation. Mr Jaminan is now a member of the parliamentary opposition, but he will lose his seat unless his prison sentence is overthrown on appeal. Under the PNG constitution, anyone sentenced to more than nine months in prison cannot sit in parliament.

Tonga S First Air Fatality?

A plane crash in Tonga in April killed one man and slightly injured five others. It is thought to be Tonga’s first air fatality. The crash, involving a twin-engined Piper Aztec of Tonga Air, happened at Fuaamotu Airport outside Nukualofa. The plane, with five passengers and the pilot aboard, developed landing gear problems during a flight from the main island of Tongatapu to Niuatoputapu to the north. The plane crashed and turned over as the pilot tried to land after returning to Fuaamotu Airport. The dead man was 46-year-old Paula Vivili, a Tongan national. The pilot and the other passengers were treated for slight injuries in hospital. Tongan aviation officials asked New Zealand’s civil aviation authority to send investigators to look into the crash. (See also Deaths of Islands People.)

Fiji Opens New Zealand Consulate

Fiji opened its first consulate in Auckland, New Zealand, in May.

A former first secretary at the Fiji High Commission in Wellington, lliatia Damu, has been appointed to the Auckland post. 6 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983 h

LETTERS The man who once claimed Matthew Is.

Somehow or other the matter of Matthew Island keeps bobbing up. The present dispute between the governments of Vanuatu and France is only the latest instance.

Matthew which might as well be called “32 acres of nothing” was the subject of much discussion between Britain and France some years back. After they had divided up, to their apparent satisfaction, the shoals, reefs and islands left over they abandoned the matter. They did not in the slightest reckon with the kind of future dispute that has now broken out.

My personal part in the history of Matthew Island resulted from a discussion I had with the late Henri Martinet. He was then president of Transpac (now Air Caledonie), and I was chairman of New Hebrides Airways (now Air Melanesiae).

We were looking at possible future route structures beyond our two operating areas, and I asked him who owned Matthew Island. He didn’t know so we made inquiries and found it was not in fact owned by any country or persons. So we went to the Joint Court in Port-Vila and claimed it in our joint names. It cost us 15 shillings each.

Presumably someone from the Joint Court informed the Resident Commissioners, as I had hardly returned to my home island of Tanna when a French warship pulled in to the harbor and picked up the French District Agent and took him to Matthew Island, apparently with the aim of establishing a French claim.

They could not land, as landing there is very difficult, and the weather was bad.

The French District Agent on his return asked me what was the reason for my claim. I refused to state my reason, which annoyed him somewhat. Shortly after I myself tried to land on Matthew with a bag of cement to make my claim valid by erecting a cement block. But once again it was too rough, so I had to swim ashore and plant a coconut. (The island is pure volcanic ash, so I doubt if the coconut grew . . .) The British Resident Commissioner then spoke to me about my claim and suggested it be withdrawn, as it was costing the British Government a lot of time and money. It seems it had become a matter of serious discussion between Paris and London. I refused.

Some time later, I believe it was about two years, I received a letter from the British residency to the effect that as a result of discussions between Britain and France concerning Conway Reef, Matthew Island, and some others which escape my memory, it was agreed that Matthew would be allocated to New Caledonia. I replied immediately that it was not theirs to dispose of and that the decision was unacceptable to me.

Later, Mr Martinet flew to Matthew is his Stinson L 5 light aircraft, and unfortunately severely damaged the plane on landing. The French navy lifted him off with a helicopter. He again took off from New Caledonia in another aircraft to attempt to land on the island and repair his Stinson, but he got lost and landed in the sea, to be picked up by the navy again.

Passing yachts reported the aircraft on Matthew Island, so the Australian navy blew it up.

Thus, two aircraft had been lost so far on this exercise.

About the time of independ- The 1973 operation in which an Australian naval helicopter salvaged the engine from the damaged Stinson which Henri Martinet landed on Matthew Island. An explosive charge was then used to destroy the aircraft. The picture above shows the flash of the explosion. - Royal Australian Navy pictures. 7 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983

ence of Vanuatu, I was questioned about my part in the claim on Matthew, as the records had disappeared from the Joint Court. One can only wonder why!

It now appears that the island has assumed importance again as the 200-mile maritime zone extends Vanuatu territories a considerable distance if it is established that the island belongs to Vanuatu which to me is obvious as the claim was made there.

It appears that both Vanuatu and New Caledonia are now actively pursuing claims to Matthew Island right now perhaps there may be another Condominium in the offing?

Henri Martinet lost two aircraft and Britain and France a great deal of time and money, the French navy mounted two rescue operations and other operations in pursuit of their claim, the Australian navy became involved, and I understand a Condominium vessel and later a Vanuatu vessel have all made the journey there.

There must be flags planted all over it, in addition to the French automatic weather station that has been put there.

Perhaps it would have been easier to form a republic there, as suggested by PIM years ago.

It certainly has been 32 acres of contention.

BOB PAUL Mt Tamborine Qld Australia Land in Vanuatu: An upbeat view I wish to correct some of the statements and impressions given by Professor Jean Guiart in his letter to PIM (Feb. p 7). I found much of what he had to say romantic and poorly informed. 1. The great majority of planters (alienators) remaining in Vanuatu want to stay. A few, not most, want to sell out. 2. The “new brand of settlers” new alienators are in many cases Ni-Vanuatu themselves, seeking leases from customary land-owners on (intact, whole) plantations. On Malekula it is true that many plantations were appropriated by Malekulans and alienators ejected, but there is a totally different situation on Santo (as there is for example between Malaita and other parts of Solomon Islands in this respect). 3. Improvements on plantations have been assessed by government valuers at up to several hundred thousand dollars in individual cases. This, by the way, includes fencing. 4. Vanuatu has an ideal climate for cattle development, and a good animal disease status (and, perhaps, better managed cattle than in New Caledonia). 5. Cattle contribute significantly to the economic output of the country and are recognised as having an expanding future role. 6. The government’s Five Year Development Plan (1982- 86) explicitly states the revival of the plantation sector as a major objective, contrary to the claim that “the plantation system (is) no more a model for economic development” There is documented and obvious evidence for the intention of Ni-Vanuatu to continue plantations as intact, whole units. The few cases of reversion to family holdings have proved economically disastrous and socially unacceptable. 7. Capital for re-development and payment for improvements is indeed a major problem for Ni- Vanuatu and others wishing to participate in the revival of the sector. Skills are also a problem, though steps are being taken by the government to solve this. 8. The privilege of living in Vanuatu does not, in most people’s conception, lie in loving contemplation of the bush. It lies in the chance for economic development in situations of great potential. 9. I presume that in “buying back the land” in New Caledonia the previous “alienators” are also compensated for improvements.

The difference in Vanuatu is that all land (not a small part) of it now belongs to the indigenous owners. I fail to see the praiseworthiness of the New Caledonian model.

In conclusion, stability “a prosperous and orderly Vanuatu” is on the way, and is not helped by such false impressions as those conveyed by Professor Guiart’s letter. Land leases are now being signed for both large and small properties, and investment following. Those wishing prosperity and order should invest in that wish if they are sincere.

“Bullish On Vanuatu”

(Name and address supplied.) Luganville Santo Vanuatu In quest of true Trukese music As I travelled across Micronesia earlier this year I tried to buy cassettes or discs of local music, either traditional or contemporary. This was not as easy to do as you might think. On Truk, for instance, there was nothing available in the local stores. After I had asked around I was told that if I sought out Ophin Reselap in the Treasury at the Legislative I might just strike pay dirt.

I met up with Ophin, who said that he would be able to provide me with a cassette of contemporary Trukese love songs accompanied by a small guitar band.

He rushed off to his home and I went off to await my outward flight at Truk Airport, where Ophin eventually arrived with a tape which I suspect he had just dubbed off.

Now I must admit that Trukese love songs may not appeal to everyone’s romantic ideals but I think that Ophin’s efforts through the Olophat Band and singers Raymond Jack and Evancelita are worthy of a wider audience. Ophin is a musician in search of encouragement from resources beyond Truk. He told The late Henri Martinet (nearest to camera) helps salvage the engine of his aircraft from Matthew Island. With Bob Paul - who wrote the letter published here - he had registered a claim to ownership of the island.

LETTERS

me that he is sure that somewhere out there is someone who will be able to give him technical advice, show him the way to help develop Trukese musical talent, and help him to produce and market Trukese music.

Is anybody out there listening?

W. G. COPPELL Macquarie University Sydney NSW Australia French Polynesia: Elusive inflation While a large number of government offices in French Polynesia appear to exist primarily for the benefit of those who sit in them, the Territorial Institute of Statistics stands out, in our opinion, as a genuinely useful, efficiently run, agency. As we have said before in the columns of PIM, our one regret is that it came into being so late not until 1980.

This means that we are still totally lacking in reliable statistical data for the time of the greatest social upheaval in the territory, the ’6os and ’7os, the period of the traumatic implantation of the CEP nuclear testing base.

This long delay in establishing an institute of such crucial importance can, in our view, only be put down to an unfortunate reluctance on the part of the authorities to let unpleasant truths become too widely known.

Even today, most of the local mass media avoid making the sort of analysis that we attempted in our article “Fact, fiction and figuring in budget debate” (PIM Feb p 32). We are happy therefore that our item has prompted the director of the Territorial Institute of Statistics, Gerard Baudchon, to make a few remarks (PIM May p 7), a number of which are very pertinent.

Mr Baudchon’s first comment concerns the exact number of expatriate Frenchmen among employees of the local civil service: he puts the figure at 28 per cent or 4500 out of 15,000.

This confirms only too well our more general statement that they constitute “a huge portion”. Nor should it be forgotten that it is they who fill all the top jobs. The one unavoidable conclusion from this state of affairs is that the French Government is determined to maintain its firm grip on the colony.

In his second comment, Mr Baudchon likewise agrees with us that the unemployed in French Polynesia are “statistically nonexistent”, offering as the sole reason for this that “only the great developed nations have good figures on unemployment”. (Well, we always thought that France was a highly developed country, but never mind . . .).

Without putting forward any figure of his own, Mr Baudchon rejects out of hand our considered estimate of 20,000 unemployed in the territory. He does this on a sort of pro tempore basis, saying that the next census, scheduled for October 1983, will reveal all. We are sorry that we cannot share Mr Baudchon’s faith in the reliability of the forthcoming census because it will not be conducted, as it should be, by the Territorial Institue of Statistics, but by the metropolitan French INSEE which in the past has, without fail, always botched the job.

Thirdly, we have the inflation problem. Here Mr Baudchon feels compelled to challenge our view that the real rate is much higher than the officially accepted figure of 15 per cent per annum. Mr Baudchon takes the injured view that the integrity of his institute, and that of his agents in the field, are thrown into question by our statement.

This is a completely unnecessary inference.

What is wrong here has nothing to do with the quality of individuals, but everything to do with the methods employed in arriving at the estimated inflation rate, and the often limited scope of the investigations undertaken.

For instance, the selection of items used to determine living costs is based on the French model, which simply does not correspond with Polynesian realities. This is why Vice- President Gaston Flosse, in his present endeavors to lower living costs, has concentrated on such locally essential items as rice, flour, sugar, condensed milk, fuel, oil, and corned beef. It is also of interest to note that it has only been through resort to legislative measures to restrict profits and prices that he has succeeded in reducing an inflation rate which would otherwise certainly have been around 30 per cent.

Incidentally, we should like to know how the institute deals with the problem raised by the recently formed consumers’ association, which has conducted its own investigation into retail prices in the local stores. Its findings were that, on practically all essential goods, prices vary enormously from store to store, with identical items costing twice as much in some stores as in others. Are the prices recorded by the institute the maximum, minimum, or average prices?

And what is the basis for the selection of stores whose prices are checked out by the institute?

Mr Baudchon informs us that his inspectors operate only in Tahiti and Moorea. This fact surely detracts from the value of his indices. What is meant is that there is no protection whatever from price exploitation for the inhabitants of the remaining 50 or so islands in the territory.

Anybody who has lived in the outer islands, as we did for several years, can testify to the outrageous manner in which defenceless customers there are constantly over-charged.

Last, but certainly not least, it can easily be proved that the universally practised system of “credit at the local store” also exacerbates the “natural” inflation. By buying on credit the islanders who are rarely able to understand Chinese or European accounting systems are again in an extremely weak position if they should want to protect themselves against overcharging. Most never try.

Mr Baudchon may protest that his institute is unable or unauthorised to undertake investigations of such a far-reaching character. They must nevertheless be made if we are ever to discover the true level of inflation which, we maintain, for the past 15 years at least has been much, much higher than the officially announced rate.

Marie-Therese And

Bengt Danielsson

Papehue Tahiti French Polynesia After propaganda, what?

Your February issue contained several letters concerning “Imperialist USA” etc. There always seems to be an abundance of slick liberal rhetoric when it comes to trying to belittle the leader of free world, the United State of America.

There are two major forces at each other’s throats on our planet. One force is the social-communist system led by Russia and the other is the free enterprise-democratic system mentored by the United States.

After hearing all the propaganda from both sides the question is, which system offers the most freedom and highest quality of life? The answer is obvious.

Aloha.

Fred Hemmings

Honolulu, Hawaii USA Local produce in French Polynesia: Insufficient to stop imported inflation. 9 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983

Politics Of Leadership

Vanuatu leadership: President Sokomanu throws down the gauntlet Signs abounded as the June congress of Vanuatu’s ruling Vanuaaku Party came closer that the congress could not only produce new divisions in the party’s ranks, but fundamental changes in the country’s political course.

The months of March-April saw two unsuccessful parliamentary motions of no-confidence in the Prime Minister Father Walter Lini.

But, backed as they were by disgruntled former Vanuaaku Party ministers who had lost their jobs, and by the formal parliamentary opposition, it is perhaps easy to write them off as having no great significance.

Not so easily written off, however, is the position now taken by President Ati George Sokomanu in relation to the Lini government.

In a wide-ranging interview granted to Australian journalist Colleen Ryan in Port-Vila in April President Sokomanu clearly aligned himself with many of the government’s critics. He also made it clear he regards himself as the alternative prime minister to Father Lini.

The former George Kalkoa, a founding member of the Vanuaaku Party, a senior public servant in the British administration of the old condominium, and a political figure who enjoys widespread public support, would be a formidable challenger if a challenge to the leadership of Walter Lini were in fact to occur.

In the interview, published in the Sydney-based weekly The National Times (April 8-14), President Sokomanu made the following points: • On the latest no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Lini: “He has brought the whole thing on himself. There has not been proper consultation with the executive. He is not following party rules.

“The whole problem has come because of lack of administration and know-how at the top. It is on the executive side the Vanuaaku Party has no proper co-ordination.” • On advisers employed by various ministers: “Most ministers have advisers whom I, as an old hand at administration, do not consider suitable. We should have kept the expatriates we had before independence to work for a couple of years with us and train.

“Soon after independence most of the expatriates left or were replaced this was very sad I opposed it bitterly. This “I want no ministers of religion in parliament ... If the party congress decides I should leave the presidency and take over as party leader, I will do that”

Prime minister and president on the eve of taking office: Are the links weakening? 10 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983

drastic change got the government into trouble. It was just too sudden.” • Of the political appointments made by ministers (each can make five): “Some of the advisers they have brought in I just don’t know where they come from.” • Of accusations of Leftwing bias in the present government; “There are two types of socialism the foreign sort, or communalism, which is part of our culture. I think the government is heading too much towards foreign socialism. And I have told them. I think we should bring the ideology back to what the country had before the Vanuaaku Party started.” • Of clergymen-MPs: “I think they should stay with the church. We have six Presbyterian ministers, one Roman Catholic priest and an Anglican minister. For the next four years I want no ministers of religion in parliament and that includes Father Lini.” • Of his personal future: “If things work out I will probably be elected (as president) for the next five years. But I am just waiting for the congress of the Vanuaaku Party in June. If they decide that I should leave the presidency and take over as Vanuaaku Party leader in the next parliament, then I will do that.” • Of his view of the next parliament; “This one has gone through the mill, next time you will have much better and more experienced people.”

Sokomanu outlined what Ryan called “his master plan” for the political future of the country.

“The government would be one of national unity, the seven-man Cabinet would comprise four Vanuaaku ministers, two from the Union of Moderate Parties, and one from the Vanuatu Independent Alliance Party.

Some people share Sokomanu’s enthusiasm for himself as the next PM. John Naupa, a former minister of transport who was dismissed by Father Lini, told Ryan; “Sokomanu would be an ideal prime minister. Fresh blood in the party would change the thinking.

There are a lot of yes-men in the party now those who don’t stand back and consider the bigger issues. He would. And he would be a much steadier prime minister he is a diplomat, whereas some of the rest of us are not.”

But not all the people who count are of this view, Kalpokor Kalsakau, himself a formidable Vanuaaku Party figure and minister of finance, said: “Sokomanu will stay on as president. He is just bored now. But it is his own fault for taking the job on. We told him it would be only ceremonial.

In the course of her overall appraisal of Sokomanu’s political position, Ryan described him as “the ultimate pragmatist, and obviously quite comfortable with the expatriate business community.”

Are the lines being drawn for a division of the Vanuaaku Party along the lines of “moderate pragmatism” on the one hand, and a more committed “radicalism” on the other?

Everyone who wishes Vanuatu well, and admires many of the achievements of the Vanuaaku Party, which has a record as probably the most cohesive and organised political party in the South Pacific, will hope that the June party congress succeeds in overcoming the threat of new divisions.

Malcolm Salmon.

Pim Opinion

Christine Coombe and Vanuatu The problem between Englishwoman and PIM contributor Christine Coombe and the Vanuatu Government which expelled her from the country late in March reveals plenty of what the old saying calls “faults on both sides”.

The government’s action in expelling Ms Coombe, and the consequent closure of her small weekly paper Voice of Vanuatu, can in no way be reconciled with the ideal of a free press. This ideal one would have assumed to be dear to the hearts of the leaders of a new nation as vigorously democratic as Vanuatu has already shown itself to be. The expulsion can only be condemned.

But to condemn the government’s action is not necessarily to ignore the extent of the provocation to which the leaders of Vanuatu, and in particular Prime Minister Lini, were subjected by Ms Coombe over several weeks before she left the country.

Ms Coombe made the fundamental mistake of allowing herself, and her paper, to become firmly aligned in an intense domestic political squabble: she appeared to publish prominently everything that the prime minister’s opponents served up to her, including even the outlandish charge that Prime Minister Lini was in some way linked with the U.S.-based Phoenix Foundation, which promoted the 1980 secessionist movement on Santo.

In the end she got her come-uppance.

While regretting its character, PIM can in no way subscribe to some of the more hysterical lines pursued, for example, in the Australian media, which would have the world see Ms Coombe as a “victim” of the “dictatorship” of Father Lini: a politically naive English lady putting all feet wrong in the highly charged atmosphere of a newly independent, nationalist, Melanesian society is more like it.

Prime Minister Lini, in Australia in May, met the newly-in-office Australian leader, Bob Hawke.

The two prime ministers affirmed regional friendships and Lini told Australian contacts that his government was “firm and stable”. - John Crowther picture for AIS. 11 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983

Cook Islands

Henry the Second’s first government Geoffrey Henry, prime minister and a successor to Albert Henry, has chosen his cabinet to govern the Cook Islands. For the first time a woman who earlier threatened to resign holds one of the positions.

Geoffrey Arama Henry, 42, the new Cook Islands Prime Minister, sees the world trend to economic recession as a significant factor in his programs for government. Speaking soon after he was sworn in he said that the Cook Islands could not be isolated from the world trend, and there was “sweet little” that a country of its size could do to alter the situation.

This made the task facing his new government that much more difficult, Mr Henry said.

Mr Henry has created a sevenmember cabinet, which for the first time in the Cook Islands includes a woman. She is Mrs Fanaura Kingstone, 42, who will be postmistress general and minister for internal affairs. Mrs Kingstone is also the first member of parliament to represent the controversial newly-created electorate: known as the Overseas electorate. It was created so that Cook Islanders living outside the country they are mainly in New Zealand could vote for and obtain a member of parliament to represent them at home.

However Mrs Kingstone’s election to the seat is not without its own controversy. Earlier she had stated that her only reason in standing for the seat was to abolish it because she believed that the parliamentary affairs of the Cook Islands were matters only for Cook Islanders who lived in their own country. If she were elected she could be expected to resign “the very next day” she Far left: Geoffrey Henry, with flowers and the smile of success, on election night. Below: The new ministry, with Queen’s Representative Sir Gaven Donne (from left), Ngereteina Puna, George Ellis, Geoffrey Henry, Sir Gaven Donne, Tupui Henry, Ination Akaruru, Fanaura Kingstone, Dr Terepai Maoate. - Pictures L. Bailey and F.T.

Mac Shimidh-Syme for Cook Islands News. 12 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983

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But when it came to the point she didn't resign. Her reason was that the government did not have a majority of at least two-thirds in parliament. Presumably she felt it couldn’t afford to lose any of its members. With admirable frankness she added another reason her appointment to cabinet.

The new government has created five new departments, and one of its most interesting policy statements concerns radio and newspaper services. It has indicated that offers from the private sector to buy the govemment-owned Cook Islands Broadcasting and Newspaper Corporation will be considered.

Geoffrey Henry himself will hold the portfolios of finance, immigration, tourism, police, external affairs, ombudsman and parliamentary services.

The five other ministers and their portfolios are; Ination Akaruru, public works, electrical office, water commission, hurricane safety; George Ellis, trade, labor, transport, energy, development planning, statistics; Tupui Henry, marine resources, fisheries, justice and survey, broadcasting and newspaper corporation, outer islands, local government, art and culture; Dr Terepai Maoate, health, agriculture; Ngereteina Puna, education, public service, corrective services, religious advisory council.

Sir Gaven Donne, Queen’s representative, conducted the ceremony to swear in the new government following the 1983 general election (PIM May pi 5). Mr Henry leads the Cook Islands Party which had been in opposition for just over four years. He takes over from Sir Thomas Davis, 66, leader of the Democratic Party.

Sir Gaven Donne told Mr Henry as the ceremony ended “The country is over to you, and I know it will be in good hands.”

Geoffrey Henry is a cousin of the late Albert Henry, the man who led the Cook Islands into independence. Albert Henry’s Cook Islands Party was in office for 13 years until 1978. Then its candidates for election were removed by electoral petition and Albert Henry was finished politically following electoral conspiracy charges to which he pleaded guilty. He was found to have bolstered his party’s election chances by using public money to charter aircraft which flew in voters.

Geoffrey Henry became leader of the opposition in 1978 when Albert Henry was forced to retire from the political arena following the court case. In 1981 Albert Henry died and seven months later, Geoffrey Henry was chosen as the leader of the party after a confidence vote during a CIP conference. There was some discontent among CIP supporters who saw 54-year-old Tupui Ariki Henry, the son of the former premier, as the more appropriate leader. Despite this, Geoffrey Henry led his party into victory in the general election winning 13 of the 24 seats, with the Democratic Party gaining 11.

The third party. Unity Movement failed to win any seats.

Some staunch CIP supporters believe their party was able to scrape through only after a plea made by Geoffrey Henry to vote in the memory of the “old man”

Albert Henry. The prime minister was quoted by a New Zealand newspaper as saying this was a crucial ploy during the campaign.

F. T. MacShimidh- Syme in Rarotonga.

Above left: Election night celebration for Fanaura Kingstone, first woman cabinet minister in the Cook Islands. Above: Defeated leader Sir Thomas Davis after tendering his resignation. - Pictures by L. Bailey and F.

T. MacShimidh-Syme for Cook Islands News. 14 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983

Cook Islands

THE MONTH The word from Algiers...

“Mitterrand say clearly whether Kanak independence is to be found at the point of a gun.”

This was one of the major themes of an Independence Front and Palika Party demonstration on April 9. About 1000 people marched first on the French High Commission, where a resolution was handed over, and then to Noumea’s court house, where the recall to France of the state prosecutor was demanded. The demonstrators also called for the release of several Independentists still in jail pending trial for the Koinde shootings (PIM Feb. pi 5), or for a brawl which broke out in Thio following the municipal elections (PIM Apr. p2l).

The motion given to the French High Commission called on France to recognise the Kanak people as the only legitimate people of their country. Speakers at the rally recalled that the French Socialist party was a signatory to a 1979 joint platform with the Independence Front in support of self-determination for the Kanak people.

The demonstration, which was without incident, marked what Independence Front leaders have termed a new strategy for the movement that of resumption of demonstrations and other “street activities.” Front leaders say that they note that any progress which has been made towards recognition of their independence claim has come about after demonstrations, land occupations or road blocks. Since forming a majority in the government council and territorial assembly, in coalition with the centrist FNSC 11 months ago, the Front has ceased demonstrations and land occupations.

But one Independence Front leader, Yeiwene Yeiwene of the Union Caledonienne party, warned that if France continued with her autonomy proposals, the Front would resign from new Caledonia’s government institutions.

The French Secretary of State for Overseas Territories, Georges Lemoine, was expected in Noumea about May 18 to open discussions on New Caledonia’s autonomy statute (PIM May p2l). But so far (early May) there are not many takers for the autonomy project.

The Independence Front has said they won’t participate in discussions unless there is talk of independence, and the Republican party (RPCR) has called for new elections before they will come to the discussion table.

The Union Caledonienne leader, Jean-Marie Tjibaou (also vice-president of the government council), returned from his Paris trip in April charging the French Government with using doubletalk on the independence issue. Speaking to the press on his return, Mr Tjibaou said that his private understandings with government leaders differed from their public statements, which do not mention independence.

After attending a meeting of the Socialist International in Lisbon, Mr Tjibaou visited Algeria at the invitation of the FLN (National Liberation Front). Algerian leaders told Mr Tjibaou that France only responds to force, comments which provoked an angry reaction from one of the RPCR leaders, Roger Laroque.

Mr Laroque, who is mayor of Noumea as well as an RPCR member of the assembly, said that the RPCR could also speak of using force, “and to prove it we are going to organise demonstrations for the arrival of Mr Lemoine, for the moment peaceful .. . to prove to our secretary of state what we want, and how many of us there are to defend our French position in the territory.”

Mr Laroque added that if Mr Tjibaou speaks of force, his party will be obliged to respond in the same way. “And we will do it,” he said.

Also back from Paris in April was Stanley Camerlynck, an FNSC member of the government council who is in charge of the tourism and transport portfolio. He brought back news that the new air routes between Melbourne-Noumea and Brisbane- Noumea could be operating by November 1, if all goes well.

Mr Camerlynck had attended a “round table” concerning the creation of a New Caledonianbased regional airline. New Caledonian government leaders have been pushing for a regional airline, and the related opening of new Australia-New Caledonia routes, for the past 12 months.

The French ministry of transport is due to make a decision on the project in May and Mr Noumea Notebook Helen Fraser The demonstration arrives outside the French High Commission where a submission was presented. 15 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983

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Camerlynck said he was “very optimistic.’’

In a related development it has been announced that New Caledonia is to have the South Pacific’s biggest international resort project. To be known as “Tiare’’ the resort is due to be completed by the end of 1985, on New Caledonia’s west coast 30 kilometres north of Noumea. The five-star resort complex will have 600 rooms, golf course, casino, marina, country club, etc., and will cover 150 hectares.

The project has 50 per cent French backing and 50 per cent foreign investment (Australian, Hongkong, etc), and will cost approximately 5U.5.35 million.

During construction, 800 people will be employed and after opening the resort will have 600 employees, largely locals.

Late April saw the opening of the administrative session of the Territorial Assembly. French High Commissioner Jacques Roynette delivered the opening address, describing the French Government’s autonomy plans “as a necessary step in the historical process”. The assembly then elected its new bureau with Jean- Pierre Aifa (FNSC) beating Jean Deques (RPCR) by 23 votes to 12. Mr Aifa, who is also mayor of Bourail, was elected assembly president (speaker) on the votes of the Independence Front and the FNSC.

Independence Front members then won five of the bureau positions, with the sixth going to Mme Marie-Paule Serve, who is one of the three non-aligned members of the assembly.

The Independence Front majority in the assembly bureau was strongly denounced by RPCR President Jacques Lafleur. In a statement from Paris, where he is a deputy to the National Assembly, Mr Lafleur called for new elections to the assembly. He described the assembly’s election of officers as a “travesty of democracy” and called for peaceful demonstration in New Caledonia to show “the desire of the territory to remain French”. The RPCR claim the IF-FNSC coalition in the assembly and the government council is not representative of majority views since it has yet to be tested in an election.

More than 400 people joined in the USTKE (Union of Kanak and Exploited Workers) May Day march. The union, joined by leaders of the Independence Front parties, the Exploited Kanak Women’s Group, the Pierre Declercq Memorial Committee and the League of Human Rights marched from downtown Noumea to Magenta Beach.

There they heard speeches, underlining the common aims of workers’ movements and the struggle for independence.

Jose Osaba, a member of the Paris-based Catholic Committee Against Hunger and for Development (CCFD) arrived in New Caledonia in late April as part of a CCFD mission in the Asia- Pacific region. But his arrival was marred by a one-hour search and political interrogation at Tontouta Airport.

Mr Osaba’s correspondence, photographs, working documents, bankbooks and personal affairs were closely scrutinised by an inspector, who gave him a false name. Mr Osaba was accused of having contact with agitators against France and of giving them money. He has complained to the French authorities, demanding to know who was behind the operation, which was of a type rarely seen in New Caledonia.

On Saturday May 7, more than 7000 people marched through Noumea to show their opposition to IF demands for independence The banner above, displayed outside the Noumea court building, asks President Mitterrand to indicate clearly whether Kanak socialist independence is to be at the point of a gun.

The top picture shows demonstrators leaving the Place des Cocotiers. 17 THE MONTH PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983

in the territory. Organised by the “Fraternity Association”, and supported by other antiindependence groups, the speakers at the rally were Melanesians who want New Caledonia to remain French. However, about 90 per cent of the demonstrators were European.

The crowd delivered a resolution to the French High Commission, calling for new elections to the Territorial Assembly. Several speakers at the rally criticised what they termed “Australian imperialism”, and Australia’s treatment of Aborigines.

Despite assurances from demonstration organisers and French authorities that no problems were expected, I was attacked and mauled by part of the crowd.

The incident, the second in four months, occurred when a small group started attacking the Australian Government position in favor of Kanak independence and abusing me. The group failed to heed the instructions of Fraternity officials to disperse, their numbers grew, and they became rougher.

Noumea police then intervened and escorted me to the safety of the police station while the crowd chanted “Australia out . . I was shaken but unhurt.

This incident follows a week in which both the RPCR and the Front Caledonien have written open letters to Australian Prime Minister Hawke accusing Australia of “shocking and unacceptable interference” in New Caledonian affairs, and telling Australia to “mind its own business”. The Republican party warns Australia not to “try and repeat, in the South Pacific, Argentina’s tragic error in the Falklands”.

Vigor, hesitancy, in the economy “Melanesian patience it’s rubbed off on us,” said an expatriate Port-Vila businessman with many years of experience.

It took nearly a year after independence for the trauma of the attempted secession of Santo island, almost a reality on independence day, July 30, 1980, to ease. It was something the newly independent republic could well have done without.

But among the foreigners who thought of Vanuatu as their home there was optimism.

Give us two years, was their cry at the time. They were determined to see things through. And now, well over two years later, they express disappointment.

They could have expected speedier commercial expansion.

But they still live, work, and seem to enjoy a good living standard in Vanuatu.

It’s their money that is changing the face of Port-Vila’s main street, Kumul Highway. Three new buildings each of three storeys, are under construction.

Progress of building work is rapid. Just how the ground floors will find shop-keepers to fill them, and how such an increase in commercial office space will be filled, isn’t known. But it’s available and waiting.

Foreign residents in Vanuatu are re-investing in the republic.

Certainly they would have been happier to see things move faster. But they have leamt patience from the Melanesians. They are the first to say that Vanuatu belongs to the Melanesians, and they have leamt tolerance.

Now there is a change. As the republic nears its third year of independence the call for greater speed in development is coming from Melanesians. It’s now the custom land-owner who wants land laws settled. They want lease monies in their pockets.

It’s the land question that is basic to economic development.

While it remains unsettled, nothing economically sound will be built. On independence land ownership reverted to the custom landowners. Former land-owners who were foreigners became known as “alienators,” and they first pushed for firm land lease agreements. But as the Melanesians now need money for head tax, school fees, imported food, even video sets, they want firm land lease agreements.

Much is now being done to see that the Melanesians’ needs are met.

Land Ministry officials are visiting all islands to explain the new proposed land courts. Meetings are well attended. Many questions are being posed by Melanesians.

Having seen several of these land meetings in progress, I would say that there is no doubt that Melanesian land-owners want action.

In the meantime several other economic avenues are being actively pursued.

The three major sources of economic independence for Vanuatu are natural resources, tourism and the finance centre.

Great strides have been made in regard to natural resources, in line with the government’s policy to decentralise, keep control of the urban drift, and bring a greater share of the country’s wealth down to those in the villages.

Traditionally the major export, copra fell into disaster following independence for two reasons.

The first was that Vanuatu wasn't producing, and that what it was processing was poor grade copra. Second, Vanuatu’s main European market for copra closed its doors. A massive publicity campaign to improve copra quality got results. New methods of drying and of up-grading the storage of copra were rapidly achieved. A newly set up Copra Marketing Board did more than this. They set a stable price for copra and rationalised copra transport costs. Producers throughout Vanuatu responded.

The Ministry is looking on copra realistically. While it is traditionally the major export, and has found a firm price on world markets, diversification of crops is vital. Training is being given to cocoa and coffee growers. A new cocoa and coffee research centre, funded by France, recently opened next to the copra research station on Santo.

It’s expected that cocoa and coffee will find their export markets once quality is improved.

Small-scale fisheries projects in the islands of the central region are finding a ready market for fish in the capital. Early this year the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Sethy Regenvanu, opened a fisheries storage centre, at Port-Vila. Japanese aid made this possible. It’s expected that the fisheries centre will be invaluable when other fisheries projects are set up throughout Vanuatu. This again is a potential new export market.

Report from Vanuatu Christine Coombe 18 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983 THE MONTH

Forestry is a long-term project. It’s been started on several islands where the fertile land is expected eventually to provide timber both for the republic’s needs and for export.

Attention to tourism from govemment is strong. It’s certainly providing income, and since independence there is a much greater participation in the industry by Melanesians. What’s holding Melanesians back from tourism is the lack of training. Government is offering training to give confidence to the naturally shy people, who’ve responded well.

As from the beginning of the year ground tour operations had to be owned by Melanesians.

While this move was seen by foreigners who formerly owned such operations as doomed to fail, one might wonder why, after 10 years in the business, they hadn’t trained local staff to the point where they could take responsibility.

Major hotel projects are on the drawing board for Santo and Efate.

The finance industry seems to represent something of a poser for government. The finance centre was set up by the British in the early ’7os as a means by which Vanuatu might earn money. Money earned from foreign businesses registered in Vanuatu is estimated as equal to income gained from tourism.

The industry receives tacit approval from government. “This is money going straight into Vanuatu’s bank, earned by the country and with no strings attached,” a Port-Vila finance centre member with a great deal of experience told me. He feels more active government attention to this industry could quickly bring it into line with that of Nauru.

The first major step to promote the industry in Hong Kong was organised by the finance centre earlier this year. While spokesmen described the venture as a success, Finance Minister Kalpokor Kalsakau wasn’t with the mission as planned because of the political turmoil at home at the time.

Little use so far seems to have been made of the two-year-old shipping register. While those involved are tight-lipped about the number of ships registered in Vanuatu, they are believed to be a mere handful.

Political stability is vital to the finance centre. What it takes from the country is little a few floors of office space.

There’s money a-plenty still waiting in the wings. Finance centre experts know it’s been there for a long time. But there is a concern that it won’t wait around for too much longer. The industry would like to see more than tacit approval from government, they would like to see the centre actively promoted.

A piecemeal end for the Trust?

Two general rules apply to the political decolonisation process in Micronesia: progress is not necessarily a function of either geographic area or population; and, more often than not, issues which appear to be of a bilateral nature (as in relations with the United States) in reality reflect internal political conditions.

Both apply to the hilt these days, as the Americanadministered islands move ever so slowly towards full selfgovernment.

This month, barring any lastminute complications, the sprawling Federated States of Micronesia comprised of Yap, Truk, Ponape and Kosrae will hold its plebiscite on the Free Association Compact.

While there are no guarantees, the outcome seems assured. The FSM is expected to approve free association by a comfortable margin.

If so, the United States may be in an excellent position to use the FSM result to break deadlocks with Palau and the Marshall Islands, both smaller geographically and in terms of population, but both stalemated in their ability to terminate the 36-year-old Trust Territory administration.

Palau, which held its plebiscite in February, has been in a holding pattern ever since. The compact was approved by a clear majority, but voters failed to override constitutional prohibitions on nuclear materials.

Washington insists and rightly so that this is a constitutional issue and hence must be worked out by Palauans without American interference.

In the Marshalls, once thought to be the most politically cohesive of the three entities headed towards free association, President Amata Kabua is struggling to maintain a semblance of the once firm grip he held on internal politics.

In late March, his government issued a so-called Mutual Security Agreement the aim of which was supposedly to supersede the compact of Free Association.

The MSA proclaimed “independence without conditions” for the group, but in a most unusual move also declared that sovereignty would last only 15 years, the time frame agreed upon for free association. In addition, the document demanded millions more from the United States but without any of the fiscal oversight provisions written into the compact. (The most important requires that 40 per cent of U.S. aid be devoted to capital project).

Richard Teare, deputy U.S. status negotiator, said shortly after Kabua presented the MSA to Ambassador Fred Zeder in Honolulu, that the document would quickly be “a footnote to history”. Teare, who joins the American mission in New Zealand next month, was proved correct in a matter of days.

Kabua’s government abruptly did an about-face and, for the first time since signing the compact in May, 1982, publicly declared its support for the embattled free association agreement.

In a letter to President Ronald Reagan, Kabua cited fears that “your great nation had abandoned serious consideration of free association” as well as reports that the U.S. House of Representatives might not approve the status. But a few days of meeting with Zeder had “dissipated” the fears, Kabua added.

What he proposed instead with active American encouragement was a change in Section 177 of the free association agreement, the controversial “nuclear” subsidiary document. The peoples of Bikini, Enewetak, Rongelap and Utirik atolls, who were directly affected by American nuclear weapons testing during the 1940 s and 19505, have strenuously opposed 177. Specif- Notes from the North Floyd K. Takeuchi on Micronesia 19 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983 THE MONTH

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ically, they fear the prohibition against any Marshallese group pressing claims related to the testing in American courts. That is a big problem, considering the Bikinians have a SUS 400 million suit and the Enewetakese a $5OO million claim pending. An American judge in April ruled those actions could continue they had been halted because of the compact provision.

To quiet their concerns, Kabua is calling for “front-loading” the $l5O million financial package.

The funds would be placed in U.S. government securities as a trust. The interest would be used for the benefit of the “nuclear people”. In addition, a “claims tribunal” would be established to deal with future claims.

The attraction of this arrangement, at least to Kabua and the United States, is that giving all the money at once may reassure the affected islanders that there was money available, and the tribunal would allow them to consider “court” action but outside of the U.S. judicial system.

For any attractions this compromise may have, its ultimate success obviously lies with the nuclear people. And considering that the Marshallese government retains significant control over their funds and claims process, it seems highly unlikely that the arrangement will prove satisfactory.

This comes to the crux of Kabua’s and thus the United States’ problem. The nuclear islanders have distrusted the president for years; in their eyes, his chiefly ties and their rejection of that system make him suspect.

And latest reports from Majuro, capital of the group, indicate that many others are also growing wary of their president.

There is talk of Kabua being “the godfather”, and the small parliamentary opposition believes it may be able to use this November’s elections to its advantage.

Over the past year, Kabua has seen his once dominant position weaken. The Kwajalein “sail-in” protest of last summer was a stunning defeat for him. The islanders there rejected outright his advice to end their demonstration. The continuing opposition of the nuclear people has bedevilled him. And his inability to hold a free association plebiscite over a year after the compact was signed has made his political skills seem less polished in the eyes of some Americans.

While the continuing difficulties in Palau and the Marshalls trouble Washington, the vote this month in the Federated States and the likely “yes” result will put the U.S. in an excellent position to force the issue in the lagging groups.

Assuming FSM approval, here is what Washington may do.

Since the late 19705, the Northern Marianas has been anxiously awaiting the termination of the trusteeship. With a firm “yes” from the FSM, Washington would be able to give the Northern Marianas full commonwealth status (which is similar to Puerto Rico’s).

Of course, American policy is that termination must be concurrent in all the entities. But look at the record: the original U.S. stand called for a unified Micronesia, and that gave way when the Marianas wanted out.

Then there was to be no further break-up. But that policy was changed on Guam in 1977 when the two-tiered negotiating approach was proposed by Washington. The result was the present political division.

More recently, the official U.S. line was that the plebiscites had to be held on the same day territory-wide. But that plan was discarded last year, in part to encourage the slower entities to get their political acts together.

Thus, it now seems reasonable to assume that Washington may decide to approve the piecemeal termination of the trusteeship.

That would quickly give the Northern Marianas and FSM the status they want.

And it would leave the Marshalls and Palau in the political status backwaters. They would see the others enjoying selfgovernment with considerably increased American funding.

Under such conditions, it is not difficult to predict a concerted push in the Marshalls and Palau to put aside any internecine squabbles and get aboard the free association bandwagon.

But whether this happens depends upon many factors, not the least of which is the unpredictable nature of Micronesian politics.

No flowers for the visitor ...

The first and surest sign these days that something has gone wrong in Tahiti is that a traveller disembarking at Papeete’s Faaa airport will not be greeted by having a sweet-scented garland of flowers hung round his neck, This does not mean at all that Tahitian hospitality is breaking down. It is simply that there are no more flower stalls, vendors or even flowers since Tahiti was struck in early April by the most destructive of all the six cyclones that have devastated French Polynesia since December 1982 (PIM Mar. p3l, Apr. p 5, May p 23).

Despite all the recent experience, preparedness left much to be desired when the sixth cyclone, Veena, hit Tahiti on the night of April 11-12. One explanation for the curious apathy was undoubtedly the general feeling that all cyclone danger just had to be over for this season at least.

But Veena, like those that had gone before, was full of dirty tricks. It seemed to be passing at a safe distance north of Tahiti, and in a westerly direction. But then it suddenly changed course and veered full speed towards Tahiti.

The hurricane-force gusts of Cyclone Reva a month before had followed a similar course, President Kabua Postmark Papeete Marie-Thérèse and Bengt Danielsson 21 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983 THE MONTH

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Telex: AA24319. jumped over the 2000-metre mountain range in the centre of the island, and ravaged the west coast. But Veena’s impact was felt mainly on the east coast and the peninsula. Even here at our home in Papehue on the west coast, however, we spent a very uncomfortable night, without light, telephone or even running water, since the pipes had burst as a result of the massive pressure from overflowing dams and rivers.

The only sounds to be heard above the roaring wind and pounding rain were the sinister cracking noises of falling trees, and the thud of tom-off houseroofs slamming into obstacles.

We were lucky still to have a roof over our heads when the new, bleak day dawned. Strangely enough our rain gauge was still standing: it showed that 192 millimetres of rain had fallen in under eight hours.

At about the same time Radio Papeete, which had been dead for hours, came back on the air with a first appraisal of the havoc wrought, and we began to realise more clearly the magnitude of the disaster. The whole village of Tautira, at the tip of the peninsula, had disappeared. Several bridges on the west coast had been destroyed. All round the island, uprooted trees were blocking the coastal road. The number of houses flattened or unroofed ran into thousands. Dozens of fine yachts whose owners, ironically enough, had been sitting it out in Tahiti waiting for the cyclone season in the western Pacific to come to an end, were either sunk or wrecked.

Unfortunately, both the High Commissioner and the head of the local government, Gaston Flosse, our senator and two deputies, and an assortment of party leaders, had flown off to Paris a few days before to take part in so-called round table discussions about much-needed constitutional reforms. So, at this critical moment, there was simply nobody in charge of the territory.

If ever the firm hand of a military commander was needed, it was then. But, surprisingly, the admiral who runs the CEP nuclear testing program, and who is boss of all land and sea forces in the colony, apparently felt no need to step in. He thus missed, among other things, a great opportunity to make himself popular. As things were, not even the poor yachties were given any firm directions or useful advice. (We discount entirely the minor government official whose greatest achievement was to forbid, at the height of the cyclone, any movement of motor traffic.

When it became clear a few hours later that nobody was taking the slightest notice of him he threw up his hands and, in a special radio broadcast, announced: “Well, you’ve only got yourselves to blame!”) Flosse, who was sitting in the Elysee Palace with President Mitterrand at the very moment Veena started veering down on Tahiti, asked for immediate French aid. He even managed to return on the first relief plane loaded with tarpaulins, chainsaws, nails, water purification tablets, and military rations. The other political leaders followed within a day or two, and by the end of the week both the Minister for Overseas Territories, Georges Lemoine, and the Special Commissioner for Natural Disasters, Haroun Tazieff, had also flown out to Tahiti.

By then the count of houses destroyed or damaged by Veena stood at 6000. As the previous cyclones had destroyed about 4000 houses in the Leeward and Tuamotu Islands, the grand total for French Polynesia was now about 10,000. This meant that perhaps as much as a third of the population in the islands concerned was homeless. With an estimated average value of about CFPI million per house, the staggering sum of CFPIO billion would be required to rebuild them. To all this must be added four or five billion more to repair damaged roads, power lines and Part of Marie-Thérèse and Bengt Danielsson’s house in Tahiti. It escaped damage in the cyclone because of its traditional Islands style of construction which allows the wind to blow through the structure instead of building up damaging pressures. 22 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983 THE MONTH

public buildings such as schools and town halls.

The human losses must be said to be minimal, considering the force of this succession of cyclones: 17 dead either crushed by falling walls or trees, or drowned at sea and about 200 injured.

As we have suggested before, the gravest consequences of these cyclones will be felt in the Tuamotu Islands, where extensive damage has been done to the coconut plantations. The islanders will be deprived for years of their only source of income, copra production. In consequence of this, large numbers of them no doubt will pack up and leave for the already over-crowded slums in and around Papeete.

The biggest post-cyclone problem, of course, is where’s the money coming from to pay for the huge tasks of reconstruction and replanting?

The independent socialist party, la Mana te Nunaa, immediately proposed that it could easily be raised by introducing income tax (hitherto unknown in the territory). This idea was rejected outright by the ruling Tahoeraa party of Gaston Flosse, who felt that a sense of “national solidarity” commanded France to come to our aid.

Considering the depressed state of the French economy, the Paris government has already made an honorable effort by promising about CFPI billion in disaster relief. On top of that, the French parliament has launched a national relief appeal in the apparent belief that the 300,000 or so French citizens who have served in one capacity or another in French Polynesia over the years will have such fond memories of their time here that they will chip in large sums. This remains to be seen.

In a noisy aside during his time in Tahiti, Commissioner Tazieff gave vent to the view that this sudden financial plight of the colony would have the beneficial effect of making the Polynesian leaders a little more humble, and less inclined to make impatient noises about such matters as constitutional reforms and independence. Mr Tazieff probably now wishes he had kept his mouth shut, for Mr Lemoine in his turn went out of his way to serve him a public rebuke, saying he had no right to make such statements, and that his competence was strictly limited to the technical problems of how to render the most effective assistance to cyclone victims.

Even at this level, however, Mr Tazieff was no great success.

The only idea he really came up with was to advise us to build more solid houses in future. Eminently sensible the advice may be, but it is certainly not original.

Many former Tahitian houseowners had already been complaining about jerry-built housing long before Mr Tazieff stepped off the plane. What is more, his advice only has relevance for those who can afford to build more solid houses. It means nothing at all to the poor slumdwellers living in shacks of masonite and corrugated iron that they’ve hastily knocked together for themselves. The one thing they have going for them is that many have been able to reassemble their battered dwellings in a few days, whereas it will take months and years and millions of francs for the owners of plush villas to rebuild their homes.

It seems to us that an excellent intermediate solution to the housing problem would be to revert to traditional Tahitian thatch roofed houses. We live in the oldest house of this type on the island.

For 50 years it has withstood everything that the elements could hurl against it for the good and simple reason that it has so many openings and interstices that the wind blows clean through it. A European-style plank or brick house on the other hand offers solid resistance to wind, and is therefore that much more likely to be battered down, It’s also a fact that since modem times came to Tahiti, thousands Testimony to a cyclone: Furniture lies on the site of a Tahitian family’s house. Twisted sheets of iron hanging from a tree show the fate of the house itself. 23 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983

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While the great reconstruction debate was raging in Tahiti, a rumor spread that yet another cyclone was on its way. The meteorological station reluctantly confirmed that this was so, but at the same time pointed out it was located about 1300 kilometres east of the Marquesas, and was therefore most unlikely to reach French Polynesia. However, as the days passed, the new cyclone, which was first dubbed Whisky and then William, described an elegant arch which eventually took it down through the eastern Tuamotus towards Moruroa. Unlike Cyclones Nano, Orama and Reva, William did not score a direct hit. But, like Cyclone Veena, it stirred up eight-metre waves, and must have created great problems for the 3000 men and 12 women living and working on the low atoll, especially as the 23 refuge platforms built on the reef for use during disasters of this sort are only 4.5 metres tall, about half the height of Williams’ waves.

However, two days later a sufficient number of the drenched atoll dwellers were fit enough to explode the first bomb in the long-delayed 1983 test series, showing the determination of the socialist Mitterrand government to pursue the nuclear follies of its conservative predecessors.

As usual, Paris kept mum about the blast, whose strength was put at five-plus on the Richter scale by the New Zealand and Dutch seismological observatories.

An equally impenetrable silence met all anxious inquiries as to what has happened during all these cyclones to the enormous pile of nuclear waste stored in metal drums and plastic bags on the north shore of Moruroa. Even the chatty Haroun Tazieff, who is touted as the great expert on safety problems at the atoll, apparently couldn’t find a word to say about this important problem.

When it comes to explaining this unprecedented series of six cyclones in five months, local oceanographers and meteorologists have also been remarkably tightlipped. The reason is almost certainly that they just haven’t put in much time on the problems of long-range forecasting, and Pacific-wide studies. Nor do they seem to have had much contact with their colleagues in the other Pacific islands and the Rim countries.

Had they done so they would probably have been aware that the gradual increase in the temperature of the ocean waters around the Marquesas Islands over recent years (it is now more than 32 degrees Celsius) was creating a perfect breeding ground for cyclones. This was demonstrated as early as March, 1981, when Moruroa was washed over for the first time.

Then, in 1982, as was observed by every inhabitant of French Polynesia, a strange new phenomenon occurred: the cool southeast tradewind called mara’amu by the Tahitians, which normally blows between June through September, simply failed to appear. On the other hand, we had quite exceptionally warm westerly winds later in the year.

It is quite clear that the whole wind and water circulation system in the eastern Pacific is in a process of change. We personally would not be at all suiprised if all these new phenomena are due in the first place to the widespread tampering with nature that has been going on in the world for the past few generations. We refer to such features of today’s world as massive deforestation, the effects on the atmosphere of automobile fumes, industrial pollution, and the detonation (by all A-bomb-possessing countries) of more than 1200 atomic bombs in the atmosphere.

The big question everyone is asking in Tahiti is: Are these changes irreversible? Can we look forward to more years like this one, with a similar series of devastating cyclones every year?

Marie-Thérèse and Bengt Danielsson. 24 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983 THE MONTH

Phillip Burton, Islanders’ ally This column has already discussed the renewal of American interest in the Pacific and the founding of three new regional organisations in Hawaii: the East-West Center’s Pacific Islands Development Program, the Pacific Basin Development Council, and the Pacific Telecommunications Council.

But there have been other signs of a heightened U.S. interest in the region.

On the U.S. mainland, a small number of individuals, some with government connections and others with business interests, have formed the Washington Pacific Group (P.O. Box 14078, Washington, D.C., 20044). The main function of the group to date appears to be the publication of The Washington Pacific Report (WPR) which was launched last October. According to its own advertisement, it focuses “on actions of the U.S. federal government and the public and the private sectors across the United States which impact the Pacific Basin”. WPR’s four pages appear twice a month, 24 issues a year.

In early April, 10-term U.S.

Representative Phillip Burton (Democrat-Califomia) died suddenly at the age of 56. Apparently, only WPR and the news media in Honolulu were aware that Burton’s death will have considerable consequences for the U.S. Territories in the Pacific and Caribbean. Congressman Burton had long been a powerful leader of liberal Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

He was fond of referring to himself as a “fighting liberal”, and Time Magazine (April 25) characterised him as a man . . with the build, voice and vocabulary of a longshoreman from his San Francisco district”.

Burton was a shrewd, abrasive, and aggressive but quite effective legislator committed to a variety of liberal causes in the United States. With regard to the Pacific, Burton gained control of the House Interior Sub-committee on Territorial and Insular Affairs in 1971. From that base he had control of all territorial legislation and was the dominant Congressional force on territorial affairs.

Burton’s last public appearance in Honolulu was in December, 1979, when he thoroughly dominated a meeting with representatives of the many Samoan organisations on the island of Oahu. His performance left no doubt that he believed that he knew what was best for Pacific Islanders and that he relished his self-appointed role as their champion.

Burton was responsible for the legislation which created the offices of Congressional delegates (non-voting) for American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, and the Virgin Islands, allowed Guamanians to sue the United States for lands taken after World War 2, changed the position of territorial governors from that of presidential appointees to elected officials, and made the islands eligible for many social and welfare programs originally designed for implementation in the United States.

Knowing what was best for the islands often produced legislation which, as WPR commented . . usually included vast sums of federal money to be spent”.

Indeed, much of the dependency on a vast array of social programs and U.S. dollars confronting the emerging entities in the soon to be defunct U.S. Trust Territory is a result of Burton’s efforts.

In recent years, he occasionally described the flow of money and programs into the islands as well intended, but with the wisdom of hindsight, not the wisest courses of action.

Nonetheless, the American flag islands have lost their most powerful ally and spokesman in Washington, and it is quite unlikely that he will be replaced by any one individual with such a commitment to the Pacific. The consequences of Burton’s absence are not predictable.

As a couple of final notes on WPR, it certainly is to be welcomed. It complements other news publications on the Pacific and it provides the only systematic and regular coverage of news in the United States relating to the Pacific, and, as its name* suggests, a large portion of its coverage is the Washington scene. The main driving force behind its founding group is Fred Radewagen, the son-in-law of American Samoa’s Governor Peter Tali Coleman. It is interesting to note that WPR projected in advance that last October’s 22nd South Pacific Conference in Pago Pago “may be the most successful ever”. WPR may help observers follow an issue that is being discussed on Honolulu and which will be dealt with in this column next month: Does the United States have a Pacific Policy?

There have been a couple of developments in the Pacific Islands Development Program. As anticipated in this column in March, Dr Macu Salato has been named interim director, replacing James Makasiale. Reports out of the East-West Center have it that he has taken charge in a manner befitting a former secretary-general of the South Pacific Commission, and he will be at the helm until at least September while the search for a permanent director goes on. At the January meeting of PIDP’s standing committee, President Tosiwo Nakayama. Federated States of Micronesia, and Governor George Ariyoshi, State of Hawaii, were invited to become members of PIDP's Standing Committee.

Both have subsequently accepted, and the committee now has a membership of eight. This move brings one of the new Micronesian states and Hawaii into the program, and Governor Ariyoshi now sits on the decision-making bodies of two of the new regional organisations, the other being the Pacific Basin Development Council composed of the governors of the four American flag islands. PIDP has scheduled a second Pacific Islands Conference for March, 1984 in Fiji. As will be recalled, the first conference in March, 1980, at the East- West Center served to launch PIDP.

The Pacific Telecommunications Council has scheduled its mid-year board of trustees’ meeting to be held in Wellington during the last week of July. As in past years and in conjunction with the meeting, a seminar is being planned for ministry-level government officials and others in the region.

A View from Honolulu Robert C. Kiste 25 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983 THE MONTH

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Political Currents

New Caledonia: A changed mood after events of January 10 Well-known French ethnologist Professor JEAN GUIART analyses the events of January 10, 1983, in which two gendarmes were killed by Melanesian villagers in New Caledonia; He describes a change of mood in the territory following these events, and concludes that for all the political talk in Noumea, the territory’s future will be shaped not by what happens there, but by what happens outside it.

What happened in Coinde, on January 10, 1983, may turn out to be a landmark on New Caledonia’s troubled path to independence.

Coinde is a small Melanesian village clinging to the slopes of the mountainous ranges which tower over La Foa on the west coast and Canala on the east. La Foa is a strongly Right-wing and racist municipality; Canala is a populous Melanesian area, independence-minded, where disturbances have happened already, in September 1981.

Coinde has lived a quiet but dreary life, with its neighbor village Wi Point, since the 1878 native uprising, the consequences of which left the inhabitants of the two villages, partly former insurgents, partly traditional dependents of the Canala chieftainships, with difficult mountainous lands which are near impossible to till. Nothing has been done since to dramatically improve this situation, and the pressure of racist graziers on the two villages has never ceased.

Twelve years ago a ranchowner bulldozed Wi Point’s yam fields in order to push the people further into the mountain. They resisted and threatened to open fire on him. The grazier backed off, but the people had to wait until 1982 for the obvious solution; that the land neighboring their reservation be bought back by the state and handed over to them, which has somewhat alleviated their problem.

Over the last six years, the forests surrounding the two villages have been left open to a tree-felling and sawmilling enterprise which has belonged to two successive owners. The first started major pollution of the water supply of the two villages, ignoring the fundamental fact that tropical soils are tenuous and fragile, and that the underlying geological layers contain minerals which readily become toxic if brought in contact with water.

The people protested and conditions were laid down for the second entrepreneur to observe.

None of the undertakings given was observed. The pollution became worse.

The Melanesians have always considered the forests as their own a point insufficiently stressed and there has thus developed a permanent situation of conflict throughout the territory between the Melanesians and the Forestry Department.

What is more the forests in the Coinde-Wi Point area have been badly misused, with trees felled that should never have been felled, and some tree-felling carried out even in the Melanesian reservation.

In desperation, the Coinde and Wi Point people last year blocked the roads and seized as “hostages” the heavy equipment of the entrepreneur, a Mr Barbou, until the compensation they were asking for was paid.

Things nearly worked out right. New promises were made.

But the pressure of the Rightwing group and of the friends of the white Deputy to the National Assembly in Paris, Jacques Lafleur, in late December 1982, brought these hopes to nothing, and Mr Barbou had to renege on his promises. Negotiations were apparently continuing in January.

The conditions under which High Commissioner Roynette decided to send a mobile police force in to help in the evacuation of Mr Barbou’s equipment are unknown. There had been threats by Europeans in La Foa to take independent action against Coinde.

Whatever the circumstances, on Monday, January 10, in the early morning, a police expedition passed through the village of Coinde, to the protests of the local people, went further up, and returned escorting the bulldozers and graders and other equipment belonging to Mr Barbou.

When they were passing through the village for the second time, the chief tried to stop them, and asked for last-minute negotiations. He was brushed aside and the people allege he was struck.

Then stones started to fly. The police responded with canisters of tear gas and so-called stun grenades. Women and children fell sprawled on the ground.

These people had never before had experience of tear gas and stun grenades.

Hearing the explosions the men thought they and their families were being attacked in an act of war. In their minds the memory of what they had been told about the events of 1878 still lives. They started shooting at the police. Two gendarmes were killed, four men were wounded, two of them severely. Two civilians were among those wounded, one of them a bulldozer driver, the other the La Foa postman, on leave, who could well have had something to do with the fact that Coinde’s telephone communications had been cut.

The next day a major military operation, with heavy helicopters and troop carriers, swamped Coinde. The village was thoroughly searched. A few arms were found and confiscated and most of the men arrested were mistreated when being questioned. All knives and hatchets were confiscated, leaving the few men left around, and those later set free, and the women, with a lack of tools with which to work in the yam gardens. Their lawyers found the 10 men accused of manslaughter had swollen eyes and legs through beatings.

The reaction all over the country was one of contradictory moods of indignation. The Europeans condemned the shooting of servants of law and order, although a year and a half before, they had not shed a tear over a gendarme murdered in Gomen, some white men even saying that it served him right. He had been killed at night, by a shot from a high-powered rifle, as he was in the process of writing a report to his superiors on the armssmuggling practised on a grand scale by the New Caledonian Right-wing.

The Melanesians were horrified by the brutality shown to the inhabitants of two small villages in the mountains and vowed to a man that they would have shot at police if they had faced the same conditions.

The political situation stemming from these events is entirely new, and fluid. Nobody knew this was coming. No one knows any more where things are going.

Just three days before, a group of young men, encouraged by women, stoned the police station at Touho, in northeast New Caledonia, for hours during the night, and the police had to shoot into the air to get some respite.

In both cases we have Catholic villages, the descendants of peo- 27 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983

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They are poor, devoid of sufficient lands and without gains from the recent movement for land reforms through the opposition of Right-wing European mayors to any concessions to them. The stupid idea that one should never yield to Melanesian demands is now responsible for two more deaths. The tally of murders arising from the political situation in New Caledonia is now eight, as against only three in the course of the independence process in Vanuatu.

Up to now, European reactions have been rather muted.

Meetings have been held around World War I monuments, but drawing smaller crowds than before. Activists have threatened once more to take to arms, but the High Commissioner slapped down an Order-in-Council banning the carrying of arms. Settiers out of town do not relish the idea of being caught up in a game where they might be shot at.

Right-wing activities, murders, death threats all round, are all right just as long as the Kanaks do not shoot back.

Everybody is waiting. What is difficult to see is what the young Melanesian generation will do, those up to 30 and over. This generation has been raised in the schools, has done military service, has no future other than unemployment, due to the immigration policies practised by the local right over the years.

This generation isn’t afraid of anyone and is capable of the most courageous, and maybe rash, actions.

It is neither controlled by the churches, nor by the Noumeacentred political parties. It has a capacity for organising itself in out-of-the-ordinary ways and for rapid mobilisation. It is supported in its impatience by the women, who have accepted the idea of having numerous children to gain greater power for the Melanesian people but want a future for them.

Things might get difficult, or even nasty, for certain Europeans on the east coast, or in the Loyalty islands. But mostly it would need very little, just another stupid (but considered “dynamic”) entrepreneur, and there are some, getting into conflict with another group of villages, and the guns might come out before the police have time to arrive.

The political game in Noumea will be shaped by what happens outside Noumea. Europeans and Tahitians, hundreds of them preparing to leave the country, will be encouraged to do so. Settlers in the interior are suddenly finding a new patience and prudence, and are much less heard from, not wanting to take the consequences because some silly ass has gone too far. The only activists still sounding off are in Noumea, encouraged if not dominated by former settlers from Algeria and Indochina. Their leaders have sent away their capital, as a precaution, to Switzerland, America, Australia, New Zealand and even to the tax haven of Vanuatu.

In this situation, a referendum or elections would be inconclusive. The electoral roll has been severely tampered with in the last 10 years, to the benefit of the Right-wing. No significant elections can be held before the rolls are thoroughly revised on the basis of the Census to be taken in 1983.

In the meantime, troubled waters lie ahead.

Cooks PM looks to Oz New Cook Islands Prime Minister Geoffrey Henry said after the election that he would like the Cook Islands to move closer to Australia and he sees the Australian Labor Party as a natural ally.

“I don’t mean that we want to lessen our traditional ties with New Zealand, but we think we’ve got a lot to gain by being closer to Australia,” he said.

Political Currents

Royal Commission

Fears in Fiji that inquiry could lead to new race tensions The general election in Fiji last year re-opened divisions between ethnic Fijians and members of the numericallydominant Indian community. The drama is now being laboriously reconstructed in a specially-built wooden hut in Suva. ROBERT KEITH-REID tells the story of the Royal Commission which is inquiring into the election.

A Royal Commission of Inquiry in Fiji is investigating campaign methods used by the Alliance Party and by the National Federation Party at last year’s general election. The Alliance, led by Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, narrowly retained office in the face of a determined challenge from the NFP in parliamentary opposition.

The bulk of evidence from the first three weeks of the hearing has been a tedious repetition of details already widely publicised. The evidence recounts what has become known as the Carroll Report affair, involving a report on political tactics. A prominent member of the Alliance allegedly commissioned the report from an Australian consultant, Alan Carroll.

The NFP claims that the Alliance hired Australian and American business and political consultants to devise a master election plan exploiting race tensions between ethnic Indians and ethnic Fijians. Bribery, character assassination and similar tactics were involved, the NFP claims.

The Alliance, for its part, claims that the NFP was in collusion with leftist Australian elements to smear the ruling alliance on the eve of the election. It also alleges that the Alliance accepted campaign money from Russia on the undertaking of granting favors to Moscow if re-elected.

The Alliance claims that a television team from the Australian Broadcasting Commission used documents obtained illicitly from the prime minister’s department to produce a deliberately biased report of the Carroll affair. The former Indian High Commissioner to Fiji, Mrs Soonu Kochar, is alleged to have constantly interfered in Fiji internal affairs and her husband is alleged to have been part of the claimed link with Russia.

Sir John White, a retired judge of the New Zealand Supreme Court, is hearing the inquiry as a single commissioner. But as the hearing went into May, with 23 days of evidence already transcribed, there was a growing public reaction questioning where the inquiry would lead.

There were also fears that the detailed raking up of incidents from a bitter election campaign would serve only to rekindle suspicions and tensions. Another possible effect would be to delay any moves towards inter-party co-operation on a higher level.

Since last year’s election Prime Minister Ratu Mara has made a tentative approach to the opposition to reconsider the often-mooted “government of national unity.” The opposition has not flatly rejected the approach, but clearly there can be few developments while the present inquiry drags on.

The Prime Minister’s appearout manipulation and fraud referred to the NFP’s involvement in publicity about the report.

After the Australian Broadcasting Commission had made a film about the Carroll Report the NFP had distributed 300 video tapes of the program in an attempt to discredit the Alliance.

The video program and an article published in the Australian National Times inferred that big business and foreign manipulation were entering the Fiji political scene to bolster Ratu Mara’s Alliance Party. The program alleged that an Australian journalist, Clive Speed, formerly of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, had been hired with Australian aid funds ostensibly as a public service information officer but actually as an Alliance Party propaganda man.

Ratu Mara spent four days in the witness box and strongly de- Campaign frauds alleged ance in the witness box created wide public interest. In his evidence Ratu Mara attacked the Opposition Leader, Mr Jai Ram Reddy, and Sir Vijay Singh for their part in the NFP campaign developments. He accused them of deliberate fraud and manipulation in their campaign strategies.

Ratu Mara agreed that the Carroll report had been commissioned from within his party, but he denied that its “repugnant” sections had been used to shape election tactics. His remarks abnied the allegations of improper election tactics. He said that Speed had been appointed on Carroll’s recommendation “in a sense” and that Speed’s salary had been paid by Australia.

Ratu Mara said that the Alliance Party as such had not commissioned the Carroll Report. The report, formerly titled Strategic Issues Facing the Fiji Government, had emerged from a loose arrangement involving himself as party leader, Mr Mahendra Patel of Suva and Mr Carroll. Mr Patel is an influential Fiji businessman and an official of the Alliance Party.

In any event, Ratu Mara said, the report had not been circulated among members of the party, it had remained locked in his safe throughout the election, he had not bothered to read its “repugnant” parts, and to this day he was ignorant of the meaning of some of the terms used. The terms included such words as “toecutter” and “stroking.”

Only a handful of Alliance Party officials had ever heard of Carroll and members of his team “until this monstrous lie surfaced on the very eve of the election that these outsiders had planned and were directing the Alliance campaign.” Ratu Mara also claimed that television interviewers had attempted to trick him in the train of events which followed. He said he had met Carroll through Mahendra Patel and had been impressed by the Australian’s grasp of the international economic situation.

When Patel had offered Carroll’s services free to the Alliance he had, as a Fijian chief, felt unable to refuse.

Opposition Leader Jai Ram Reddy followed Ratu Mara into the witness box and strongly denied that his NFP had collaborated with the Australian media to bring down the Alliance Party. He described allegations of this nature as utterly false and mischievous. He believed that some of the strategies advocated in the Carroll report were being implemented by the alliance during the election.

A vital part of the inquiry involves the circumstances which made the contents of the Carroll Report available to the media. Evidence alleged that Rosemary Gillespie, a research assistant in the Carroll team, had become annoyed over an issue relating to the work she was Continued Page 73.

Political Currents

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LOCALISATION YEARS 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 Lung 3 6 2 13 15 Skin 13 11 15 . - Uterus 8 12 17 11 14 Breast 5 10 14 6 - Ear-Nose-Throat 7 6 5 - 11 Liver 2 1 2 4 8 Gall-duct 2 1 . - - Parotid 2 . . - .

Ganglion (undetermined) 6 - 6 - - Digestive tract 2 11 9 - 6 Male genital 2 - 3 - - Urinary 1 2 1 3 4 Eyes 1 1 - - - Bone 1 1 1 2 1 Nervous system 1 - - - - Thyroid 2 1 1 - 1 Ovaries 1 4 3 .

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Intestines . 2 .

Abdomen . 2 .

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French Polynesia

Protest by Australia prompts French statement on N-Tests French Polynesia is a territory which is exclusively under French sovereignty. This point of international law is indisputable.

The French Government undertakes measures which it sees as appropriate on its own territory, and, in so doing, France can be the only judge.

Nuclear tests are an essential part of our defence policy. They aim at maintaining the credibility of our deterrent force, thereby safeguarding our independence.

As the Minister for External Relations, M Claude Cheysson, said in July 1982 in the National Assembly: “French nuclear deterrent capabilities have been kept down to the strict minimum needed to ensure deterrence.

France cannot fall below the threshold of credibility without endangering her security and independence”.

Nuclear tests have a bearing on vital French interests and contribute to the world strategic balance.

We are well aware of the position of Australia: this position is opposed to all nuclear tests carried out by all States.

The French Government therefore feels that the Australian Government cannot fail likewise to make known its opposition to tests carried out by China, the USA, and the USSR.

The monitoring of radioactivity: Radio-activity in French Polynesia is monitored by two organisations under the joint responsibility of the army and the Atomic Energy Commission; A) The joint radiological surveillance service (Service Mixte de Surveillance Radiologique) is in charge of monitoring irradiation of personnel working on the test sites, as well as the physical environment (water soil air). 1. As for personnel, very stringent regulations and strict monitoring procedures are in Following a protest in April by the Australian Government against the proposed resumption of nuclear tests by France at Moruroa Atoll, French Polynesia, the French Embassy in Canberra issued a statement. It was accompanied by statistical information seldom seen in English on such issues as the levels of radio-activity in French Polynesia, and the incidence of cancer in the territory.

Cases Of Cancer In French Polynesia

(POPULATION 160,000) force. In particular, it has been the policy of the Atomic Energy Commission for the last 10 years to inform anybody subjected to a detectable radiation dose (approximately 30 mrem on the personal film detectors) of the fact in writing.

For the whole year 1982, all personnel on the atoll of Moruroa collectively received a total irradiation dose of 4800 mrems, which is less than the admissible dose for one professional agent working at the site.

The maximum dose accumulated during the same year by one individual was 400 mrem, which is below the limit of 500 mrem fixed for the general public.

Total irradiation in Tahiti itself is so small as to be negligible, and stood in 1980 and 1981 at 1.6 microrad/hour, as compared for instance to 2.9 microradtiour in Montlhery near Paris. 2. As for the environment, both the air and seawater are closely monitored.

Radio-active air pollution at Moruroa, as can easily be checked by anybody with basic equipment taking samples outside territorial waters down-wind from the atoll, is practically nil, and is much less than in other parts of the world. In 1981, for instance, alpha element radioactivity as expressed in femto-curies per cubic metre of air was three in Moruroa, three in Tahiti, 10 in Chile, 25 in Montlhery near Paris, and 106 in Senegal. (It is to be noted that overall levels in 1981 were higher than usual, especially in the northern hemisphere, due to atmospheric nuclear tests carried out that year by the People’s Republic of China).

The same applies to sea radioactivity, and the fact that there is no radiological risk whatsoever is illustrated by the fact that personnel are authorised to swim and engage in all water sports in Moruroa lagoon. Radio-activity

Political Currents

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Phone: 350-3411 Telex: 33729. Cables: Macbound, Melbourne. in the waters of French Polynesia, including Moruroa, is on a par with minimum levels recorded in the North Atlantic.

B) The joint biological control service (Service Mixte de Controle Biologique) is in charge of radiological monitoring of living creatures except man, and of foodstuffs and drinking water.

More than 2000 samples are taken each year to test any radioactivity in locally produced foodstuffs. To put it simply, it has been observed that artificial radio-activity regularly amounts to no more than 1/10th of natural radio-activity.

C) These data, as well as those collected independently by a local United Nations antenna, are passed on to the UN, and provide the basis for the reports drawn up by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR).

The latest of these reports was published at the beginning of 1983 and can be purchased from the New York-based United Nations Sales Section. 2. The Incidence of Cancer: Mortality rates in French Polynesia are not a secret in any way.

They are in fact regularly brought to the attention of the relevant authorities, and published in the local press.

The main conclusion to be drawn from the statistics is that the number of cancer cases in Polynesia, while subject as elsewhere to variations, is in now way higher than in other areas.

It is in fact significantly lower than in some places, being on average 50 per 100,000, compared with 106 in Australia, 175 in metropolitan France, and 264 in New Zealand. 1. Total figures for recent years are as follows: 1977 62, 1978 65, 1979 85, 1980 58, 1981 71.

The fluctuation in numbers is a direct result of the limited size of the population concerned (160,000), and is a normal statistical phenomenon. 2. Types of cancers: Cancers affecting organs which are the most radio-sensitive thyroid, blood cells do not occur more frequently than other types of cancers, and have shown no significant variations.

On the other hand, cases of cancer linked with tobacco and alcohol lungs, upper respiratory tract, and digestive tract are very much on the increase, and this is a cause of great concern to the authorities. Tobacco appears to be the major issue, since 75 per cent of all Polynesians are smokers, and tobacco consumption increased by 150 per cent between 1961 and 1979, while population rose by only 50 per cent.

Skin cancer occurrences appear to be no more numerous than would be expected in a climate- such as prevails in Polynesia. 3. Persons evacuated for medical reasons; It should be noted that these figures obviously do not coincide with the figures for cancer cases. The same person may be evacuated for treatment overseas, twice or more in the course of a year, and this in any case may not be required in the year in which cancer has been diagnosed.

The number of persons evacuated for medical reasons has been increasing. But all evacuees are not necessarily cancer cases. In 1982, for example, the latter were 70 out of a total of 263 persons sent overseas for medical treatment, the remainder being victims of heart disease, or cases requiring major surgery.

Some are sent to metropolitan France, others to the United States or New Zealand. The reason for this is that the small population in French Polynesia has not made it possible to provide the islands with the complete range of medical facilities to be found in larger communities.

At the same time increasing efforts are going into the early detection of cancer cases. This, coupled with a substantial rise in life expectancy, which brings a larger segment of the population into the potential cancer age groups, explains that there has been an increase in the numbers of persons evacuated.

The decision to evacuate patients is made on purely medical and/or personal grounds, and no attempt is made, contrary to certain allegations, to hide the fact since statistics on the matter, herewith provided, are readily available.

Political Currents

From the ISLANDS PRESS Part of a letter from teacher Dick Gavun, published in the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier, Port Moresby One of the reasons for the decline in our education standards is lack of discipline, and this is due to the fact that the government has put a full stop to harsh punishment. Therefore, to our dismay, we teachers never discipline the children. Good citizens and disciplined students were produced in the colonial days. I am proud to be one. I, for one, will produce undisciplined students for PNG because the government doesn’t allow me to discipline the children in a harsh way. We no longer have trust, confidence and respect from our students.

From a column by Akio Heine in the Marshall Islands Journal, Majuro A religious man has given me his opinion why we haven’t had much rain. There’s too much sinning in the Republic, he believes. He said the Republic had become like Sodom and Gommorah. Said he: “Sundays are now favorite fishing days for everybody, many stores are open and the girls are now wearing provocative trousers.” Many beer drinkers are now switching to hard liquor. Nowadays beer can leave you broke, but not drunk unlike, say, a bottle of vodka. So expect the sale of hard liquor to go up. Another man said he is definitely thinking of going back to drinking yeast, a favorite drink of the outer islands.

From a reader’s letter published in The Norfolk Islander, Norfolk Island In last week’s newspaper David Lewis wrote in a way which suggested Norfolk Island is part of Australia. I don’t think or feel that Norfolk is like Australia or is part of Australia, and I would hope that it never is. Norfolk can do without income tax, strikes, racial problems, police with guns, tall buildings, crowds, traffic jams, lights, parking meters and lots of other similar things. Norfolk is different and much better, too. That is why every one appreciates it. Many people want to come and live here, and if they meet the basic requirements they probably can. It is a good thing that Norfolk does not deliberately set out to increase its population. If it were to get any more crowded it would not be appreciated by the residents or by the tourists, either.

From a letter in the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier, Port Moresby, headed “Message to Hagen policemen”

Mount Hagen police are a disgrace to the public. Are there any regulations each policeman is supposed to abide by? Nearly all policemen in Hagen are improperly trained. If they are trained well they must have forgotten their notes. Any Western Highlander will agree with me. Some I have seen in the station were half dressed in prescribed uniforms. Some are drunk while on duty. I can name each policeman. Some during duties have their hands in their pockets just hanging around.

From a report in The Fiji Times, Suva, about a 19-year-old woman convicted of stealing from shops A gust of wind foiled a shoplifter’s attempt to steal a bottle of Tang which she had hidden under her skirt, Suva court heard yesterday. A witness told the court that the woman had walked out of the shop in a peculiar way. When a gust of wind came, her skirt lifted and a bottle of Tang was seen between her legs.

A second witness told the court that the woman walked from another shop in a waddling manner. When she shook her body two mosquito nets and two towels fell from under her skirt. She pleaded not guilty to three charges of larceny but the court accepted the prosecution evidence and found she had stolen two bottles of Tang, two mosquito nets, two towels, shaving cream, after-shave lotion and film. She was remanded in custody for sentence.

From a letter in the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier, Port Moresby, headed “Be warned on race pollution”

I have seen many young ladies from towns or even outside the villages mucking around with white men. I am concerned and don’t want these matters brought out into our provinces. It will ruin the color of our bodies throughout PNG.

From the Marshall Islands Journal, Majuro If you need to visit any of the government offices the best time is after coffee break (around 9.00). But don’t get there late because at 10.00 there is another coffee break. You will have to sit around till they get back at 11.00, or maybe even after lunch. The same thing applies if you are trying to make your visit in the afternoon.

From an editorial in The Fiji Times, Suva, commenting on the despatch of Fiji avocados to Buckingham Palace in England Now the Fiji avocado pears have found their way to the Royal dining table in Buckingham Palace, hopefully some local entrepreneur will be sufficiently interested in exploiting the highly lucrative market abroad for this much sought-after tropical delicacy. Visitors to Fiji are astounded to find that the avocado pear grows wild, and not many people here care for it.

From an editorial in The Observer, Apia, on the condition of the roads in Western Samoa Meantime, every time a person is elected a Member of Parliament the road around where he lives gets pounded smooth and paved over in no time. Why don’t the Sinamoga people and the Leone people invite an MP to come and live in their villages?

From an item published in the American Samoa News Bulletin, headed “Yachtsman confused by storm”

Yachtsman Stephen Neumann was riding out a cyclone off the Fiji Islands recently when a huge wave carried his boat across coral reefs and up to the bar of a beachfront hotel. Shocked and disorientated by the battering, Neumann leaned over the side of the yacht and fired a distress flare, right into the establishment ceiling . . . Feeling “like an idiot,” Neumann said he climbed out of the boat and hid in a linen room. The yacht is still parked in the bar at Plantation Village Resort. Said Neumann, “I think the manager would rather it was someplace else. The boat weighs 14 tons, not an easy item to move.”

From the Flotsam and Jetsam column in The Fiji Times, Suva OVERHEARD; A cyclone-struck resident commenting disgustedly on the threatened arrival of Cyclone Sarah. “Cyclone Oscar has come and gone, now his wife’s coming. Next it will be their kids.”

From the Marshall Islands Journal, Majuro The Majuro Police Department has decided to drop the physical fitness requirements to join the force. They said if they enforced these there would be no police force.

From the Pitcairn Miscellany Importation of Dogs: As the island population of dogs is now down to one lonely specimen, some members felt that more should be imported. The Governor thought this was up to the individual, as the “machinery” for importing dogs already existed. Other council members felt that one dog was too many.

From the Voice of Vanuatu Last Saturday was “Snail Day” at Walaha, West Ambae, and 331 kilos of snails were collected by Walaha school. First prize for the most snails caught went to Class Six. The agricultural department who organised the “Snail Day” congratulate the headmaster and pupils. African snails are a pest and are finding their way to more and more islands. 33 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983

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YESTERDAY Of foundation stones, a temptress in the night, and ‘Joyita’

In the sixth and final extract from the memoirs of the late Charles William Whonsbon-Aston, Anglican Archdeacon Emeritus of Polynesia, he tells of his experiences in Western Samoa and Fiji in the years leading up to his retirement.

In July 1944 I decided to clamber up the steep side of Mt Vaea to visit the tomb of Robert Louis Stevenson. I cannot be said to be clairvoyant, yet something suddenly seemed to call me, who had never had any intention of climbing the hill behind Vailima, Stevenson’s old home.

Stevenson had died in 1894 and a voice said to me “1894- 1944” 50 years. With the whole world at war, this fiftieth anniversary of the death of Tusitala would be overlooked, save probably by a few ardent Stevensonians. Could we remember it in Samoa? With it came an answer to my problem of building the new church we needed. Remembering the bishop’s advice that the cool of a quiet Sunday evening was the best time to lay a foundation stone in the tropics, with now a feeling that this would be the answer, I rushed, practically slid down the steep declivity, with but one thought in my mind: “If the anniversary date of December 3 fell on a Sunday, it was a sure indication as to our course of action”. It did fall on Sunday.

So, the die was cast and we went ahead with the foundation stone laying. With no plans drawn up, but a general idea of just where the northern comer of the prospective building would be, the stone was duly laid on Sunday, December 3, 1944, as the stone declared, “The Fiftieth Anniversary of the Falling Asleep of Tusitala”.

Afioga Mata’afa, a friend of Stevenson’s at the time of his death, gave an excellent speech in Samoan and in English, and His Excellency Mr (later Sir) Alfred Turnbull made a further splendid oration when he laid the stone. Behind us as we sat through the proceedings the creek in which ‘R.L.S.’ was wont to bathe rippled along, and rising from it was Mt Vaea, its tomb almost directly above us. It was all, ceremony and surroundings, quiet and peaceful then we went to the hall for a tremendous tea, lavish in quantity and quality as only a Samoan feast can be. However, the heat had overcome Mata’afa and we whisked him (if that is what one describes moving a man of his height and bulk) to a chair in the shelter of my house, where the administration of a little elixir from Stevenson’s fair land and a short rest restored him. • • • I called on Mata’afa one evening and suggested his young lad should come over to my place for the night, as the Boy Scouts, in which he was interested, though too young to join, would be meeting. Eagerly the lad made preparations and came with me. I had the scout troop leader’s young brother of the same age to stay the night with him. Little did I realise that they were, unwittingly, to be my “guardian angels”.

I had moved my humble couch, using it as a day couch and a bed at night, in the narrow dining room section of the angle of my verandah. The other arm of the angle, the office-cum- “lounge”, was equally a passage way, that opened on to the front verandah, my “front door”.

The scouts’ meeting over, the two lads asked could they listen to the radio (in the “lounge” section, through the door from my bed). I read my night Office, then got ready for bed. Feeling it was time the lads moved off to their room, I looked in, to find them absolutely sound asleep on the floor. I arranged cushions to save them from bumping into the furniture, turned the light off and retired.

The house was quiet, flooded by the brilliance of the Samoan full moon that Rupert Brooke raved about. At the hour of midnight I heard a tapping on the “front door”. I sprang out of bed in time to see a slimly built figure Mount Vaea outside Apia with the tomb of Robert Louis Stevenson, and Vailima, Stevenson’s house. These photographs are from about the time that Whonsbon-Aston climbed Mount Vaea and planned a new church. The house was already greatly changed from Stevenson’s time and has undergone many subsequent changes. 35 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE. 1983

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weaving its way over the recumbent sleepers on the floor. A husky voice floated out to me on the strongly flavored breath of a damsel who certainly had “wine taken” “Don’t put the light on, don’t put the light on”.

And there she was, delight of many an old saint desirous of beating the old Devil, the temptress, a member of my choir, who had many friendly traits. She had even produced a son to a benighted gentleman, destined to be a belted knight.

My concern was that my “guardian angels” the sleeping boy scouts on the floor should not be disturbed, for what a lovely tale could have been woven in the market places. I was quite sure the Good Lord would have treated her as He did Mary of Magdala. (She had many good points and I found later that my prognostications that one day she would become a happily wedded wife and mother were vindicated).

Tearfully she demanded “Why have they thrown me out?” Not being omniscient and lacking the facts, I had to let that one pass.

She sat beside me on my bed, asking for a cigarette, which, by chance (for I am not a smoker), I was able to supply. It was then a glass of water, as she snuggled more seductively and enticingly closer. We adjourned to the kitchen and the ice box. With nymph, even more “lit up”, from the premises.

Within the clergy house the ‘guardian angels’. Providentially present, slumbered on. Who knows what shinanigans might have gone on had they not been there. Blessings on Ela, who sang so sweetly in the choir, her voluntary and willing contribution to the understanding Deity!! • • • Soon after, the administrator, Turnbull, now knighted, rang to say his successor. Colonel Voelcker (back to the military titles) anxious to get some idea of Pacific administration, would be visiting Fiji, Tonga and the Cook supreme tact I was then able to shepherd her out on to the drive towards the front gate.

But here yet another danger awaited me, for it was now well after midnight and the brethren of the Masonic Lodge, their revelries finished, would be passing and what a vision for tomorrow’s gossips. There was the Chaplain of Western Samoa, in his pyjamas, brilliantly lit up in the great white pale glory of the tropic full moon, just the atmosphere for romance, escorting a sweet, friendly-natured The chaplain in his pyjamas, the glory of a tropic moon, a friendly-natured nymph ...

Islands, by-passing Samoa, before he took over as governor, with a mandate to prepare the Trust Territory for selfdetermination. He understood that I would be in Fiji for Synod during Voelcker’s stay there and the latter was anxious to contact me.

During World War II Voelcker had commanded a Fijian Battalion fighting the Japanese in the South Pacific. He had won the DSO and the MC. His association with the Fijians may have been considered a qualification for his appointment as administrator of the Trust Territory, specifically for the purpose of setting the initial machinery for “self-determination” in motion.

However, he had been serving, as an expatriate commanding officer, who had not grown up among the Fijians, and only possessed the military expertise necessary. This may have been a disadvantage, for there is a vast difference between the Fijian and the Samoan, the former having wider and more sophisticated contacts for years with other people and races, living in a bigger group, and with different national characteristics and customs.

Voelcker was the nominee of the New Zealand Labor Government for which he had campaigned.

Then, too, he had to live down some of the past complexities of an administration which had to a great measure lost the confidence of many of the chiefs, who, being of a rather superior race, expected some degree of chicanery among themselves, indeed thoroughly enjoyed it, but did not expect it of expatriates ruling them. I have always felt that any antipathy that may have existed arose from the thought that New Zealand must be, in relation to the United Kingdom, a sort of vassal state, leading the chiefs to think of themselves as well “down the ladder” as vassals of a vassal state. Though the Labor delegation from New Zealand led by Mr Langstone gave them some hope of a new deal, some of the old chiefs would tell me they felt Langstone, who appeared at odd times in a lavalava, did not impress them as being of chiefly class. Voelcker’s presence, his uniform and his decorations, helped to bring a new image.

So often expatriates bring with them their idioms and thought processes, meaningful in their homeland, but open to misinterpretation in their new sphere.

Western Samoa, an isolated small territory and terribly parochial, seemed to interpret what we might consider trivia from a much more solemn angle. It was here that Voelcker made his first mistake.

In his first speech to the Fono Faipule (parliament) he urged a forgetfulness of the past and all its errors, and a “forwardlooking”, constructive approach to future understanding, coupled with hard work. He finished his excellent speech with “Hats off to the past, coats off to the future”, suiting action to word by taking off his military tunic and hanging it over his chair, standing there in his shirt sleeves. For A London Missionary Society celebration in Western Samoa in 1945 marks 50 years of involvement there by the society.

Whonsbon-Aston arrived just before these celebrations and describes in his memoirs the gentle undercurrents of rivalry between Anglican and LMS for unofficial recognition as the “State Church”. 37 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983 YESTERDAY

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a century and a half the coat, shirt, tie and walking stick were the status symbols of a gentleman and no one of any standing would think of attending church or some solemn assembly “undressed”. Trivial it may seem to a European, but it was strictly “Non-U” to the Samoan at the time.

Voelcker felt he had a duty to educate the Samoan people to a goal of “self-determination”, though the great majority were not in any way interested in the matter. He gave addresses every Saturday evening over the radio, speaking of course in English.

Then on Mondays the two Fauta, Malietoa and Tamasese, would hold forth, but apparently without any guidance as to their subject. It must have been a nightmare to them seeking a theme and getting it into shape.

This came home to me particularly when some of us climbed to the famous tomb to recite some of Stevenson’s prayers and remember the centenary of his birth. We were just a handful, joined by His Excellency the High Commissioner.

With the reputation “R.L.S.” had with regard to his love for the Samoan people and his fight for their rights, one would have thought the two fautua would have been primed to remember such a day. Instead both were left searching for a topic and filled in with some little stories from European fairy tales. A few days later, I asked Malietoa why he continued broadcasting on the radio. His reply was that he must educate his people.

I suggested that the strength of a big chief lay in his silence; King George spoke only when there was some great crisis that shook the world or at Christmas, but in Samoa tradition left it to the orators to talk to their hearts’ delight. It must have found a chord, for a few weeks later both the fautua were saved from further embarrassment.

During Voelcker’s term Western Samoa Samoa i Sisifo began to see itself actually moving towards “selfdetermination”. A Council of State had been set up consisting of the administrator and the fautua, a national flag had been raised at Mulinuu amid great rejoicing, and a national anthem, locally written and scored by a local bandmaster, began to be sung with great gusto, especially by the hundreds of school children (for more than half of the population were under 15). His Excellency the Administrator (to most people “the Governor”) became the first High Commissioner, a title that took a long time to sink in, for to many he was still “the Governor”, a term more significant.

Personally I have felt, and was moved to write so to the prime minister, that New Zealand, small in size and limited in finance, had done and was continuing to do, a splendid practical job, even if they had sometimes just “muddled through”. They might have been wiser had they, when they first accepted the mandate, asked for the secondment of some experienced colonial adminstrator in the initial stages, a “know-how” that could have been a school for subsequent career administrations.

In March, 1949, Mr (later Sir) Guy Richardson Powles, later New Zealand’s first Ombudsman, arrived and assumed office as High Commissioner, to be reappointed again at the end of his first term for a further two years in 1954.

The soldier who was not a lawyer had departed and now commemorated by a plaque in the new church.

There was no evidence of any “struggle” for independence, such as Home Rule in Ireland, nor were there any “freedom fighters” to rouse the populace; the Mau had done its job and was but a memory. In fact not many people even knew they were in the process of being “freed” or even thought they were shackled.

It never appeared to me that it was a political party matter. New Zealand, doing an excellent job in many ways, just wanted to get Independence arrives quietly no freedom fighters, no evidence of struggle came the lawyer, who had reached colonel’s rank in the war in the Pacific though he never paraded the fact. He, too, was an appointee of the Labor Government of New Zealand, one would say, a Christian Socialist. His great old father, Colonel Powles, veteran of the Boer War and First and Second World Wars, would come to Samoa during the New Zealand winter, a grand old soldier “of the old school”. He became attached to the services, at which he sang right lustily in the temporary church. He is rid of the responsibility. What Labor initiated, the National (Conservative) Party carried along in its stride. The people were never really consulted save through their matais. However, whatever it meant, they have gone along with it. • • • I seemed to become involved nolens volens in the beginning and at several other points with the mystery of the loss in 1955 of the 70-foot fishing vessel Joyita.

It began when the children, nice lively Irish youngsters, of the government doctor, burst in on me with “Will Sunday School be over before 11.15 because we want to see daddy off in the Joyitar Next morning as the dawn broke she was to be seen hull down well out to sea in its voyage to the Tokelau Group, under charter to the firm of E. A.

Coxon and Co., at the request of the government carrying a normal party of government officials on a routine visit to the atoll group. That was October 3, 1955.

On the Wednesday evening we dined with the Russells at their plantation a few miles further on from Faleolo Airport, returning to find a message to say that the Joyita was missing and that an aerial search by planes of the RNZAF would start at daylight next morning. Indeed, the search went on for many days without success and was eventually abandoned.

On November 9 news came that a passenger-cargo vessel, MV Tuvalu, returning from the Gilberts, had found the waterlogged abandoned Joyita off Vanua Levu, Fiji. There were some slight signs of a fire, not a soul aboard, ship’s papers and instruments gone, the thousand pounds in notes and silver likewise missing. Nor was there any sign of the 45 empty 44-gallon drums or the timber carried as 40 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983 YESTERDAY

cargo. Her fate began to be equated with that of the Marie Celeste.

Joyita had been a private yacht of the United States Navy, built in 1931. It had been converted into a fishing vessel, with refrigeration and the holds lined with cork, helping to make her practically unsinkable. Owned by a Honolulu woman she had been chartered to Captain Thomas Henry (“Dusty”) Miller, of Cardiff, Wales.

What happened to them all?

That is the mystery of the sea that has never been solved.

It was found most difficult to think of Captain Miller deserting his vessel. This was quite out of character. There was the mystery of the missing empty, floatable, 44-gallon oil drums and the timber, with which an excellent raft could have been made, and the 25 Tokelau people on board would have been thoroughly at home in the sea lashing them together. There seems to be no record of these washing-up on distant beaches. The ship, it was discovered, had no lifeboat, only three oval floats (never found).

There were life-jackets for all, but no effective radio.

Joyita was reconditioned after being sold in Fiji and was used on a copra run between the Vanua Levu coast and Levuka and Suva.

Some months later, Joyita met her end. Coming from Savusavu on Vanua Levu and passing the end of the reef beyond Makogai, her skipper came on deck to alter course slightly, just in time, for she grazed the end of the reef, but with little damage. About 10 o’clock at night she landed two passengers at Levuka wharf and continued into heavy seas through the gap in the reef shortnamed the Malolo, brought along Robin Maugham (Lord Maugham), together with a Mr Savage, of New Zealand, to talk about the Joyita, about which Maugham hoped to write a book and also prepare a scenario for a film based on the Joyita, which he was arranging to purchase.

I put it to Maugham that it hardly seemed the right thing, so Joyita: An unsolved puzzle, encounter with a reef, and a plan of exorcism. ly to find herself in difficulties, between heavy seas and pumps that had reversed their operations. She struggled back into Levuka and beached at Nasova, near the government centre for the province, and never sailed again.

When I returned to Levuka as Archdeacon of Fiji in November, 1958, the Joyita seemed to follow me. On August 16, 1961, Captain Frank Brown, then the owner and captain of the onetime Royal Yacht of Queen Salote of Tonga, the Hifofua, renear to the tragedy, to sear the minds of those bereaved. He assured me that he had no intent whatsoever and would avoid any such impression. I then suggested that one found it difficult to trust a Maugham after the way his uncle, Somerset, had ferreted out stories of people still living and had reopened old scandals and old sores. He asked “I suppose you mean The Letter”. I agreed and I had also in my mind my old late friend, Sir Murchison Fletcher, Governor of Fiji, said to be the “Chinese official” in Somerset Maugham’s The Painted Veil.

I was particularly concerned about one story that he would certainly hear on his coming visit to Samoa, a story with a dramatic savor someone seemed to have invented to depict a probable cause for the trouble aboard. Its publication would certainly cause great concern to a widow and delightful family. I wanted to avoid this.

He asked could I tell him about it. I decided I would only if he gave me his solemn promise that he would not use it under any circumstances. He gave me that word and subsequently his word (of the new aristocracy!) was proved of no value whatever.

Unexpected circumstances took me back to Samoa for two months and on my return through The coastal ship Joyita was propped up on the beach (above) at Nasova in 1961 when Whonsbon-Aston, then Archdeacon of Fiji, was asked to conduct a ceremony of exorcism. In a mounting controversy arising from published material he did not go ahead with the suggestion. The picture above left shows the ship aground on Horseshoe Reef before being beached at Nasova. 41 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983

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Suva, staying at Bishop’s House, the bishop’s wife brought me a message from Lord Maugham, who had left for the UK, to ask if I would take a service of exorcism on the Joyita.

I was importuned then by telephone calls, and Captain Brown himself came to talk to me about it. I said I would agree only after the ship was fully restored and certified seaworthy by the competent authority, a properly qualified skipper and engineer were in charge, and the bishop had issued the licence necessary in every such case in accordance with ancient Canon Law.

Bishop Kempthorne then retired, after 39 years as bishop in Polynesia, to be succeeded by John Charles Vockler as third bishop, a tall handsome fellow, who, when resplendent in his cope and mitre, could look and fit the character of the moment like a medieval prelate, though at times he could appear as a humble suppliant at the Throne of grace. His real self seemed to be between the two when his best graces came out.

In the meantime a series of syndicated articles appeared from Robin Maugham in the Sydney Sunday paper, the Sun- Herald, in which it was mentioned that “the Archdeacon of Fiji had offered” to take a service of exorcism, which annoyed me.

I retired from the affair.

Soon after came a battle royal between the Lord Spiritual of Polynesia and the equally youngish Lord Temporal Maugham, all highly diverting. Maugham appeared to have called the Archbishop of Canterbury to his cause, and English ecclesiastical authorities on demon-possession and exorcism were called in. A perusal of the file in the Diocesan records is really interesting.

In the meantime an eccentric, but really competent, woman artist of worldwide renown settled temporarily (her stays were alway much on the pattern), Miss Edwell Burke, felt the Joyita should be permanently based ashore surrounded by bright flower beds, with teas served aboard.

I don’t know whether Maugham wrote with bitterness.

But I received a letter from a journalist friend in Salisbury, England, saying I should take an action for libel against Maugham, and then a letter from the one person I had hoped would be saved by my intervention, a widow writing on behalf of her young and impressionable children, who had been wounded and disturbed by such a betrayal.

Of course I would not take any legal action, it might have encouraged people to buy the book, which was not by any means a literary triumph. Joyita, all this time sat in the comparative safety of the shore reef, buffeted by one hurricane, and overrun by children and odd plunderers. • • • It was a day to be remembered.

That evening, John Martin, my choice, and a very good one, as my successor, was inducted and I was collated as Archdeacon of Fiji and, once again. Vicar of Levuka in the line of the pioneer, William Floyd.

I had to return to Western Samoa four times in timfcs of crisis and twice to see my old friends, sadly decreasing in numbers as the years went by.

My packing done each farewell seemed a sad event. The last one occurred in 1958. His Excellency the High Commissioner gave an open reception from 3.30 to 6.30 p.m., people coming at their own convenience. The scouts gave me an ornate and complicated-looking clock in a glass dome, a kindly thought, though I never found out how it worked. The guides gave me a small tanoa (a manylegged bowl cut from a solid log used for kava).

The Returned Servicemen’s Club Committee had a small party for me. One member of the committee, a hardened sailor, the Harbor Master, suddenly asked if he could say a word. I shall never forget his honest appraisal of my associations there.

In the early dusk a few evenings later, I was with a number of friends who were fare welling me on the wharf from which the passengers were ferried out to the ship, when the Harbor Master arrived with his boys.

I was not to be allowed to go aboard with the hoi pplloi, but was to be piped aboard from the Harbor Master’s vessel and an era, as they say, ended.

A few years later Samoa became an independent sovereign state.

The damaged Joyita under tow in Laucala Bay off Suva.

Archdeacon Whonsbon-Aston In Suva with some younger members of the parish. 43 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983 YESTERDAY

PEOPLE In the mid-1960s PlM’s editorial adviser JOHN CARTER was news editor of The Fiji Times, Suva. In this capacity he covered the visits to Fiji of U.S. film actor RAYMOND BURR, who at the time was in the process of purchasing the Fiji island of Naitauba. Below Carter offers his light-hearted recollection of the events surrounding the purchase of the island, which is now up for sale. • • • So Raymond Burr, Hollywood actor inside “mouthpiece” Perry Mason, paraplegic policeman Ironside, one or two inscrutable Chinese villains and a few scrutable Caucasian ones, has put his island of Naitauba in Fiji on the market. Reason for sale, according to Suva real estate agent David Ragg, is “to avoid estate complications after his death”.

There couldn’t be any other reason, except, maybe, hardupness, for Naitauba is a very attractive piece of real estate; one of those “away from it all” places especially in these nuclear fission days a valuable piece of freehold in a country where more than 80 per cent of the land is owned by the Fijians, who can’t sell any.

It’s one of those upraised coral-on-limestone islands; is in northern Lau, about 135 kilometres from Taveuni and about 500 kilometres from Suva; has an area of 7.8 square kilometres, roughly circular in shape, flat in the southeast rising steeply to 186 metres with its north coast rising straight out of the Pacific Ocean (17 deg S) in 30-metre high cliffs. It has limestone caves and 12 sandy beaches, though you’ve to climb down the cliffs to reach nine of them.

Its previous owners, the Hennings, once the largest trading firm in Fiji, worked it as a copra plantation and it still has a large coconut plantation.

But Mr Burr introduced several exotic sidelines as befits a film star. Obviously partial to nuts, macadamia-type he installed a nut farm, plantation or what, and imported some birds partridges, ptarmigan, pheasant, etc. It has been his vacation isle but he has also run it as a business.

Sydney newspapers reported recently that he bought Naitauba for $12,716. Ye gods. I’d have borrowed $12,700 as I had $l6 and bought it myself at that price. Burr paid around 80,000 pounds, not dollars, for the island. Now, he’s asking $3.9 million, which, with inflation and all the improvements he’s made, seems a fair enough price which could attract an American millionaire, like Smiley Ratliff, for instance, who’s set his sights on leasing Henderson in the Pitcairn Islands. When American business magazine ownermillionaire Malcolm Forbes bought Laucala Island (11.7 square kilometres and 30 kilometres from Taveuni) in 1972 he flew over Naitauba and wished he’d bought it!

Burr’s negotiations with a Suva estate agent over Naitauba in 1965 were a cloak-and-dagger operation. Had it been divulged that he was wanting to buy the island, there was sure to be a queue of competing buyers. He told reporters at a press conference in Suva in June, 1965, tha the had come to Suva to renew memories, as he did some convalescing there after being wounded in the Pacific War, and to buy seashells for his collection.

I had had a tip that the real reason for his visit was Naitauba.

When I asked Raymond Burr, he agreed that was the real reason but asked me to keep it under covers until he returned at Christmas time and completed the deal.

Then, he promised, he’d give me the full, exclusive story and, later, any other personal news he had. He kept his promise to the letter and we broke the story in the following January — and several stories later, his casting off of the role of Perry Mason and donning the mantle of Ironside, plus news of new companies. The news all went to the U.S. and Hollywood via Suva.

Having become a Fiji landowner, Burr was determined to do what he could for Fiji. One way in which he publicised Fiji’s charms was to have his scriptwriters do a quickie episode for his Ironside series in which he was kidnapped by criminals (imported) while staying in Suva and incarcerated in a bure in Tamavua village. No doubt some Suva people got very worried about his health when they saw him being pushed in his invalid chair along Victoria Parade. He was Ironside, of course, the paraplegic policeman. If asked, he’d probably admit it was the weakest episode in a very good series, carrying all the signs of being a makeshift piece. But, it was publicity for Fiji he was after. He also became a major shareholder in the Fiji Sun newspaper.

He’s a sentimental sort. His film company is named Harbour Productions, not Harbor as in the American language. He told me that he inserted the “u” into harbor because his father was a Canadian and spelt it that way.

Where he’ll go for his holidays when he has disposed of Naitauba will be an important decision to make, but he’ll be seen in Suva, no doubt, when it’s snowing in America.

John Carter.

Film Australia is seeking commercial sponsors for a projected film on the Seventh South Pacific Games in Apia, Western Samoa, in August.

Its handsomely produced booklet “Proposal”, which out- John Carter (right) with his slightly taller buddy, Raymond Burr. The picture was taken at Christmas 1965 beside the pool at the Grand Pacific Hotel, Suva, just after Burr had clinched the purchase of the island of Naitauba. - Stan Ritova picture.

Laucala Island, 30 kilometres from Taveuni, Fiji. Malcolm Forbes bought it in 1972, then flew over Naitauba and is reputed to have said “I wish I’d bought Naitauba”. 44 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983

lines the idea, concludes with a section headed “One Reason For This Film”. It says; Paul Wallwork of Samoa was almost totally paralysed from an injury a broken neck sustained while playing Rugby in New Zealand. He took up weightlifting to strengthen leg and arm muscles and later entered and won his first weightlifting competition in Auckland, New Zealand.

In 1968 he moved to Australia to attend Sydney University and dominated competitions from 1968-1972, becoming Australian and Australasian champion in 1969 and 1972 consecutively. He was selected to represent Australia at the Munich Olympics, after setting new Commonwealth records in all lifts. But he would not renounce his Western Samoa citizenship and he missed his chance to try world competition.

At that time he was rated amongst the world’s top 10 weightlifters.

Wallwork has been the only competitor to win gold medals at five consecutive South Pacific Games. His perseverance to overcome enormous odds has brought international acclaim to his country which regards him as a national hero.

Today Paul Wallwork is the executive director of the Seventh South Pacific Games, which will be held for the first time this year in his country Western Samoa.

He wants this film to be made to promote and improve sporting competition in Samoa and throughout the South Pacific region, and he believes such a film would make this part of our world better known and understood.

It’s up, up and away for Maureen Kiali straight into the aviation history books.

Miss Kiali, 26, is Papua New Guinea’s first female pilot.

Miss Kiali received the reward for hard work and money spent on flying lessons, when she was given her “wings” in March.

But there was a sad aspect to the historic occasion.

Miss Kiali is a self-sponsored student pilot who had paid out more than Kl5OO to get her licence.

She has decided to do a preliminary year at the University of PNG.

But unless she is sponsored in flying, that career will have to take the back seat while she concentrates on her studies.

“I really want to continue to learn to fly and eventually get a job with Air Niugini or a thirdlevel airline,” Miss Kiali said.— Luke Sela, in the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier.

Talking of pilots in training. If the youngies can do it, so can the not-so-young.

At 64, Port-Vila’s irrepressible Reece Discombe is learning to fly. A former champion motor racing driver, Reece reckons he still has the co-ordination and reflexes to meet the new challenge.

Reece and his wife Jean recently took out Vanuatu citizenship.

One thing Reece hasn’t quite got used to yet is the fact that he now needs a visa when he heads off for his flying lessons at Hamilton, in his native New Zealand.

Dr Robert Dun has succeeded James Ingram as director of the Australian Development Assistance Bureau.

Dr Dun, 52, has a background in veterinary science. He was deputy director-general of the New South Wales Department of Agriculture until 1980. He has since been involved in a number of overseas aid programs in Southeast Asia, and at the time of announcement of his appointment was working in Thailand.

As director of ADAB, he will be the principal adviser to the Australian minister of foreign affairs on Australia’s aid program which this year will involve aid costing $737 million to more than 80 developing countries as well as co-ordination with more than 50 international and regional bodies involved in development activities.

Mr Ingram, who was ADAB director for five years, has been appointed executive director of the United Nations Food Program, based in Rome.

Councillor Kanti Tappoo, mayor of Sigatoka, has been appointed chairman of the National Bank of Fiji. Other newcomers to the board are Dominic Wong (deputy chairman), Paul Manueli, former commander of the Royal Fiji Military Forces and Anu Patel, a lawyer.

A tourist resort is being built on Vanuatu’s Tanna Island by local Chief Tom Numake. It will have six separate units and a restaurant.

Margaret Nakikus, deputy director of planning, Papua New Guinea, recently completed a two-month residence (January to March 1983) at the East-West Center (EWC) in Honolulu. She was there as one of the first three recipients of a fellowship provided by the American Association of University Women. The Pacific Islands Development Program of the EWC also provided her a second fellowship to cover the remainder of her expenses. Ms Nakikus, who is from Rabaul, assumed her present position in planning in May 1981 after obtaining a BA at the University of Papua New Guinea and a subsequent diploma at the University of London.

Ms Nakikus recently left Honolulu to resume her work as deputy director, but before doing so she talked about PNG’s progress in planning for social development at a national level.

The general policies which the planning office is charged with carrying out were first promulgated in 1973 as the “Eight Aims”, seven of which deal with economic development and one with a commitment to improving women’s role in society. Later, the national policies were written into the 1975 constitution as five “National Goals and Directive Principles”. These principles are a sort of PNG Bill of Rights providing for individual equality under the law and equality of opportunity, economic development for the common good and, finally, economic selfsufficiency.

Ms Nakikus says the planning office emphasises rural development in those areas where people do not yet enjoy equal social and economic opportunities. Over 86 per cent of the population lives in such areas. To this end, the less developed provinces are awarded the lion’s share of available money, and the money is com- Reece Discombe: Learning to carry a New Zealand visa. 45 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983

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mitted to projects according to a sectoral arrangement. This is a classification and ranking system for projects submitted to the planning office by all those desiring such funding, usually central government agencies and the 19 provincial governments. The most urgent needs (rural schools, and local small businesses, for example) receive top priority in the allocation of project funds.

These priorities are determined for four-year periods to ensure, as far as possible, that the most urgent problems are addressed first, while less important ones “start later in the (fouryear) plan period’’. This set-up, known as the “National Public Expenditure Plan” (NPEP), has only been in effect since 1977, and Ms Nakikus regards its increased fulfilment as one of the major aims of the planning office for the near future.

Besides a contribution of untied grant funds, Australia also provides trained people to help with development projects. This is one of the major needs of the national planning office, as well as the offices of the provincial planning directors, who are in charge of provincial development schemes and responsible for ensuring projects are carried out and development funds spent properly. Several international agencies, among them the United Nations Development Program, the Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank, also furnish money and trained personnel.

Although most money is spent in the rural areas, this is no guarantee that people will stay there despite improvements; urban drift is expected to continue.

Ms Nakikus also remarked that the Indonesians are spending more money for development in their six provinces in Irian Jaya than PNG is spending in its 19 provinces.

The 1982 change of government back to Somare has resulted in a reassessment of development programs in the face of continuing poor world economic conditions. Several thousand public servants will lose their jobs.

Given all the obstacles barring meaningful development, Ms Nakikus finds many challenges in her work. She looks forward to implementing democratic ideals in a Melanesian setting and working to provide the means to meet the basic needs of Papua New Guineans. Administrative theory holds a certain amount of intellectual stimulation for her, and she fully intends to carry on with a long-term career in the field of social planning.

At the same time, Ms Nakikus will continue her role as an advocate of women’s rights she delivered a paper on women’s advancement in PNG at a September 1982 Waigani Seminar and a conspicuous one at that.

Ms Nakikus’ husband is PNG’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Rabble Namaliu. From a Special Corresponent.

Dr Macu Salato, former secretary-general of the South Pacific Commission, has been named Interim Administrator of the Pacific Islands Development Program (PIDP). Dr. Salato replaces James Makasiale, who has returned to government service in Fiji as the new permanent secretary for agriculture and fisheries. Dr Salato brings a wealth of administrative experience and knowledge of regional activities to the position. Apart from heading the South Pacific Commission, he has served as An accent on languages Fiji’s high commissioner to London and as mayor of Suva. In addition, he has also had a distinguished career in medical research and public health in Fiji and in the Pacific region. During the year preceding his appointment as head of PIDP, Dr Salato held the position of Diplomat-in- Residence at the East-West Center and played an important advisory role.

Senator Franklin Quitugua has had a career in education and politics which probably has few parallels in the Pacific Islands.

With a doctorate from a US university, he has been a teacher and school principal, and has twice served as director of education for Guam. His elementary education was interrupted by the Japanese occupation during World War 11. When he graduated from high school on Guam in 1952 he went to Northern Arizona University, majoring in secondary education. As the senator says he was “the first native permanent resident to be named director of education for Guam”.

In 1976 Franklin Quitugua stood successfully as a Democrat in the elections for the Guam legislature. He is now in his fourth term as a senator and is the chairman of the committee on education for the next two years of the 17th Guam Legislature.

Guam has a population of about 100,000 people, about a third of them US military personnel.

Its educational system is largely influenced by the practices initiated by the US Navy, which administered the island for many years. Although the Spanish ruled Guam for several centuries they have left little by way of an educational inheritance.

In most respects educational provisions in Guam are similar to those on the US mainland. The Guamanian authorities place considerable value on the accreditation of their schools, colleges, and the University of Guam by American accreditation agencies. “We take pride in the fact that our institutions are at par with the standards that are set in the Western regions of the United States,” says Senator Quitugua.

Guam today has an oversupply of teachers in some areas.

But at the secondary level there is a need for more teachers in mathematics, sciences, technical subjects, physical education, art and home economics. The teaching of language has now become a major issue on Guam.

“When we became US citizens in 1950 we felt that there was a definite obligation to prepare our youngsters for life in the English language. From 1898 onwards, English definitely took over from Spanish. It was a bill of mine, which became law five years ago, that started the teaching of Chamorro, our native tongue, in our public schools,” the senator told me.

The law requires that public school elementary grades teach Chamorro to all pupils, with the teaching of Chamorro being elective at the secondary level.

“I believe it is gaining in popularity very fast . . . There were quite a few people against the move when it started, but young people are now getting to appreciate the native tongue and the teaching of our history and culture.”

On Guam as elsewhere many school-leavers are not finding relevance in school programs and the administrators are introducing alternative programs for these students, who are likely to become drop-outs. There is a desire to introduce courses which supplement the traditional curriculum, with a greater emphasis upon the practical and applied approach.

Senator Quitugua also referred to concern felt on Guam about providing for migrant children for example, those from the Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and from other Micronesian islands. In many cases, their limited knowledge of English has meant that special teaching of English as a second language programs has had to be instituted “before they are funnelled into the mainstream of the school”.

“It is a big challenge and I am sure we will continue to have this problem, being an island attracting investors to come to Guam to help with our economy. We must see to it that these children are given a proper education.” w.

G. Coppell Soccer in Kiribati got a boost with a visit earlier this year by top Australian coach Mick Jones.

He held coaching clinics in Betio, Bairiki and Bikenibeu, and also visited Makin, Maiana and Kuria.

Famed English ballerina Dame Margot Fonteyn is said to be among a number of prominent people who have bought land on Wakaya Island, in Fiji’s Lomaiviti group.

Aduan Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian millionaire, is another.

PEOPLE

TROPICALITIES A Suva concert to remember Over the centuries Pacific Islanders have known many traumatic events but perhaps there is no more dreaded happening than the overwhelming impact of destructive hurricanes, which leave behind a swathe of smashed homes and destroyed crops, accompanied by a toll in human lives.

Hurricane Oscar recently struck much of Fiji, and the people have responded in the resilient manner so characteristic of the peoples of the Pacific Islands. They are working cooperatively to assist those who have suffered and to make good the damage left behind by the force of the brutal winds.

The University of the South Pacific set out to raise funds for the victims of Hurricane Oscar, staging a concert for the purpose at the Suva Civic Centre.

This community happening illustrated the buoyancy and multifaceted nature of the Fiji population. The concert was led off by that most excellent of military musical combinations, the band of the Royal Fiji Military Forces.

They presented a selection of military tunes, of ragtime, of sentimental melodies, of Cliff Richard numbers, and then the rather portly leader of the band wowed the audience with a selection of hits from Elvis Presley.

And then it was on for one and all, there were marching girls, the splendor of the skills of the Fiji Theatre Group, youths roller-skating all over the stage, jazz dancing, reggae, improvised plays put on by youth groups, and a polished performance of traditional items presented by the Tongan Students’ Association at the USP.

The night was not without excitement of an unwelcome and unexpected kind as well.

A Samoan performer, in traditional garb, with face daubed in fearsome patterns, sprang on to the stage to present that spectacular and highly-skilled act, the knife dance.

Although he had been announced as a dancer who had toured overseas, on this occasion he didn’t seem to be in full control of his vicious-looking knives. His movements also seemed to lack the finesse usually associated with the act.

Came the moment when the act required that he hook the two knives together and whirl them around with gay abandon.

As it happened a group of little girls had congregated at the side of the stage waiting for the moment when the spotlight would fall on their act. The spotlight fell on them all right, but not in the way they were waiting for.

The knives flashed around, the performer didn’t seem to be in full control of his footing, the knives flew from his grasp and across the stage to thud into the wall only inches from where two of the young performers were standing.

After the first stunned silence was broken, and we turned back to look at centre-stage, the knifewielding performer was simply nowhere to be seen. He evidently felt he’d had enough of the limelight for the time being.

He came back later with the Samoan fire dance. But somehow his heart didn’t seem to be in it, and the audience betrayed signs of apprehension.

Still, all in all it was a night to remember, and we all came away feeling better for having made some contribution to the Hurricane Oscar Relief Fund. W.

G. Coppell.

Oz-PNG Trust wound up The Australia Papua New Guinea Friendship Trust, which was inaugurated in Sydney in April 1981 to supply books to schools in Papua New Guinea, will wind up its activities this year after supplying about 4000 books to PNG schools. The project was originated by the now retired Dr Tom Selby, of Sydney, who was a regimental medical officer with the Australian army in PNG in World War 11.

Most of the books were selected by lan Crossland, chief school librarian, PNG Department of Education, in Port Moresby, and were bought in PNG.

In addition to the books supplied to government schools, the trust received requests for books for school libraries from church organisations running schools in Wewak, Goroka, Mount Hagen, Madang, Popondetta and Lae.

All books distributed to schools carried the special trust logo symbolising the friendship between the two countries. Total cost of books donated by the trust was about $A 18,000.

Donations towards the project came from the Australian Council of Churches, the Archer Trust administered by Burns Philp Trustee Company Ltd, Sydney, ex-servicemen’s clubs and Sydney business houses.

The honorary secretary of the trust, John Burrell, who also served with the Australian military forces in PNG, said the members considered the trust had achieved its objective to help young people in PNG.

Torres artists on tour Twenty musicians and dancers from the Torres Strait ended a three-month tour in May which introduced their culture to audiences across the Pacific.

The islanders are a mixture of Melanesian, Filipino, Malaysian and Papua New Guinea peoples who moved to the islands about 2000 years ago.

The group began its tour in New Zealand where the islanders appeared as guests of Maori communities at the annual Polynesian Festival in Hastings.

Their visit to Fiji, from March 5-20, was sponsored by the chairman of the Fiji Arts Council, Sir Josua Rabukawaqa, who met them at Festival ’B2 in Brisbane during the Commonwealth Games. The program in Fiji included performances for school children and in villages to provide cultural contact with Fijians living in their traditional lifestyle.

In Hawaii the main emphasis was on performances at schools.

A five-week tour of California, including schools and colleges in Los Angeles and San Francisco, brought the group’s tour to an end in May.

Sword dancer, a Samoan symbol — perhaps knives are more difficult. 48 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983

At all performances the Torres Strait islanders wore their ancient and traditional dress which includes spectacular handmade dhurries (feathered headdress).

They played traditional instruments which date back 2000 years.

The 20 performers have been working together since June 1980 when they appeared at the World Wilderness Conference in Caims, Queensland. They have since visited Australian States and held programs in Australian schools.

Their Pacific tour was supported by the Australian Government through the Aboriginal Arts Board.

Aggie ‘turns on’ another scribe ...

Latest in the seemingly endless line of scribes who go down on their knees in print to pay tribute to the South Pacific’s most famous hoteliere, Aggie Grey, is Kevin Voltz, travel editor of Sydney’s Sunday newspaper, The Sun-Herald. Voltz wrote in an April issue of the paper: “I visited Aggie Grey’s’’ claims a flamboyant new sticker on my suitcase.

It doesn’t really need the address, “Western Samoa’’.

Any one who has sailed or flown through Polynesia in the past 40 years has heard of Aggie.

She’s probably the only living hotel keeper in the world who has been honoured by a postage stamp ... the only woman in her 80s who can win a standing ovation when she does a solo turn in the spectacular Polynesian dance show at her hotel.

I met her in Apia a week after her 85th birthday. I wish I’d been there for the party. From what I heard it was a memorable bash.

Aggie, the daughter of an English chemist and his beautiful Samoan wife, is a living legend in the South Pacific although she still gets upset at suggestions she inspired the character “Bloody Mary’’ in James Michener’s Tales of the South Pacific.

She was undoubtedly a wheeler-dealer when Samoa was filled with U.S. servicemen during World War 11. She parlayed a hamburger shop and club up to the nucleus of her present 120room hotel.

Michener knew Aggie when he was stationed at nearby Pago Pago late in the war.

He told her biographer: “She was ebullient, effervescent, outrageous, illegal, and terribly bright.’’

He fell under her spell as have most of the guests who have found their way to her hotel ever since. They’ve included such celebrities as Gary Cooper (who made a film in Samoa), Marlon Brando and Raymond Burr.

Girl wounded by ‘cooked’ bullet A 20-year-old Kiribati girl has been wounded by a bullet which exploded in her cooking fire. The girl, Nei Rakera Koria, was cooking fish at her home in Bonriki village, Tarawa, when the bullet went off. She had just stood up from a crouching position when the slug hit her in the upper thigh. She said it would have hit her in the head if she had not got up. She was taken to hospital and allowed to go home after the wound was dressed.

It was not until the following day that the slug was revealed by X-ray embedded about seven centimetres away from the wound. It was quickly removed by doctors. Local experts say the bullet was an American one from World War 11.

In 1978, a similar incident occurred in Betio, site of the battle of Tarawa, when a woman used an old rifle barrel as a potstand over an open fire. The bullet in the barrel went off, killing an elderly woman 15 metres away. Billy Schutz in Tarawa.

Spelling wrong, spirit right If there’s one Pacific Island country that gets its name spelled wrongly by outsiders more often than others, it’s got to be Niue.

Charles Sriber, travel editor of the Australian daily The Australian was there recently, and his report on the visit twice contains the spelling “Nieu” and they are the only two mentions of the country’s name in it.

But we think all will agree that even if he didn’t get the spelling right, he got the spirit right. Mr Sriber’s report, spelling of country’s name corrected, said: If you’ve always wanted to find a real island hideaway you might consider Niue, a strange Polynesian island claiming to be the largest coral speck in the world.

It lies between Tonga and the Cook Islands and I visited the elevated rocky plateau briefly a little while ago.

Dramatically beautiful, it sits like an adorned cake in the South Pacific, its craggy cliffs rising 30 metres above a rock shelf. It has no beaches, but some good swimming holes and some great underwater scenery scuba divers go crazy about it and everyone raves about the people the women guileless and smiling, the men easy-going and friendly.

With a population of less than 3000, everyone knows everyone else and all appear to work together. Niue uses New Zealand currency.

The islanders are cricket fanat- The “2 + 2 = 4” school is a feature of Tahiti’s round-the-island road just outside Papeete.

It seems that a 19th-century French planter decided to bequeath some land to the community for a school. Sceptical of the value of introducing the Tahitians to the French educational system, he specified in his will that the school must be named “2 + 2 = 4”, so that whatever else they didn’t learn, its pupils would at least acquire the bit of useful knowledge contained in their school’s name.

Pictures show the school and the signpost outside. 49 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983

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ics, rather keen on golf and of course, the fishing is fantastic.

They have one very good hotel and a motel and prices are ridiculously low.

Not that there’s much to do besides swim, scuba dive or snorkel, eat and relax. Sounds fine to me. Polynesian Airlines and Air Naum fly you there on 737 jets.

Salute to Beach House Bella Boarding house landladies are not generally remembered affectionately, except perhaps in the Pacific where they were few and far between and they blossomed like Aggie Grey of Apia, and Bella Riechelmann of Nukualofa in the Friendly Islands. They made a name for themselves as hostesses.

Nukualofa and Bella weren’t as well known as Apia and Aggie Grey, but Bella ran Beach House, the government hotel or boarding house, before the Dateline Hotel was built higher than the coconut palms. It was on the waterfront close to the World War II American-built Yellow Pier where inter-island boats would anchor off and ferry passengers and freight back and forth by dinghy.

Beach House was shaded by flamboyants and coconut palms, an old rambling bungalow of clapboard, corrugated iron, wooden trellis, tongue and groove timber, with a redpainted corrugated iron roof and a World War II corrugated iron quonset hut to one side to accommodate an overflow.

Bella knew everybody who had visited Tonga including famous authors such as James Michener, Robert Gibbings, Halkon Mielche.

She was. a big kind-hearted woman who reminded me of Lovaina of Tahiti. Frederick O’Brien wrote in his Mystic Isles of the South Seas of the time around World War I of the Tiare Hotel in Papeete, five minutes walk from the quay, and run by Lovaina: “She was very large.

She was huge in every sense, weighing much more than three hundred pounds, and yet there was a singular grace in her form and her movements. Her limbs were of the girth of breadfruittrees, and her bosom was as broad and deep as that of the great Juno of Rome, but her hands were beautiful, like a plump baby’s with fascinating creases at the wrist, and long, tapering fingers. Her large eyes were hazel, and they were very brilliant when she was merry or excited. Her expansive face had no lines in it, and her mouth was a perfection of curves, the teeth white and even. Her hair was red-brown, curling in rich profusion, scented with the hinano flower adorning her charmingly poised head in careless grace.”

I slept in the government bachelor quarters which was merely a dormitory block 100 yards away up Tupoulahi Road, but for 15 months I ate breakfast, lunch and dinner in Beach House, and ate well on shellfish from the reefs often gathered by Bella and her housegirls, fish from the sea often caught by David her husband, and pawpaw and bananas from the Riechelmann plantation.

The permanents sat around a large round table the Bums Philp merchandise manager, the BP accountant, the Union Steam Ship Company manager, the Copra Board manager, a few white public servants the expatriates of a now vanished colanial era.

The transient guests were few and far between. In those days the only way in and out of Tonga was the monthly Tasman Empire Airways Solent flying boat and the monthly vessel Tofua, with passages very difficult to obtain.

Beach House had a large central dining room with a camber like the deck of a ship, with bedrooms opening off it. Bella and her husband sat off to one side commanding the totally enclosed atrium without a skylight, dim and cool.

Air-conditioning in the South Seas was non-existent in those days, but Beach House was airconditioned in the old-fashioned way, raised on wooden piles so that the trade winds could blow underneath. The front of Beach House had wooden shutters on the veranda hinged from the top Isolated from the real Tonga and held open with wooden props so that in stormy weather they could be closed.

Beach House was a white person’s world, expatriates temporary or semi-permanent, maybe somewhat isolated from the real Tongan world, but we could observe the life on the lagoon and on the tar-sealed road separated from Beach House by a fence of Marsden matting long strips of metal with holes used for World War II airstrips.

Thousands of yards of it were used all over Nukualofa for fences.

The main veranda along the front of the house was dotted with tables and chairs, ferns in pots, planters’ chairs, canvas directors’ chairs, a sofa.

At a big wooden old table in one comer of the veranda we sat after meals and talked while watching the activity on the harbor, cutters in from Haapai and the islands in between. Away to the west was the main wharf where the copra ships would tie up, and the monthly banana boat bringing its cargo of frozen meat and beer and butter, and once a month the Solent moored briefly to the buoy.

On the veranda we ate enormous morning and afternoon teas which were presided over by Bella sagging heavily in her chair, her fly switch, a stick with horse hair tied to it, always to Beach House, Nukualofa, as it looked in 1960. It had just reopened for business after a period of closure, and another six years were to pass before the opening of the Dateline Hotel. When this picture was taken the Marsden matting described here had gone, but the Islands-style "air-conditioning” - window shutters held open by poles - was still very much in evidence. 51 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983 TROPICALITIES

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The copra ships all seemed to have been to Mobile, Alabama, or Houston, Texas, most of the reading matter acquired from them was stamped “Seaman’s Mission Mobile” or “Seaman’s Mission Houston”.

The hotel was a meeting place for the Europeans of Nukualofa and at morning and afternoon tea there were always big stacks of cups and saucers brought out for the unexpected visitors who dropped in to hear and contribute the latest gossip.

On New Year’s Eve I attended an enormous party there, nearly every European on the beach was present. This was the place for the commencement of fishing parties, picnics. It was more than a place to stay, it was a home away from home.

Bella stood no nonsense from anybody, she ruled the boarding house autocratically, but she acted like a mother towards her permanent boarders and worried if we didn’t eat. One night we were drinking at the Yacht Club, we hadn’t been to Beach House for dinner, and at 10 o’clock David arrived with steak, tomatoes and bread. One Sunday we were drinking at the Nukualofa Club and we had no transport to get back for lunch about a mile away. At 1.30 Bella rang and asked if we were coming for lunch. We said yes but we’d be walking. She sent David in their car to pick us up.

Before important boxing matches she was usually feeding one of the Tongan contestants, building him up for the big day.

She fed such well known Tongan boxers as Kitione Lave and Johnny Halafihi who were successful in the boxing world of Europe.

I often thought that some of the Beach House guests must have exasperated Bella, but like a good inn-keeper she never showed it, in public. There was a female journalist who spent some time in Tonga, mostly trying to arrange an interview with Queen Salote, unsuccessfully. But she would stay in bed until 10 or 11 a.m. every hot steamy morning.

We concluded that her father owned the paper.

There was the dietitian reading the traveller’s companion, Tolstoy’s War And Peace. She said she was going to finish it in Tonga, but she never did.

Then there was the General, recently retired from India, staying away from England on an income tax fiddle. From the moment he marched along the veranda in Bombay Bloomers he commenced talking in a loud slightly hectoring voice, “I was down in the bazaar this morning . . .” At meals he always retailed the world news, he listened avidly, tuning into news bulletins on the shortwave bands of his portable wireless. He had a few pet sayings with which he started his monologues, “Of course I know all about that sort of thing. . .’’“Well, I don’t know anything about it, but . . .’’

And off he’d go into a long tirade against Nasser, the Americans.

During the Egyptian crisis of 1956 he grew more vocal than ever. The United Nations were a complete waste of time. The Egyptians were not worth much for they were the worst soldiers in the world. Dulles was no good. Of General Bums the commander of the UN forces in the Middle East he said: “Know him well, very well. Brilliant man, but entirely impractical.”

When the Egyptians blocked the Suez Canal he said that the thing to do, if we had any money, and what he was going to do, was buy shares in an ice company and a coaling company at Capetown, as all ships would be calling there for ice and coal on the long alternative route around the Cape of Good Hope.

He didn’t have to add: “Of course I don’t know anything about shares, only dabble in them.”

Local Europeans might be complaining that they couldn’t buy eggs, but there were always eggs at Beach House. If a Tongan had four dozen eggs for sale, instead of hawking them around the houses of Europeans and selling a dozen here, half a dozen there, he took them to Bella and she bought the lot.

I was reading a book, Noel Coward And His Friends in which the biographer writes TROPICALITIES

“. . . continued our journey to Arequipa and drew up before the Quinta Bates unlikely that it still exists a guest house famous in its time for its haphazard comfort and even more famous for its proprietress, a redoubtable lady known to one and all as ‘Tia’ Bates. She was waiting up for Jeff and Noel in a red merino dressing-gown, with tea and hotwater bottles at the ready, grey hair run wild, twinkling eyes and an air of distinction, cosy landlady and Grand Duchess in one.

Dead long since, she and her guest house had aficionados the world over, judging from the people Noel ran into many years after. Mention of the Quinta Bates made strangers at once become reunited members of some curious club.”

Though the Quinta Bates was in South America, the paragraph is fully appropriate to Beach House and Bella.

South Seas landladies are probably almost non-existent now, most of the centres of population in the Pacific have tourist hotels and the managers of those places tend to be faceless, never sighted, or known.

Brown.

J. Edward Chamorros look to their roots A major activity of the University of Guam is undertaken by the Micronesian Area Research Center (MARC) of which Dr Dirk Ballendorf is director. He sees one of the major interests of the Center as being the study of early migrations of the Chamarro people to the Marianas islands.

Two archaeologists associated with the Centre are working on three “digs” on Guam.

He also stresses the interest of MARC in contemporary Micronesian issues, and emphasises that the concern is not only with “musty pot sherds and bones.

We investigate some of the current social problems experienced here in Micronesia with a view to achieving a better understanding of our environment and all the people who live here.”

The earliest dates now established for an aboriginal presence on Guam is about 3000 years ago, and now the archaeologists are searching for sites which could be even more ancient.

The younger Chamorro people are quite passionate in their desire to see greater attention paid to a Chamorro view of the history of Guam. As Dr Ballendorf says; “Currently some Chamorro people don’t like the idea that their ancestors may have been Filipino. This is largely due to the fact that in the early Spanish period many Filipino soldiers were brought here as garrisons to protect missionaries, and they committed some deeds that the Chamorros didn’t appreciate.”

The fact that many Filipinos are now migrating to Guam and competing for jobs with Chamorros is no doubt another reason for denying an origin from the Philippines or Indonesia.

Another theory is of an early Japanese migration to Guam.

Some Japanese academics like this theory and are spending time and money to investigate it further. “There has been a mixture of exchanges, so fortunately the Chamorros might be able to choose which theories they enjoy most.”

Although much research attention has also been given to the Spanish period on Guam, the Japanese influence is certainly showing itself, with about 300,000 Japanese tourists visiting Guam each year. Japanese tourists are now quite active participants in Liberation Day, which commemorates the Japan- W. G. Coppell, who wrote the article on this page about migration in Micronesia, visited Ponape on his way to Guam, and his picture above shows a Ponape sakau (kava) bar in rustic setting. But does it RE- ALLY cost 25 cents to visit the architectually interesting little house at the back? Commercialism indeed seems to have arrived in Micronesia, Coppell suggests. 53 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983

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The contemporary Guamanian environment has areas of concern which MARC is studying, including the presence of large and growing expatriate ethnic communities, changing local customs, and a quickening pace of life. Says Dr Ballendorf: ”The local people are tending to become more task-oriented, yet people still all get together at fiesta time. The basis of our life on Guam is food, the various varieties of food.”

W. C.

Coppell on Guam.

Seattle Samoans are organising If Samoans were a united ethnic group Western and American Samoa they would never have allowed the division to happen.

As of September 1982, Western Samoans in Seattle local communities gathered and organised their own group, namely, Tusitala. Tusitala means story-teller, and is applied by Samoans to Robert Louis Stevenson, the prominent Scottish author who lived and died in Western Samoa.

The main idea of the club was to raise funds to establish a Samoan Hall for the Samoan community as a whole. The Western Samoan move to organise the group came about due to the fact that many Samoan organisations and community efforts have been formed in the past but only to see the organisations become defunct, with no lasting results.

Initially, some agreed that Western Samoans’ intention to organise the group was for a good cause. However there was no notion of excluding some Samoans. One observer expressed concern about the exclusion of American Samoans and has requested that the club accept them as club members.

Past Samoan organisations have been led mostly by American Samoan descendants, but the public reprimanded the Samoan community as a whole whenever such organisations became corrupt. Nevertheless, the lack of unity in the Seattle Samoan community is not limited to American and Western Samoans, but exists within people from different families, villages or churches. This is perhaps also true of Samoan communities in Hawaii, California, or elsewhere in the US. They compare themselves with one another and vie for status.

It seems clear to me that the problem afflicting Samoans today reflects the old power struggle among stronger nations to gain control over the Samoan Islands. In Samoa, these world powers were England, Germany and the United States. They selected and signed a treaty with one Samoan faction, championed, armed, advised and encouraged them in battle to fight against other factions, then proclaimed them, as a unit, to be a legitimate Samoan Government.

Each of the Western powers denounced the faction championed by another power as illegitimate rebels. Thus, the factions have argued and fought among themselves ever since in order to resolve their differences.

Great Britain, Germany and the United States were reluctant to confront each other directly; they shot at one another through the Samoans or shelled by naval artillery Samoan villages allied against their favored factions.

The Americans and the British, for the first time, became allied against Germany; then the hostility grew.

To settle this enmity, in 1899, at a conference without Samoan representatives, our islands were divided. The Germans gained control over Western Samoa until 1914, whereas Eastern Samoa (American Samoa) became a US protectorate. England refrained from further confrontation; however, the New Zealand Government assumed protection of Western Samoa through the League of Nations from World War I until 1962. Since then Westem- Samoa has become independent.

However, ambiguities remain.

For example, Western Samoans, unlike American Samoans in relation to the US, are not allowed free access to New Zealand.

Finally, in view of these past injustices perpetrated by colonial powers, I feel it greatly and presently impacts Samoan relations not only in Samoa but the US as well. We cannot effectively work together to solve the problems common to our people.

We cannot effectively convince elected officials, agency staff, or employers to be more responsive to our needs.

Some Samoans in New Zealand report other Samoans to the Remains of Japanese wartime tunnel in Micronesia, once part of an extensive structure of underground equipment stores and shelters. Japanese tourists now come to Micronesia in thousands every year, 300,000 to Guam alone. On Guam they have even attended ceremonies which marked the defeat of their forces there, writes W. G.

Coppell. 55 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983 TROPICALITIES

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immigration and naturalisation services, welfare offices and other authorities about visa expiration and/or immigration status.

As a result, people have been abruptly ordered to leave the country or have had their public assistance terminated. The Samoans who report other Samoans to these services, though, need to be told to put their tails between their legs and keep their mouths shut, or else seek psychiatric attention. Even people in this country don’t do these things.

Notwithstanding all this, I wish to appeal to our government leaders, in American Samoa, the United States, and Western Samoa, to, once again, seriously reconsider the importance of combining our own people. Are we to go from separation to separation, or from separation to unity? Falani A. Peters in Seattle.

Any PNG music in your attic?

A major new project aims at tracking down and cataloguing all the tribal music of Papua New Guinea recorded since early this century.

Writing in The Sydney Morning Herald in April, the paper’s music critic Fred Blanks reported: It is believed that thousands of such recordings made by anthropologists, missionaries, visitors and settlers are now scattered through museums, libraries and private collections around the world.

The project is being undertaken by Dr Gordon Spearritt, head of the music department in the University of Queensland, and Don Niles, an American ethnomusicologist working at the Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies in Port Moresby.

Work is expected to continue for at least two years, and involves use of a computer. A further stage of the project could involve acquisition of all recordings for the Port Moresby Institute.

The importance of this work is seen to lie in the preservation of tribal history and traditions which are being eroded by changes in society.

Tahiti calling Australia ...

Tahitian radio hams are planning a campaign to strengthen connections with their counterparts in Australia.

In a first effort early this year they made contact with 39 Australian hams in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Canberra.

The Tahitian hams’ organisation plans to follow up by sending brochures on French Polynesia to their Australian contacts in order to promote “better mutual understanding’ ’.

Union: Fiji beats Oz teams Fiji sent 20,000 fans wild with delight when they completed an amazing Rugby Union double by beating Sydney 33-19 in an April encounter in Suva.

Fiji had bounced back from the disappointing overseas tour last year to trounce Queensland 48-24 the week before.

The Queenslanders had no answer to the Fiji flair and quickness to the loose ball, and Sydney fared only marginally better.

Sydney did manage to contain the flying Fijians to only four tries, compared with the nine scored against Queensland.

But their difficulties were compounded by a flawless kicking performance by the Fiji fullback Severo Koroduadua who converted all the tries and landed three penalties.

Barry Want, a Sydney selector who had accompanied the team to Fiji, said Sydney had no answer to Fiji’s pace.

“Their speed was astonishing,” he said. “Their men were yards faster than ours and their technique has improved dramatically.

“Our forwards were generally good in winning the lineouts and better in the set play, but were outpaced in the backs.

“Apart from their try scorers, their five-eighth Esala Labiaba was outstanding.”

Tuvalu, which relies on world interest in its stamps to support its economy, has issued a new set of definitives. Top picture shows the lower denomination stamps depicting fishing gear, decorative shell work, basketware, a model canoe and climbing equipment. Eight other stamps in the series also show handcrafts. Picture above shows the little Tuvalu Philatel- Ic Bureau which processes orders from all parts of the world.

Tropic Alities

BOOKS Aims and achievements of the Germans in New Guinea New Guinea under the Germans. By Stewart Firth. Published by Melbourne University Press, 1983. ISBN 0 522 84220 8. SA2S.

Dr Stewart Firth, now teaching at the University of Hawaii but due to return to Australia at the end of the current academic term, has written a book likely to be acknowledged as the best onevolume introduction to German rule in Melanesia from 1885 to 1914.

He has gained a comprehensive perspective on the activities there and on the written records that induces us to see how far below par German colonisers were, taken all together, as moral agents (both in their treatment of Melanesians and in their treatment of Melanesians and in their motives for acting). Dr Firth’s thorough-going characterisation and sound judgements are basic contributions to this part of Pacific history, characterisations and judgments on which serious researchers can be expected increasingly to rely.

Dr Firth first entered this field of history by studying land and labor matters. It is not surprising, therefore, that the deepest insights he offers in this book lie in these fields. He reveals, and makes us feel the injustice of it all, several astonishing facts: German Melanesia (New Guinea, the Bismark Archipelago and some of the northern Solomons) was initially a labor-providing region for German (Western) Samoa; loss of life on plantations rose to as high as 28 per cent per annum as an average for 1887 to 1903; and Governor Albert Hahl intended New Guinea to become home to thousands of Asian laborers and artisans, who would form an intermediate racial and class level between the dominant Europeans and the displaced Melanesians. (This did happen on a smaller scale, in Japanese Mircronesia for a decade before World War II with the introduction of Japanese settlers and Okinawan workers.) Four of the six appendices (pp 175-80) substantiate this story.

What harsher indictment could there be against the Germans in this respect than the Reichstag debate in which the members were “eager to discuss issues such as the threatened extinction of the bird-of-paradise” but lacked “understanding of Hahl’s concern to preserve the New Guinean people” (pi 23)?

The book deals with the reasons behind Germany’s annexation of Melanesian territory (Ch 1, pp 1-20); German rule through either the New Guinea Company (NGC) or the Reich (Chrs 2-5, pp 21-111), the roles of planters, missionaries, explorers and scientists in the history of the protectorate (Chs 5-8, pp 112-165); and an assessment of the career of Albert Hahl, who served as governor or acting governor of New Guinea from mid-1901 to April 1914, and of the German impact on the ways of life led in the atomised, scattered Melanesian communities (Ch. 8, pp. 165-174).

The nine maps are most helpful in locating the various Melanesian communities, and the 18 photos are seldomreproduced copies of outstanding quality (with two exceptions).

The author also benefited from the separate labors of other scholars in this field (Drs Hempenstall and Nelson), making this a heartening example of academic co-operation. There are also many passages of fine descriptive writing, such as “but it was the village men who went on board the DHPG’s schooner the Niuafoou for trans-shipment to Mioko and Samoa rather than piles of coconuts exchanged for sticks of Niggerhead tobacco” (P 19).

Despite its wealth and size, New Guinea was treated shabbily from beginning to end. Adolph von Hansmann, the banker who was most responsible for the German annexation, botched the initial attempts at economic development with unrealistic ends and means, with ineptitude and commercial wrong-headedness.

Even 30 years later, when Governor Hahl finally managed to get an increase in the imperial subsidy out of the stingy Reichstag after years of trying, prewar military expenditures re- Crumbling reminders of an old regime: The German administration, German settlers and German commercial interests were consolidating their presence and beginning to build more elaborately when time ran out for them in 1914. The pillar and steps shown here were part of the governor’s residence at Rabaul. Australian administrators continued to use the site in the 30s but neglect during World War II began the dissolution. 58 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY — JUNE, 1983

duced even that modest increase.

In the intervening years, without much success, German colonisers in the field beat their heads against the walls put up by the local traders and planters, who wanted more say in the labor regulations in return for more taxes, on the one hand and, on the other, those put up by various commercial interests and officials in Berlin.

Furthermore, the inevitable gaps between imperial (or NGC) policy and praxis, as well as between the assertions of administrative officers about their achievements and what they really did were constantly shown to have been wider than they ought to have been.

Besides the well-documented exposition of administrative and commercial matters, full-bodied cameos of frontier life, recorded episodes that hold the action, abound: the mission work of the steadfast Lutheran Flierl and the flamboyant Catholic Couppe; the sexual exploits of Peter Hansen; and the family tragedy of Rudolf Wolff. Many comparisons between the British or Australian and the German colonial efforts are sprinkled throughout the book (with the former pair coming off better). Men who had earlier, or who would later, play important roles in German Micronesia also appear here; Hans Rodatz, Dr L. Born (pp 123-24, not listed in the index), Johann (Jan) Kubary (pp 25-6, 83), and Dr Augustin Kramer (p 165).

The wealth of detail in the book is pleasing but makes for some hard reading. Abrupt changes often have to be made in locale (which is why the maps are useful, as perhaps a large upto-date map of PNG would be as well); the Biblical numbers of tribes that get involved can be bewildering. It would also have been helpful to append a list of officials, especially those in charge at the district offices and stations. And, as with all footnoting based on official German archival sources, abbreviations are a must. The abbreviations are intelligible to those who have worked with the material. But to those who haven’t, they must remain as incomprehensible as the strings of capital letters used in the notation for formal logic devised by the Polish logician Jan Lukasiewicz.

Dr Firth’s book also points the way to further research. Perhaps a sizeable portion of the bartering done by the Germans was also an ingredient in cementing social relations between Europeans and Melanesians, or even between Melanesian and Melanesian via European. We still don’t know.

Much work also needs to be done in recording the local side of the story. On page 80, Dr Firth writes: “Without New Guinean allies, said Hahl, the Germans would not have been able to assert mastery over the inland peoples. Paparatava (inland people of the Gazelle Peninsula) demonstrated the way in which the Germans were gradually to extend control over the villages of New Guinea, not simply by force of arms but by alliances with New Guineans who joined the punitive expeditions for purposes of their own. These “purposes” must now be delved into.

Although the Germans regarded the New Guinean’s role as one which each man was “to buy simple manufacturers, toil as an indentured laborer and defray the cost of colonial administration” (p 103), Dr Firth makes clear that they failed in this for the majority of the Melanesian population.

The cover illustration of his book makes a fitting image for this theme. The German eagle has swooped down upon the motionless New Guinean birdof-paradise. But the eagle has missed its mark and goes away with empty talons, while the redeyed bird-of-paradise looks up defiantly.

New Guinea Under the Germans ought to be popular. The many sudden assaults by Melanesians, the German counter-attacks, arduous expeditions into unknown areas, and the broad picture of frontier life all presented here more than satisfy the appetite we all share to hear of strange, yet true, happenings in far-off places in the past.

M. L. Berg.

German influence and society in the South Seas: The picture at right shows a wedding party in 1910. It was photographed at Kieta on Bougainville, not far from where the Bougainville copper mine operates today.

Below right are German and New Guinean crewmen from the steamship Siar which navigated the Sepik River in 1908. Below is the plantation house built nearly 80 years ago at Maron in the Western Islands. It survived until about 10 years ago.

BOOKS

Trade Winds

Pacific leaders face hard choices in coming satellite tangle Pacific Island countries have been using a declining satellite, low-cost equipment and basic skills to operate a cheap non-commercial radio-communications network across the region. When the present arrangement ends will they be kept out by the need for high technology and big money?

For the past 12 years, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has allowed its aging communications satellite ATS-1 to be used by non-commercial networks in the South Pacific. There is a single voice channel which permits people in 15 island nations to exchange information or provide education on a time-shared basis.

This main international network is usually referred to as PEACESAT.

Until recently, NASA anticipated that ATS-1 would cease operation in October, 1983.

However, the satellite has now been moved into a different position, which means that it may last another 10 years. The new position allows the beam to cover a different area which includes most of Southeast Asia, all parts of Australia, and half the Pacific Ocean.

Many of the Pacific users have come to rely on the free ATS-1 service, and are fearful of the new satellite proposals being studied by the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Cooperation. They believe the new schemes involve technology which will be “out of reach” to the small non-commercial user; costly earth stations, even more costly terrestrial links, and the principle of “user-pays” will all combine to price the service beyond their limited means.

At present, PEACESAT users can gain direct access to satellite services through simple and inexpensive ground stations which cost between SUSIOOO and $2OOO. Stuart Kingan, president of the PEACESAT network, recalls how the stations have gone through three different technologies.

“At first there were vacuum tubes, then crystal-controlled receivers and transmitters, and now synthesised transceivers with better performance than in the past.”

“Recently NASA has developed a ground terminal which fits inside two normal-sized suitcases. The whole plugs into a cigarette lighter socket in a car and is capable of voice or digital telegraph communication with similar stations covered by the satellite beam.”

Kingan is an ATS-1 enthusiast who has been involved in establishing an inter-island HE radio network in the Cook Islands.

This network links up with the main PEACESAT station in Rarotonga and is free to all islanders who need it.

A more sophisticated regional network operates out of the PEACESAT station at the University of the South Pacific (USP) in Suva. Recently, each of the 10 different USP stations which span nine Pacific countries has acquired an Apple computer.

This provides a type of “electronic mail” service which supplements the normal voice communication.

The USP now regards satellite technology as essential for its distance education programs.

When ATS-1 ceases operation and is replaced by more sophisticated and costly satellite and earth technology, they fear that This satellite earth station in Tonga is part of the formal international system which has brought good services to many Island countries. A distinctive feature is the big dish antenna.

However the concept is far more expensive and sophisticated than the PEACESAT concept. A PEACESAT station, for instance, uses a spiral of wire as an antenna. The concern today is that when PEACESAT goes, the only alternative will be “big dish” technology. 60 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE. 1983

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P.O. Box 271, Milsons Point, Sydney, N.S.W. Australia, 2061. Telex 24432. the service, especially the terrestrial links, will be priced beyond their annual budget.

Australia is a relative newcomer to the PEACES AT network, but under the guidance of Dr Steve Seumahu in Melbourne there are stations in all the major capital cities forming what is called the Kangaroo network.

Future plans include subnetworks which will be used by groups as diverse as the police, geological researchers, public broadcasters and educators in the remote centre of Australia.

The demise of ATS-1 may not be a major problem for many of these users, since Australia will be launching its own national satellite system in 1985.

The newest network planning to share time on PEACESAT is centred in the University of Guam and calls itself the Pacific Post-Secondary Education Council (PPEC). Dr James Lange, Professor of Communications in Guam, believes that the PPEC must learn how to use satellites to deliver their courses because they can no longer afford to “fly bodies around”.

Lange is critical of the new satellite proposals for the South Pacific, arguing that they are designed for international business users rather than the small educational groups who have had access to PEACESAT and ATS-1. He believes that the new system will be designed in a way that enables the outer islands and remote areas to communicate with a central point such as a major national or international city. The design will not enable remote areas to communicate with one another directly.

“We need a voice network which will allow people to talk easily, and, right now, ATS-1 is the only way you can put three islands together and let them talk with one another. Everything we know about Pacific Island cultures shows that decisions are made by discussion in groups until consensus is reached, so the network must allow for this”.

Lange is convinced that a coordinated approach from all the potential satellite users in the region must be developed. This would include banks, hotels, airlines, health agencies, news outlets, and smaller non-commercial users. Without this coordination, all the users will find their interests represented by the telephone companies or satellite providers who are mainly interested in carving out a profitable market for themselves.

The South Pacific heads of government have a difficult task ahead of them in making a choice and resolving the various conflicting interests. As one NASA official commented recently: “With the Japanese, INTELSAT and NASA all planning to beam over the Pacific, there will be difficulties in solving the cooking problems”.

Liz Fell.

Standards for seafarers Implementation of a regional training and examination system to rationalise maritime training facilities in the region and ensure that minimum agreed standards are maintained was the principal issue discussed at a meeting of the South Pacific Advisory Committee on Uniform Maritime Standards held in Madang, Papua New Guinea, in March under the auspices of the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Cooperation (SPEC).

Under the proposed system, maritime training facilities in Suva, Honiara and Madang will be designated regional centres.

An agreement to formalise such a system is under consideration by Pacific Island Governments.

The committee recognised that there was an urgent need to establish a full-time position to oversee the implementation and operation of the system and has requested SPEC to seek funding for such a position.

The meeting was attended by representatives of seven South Pacific countries (Fiji, Kiribati, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Western Samoa).

The role of the committee, which reports to the Regional Shipping Council, the body of transport ministers of South Pacific Forum countries, is to develop common standards throughout the region for the safety of ships and the training and certification of seafarers.

SPEC release. 62 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983

Trade Winds

Burns Philp shifts its sights after 100 years Burns, Philp and Company Ltd., the widely-established Australian company which became a major force in Pacific Island retailing, plantations, shipping and service industries, is celebrating its centenary.

Just on 100 years ago two Scotsmen who had migrated to Australia formed a partnership which established one of the bestknown names in the economy of the Islands Bums Philp. At one stage their company was so influential and so much a part of the Islands economy that it was printing its own money with legal recognition. The parent company of the group, Bums, Philp and Company Ltd., has been holding celebrations to mark its centenary.

The company is based in Sydney and its subsidiaries continue to operate throughout the Islands. But its financial base is now in Australian operations rather than in the Islands, and local equity has been absorbed into its Island subsidiaries. It has diversified widely, buying into a wide field of Australian ventures.

The company, which became known throughout the Islands as “Beeps”, has moved away from its original shipping, retailing and plantation interests, consolidating some and shedding others. Now it operates in the hardware industry as a major supplier, in the hotel and liquor industries, as a motor and machinery dealer, food and beverage supplier, food and beverage machinery supplier, in the travel industry, cement and building materials, leisure goods, office equipment, film processing, photographic equipment interests and joint venture mining.

James Bums arrived in Australia in 1862 aged 16. He worked as a jackeroo at Helidon Station near Toowoomba in Queensland, and later on the Barcoo River.

His first experience of retailing was in the Queensland capital, Brisbane, but soon afterwards he initiated his own retailing venture on the Queensland goldfields at Gympie. He was one of the first arrivals there, in 1866, supplying goods to the fastincreasing population. He operated stores at Gympie, One- Mile Creek and Kilkiyan and his business thrived over a period of three years.

He returned to Scotland for a brief period, but by 1872 he was back in Queensland and in 1873 he opened a store in the prosperous northern centre of Townsville. The 15-metre frontage of his timber-built store in Townsville carried a sign proclaiming “J. Bums, General Storekeeper” and advertised “Boots, Crockery, Wine and Spirit Merchant, Agent”.

Glasgow-born Robert Philp was working in Australia for a shipping agent and merchant when he joined Bums in 1873, and soon afterwards the two men formed a partnership. Bums suffered a bout of malaria in 1877, and this sent him south to Sydney from where he managed a chain of stores which he established in Queensland.

Bums, Philp and Company was formally established in 1883, and four years later it began its movement into the Pacific Islands. The first Islands branch was on Samarai Island in what was then British New Guinea, later to be known as Papua, and now part of Papua New Guinea. Other branches followed in Papua, one in Port Moresby and another in Dam.

Offices and branches then began to spread quickly. There was a move into other Island regions and the company also set up agency offices in New Zealand, England and USA. In the Island countries Bums Philp was often established ahead of government services, and this was the period during which the company printed its own money to facilitate exchange. Meanwhile there was also some expansion in Australia, into the pastoral and timber industries.

Bums Philp was listed on the Sydney Stock Exchange in 1896 with a paid capital of 267,000 pounds, although accumulated reserves already were 100,000 pounds and total assets exceeded half a million. In 1900 the turnover exceeded one million pounds.

Bums became a respected citizen of Sydney and founded the New South Wales Lancers, of which he was first colonel. He also served as a member of the NSW Legislative Council. He was knighted in 1917, and he died in 1923.

Philp became member for Townsville in the Queensland Legislative Assembly in 1886 and had a long career in state politics. He was Premier of Queensland when the Australian states federated.

World War II in the Pacific had far-reaching effects on a large proportion of the Bums Philp operation, including the destruction of assets in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. The Island operations resumed after the war, but often with a different emphasis and sometimes on a smaller scale.

The political evolution of the Island countries also meant financial restructuring in many of the Bums Philp companies.

One of the major subsidiaries, Burns Philp (New Guinea) Limited now Burns Philp (PNG) Limited was formed in 1946 to take over much of the PNG operation. In 1972 the Investment Corporation of PNG acquired a 26 percent interest in the Bums Philp PNG company.

The corporation is in effect a government-backed unit trust investment body which distributes portfolio dividends to shareholders who must be PNG citizens.

In the late 1960 s Bums Philp phased out of its international shipping services, ending the historic Bums Philp Line which had been widely known across the Pacific and through the Island countries. The cost of operating under the Australian flag was a major ingredient in this decision.

The company retained some interest in Island coastal services.

Although remaining a powerful economic force in the Islands, Bums Philp in the past decade or so has been increasingly expanding its Australian interests to the point where Australian operations now predominate. Since 1972 the company has purchased outright or obtained control of nine major ventures and a number of smaller ones. They range from electrical manufacturing to motor retailing, and include a controlling interest in Robe River Ltd., an iron ore mining operation in Western Australia.

Bob Lawrence in Sydney for Australian Associated Press.

Air Caledonie to go regional?

New Caledonia’s Council of Government has given approval “in principle” to the establishment of a Noumea-based regional airline to be called Air Caledonie International. The company would have a capital of CFP7O million (about $A625,000), with two-thirds of the shares held by local New Caledonian investors, and the other third by the territorial administration through the existing domestic carrier Air Caledonie.

Talks on the project were to be held in Paris in April. As well as discussing creation of the airline, the talks were to deal with the opening of new air routes between Noumea and the Australian cities of Brisbane and Melbourne. The new routes have long been desired by New Caledonia’s tourist industry. 63 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983

Rock Processing Machinery For Sale or Rent Crushing Plants LN ■ i»» m Screening Plants M <3 Conveyors i Rock Systems, Inc 1600 Kapiolani Blvd. Suite 1300 Honolulu, HI 96814 Phone (808) 944-5562 Telex# 7431987 Senator wants Clipperton Senator Daniel Millaud, who represents the territory of French Polynesia in the Parliament in Paris, wants Clipperton Island annexed to Polynesia. Clipperton, taken by France in 1875, is 6500 kilometres from Tahiti, but only 1500 kilometres from the coast of Mexico.

The island is three kilometres wide by two kilometres long.

Senator Millaud's interest is in having the tiny island included in French Polynesia’s exclusive economic zone. It offers promising opportunities for high-seas fishing, and the deposits of manganese nodules on its surrounding seabed are said to be more abundant than those already found off the islands of French Polynesia’s Marquesas group.

Ponape-U.S. satellite link With a phone call to Vice- President George Bush in Washington in March, Federated States of Micronesia President Tosiwo Nakayama inaugurated the first earth station in the FSM linked to a global satellite communications network. President Nakayama spoke directly to the vice-president over the new satellite telephone system from the FSM capital on Ponape.

The earth station, the first of several scheduled to be built in the FSM by the Comsat Satellite Corporation, will vastly improve telephone and other communication between Micronesia and the rest of the world. The earth station can also provide telex, data and television channels.

The new earth station, located on Ponape Island, will be followed by others in Truk, Yap and Kosrae, tying the FSM together and linking it to the world.

Before construction of the Comsat link, Micronesia could be contacted only by unreliable high-frequency radio communications.

Speaking in front of a jubilant crowd including leading chiefs and other distinguished residents of Ponape, President Nakayama first telephoned Vice-President Bush and Ambassador Fred Zeder, President Reagan’s special representative on Trust Territory status negotiations, in Washington.

During the phone call, Vice- President Bush congratulated President Nakayama on the new system, and expressed admiration for the president’s leadership. In a later telephone call to the FSM’s Washington office, where a reception was taking place, President Nakayama asked Dr John McLucas, president of Comsat’s World Systems Division, to expedite construction of the other earth stations, if possible.

Speaking to President Nakayama from the same reception, Pedro San Juan, U.S. assistant secretary of the interior for territorial affairs, said: “We are all the beneficiaries of this. We are now all in touch with Ponape and that enriches our lives.”

Money in snails?

The Giant African Snail, regarded as a pest in most South Pacific islands, is expected to increase Vanuatu’s export income. A factory has been established on Santo to process snails for export to France.

Vanuatu’s Land Leasing Act OK’d A number of new projects are expected to begin in Vanuatu following the passing by parliament in mid-April of the longawaited Land Leasing Act.

Foreign companies already established in Vanuatu have welcomed the measure. Ownership of all land in Vanuatu reverted to the traditional owners at independence in mid-1980, and all foreign-owned freehold title was abolished.

The Land Leasing Act provides for 75-year leases, and protects both parties to a lease the traditional owners and the companies to whom they lease their land.

Many investors have held back from launching new projects in Vanuatu because of the uncertainty that has existed over land since independence. Parliamentary debate on the legislation lasted for three full weeks.

Trade Winds

YACHTS New yachting magazine is launched A new quarterly boating magazine made its debut in April.

Called the Australian Cruising Boat Owner, the new publication is aimed according to a press release “to appeal to the growing number of people who regard cruising under sail as something more than just a recreation.”

Editor/Publisher Adrian Herbert, who is both a news journalist and boating writer, describes his product as “a highly specialist practical magazine”.

The introductory Autumn 1983 issue features an article by Eric Hiscock on the building and later modification of his latest Wanderer.

The magazine is available through newsagents at a recommended and maximum price of SA3. Four-issue postfree subscriptions are available for $l2 from Cruising Boat Owner, Box K 622, Haymarket, Australia, 2000. lAN G. MENZIES reports from Madang and Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea: • APTERYX. The previously reported 12 m sloop Apteryx, owned by Jo and Pete Smith, has two new additions a son Craig bom in December, and a new fibreglass spray dodger. Both are doing well.

The Smiths have now left Madang, headed for Indonesian waters. • AWENCHEE. In Solomon Islands the name means ‘good times’, and that’s exactly what Glen and Shirley Ritchie, and their two-yearold daughter Gemma, have been having as they take a leisurely cruise in Papua New Guinea waters.

Originally launched in Sydney in 1976, Awenchee is a steel Adams 40, which formerly cruised the Solomon Islands for two years. It was purchased by Glen and Shirley in December ’BO. The couple decided to give up their surfboard manufacturing business on Sydney’s Pittwater, and head north along the east coast of Australia. After a period of living on board at Coffs Harbour on the New South Wales coast, the Ritchies started cruising in earnest in April 'B2 and entered PNG waters via Samarai in November of that year.

Now in Madang, lady luck has looked their way and Glen has been able to pick up a decent job (with government-approved work permit), and the family intend to remain there for the remainder of 'B3. This will also give Glen the chance to re-model Awenchee’s aft cockpit, which has proved a little too cramped for tropical cruising.

The addition of a substantial wheel-house cannot hide the classic Spray design of John and Raida Bedford's Australian-based ketch Saroena.

The ketch was built at Tweed Heads, New South Wales, and was sailed to Papua New Guinea last year. It is shown here anchored in Port Moresby Harbour, and on deck are Raida and John Bedford, son Justin and friend Paul Barrett. - Ian G. Menzies.

Glen and Shirley Ritchie with daughter Gemma on board their steel sloop Awenchee in Madang. The yacht is well known in the Solomon Islands, and a long visit is planned in PNG 65 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983

THE FACTS WITHOUT FRILLS The trends in a few words. The significant news.

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FOR SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS SEE INSERT. # The South Sea Digest THE NEWSLETTER ON ISLANDS AFFAIRS • EVERY OTHER FRIDAY Di 9est • SCALLYWAG. It’s the strange lattice-work of steel rising above her decks that first catches your attention, for the yawl Scallywag has masts that are triangular sections of heavy-duty, welded steam pipe.

These have proved functional, durable and easy to maintain. Climbing to the spreaders or masthead is a real breeze.

A 10 m Temptress, Scallywag is a hard chine steel vessel that has been cruising Indonesian waters for over 10 years out of her home port of Darwin. This is her first venture into PNG waters. Like Windfall, reported in a previous issue of PIM, Scallywag also survived the disastrous Cyclone Tracy that devastated Darwin in Northern Australia in 1974. Despite 66 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983 YACHTS

Attention All Yachties

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Has plenty of stock of the famous Icom IC-720A at US$995 If you would like us to hold one for you write now giving your name, yacht name and E.T.A. Vila. A holding deposit of US$lOO is also required.

Other Icom gear available IC-MBO VHP Marine IC-M2 Hand Held VHP Marine The Sound Centre Ltd Box 434 Port Vila, Vanuatu Phone 2035 Telex 1048 (Dufree NH) severe hull damage and a slightly bent mast, she was salvaged, repaired and has since competed in three Darwin to Ambon yacht races.

Owned by Carl and Margaret Bridgman, with crew-member Robyn Ingram, Scallywag departed Darwin in November ’B2 and made passage via Port Moresby to Madang. The trio hugged the coastline virtually all the way, and found snug and safe anchorages each night.

From Madang, Scallywag will head for Rabaul to link up with other cruising friends, and then return to Darwin via the Trobriand Islands and the Louisiade Archipelago in late ’B3 where Carl will resume work as a quarantine officer. • TRALFAMADORE. Though the name of Michael and Dianne Gardiner’s 13 m ketch Tralfamadore comes from the realm of science fiction, the vessel became a reality when it was finally launched in 1976. Five years Opposite page, extreme left: Awenchee, owned by Glen and Shirley Ritchie, is shown moored in the PNG port of Madang (see page 65). Left: Also shown in Madang is the sturdy ferro ketch Tralfamadore, owned by Michael and Dianne Gardiner who are shown above with children Katie and Luke.

They have been cruising PNG waters for three years. Above right: Carl and Margaret Bridgman, with crew member Robyn Ingram on board the yawl Scallywag at Madang. Below: Scallywag displays her distinctive masts of welded pipes. 67 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983

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of hard labor had gone into the construction of this fine ferro-cement Hartley Fijian in their home port of Adelaide in South Australia.

The Gardiners’ cruising life started in ’77 when they headed out of South Australian waters up the east coast of Australia to the port of Brisbane.

After a one-year stopover in that port they sailed eastward to New Caledonia, and then worked their way through the Loyalty Islands, Vanuatu and the Solomons to Rabaul in PNG. Along the way they added to their crew with the birth of their son Luke, who is now four.

Michael is a chartered accountant, and was able to obtain two years work in Rabaul, and there was a further addition to their family Katie, now two. A company transfer meant a move to Madang where the family have been for the last 12 months.

When interviewed, the family were making final preparations to their vessel prior to their departure for Indonesian waters.

Note: Several cruising yachts seeking permits for Indonesian waters have had such permits granted on the condition that they by-pass Irian Jaya. “Military restrictions’’ has been the reason given for the refusal to grant entry permits to Irian Jaya. • BELLE STARR. Originally from Rabaul in East New Britain, Peter Robinson with his wife Wendy and son David, four, is headed back that way to renew old acquaintances. The family’s passage-maker is Belle Starr, a 12 m Carlita design by John Pugh, built in steel by the Robinsons over a period of three years. The vessel was launched in May ’BO at the port of Gladstone, east coast of Australia, where Peter had a motor cycle business.

Since leaving Gladstone in December ’Bl, the Robinsons have wended their way through the Great Barrier Reef and then spent a relaxing two months at Thursday Island.

Now moored behind the new groyne at the Royal Papua Yacht Club, Port Moresby, the family are enjoying the local hospitality and say it’s the friendliest place that they’ve visited so far.

Time is no great problem for the Robinsons, so they plan to explore the coast around to Madang before completing the first major leg of their Pacific cruise at Rabaul. As Peter says, “the wind is free, so why not enjoy it?’’ • MEVAGISSEY. Two young men who are thoroughly enjoying their cruising life are Rob McCauley and Glen Norton, both of whom hail from Perth in Western Australia. Rob’s 28 ft GRP sloop Mevagissey , was designed by Perth naval architect Graham Tilley and built in the city.

Rob and Glen left Fremantle (the port of the city of Perth), at the mouth of the Swan River, in April ’BO, and spent many months exploring the rigged and remote northern coastline of Australia. After spending a year in Darwin, where they were both able to find work, the pair departed for Port Moresby in October ’B2. Rob and Glen have applied for a six months cruising permit for PNG waters, and hope to return to Darwin later this year. • TANGOROA. Single-hander Siegfried Eigl arrived in Port Moresby just a little bit the worse for wear, after battling headwinds and stormy seas from Thursday Island and across the Gulf of Papua.

Tangoroa is an 8 m cutter, built of double diagonal marine ply. and was launched in New Zealand in '79. The yacht is very simple in design no frills and has no inboard motor.

Siegfried relies on a 6 hp. Seagull to provide auxiliary power.

Starting from Darwin, this was Siegfried's maiden voyage, and one that he will long remember. Despite the fact that he had only a very basic understanding of navigation and seamanship. he faced no serious problems as he crossed the Gulf of Carpentaria. It was near Gove, however, that his luck ran out. Heavy seas and high winds for over 40 hours eventually took their toll, and when Tangoroa’s starboard shroud parted she was completely dismasted. Luckily, Siegfried was able to lash the mast and its rigging alongside, and after radioing for assistance, was towed to safety by the Thursday Island pilot boat.

After drying out, and carrying out routine maintenance. Siegfried hopes to stay in Port Moresby for a while, before heading east to the Solomon Islands.

Left: The Carlita design Belle Starr, owned by Peter and Wendy Robinson, lies off the Royal Papua Yacht Club, Port Moresby.

Above: Together in Port Moresby are Rob McCauley and Glen Norton of Mevagissey, Tonga Bill Fehoko of Mata Moana and Siegfried Eigl of Tangoroa. Right: Lou Marchant’s steel ketch Windfall in Port Moresby (PIM May p66). 69 YACHTS PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983

5/

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THOUSANDS OF MILES IN OUR PACIFIC.

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Shipping Schedules

SHIPPING Should any shipping company wish to have its services cargo and passenger included in these listings they should contact PIM.

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 (232- Id 1), Dalgety Shipping, World Trade Centre, Melbourne (616-6700). Burns Philp (SS) Co. Ltd., Suva and Lautoka.

Sofrana-Unilines (Fiji Express Line) operates to Suva and Lautoka every two weeks from the main ports on the east coast of Australia and monthly to Lautoka from Melbourne and Sydney.

Details from Sofrana-Unilines, 19 Pitt Street, Sydney (27-9851), 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 and Marshall, Burnie, Tasmania (31-1833), Carpenters Shipping, 100 Thomson St., Suva, Fiji (312-244), Tlx 2199 FJ.

Australia - Samoas - Tonga

Warner Pacific Lines operates a regular cargo service from Sydney to Nukualofa, Pago Pago, Apia and Vavau.

Details from Hetherington Wesfarmers Shipping Agency, 37-49 Pitt Street, Sydney (27-1671).

AUSTRALIA - NEW CALEDONIA -

Fiji - Samoas - Tonga

Pacific Forum Line operates a fully containerised service (general, reefer and ro-ro) from Sydney to Noumea, Lautoka, Suva, Apia, Pago Pago, Nukualofa, Sydney. Cargo centralised from Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane.

Details from Pacific Forum Line, Sydney; Union Bulkships, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne: SATO, Noumea, Union Company, Lautoka, Suva Nukualofa; Pacific Forum Line, Apia.

AUSTRALIA - LORD HOWE IS -

Norfolk Is

Compagnie des Chargeurs Caledoniens operates four-weekly cargo service Sydney - Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island.

Details: Hetherington Wesfarmers Shipping Agency, 37-49 Pitt Street, Sydney (27-1671).

Australia - Kiribati

Karlander operates a 5/6 weekly service from Melbourne and Sydney to Kiribati (Tarawa).

Details: Karlander (Aust) Pty. Ltd., 19-31 Pitt Street, Sydney (232-1011).

Australia - Nauru - Marshall

Is. - Kiribati

Nauru Pacific Line operates regular cargo/passenger service from Melbourne to Nauru, Majuro and Tarawa.

Details: Nauru Corporation (Vic.) Inc. (Shipping Division), Nauru House, 80 Collins Street, Melbourne (653-5709).

Nedlloyd Swire, 8 Spring Street, Sydney (2-0522).

Australia - New Caledonia

(And/Or) Vanuatu

Sofrana-Unilines ships serve Noumea every two weeks from the main ports along the east Australian CO£St.

Details from Sofrana-Unilines, 19 Pitt Street, Sydney (27-9851), 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 Caledonians operates a three-weekly containerised cargo service from Sydney to Noumea.

Details Hetherington Wesfarmers Shipping Agency, 37-49 Pitt Street, Sydney (27-1671).

Compagnie Generale Maritime operates a monthly service from Sydney to Noumea, Port Vila and Santo, for containerised and break bulk cargo.

Details Compagnie Generale Maritime, 12 Castlereagh Street, Sydney (231-3700).

AUSTRALIA - NZ - FIJI -

Hawaii - Us

P&O liners call at Auckland, Suva, Pago Pago and Honolulu 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 (237-0333).

AUSTRALIA - NZ - FIJI - TONGA - VANUATU - NEW CALEDONIA -

Solomons - Samoas - New

GUINEA Sitmar Cruises operates a yearround cruise program to include most of the above countries.

Details from Sitmar Cruises, 47 Elizabeth Street, Sydney (232-7511).

AUSTRALIA - NZ - FIJI - TONGA - VANUATU - NEW CALEDONIA -

Solomons - Samoas - Tahiti

P&O liners call at 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 (237-0333).

AUSTRALIA - NZ - SOLOMONS - PNG Pacific Forum Line operates containerised and general cargo service from Lyttleton, Napier and Auckland to Honiara, Lae, Port Moresby, Brisbane.

Details from Pacific Forum Line, Auckland and Sydney; Steamships Shipping, Port Moresby: Sullivans Ltd., Honiara: Union Bulkships, Brisbane.

Australia - Micronesia

Nauru Pacific Line operates a regular container service from Melbourne to Ponape, Truk, Guam and Saipan.

Details Nauru Corporation (Vic.) Inc. (Shipping Division), Nauru House, 80 Collins Street, Melbourne, (653-5709), Nedlloyd Swire, 8 Spring Street, Sydney (2-0522).

Australia - Tuvalu

Karlander operates a three monthly service from Sydney and Melbourne to Tuvalu (Funafuti).

Details from Karlander (Aust.) Pty.

Ltd., 19-31 Pitt Street, Sydney (232- 1011).

Australia - Png

Karlander New Guinea Line’s cargo vessels call at Melbourne, Sydney, Port Moresby, Lae, Madang, Wewak, Manus, Kimbe, Rabaul, Popondetta.

Details from Karlander (Aust.) Pty.

Ltd., 19-31 Pitt Street, Sydney (232- 1011), Dalgety Shipping, World Trade Centre, Melbourne (616-6700).

AUSTRALIA - PNG - SOLOMONS - VANUATU A consortium of Conpac, NGAL/PNGL have three container vessels operating on a 28 day turn-around from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane to Port Moresby, Lae, Rabaul, Kavieng, Wewak, Madang, Kieta, Honiara, Vila and Santo.

Details from Burns, Philp & Co. Ltd., 51 Pitt Street, Sydney (2-0547), Interocean Swire, 8 Spring Street, Sydney (2-0522) and Vila Agents, P.O. Box 971, Port-Vila (2490), Tlx. NH1044.

New Guinea Express Lines operates a fortnightly container service from Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane to Port Moresby, Lae, Alotau, Kimbe, Rabaul, Kieta, Honiara.

Details from New Guinea Express Lines, PO Box R 73, Royal Exchange, Sydney (241-3991); New Guinea Express Lines, 127 Creek Street, Brisbane (221 -9333); New Guinea Express Lines, 327 Collins Street, Melbourne (61-3053); Niugini Express Lines, Port Moresby (21-4572); Lae (42-1536); Rabtrad Niugini Pty. Ltd., Rabaul (92- 2911) and Kieta (95-6185); Alotau Stevedoring & Transport, Alotau (61- 1318); Ngatia Wholesalers Pty. Ltd., Kimbe (93-5102); and Trading Company, Mendana Avenue, Honiara (588).

Sofrana-Unilines (PNG Line) operates a monthly service to Port Moresby and Lae, from main ports on the east coast of Australia.

Details from Sofrana-Unilines, 19 Pitt Street, Sydney (27-9851); 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).

Australia - Tahiti

Compagnie Generale Maritime operates a monthly service from Sydney to Papeete for containerised and breakbulk cargo.

Details Compagnie Generale Maritime, 12 Castlereagh Street, Sydney (231-3700).

Australia - Tahiti - Us

Karlander operates a monthly cargo service from Melbourne and Sydney to Papeete, US west coast.

Details: Karlander (Aust.) Pty. Ltd., 19-31 Pitt Street, Sydney (232-1011).

Australia - Nz - West Coast

South America

South Pacific Seaboard Service offers a regular cargo service from Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne to New Zealand ports Lyttleton and Tauranga and to the west coast of South America, calling at Beu’ventura, Guayaquil, Cailao and other ports on inducement.

Details from South Pacific Seaboard Service agents, Meridian Shipping & Transport Agencies, 50 Clarence Street, Sydney (290-1633), Tlx 25970; Melbourne (67-5907); Brisbane (267- 6355); Adelaide (47-6600); Oceanbridge Shipping Ltd,, 22 Emily Place, Auckland (33-279). Tlx 60523; lan Taylor Y Cia Ltd a, Prat 827 Of. 301, Valparaiso, Chile (59096), Tlx. 30331.

SINGAPORE - HONG KONG - FIJI -

Islands Ports

Kyowa Shipping Co. Ltd. operates a monthly service from Singapore, Hong Kong to Lautoka, Suva and then to island ports.

Details from Carpenters Shipping, 100 Thompson Street, Suva, (312- 244), Tlx FJ2199.

Far East - Fiji - New

ZEALAND New Zealand Unit Express (NZUE) operates a monthly palletised cargo service from Manila, Keelung, Kaoshiung and Hongkong to Lautoka, Suva and thence to NZ.

Details from Carpenters Shipping, 100 Thompson Street, Suva (312-244), Tlx FJ2199, Burns Philp, Suva (311- 777) P&O S.N. Co. Wellington (736- 477) or Nedlloyd Swire Pty. Ltd., Sydney (20-522).

Nedlloyd operates bi-weekly cargo service with four ships from Sourabaya, Jakarta, Bangkok, Port Kelang and Singapore to Suva, Lautoka and NZ ports.

Details from Nedlloyd (Aust.) Pty.

Ltd., 8 Spring St., Sydney (27-3801), Burns Philp (SS) Co. Ltd., Suva and Lautoka.

Far East - Mid-S. Pacific

China Navigation s New Guinea Pacific Line operates a regular container service from Hongkong, Taiwan, Manila, Port Kelang and Singapore to Port Moresby, Lae, Rabaul and Honiara monthly and to Wewak, Madang and Kieta every three months. Cargo from the same Far Eastern ports to the South Pacific ports of Noumea, Santo, Vila, Papeete, Pago Pago, Apia, Rarotonga and Tarawa will be shipped via Japan on the monthly Bali Hai service.

Details from Steamships Trading Co.

Ltd., P.O. Box 1, Port Moresby (22- 0222).

Kyowa Shipping Ltd., operates monthly services from Japan to Guam, Saipan, Solomons, New Caledonia, Fiji, Western and American Samoa, Tahiti, Cook Is. Tonga and Vanuatu.

Details: Hetherington Wesfarmers Shipping Agency, 37-49 Pitt Street, Sydney (27-1671); Carpenters Shipping, Suva (312-244), Tlx FJ2199.

Japan - Fiji - Island Ports

Kyowa Shipping Co. Ltd., operates a monthly service from main ports of Japan to Suva and Lautoka and thence to island ports.

Details from Carpenters Shipping, 100 Thompson St., Suva (312-244), Tlx FJ2199.

Japan - Fiji - Island Ports

Bali Hai service operates a monthly service from main ports of Japan to Suva and Lautoka and thence to island ports.

Details from Carpenters Shipping, 100 Thompson St., Suva (312-244), Tlx FJ2199 and Burns Philp, Suva (311-777).

Japan - Micronesia

The NYK Shipping Line operates a monthly cargo service from Japan to Micronesia, calling at Yoko, Nagoya, Kobe, Guam, Saipan, Truk, Ponape and Majuro, returning via Yoko, Nagoya and Kobe.

Details from Burns, Philp & Co. Ltd., 51 Pitt Street, Sydney (2-0547).'

Japan - Png

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines operates a monthly service from main ports Japan and Port Moresby, Rabaul, Lae, Madang, Kieta and Kimbe.

Details from Robert Laurie (PNG) Pty. Ltd., PO Box 922, Port Moresby (21-2466/21-1898).

New Caledonia - Fiji - West

Coast North America

PAD Line operates an approx. 3weekly ro-ro service with Noumea and Suva to Honolulu and West Coast USA and Canadian ports.

Details from Sofrana-Unilines SA, BP 1602, Noumea (27-51-91), Tlx NMO4B; Carpenters Shipping, 100 Thompson St., Suva (312-244), Tlx FJ2199. 71 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983

Local Agents And

REPRESENTATION 428 George St., Sydney.

Cables: Henco Sydney.

G.P.O. Box 3949.

Telephone: 232 5377.

For specialised and personalised buying service throughout the Pacific Islands and the East.

Resident Agents in other Pacific Territories.

Papua New Guinea

RABAUL: M. & C. Seeto, P.O. Box 131, Rabaul.

Telephone 92 2919.

MADANG: W. Double, P.O. Box 22, Madang.

Telephone 82 2696.

FIJI K. Witherington Ltd.

P.O. Box 293, Suva.

Telephone 22 356.

VANUATU John Lum & Associates, P.O. Box 65, Santo.

Telephone 329.

Solomon Islands

Mr. Tom Lo, P.O. Box 327, Honiara.

Telephone 399 «i i

Png - Inter - Mainport

Papua New Guinea Line offers scheduled 10/20 day coastal liner services. linking all PNG major ports with containerisation, reefer, heavy lift and transhipment facilities.

Details from PNG Line, Box 543, Port Moresby, PNG (21-1174), Tlx 22269.

Png- Uk/Continent

The Bank Line operates regular cargo service from Port Moresby, Oro Bay, Kieta, Rabaul, Kimbe, Madang and Lae to Hull, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Antwerp and Le Havre.

Details from The Bank Line (A’asia) Pty. Ltd., 51 Pitt Street, Sydney (27- 2041); Burns Philp (PNG) Ltd. PNG ports.

Solomons - Uk/Continent

The Bank Line operates regular cargo service from Honiara to Hull, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Antwerp and Le Havre.

Details from The Bank Line (A’asia) Pty. Ltd., 51 Pitt Street, Sydney (27- 2041); Tradco Shipping (588).

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, Raratonga: Cook Islands; Niue Govt. Offices, Niue Island Compagnie Maritime Polynesienne, BP 368, Papeete, Tahiti.

New Zealand - Tahiti

Pacifique Polynesia Line operates a monthly service carrying general and freezer cargoes to Papeete and outlying islands in the group.

Details from McKay Shipping Ltd., PO Box 1372, Auckland, (30229), Tlx 2554 NZ.

NZ - FIJI Reef operates a regular 18-day service from Auckland to Suva and Lautoka.

Details from Reef Shipping Agencies, PO Box 3382, Auckland, NZ (77- 1221-3); M.V. Fijian Shipping Agencies Ltd., Private Bag, Suva, Fiji (31-1056).

Pacific Line with one ship operates fortnightly ro-ro cargo service New Zealand, Lautoka, Suva.

Details: Sofrana Unilines, 18 Customs Street, Auckland (773-279) PO Box 3614, Telex: NZ2313; Carpenters Shipping, 100 Thompson Street, Suva (312-244), Tlx FJ2199.

Nz - Fiji - North America (Wc)

Blue Star Line Ltd. Pacific Coast container services. Only direct service to and from New Zealand. Blue Star vessels call at Suva and Honolulu on NZ-US-West Coast voyages.

Details from Blueport ACT (NZ) Ltd., PO Box 192, Wellington (739-029).

Burns Philp (SS) Co. Ltd., GPO Box 355, Suva, Fiji (311-777), Tlx. FJ2168 Burship.

Nz - Fiji - Samoas - Tonga

Pacific Forum Line operates a fully containerised three-weekly service (Gen/Reefer) from Auckland to Lautoka, Suva, Apia, Pago Pago and Nukualofa.

Details from Pacific Forum Line, Auckland: Union Co. Auckland, Lautoka, Suva and Nukualofa; Pacific Forum Line, Apia.

NZ - N. CALEDONIA - VANUATU -

Png - Solomons

Sofrana Unilines with three ships operates to Vila and Santo, to Honiara and Papua New Guinea and to Norfolk Island and Noumea.

Details from Sofrana Unilines, 18 Customs Street, Auckland (773-279), PO Box 3614, Tlx. NZ2313.

NZ TAHITI Compagnie Tahitienne Maritime SA (as CTM-Tahiti Line) operates one ship, MV Bounty 111, monthly Papeete New Zealand.

Details from Sofrana Unilines, PO Box 3614, 18 Customs St., Auckland Tlx NZ2313; Agence Maritime Cowan, PO Box 9012, Papeete (39042), Tlx Tahitlin 322 FP Tahiti).

Nz - Tonga - Samoas

Warner Pacific Line services Auckland, Nukualofa, Vavau, Apia, Pago Pago fortnightly carrying general and freezer cargoes.

Details from McKay Shipping Ltd., Downtown House, 21 Queen St., Auckland, PO Box 1372 (30-299). Cables MACSHIP, Telex NZ2554, Warner Pacific Line, Box 93, Nukualofa, Tonga; Mealelei (Western Samoa) Ltd.

Box 4171, Apia, Western Samoa, Kneubuhl Maritime Services, Box 39, Pago Pago, American Samoa, 96799.

Nz - New Caledonia

CP Line operates a monthly cargo service from Auckland, Lyttelton, Napier and Mt. Maunganui to Noumea.

Details from McKay Shipping Ltd., PO Box 1372, Auckland (9-30229); Tlx 2554 NZ.

EUROPE - TAHITI -

New Caledonia

Compagnie Generale Maritime operates services from Europe and Mediterranean ports to Papeete and Noumea using three ro-ro and multipurpose vessels thus ensuring a bimonthly sailing to and from.

Details Compagnie Generale Maritime, 12 Castlereagh Street, Sydney (231-3700).

Europe - Tahiti - New

CALEDONIA - NEW ZEALAND -

Solomons - Png - Europe

Polish Ocean Lines offers regular monthly sailings for containerised and breakbulk cargo and reefer space, conventional and in reefer containers, from Hamburg, Antwerp, Dunkirk and Rouen to Papeete, Noumea, New Zealand, Honiara, Lae, returning to Europe via Suez. Other ports in the South Pacific can be served with inducement.

Details from Sotama, BP 9170, Papeete (27805), Tlx. 296; SATO, BP C 2, Noumea (272094), Tlx. 163 NM SATO: Union Steamship Co of NZ, PO Box 50, Apia, Tlx. 25; Williams and Gosling, PO Box 79, Suva (312633), Tlx. 2163; Warner Pacific Line, PO Box 93, Nukualofa (21089), Tlx. 66219; Universal Shipping Agencies, PO Box 2282, Auckland (30930), Tlx. 21517.

EUROPE - TAHITI - W. SAMOA -

Fiji - N. Caledonia

Nedlloyd offers regular cargo services from Northern Europe and U.K. to Papeete, Apia, Fiji and New Caledonia.

Details Nedlloyd (Aust.) Pty. Ltd., 8 Spring Street, Sydney (27-3801); Carpenters Shipping, 100 Thomson St., Suva (312-244), Tlx. 2199 FJ and Vetari Street, Lautoka (63988), Tlx. 5215FJ.

EUROPE - TAHITI - W. SAMOA - TONGA - FIJI - SOLOMONS - PNG - VANUATU Columbus Line Reederei GMBH operates regular services from Hamburg, Hull, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Dunkirk, Le Havre, to Papeete, Apia, Suva, Lautoka, Noumea, Port Moresby, Lae, Honiara, Kieta, Rabaul, Lae, and return to Europe.

Details from Columbus Overseas Services Pty. Ltd., 333 George Street, Sydney (290-2966). Columbus Maritime Service, 17 Albert Street, Auckland (77-3460); Carpenters Shipping, 100 Thompson St., Suva (312- 224), Tlx. 2199 FJ.

UK - N. CONTINENT - W. SAMOA -

Tonga - Fiji

The Bank Line operates a regular cargo service from Hull, Hamburg, Bremen, Antwerp, Rotterdam and Le Havre to Apia, Nukualofa, Suva and Lautoka.

Details from The Bank Line (A’asia) Pty. Ltd., 51 Pitt Street, Sydney (27- 2041); Burns Philp (South Sea) Co.

Ltd., Suva and Lautoka.

UK - N. CONTINENT - PNG - SOLOMONS The Bank Line operates a regular cargo service from Hull, Hamburg, Bremen, Antwerp, Rotterdam and Le Havre to Port Moresby, Lae, Madang, Kimbe, Rabaul, Kieta and Honiara and on inducement to Yandina.

Details from The Bank Line (Asia) Pty. Ltd., 51 Pitt Street, Sydney (27- 2041); Burns Philp (PNG) Ltd. PNG ports; Tradco Shipping (588).

UK/N. CONTINENT ■ TAHITI -

N. Caledonia - Vanuatu

The Bank Line operates a regular cargo service from Hull, Hamburg, Bremen, Antwerp, Rotterdam and Le Havre to Papeete, Noumea, Port-Vila and Santo.

Details from The Bank Line (A’asia) Pty. Ltd., 51 Pitt Street, Sydney (27- 2041); Ets A M. Fare UTE, Papeete; Ets. Ballande, Noumea.

US - FIJI - TAHITI - NZ - AUSTRALIA The Bank Savill Line Ltd. operates regular cargo services from U.S. Gulf ports to Australia and N.Z. Calls at Suva, Lautoka and Papeete on demand.

Details from The Bank and Savill Line Ltd., 51 Pitt Street, Sydney (27- 2041) or Orient Shipping Services, 32 Bridge Street, Sydney (241-2753).

U.S. - HAWAII - KIRIBATI - MICRONESIA Philippines, Micronesia & Orient Navigation Co. (PM&O Lines) operates regular container service on selfsustained ship with ro-ro capabilities from Oakland, Portland and Honolulu to Tarawa, Ebeye, Majuro, Kosrae, Ponape, Truk, Saipan, Yap and Koror.

Details for Micronesia can be obtained from Larry Guerrero, PM&O Owners Rep. PO Box 803, Saipan, Ml 96950, Cable COMMONTIME, Tlx 783605; PM&O: PM&O Lines, 181 Fremont St., San Francisco, California 94-105, Cable PMONAV.

US - HAWAII - NAURU - MICRONESIA Nauru Pacific Line operates regular conventional container and passenger service from San Francisco and Honolulu to Majuro, Ponape, Truk and Saipan. Cargo is accepted for Nauru and Kosrai with transhipment at Majuro and Ponape.

Details from Nauru Corporation (Vic.) Inc. (Shipping Division), Nauru House, 80 Collins Street, Melbourne (653-5709); Nauru Air and Shipping Agency, Suite 2803, China Basin Building, 185 Berry Street, San Fransisco, California 94107 (543-1737). 72 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983

Shipping Schedules

..

Cargo Vessel For Sale

405 gross tons, 166 net, 420 dwt.

Length 47.3 metres, Beam 7.5 metres, Draft 3.8 metres.

Dcutz SBA 8M Diesel, 585 S.H.P. at 750 rpm. 2.5; 1 reduction driving variable pitch propeller giving about 10.5 knots. 2 holds giving 28 000 cu ft grain capacity.

Hydraulic deck gear with swinging derricks.

No. 1 hatch 3 ton s.w.l. No. 2 hatch 5 ton s.w.l.

Radar, auto pilot, 5.5.8., V.H.F.

In class with Bureau Veritas and in excellent condition.

Lying at Port-Vila, Vanuatu.

AslBo,ooo Contact: Vanua Navigation Ltd.

P.O. Box 44, Port-Vila, Vanuatu Telephone: 2027, 2028. Telex: 1033 VANUA attempting to do. She had gone to the television people showing them documents she alleged had come from the Secretary to Cabinet, DrTsireli Lasaqa. Questioned in the witness box Lasaqa denied this. All he had made available, he said, were papers relating to public opinion polling.

Ratu Osea Gavidi, leader of the pro-NFP minority party Western United Front, claimed that a plan to have him convicted of criminal offences had been part of the Carroll recommendations and that the Alliance had accepted this. Despite this situation he believed the inquiry should be abandoned before it did irreparable harm to Fiji race relations.

Ratu Gavidi said the inquiry suffered from the inbuilt disability that much vital evidence could be obtained only from nonresident foreigners people who could not be forced to travel to Fiji to give evidence.

Lawyers representing the Alliance and the NFP have agreed on 11 major issues for investigation and about the same number of subsidiary issues. The three major issues involved in the early stages of the hearing concerned whether the Alliance had commissioned the Carroll report, whether any of the Carroll recommendations were implemented and whether Clive Speed was hired to help the election campaign. The inquiry has now turned to the issues involved in the making of the television program, the involvement of Rosemary Gillespie and the allegations of Soviet financial aid to the NFP and its supporters.

Many of the political leaders who have already given evidence are likely to be recalled in the months ahead as the inquiry moves from one issue to another.

Clive Speed and Rosemary Gillespie are two foreigners who have indicated a willingness to give evidence if their costs are paid. But it appears unlikely that Alan Carroll and other central figures in the story will appear, and the overall value of the proceedings has become very much a matter of public conjecture.

Robert Keith-Reid in Suva.

Hawaii - Tahiti - Samoas

Marshall Islands Maritime Co operates a service every 32 days between Honolulu, Papeete, Pago Pago and Apia.

Details from the Maritime Co. of the Pacific, 567 South King Street, Suite 310, Honolulu, Hawaii, Morris Hedstrom, Box 189, Apia, Western Samoa and the Marshall Islands Maritime Co., Box 679, Majuro, Marshall Islands.

Us - Noumea - Fiji

PAD Line operates an approx. 3weekly ro-ro service from West coast USA and Canada to Noumea, Suva and Lautoka.

Details from Sofrana-Unilines SA, BP 1602, Moumea (27-51-91), Tlx.

NMO4B; Carpenters Shipping, 100 Thompson St., Suva (31-2244), Tlx.

FJ2199; Trans-Austral Shipping, Box R 232 PO, Royal Exchange, NSW (27- 2441), Tlx. AA21204.

Us - Tahiti - Samoa

Pacific Islands Transport operates a five weekly cargo service from North America west coast ports to Papeete, Pago Pago, Apia.

Details from Polynesia Shipping Services Inc. PO Box 1478, Pago Pago 96799.

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 96799.

DEATHS of Islands People Mrs Albert Henry At Titikaveka, Cook Islands, on April 1 after a long illness, aged 74.

Known as “Mama Pepe”, Mrs Henry was bom at Titikaveka in 1909. She was educated at Ngatangiia School and became a teacher at the Avarua Englishspeaking school. She married Albert Henry in 1927 and went with him to New Zealand in 1942.

On their return home in 1964, she helped her husband establish the Cook Islands Party and in 1965 became first lady of the land when Albert Henry was elected first Premier of the Cook Islands.

Mama Pepe was a strong church member and the patroness of many local organisations. After Albert Henry’s death in 1981, her health began to decline. She died only two days after the general election in the Cook Islands which returned to power the party she and her husband had founded.

Phillip Burton . c a m In San Francisco on April 10, aged 56 D . . jin Phillip Burton served 19 years in the US Congress. He was a member of the House Interior Committee for many years and chairman of its national parks a- i cc • . • and insular attairs subcommittee, . • u , . . ... during which time he built a reputation for being a champion f tU c ITC , r. r ot the causes of the US Pacific , r ... and Caribbean territories.

D . . . . KT .

President Tosiwo Nakayama r ~ c k ~ of the Federated States of Mic- . . ■ .... ronesia said of him: His support t tor selt-govemment and economif ff f .u i ic selt-sufficiency for the people r , , u ot Micronesia has long been a _ source ot inspiration and encouragement for the people and leadp S k °l . ‘ h p FSM • a v 566 f alS ° Robert L. Kiste s A View from u i . .

Honolulu m this issue.) Satyanand Govind In Suva on April 11, aged 67, from a heart attack.

Mr Govind began his teaching career in 1934, after obtaining a teaching certificate from the Teachers Training Institute at Davuilevu, Nausori. He taught all over during his career ’ his final position being headmaster c ~ C.. ... , w °* un<^lt ls hnu Deo Memorial School in Raiwaqa. He retired in in _ 0 .. j 1978 k Mr f GoVmdwas active m a num . b k er ° f org ? n,satlons ■»clud- ,ng e r ' Va ama Jc • Eric Jones , c * ■. . co f In Suva m April aged 58, from a eart attack c . . . . c Eric Jones was chief executive c c w . . ot the Fiji Sugar Marketing Com- , r . pany. He was the first managing A - t f .. f. f director ot the company which , . J f _.. took over the marketing of Fin f .. in -J sugar from the CSR m 1976. c ... . c . . riji s Minister for Agriculture, . J t .. , ...

Jonati Movoa, described his , ~ ... ..... death as a great blow to the . , CoUntry S SUgar mdUStr >' Paula Vivili m . , , .

On Tongatapu Island, Tonga, in a •, an air crash on April 20.

Paula Vivili was the Tongan branch chief of British Petroleum (SWP) Ltd. He was a former 73 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY —JUNE, 1983

Fiji Inquiry

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Exporters To The Pacific Islands

Freely Given A true understanding of God's Word.

If you have been searching for the true meaning, of the Scriptures this free monthly booklet is for you.

Write to God's Way P.O. Box 41, North Ryde, Australia 2113

Stamps Wanted

Stamp collector would like to exchange or purchase stamps from people in the South Pacific.

Contact: Mr N. Cooper 31 Maunder Street Regents Park Sydney NSW 2143 Australia

Books About Png

Special offering on behalf of a client: Humphries, Chalmers, Dauncey, Hides, Mackellar, J.H.P. Murray, and others.

Write for a list to: Buka Gunana PO Box 320 Angaston SA 5353 Australia

Asian Ladies

Attractive Asian ladies wish to meet/correspond with foreign gentlemen.

Write to; The Advertiser, Box 42, Duffy, NSW, Australia 2611. superintendent of police in Tonga, the highest rank in the force.

The plane in which he was a passenger had problems with its landing gear and overturned when attempting to land. Mr Vivili died soon afterwards from massive head injuries.

Ratu George Laifone Uluilakeba At Lami, Fiji in April, after a long illness, aged 47.

Ratu Laifone was a younger brother of Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, Fiji’s prime minister. He served as an administrative officer at the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Fijian Affairs and Rural Development. He was also District Officer, Korovou, and later Nausori.

George Edward Bailey At Mount Hagen, Papua New Guinea, in April, after a short illness.

George Bailey was one of the longest-serving Australian public servants in Papua New Guinea.

He came to the country in 1960 as a kiap, serving in New Ireland, Western Highlands, East Sepik, Madang and Milne Bay provinces. In the mid-19705, he joined the land court secretariat in Port Moresby, and then transferred to magisterial services, becoming a senior provincial magistrate at Mount Hagen.

ADVERTISING Aggie Grey’s 74 Amatil 34 Antelope 62 Asian Ladies 74 Atlantic Trading 74 Bank Line 68 Besco Jarwil 56 British Aerospace 13 Buka Gunana 74 Clarion Shoji 46 Cooper 74 Gatman 62 God’s Way 74 Henry Cumines 72 Hitachi 26 Honda 2 Hudson Homes 32 Imel 70 Komatsu 42 Laurie-Carpenters 30 Lincoln 24 MacQuarrie Industries . 32 Matsushita 4 New Zealand Dairy 56 Pacific Pumps 72 Papua Hotel 74 Parbury 28 Peter Fisher 74 Pioneer 16 P.l.T. Line 14 QBE Insurance 20 Rock Systems 64 Shilla Hotel 61 Sound Centre 67 South Sea Digest — 66 Suva Sail 74 Suzuki Marine 54 Suzuki Motor 75 TEAC 36 Toyota 38 Toyota Fork Lift 76 Vanua Navigation 73 Water Wheel Exports .. 52 74

Pacific Islands Monthly —June, 198

DELATES of Islands People

The Progressive Automobile Manufacturer for The 80':

Suzuki Motor Co, Ltd

SUZUKI 300Takatsuka. Hamamatsu, Japan SUZUKI % * tt ▼ ■ - 4 4 V e * A ,*d I ' PHOTO: Canadian version ' S580F ' V "■ -V- *- ■■ •. **, * S^ccaW^^Kn«89 : +■■ J-f SUZUKI Vehicles are shipped to approximately 100 countries throughout the world and are well received by users in those countries. Behind the high-quality of SUZUKI 4wheelers is the in-depth research carried out from all aspects, rigorous tests and an extensive after-sales service net-work. Vehicles that are ready when you need them and which you can trust when driving. SUZUKI Vehicles.

SuIWu Ok name of performance.

SOLOMON ISLANDS SOLOMON ISLAND SERVICE STATION LTD. NEW CALEDONIA STE. SUPERCAL PAPUA NEW GUINEA PNG MOTORS VANUATU HENRI LEROUX NIUE ISLAND BURNS PHILP (SOUTH SEA)CO., LTD. PONAPE LEO ETSCHEIT TAHITI NIPPON AUTOMOTO GUAM & SAIPAN ISLAND CYCLERY, INC. NORFOLK MARTIN’S AGENCIES LTD. SAMOA PACIRC PRODUCTS. INC. TONGA PACIFIC PRODUCTS, INC. NAURU EQUAPAC MOTORS FUJI NIRANJANS AUTOPORT LTD.

KIRIBATI: KIRIBATI CO-OPERATIVE WHOLESALE SOCIETY LIMITED RAROTONGA: AUTO HOLDINGS LTD.

If you’re thinking about tomorrow, you’ll choose f ° rkuft the world’s best selling forklift—Toyota—today.

TECHNOLOGY Toyota Forklifts are built to last over the long haul, utilizing a Central ydraulic ower ystem (C.H.P.S.) that not only speeds maintenance but also increases operator efficiency through power assistance. Only Toyota offers C.H.P.S. in the 1-3 ton range. HUMAN ENGINEERING Down the road, Toyotas stay as reliable as ever because they're built solid. A standard reinforced Wide Visible mast for both durability and safety is just one example. Toyota's design thinks beyond the machine itself to the operator for more comfort with a lower noise level, assist grips and bucket seat.

THE CHOICE We also take your individual business into account with a wide selection of models, options and attachments to suit you best.

This kind of thinking has made Toyota forklifts the choice of more businesses around the world than any other forklift. Because, if you're thinking ahead, y «tteM., Toyota. 1,000-3,000 kg SERIES PNEUMATIC-TIRED/ENGINE-POWERED TOYOTA i AMERICAN SAMOA: BURNS PHILP (S.S.) CO., LTD. TEL: 633-4281 i AUSTRALIA: THIESS TOYOTA PTY, LTD. TEL; 526-0333 » FIJI: AUTOMOTIVE SUPPLIES CO., A DIVISION OF BURNS PHILP (S.S.) CO., LTD. TEL: 383444 « GUAM: ATKINS, KROLL (GUAM) LTD. TEL: 646-1876 i NEW CALEDONIA: SERVICE IMPORTATION AUTOMOBILE DU PACIFIQUE TEL: 27-41-44 i NEW ZEALAND; ANDREWS & BEAVEN LTD. TEL: 381-400 » PAPUA NEW GUINEA: ELA MOTORS, A DIVISION OF BURNS PHILP (P.N.G.), LTD. TEL; 217036 a VANUATU: VANUATU MOTORS, A DIVISION OF BURNS PHILP (VANUATU) LTD.

TEL: VILA 2341 9 WESTERN SAMOA: BURNS PHILP (S.S.) CO., LTD. TEL: 22611 And distributors around the world.