PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY Australia A 52.50 Cook Islands NZ$3.OO Fiji F 51.75 Hawaii US$2.5O Kiribati A 52.00 Nauru A 52.00 New Caledonia CFP2SO New Zealand NZ$3.OO Niue NZ$2.5O Norfolk Island A 52.00 Papua New Guinea K 2.00 Solomon Islands 552.00 Tahiti CFP3OO Tonga ; P 2.00 Tuvalu A 52,00 USA US$3.OO USTT and Guam US$2.5O Vanuatu VT2.00 Western Samoa T 2.75 * Recommended retail price only NOVEMBER 1988 Fiji’s New Constitution PNG’s Border Clashes t

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* r r % 3 Set in ten acres of tropical gardens, the Islander is located midway between the airport and the city centre, within 5 minutes drive of Central Government Offices, Parliament House and the National Museum.

Facilities include: • 186 deluxe rooms and suites • Direct-dial telephones with computer modems • Colour TV and in-house video Complete secretarial services Conference and banquetting facilities for up to 500 people Travel agency Florist Hire car service • Hairdressing salon • Boutique • News agency Coffee shop Restaurant Cocktail bar Night club 4 glass backed squash courts 2 synthetic grass tennis courts Fully equipped gymnasium Swimming pool Complimentary airport transfers The location is only one reason you will choose the Islander. The luxurious accommodations together with the superb cuisine, whether it be from our Kofi Haus Coffee Shop, from the elegant Sanamarie A ’La Carte restaurant, or from our 24 hour room service, and the professional service from our courteous staff are all reasons why the Islander is Papua New Guinea’s only truly International Hotel.

The Pacific has great hotels... the Islander is the great hotel of the Pacific. m B The Islander Hotel PO Box 1981, Boroko, Telephone: 25 5955, mAmkar r\i fKo H^i/nro * > Papua New Cables Telex NE22288 Guinea Islander

PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY Vol 59 No 11

Voice Of The Pacific

November, ’BB Cover Story i 6 Fiji’s interim government is faced with the difficulties of ‘selling’ a revised constitution that, critics argue, does little to safeguard the interests of all Fijians ... and at the same time ensuring its acceptance in the knowledge that rejection could see the reinstatement of a military government. That course would spell economic hardship: but how is Fiji to enshrine ethnic Fijian supremacy within a democracy? Fiji Times editor Vijendra Kumar looks at Fiji’s draft constitution.

Cover Photograph: Matthew Mckee/Sydney Freelance

Irian Java/Png Border Dispute Worsens 9

An exclusive report on skirmishes that could become a full-scale war NATIONAL POLL COULD RESOLVE PALAU'S COMPACT DEADLOCK 10 How the US elections could provide a long-awaited solution VICTORY OR APARTHEID? NZ DIVIDED OVER FISHING LAW 12 Maori activists claim a win, but some Kiwis fear for their livelihoods

Sope Back In Parliament . . . But For How Long? 14

The rebel MP has returned, but Uni’s Vanua’aku Pati is unconcerned

Why Png'S Defence Force Can'T Fight 15

Well trained but poorly equipped, could it handle conflict?

Power To The People The People Of Kanaky 18

A controversial new Him has caused a stir in Paris and Noumea

Hot And Cold In Islands Elections 21

Some of the USA’s most exciting and dullest polls held this month FUNAFUTI CELEBRATES A DECADE OF SELF-DETERMINATION 22 7 uvaluans gather to acknowledge 10 years of progress

Special Report: Finance, Banking And Insurance 24

High costs, poor returns mean the region’s money markets are slow to grow

Country Hospitality Welcomes Canadians To Fiji 30

A world away from Suva, tradition holds sway in Nasau village

Peace Today, But A Legacy Of War 32

New Georgia Island remembers its battlefield history "HASSLE-FREE" INVESTMENT A PRIORITY FOR RECOVERY 35 Fiji looks to the region for industry and investors

Rapanui: A Century With Chile 43

Easter Island has little reason to celebrate its centenary PACIFIC PEOPLE: TONGA'S CUL-

Tured Crown Prince 48

Heir to the throne Tupouto’a brings a touch of style to Nukualofa

Where The Written Word

REIGNS 49 In the still of the tropical night, Tongans read and write Deputy Editor Carson Creagh Art Director Samantha Foster Editorial Adviser John Carter Contributors Robin Bromby David Haden John Hunter Stuart Inder Vijendra Kumar Rex Matthews Grant McCall Diana McManus David S North Ed Rampelt Phyllis Reeve David Robie Nicolas Rothwell Frank Senge Publisher and Managing Editor Geoffrey Hussey Advertising Sales Sydney & Melbourne Warren Grey (02) 288 3521 Fergus Maclagan (02) 412 3918; Brisbane Robert Walker (07) 3710533 Adelaide - Hastwelt Williamson Representations (08)799522 Cover pnces are recommended retart only Registered toy Australia Post, pubfcation No NBPI2tO Copyright Frj» Times l imited Suva Fiji Departments OPINION 7 PACIFIC REPORT 36 ISLAND PRESS 38 TRADE WINDS 40 TROPICALITIES 46 TRANSITION 50 STAMPS 51 BOOK REVIEWS 52 SHIPPING 53 OUT OF THE PAST 58 5 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988 A Fiji Times Limited Production.

Founded 1930 (USPS 952480} 20 Gor- NBP 1210) is published monthly by Fiji N©Ws t c HOn ot, burry nIHS, NoW £Uiv« FI C L AN^S

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OPINION A Force For Peace A worried world could play its part containing PNG’s deadly border dispute.

AUSTRALIA’S new Foreign Affairs Minister, Senator Gareth Evans, has won delighted support in the region for his recent extended tours of the South Pacific. Though his predecessor Bill Hayden (now Governor-General) was the vehicle of a long-overdue rapprochement between Canberra and the region’s states, his interests were clearly more metropolitan and he was an easy target for Australia’s Opposition for his alleged ‘neglect’ of the country’s Pacific neighbours.

And it is in that context that the Government, in its willingness to be a friend at all, has tripped over its own feet. While Australia donates massive amounts of aid, provides significant foreign exchange through trade and tourism, and cultivates a resources-purchasing relationship with the Republic of Indonesia, it is at the same time attempting to assure Pacific neighbours in particular Papua New Guinea of its unshakeable commitment to their sovereignty.

At the same time as it offers military aid to PNG and rattles its somewhat blunt sabre in the direction of Indonesia’s military aggressiveness, the Australian Government fails to take realistic steps to counter the violence, border incursions and apparently racist-based arrogance that has seen Te PNG/Irian Jaya border become as hazardous to its residents as Viet n’s bloody Demilitarised Zone was in the 1960 s and 19705. It seems more important that Australia can purchase Indonesia’s oil and that Australians can continue to holiday in Bali than it is to be an effective brother to Papua New Guinea.

PNG’s outmoded, undersupplied and poorly equipped Defence Forces, though unquestionably well trained, highly motivated and competent, cannot mount an effective deterrent to Indonesia’s ceaseless violations of the Irian Jaya border, supposedly in search of OPM ‘bandits’. In the best Boy’s Own tradition of the heroic last stand, PNG’s soldiers are facing numerically superior forces that are better supplied, better armed and without compunction; no prizes for guessing which force has the higher number of ‘victories’ to its credit. As senior correspondent Frank Senge points out on Page 9, PNG’s uncomfortable relationship with its populous neighbour has deteriorated into what some observers fear is a desperate attempt to halt provocation designed to provide a casus belli for land- and resource-hungry Indonesia.

There is no doubt that the PNGDF, in anything remotely resembling an equal contest, could give a good account of itself. Its soldiers are hardened by constant training in country that more than any Allied effort was responsible for the defeat of Imperial Japan’s confident, battle-experienced troops. But with obsolete weapons (and without the cash to upgrade immediately), outdated transport (a numerical imbalance in helicopters, for example, of hundreds to one) and the certain knowledge that Australia would dither for as long as possible before throwing its own undermanned forces into the fray in support, PNG has had to resort to ineffectual international forums such as the United Nations to protest the wanton killing of civilians, the deliberate violation of surveyed borders, and a series of ‘raids’ that have as their unstated aim the brutalisation of the civilian population on which the Free Papua Movement depends for its existence.

Liberal supporters of the OPM may coyly refer to ‘West Papua’ and dream of a day of liberation for that scarred territory; but Indonesia has already shown itself more than willing to ignore world opinion.

One possible solution is an adaptation of the proposal first voiced by Sir Julius Chan, repeated by former Defence Minister James Pokasui and recently endorsed by Foreign Minister Michael Somare.

Instead of an unwieldy and limited PNG involvement in UN peacekeeping missions, or indeed in a proposed Pacific peacekeeping force, there is an obvious role for a UN-sponsored Pacific peacekeeping force (including a hefty PNGDF element) in supervising the troubled border. Indonesia may well listen a little more closely to an international force . . . which could also have as part of its duties the control of border incursions into Irian Jaya from Papua New Guinea. Such an action would remove, or at least render open to public scrutiny, the central justification for a hidden war that has seen many hundreds of innocent villagers killed, wounded or terrorised. □ 7 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

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Forum Secretariat

(formerly South Pacific Bureau for Economic Cooperation [SPEC] Applications are invited from citizens of member countries for the following positions within the FORUM SECRETARIAT (formerly the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Co-operation);

Chief Economist

The Nineteenth South Pacific Forum held recently in Tonga gave priority to the continued development of a strong and effective Economic Services Division within the Secretariat to assist Pacific island member countries of the Forum to improve their capabilities in economic analysis and planning A crucial step in this initiative will be the establishment of a new position of Chief Economist to assume responsibility for directing the activities of the expanded Division which, it is envisaged, will eventually comprise a team of five economists.

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced, senior economist to make a substantial contribution to the economic development of the Pacific region.

Applicants should possess a sound, working knowledge of the economies of Pacific Island countries, including an appreciation of the problems of both the subsistence and monetised sectors. They should also possess advanced academic qualifications in economics or a related field, as well as proven abilities to work under pressure, to set priorities among a wide range of options and to manage staff effectively. Familiarity with donor government and agency procedures would be an advantage.

Manager Regional Petroleum Unit

The Regional Petroleum Unit [RPUJ is being createo under tne auspices of the Secretariat to provide specialist assistance to its member governments to improve existing petroleum supply and pricing arrangements on and on-going basis. The RPU will assist in ensuring that the costs of supply and marketing operations, in and between number countries, are minimised. It also aims at harmonizing the relationship between Governments and the oil companies represented in the South Pacific region, and at reducing the dependence of governments on short-term consultancies.

The RPU Manager will be required to direct and supervise the work of the unit and keep the Director of the Secretariat briefed on regional petroleum issues and the activities of the RPU. The manager will plan, direct and participate in studies concerning the supply of petroleum in the South Pacific; advise Member Governments as requested on issues relating to petroleum, particularly in relation to price control and contract negotiations. He/she will also represent the RPU on committees and meetings and maintain liaison with other groups working on petroleum issues in the Pacific The successful applicant will nave tertiary qualifications in engineering, economics. or other suitable qualifications associated with the oil industry. He/she must have at least 10 years experience in the oil industry and/or government positions associated with the oil industry, with particular experience in dealing with issues relating to both government and the oil industry He/she must also have the ability to manage and relate to people from a wide range of backgrounds, have good written and oral communication, and be willing to travel frequently throughout the region.

General Information

These senior level appointments will attract substantial remuneration packages, tax-free for non-Fiji citizens and payable in Fiji dollars, including housing or housing allowances, education and child allowances, superannuation payments and medical, life and travel insurance benefits. The appointees will be based at the Secretariat’s Headquarters in Suva. Fiji, but will be required to undertake extensive duty travel. Appointments would be for two years initially, renewable by mutual agreement.

Applications close on 10 December 1988. As it is intended to make the appointments as soon as possible, the successful applicants must be able to take up the positions shortly afterwards. Applications should contain full information on education and career backgrounds and should list names, addresses and telephone numbers of at least three referees with whom the applicants have been associated in professional capacities.

Applications should be addressed to: The Director Forum Secretariat GPO Box 856 Suva, Fiji Telephone: 312600; Telex: 2229 FJ; Fax; 302204 All enquiries should be made to Mr Rene Wilson, Deputy Director, on 312600 extension 202.

The Place of Culture The West has to learn what the Pacific already knows about the ‘real stuff of life.

PEOPLE of the Pacific know far better than the inheritors of European traditions how much their culture is themselves how it tells them who they are, where they fit into nature and the world. Western society has its stars of musical culture, both classical and rock, but it would not put a comparable effort into sharing the enjoyment of ordinary people of their own life as is regularly mounted in islands communities.

There is a danger, of course, that dances performed as entertainment for tourists even arts that require periodic festivals to maintain them will become remote from the societies that developed them and no longer symbolise those societies. A danger only; it hasn’t happened yet in Fiji, for example.

The tourist taking comfort in the blunt sticks (rather than sharp axes) wielded by dancers would be mistaken to think these are not warrior people.

This was one subject under discussion at the recent conference on Pacific literature at the Commonwealth Institute in London (see Pacific Report), where participants looked at the interaction of writing and politics and noted the “link between political upheavals and literary output”.

A healthy culture has to inform those in politics of what the values of the people really are: a healthy political regime is one where the values of the people are known and respected, even revered, and where politicians are engaged in enabling the fullest possible expression and enjoyment of those values.

Politics is how we make society and culture work. It is ‘the art of the possible’, a phrase hidden behind all too often by the politician seeking to tell people they cannot have what they want. The reason they cannot, say the politicians, is that they cannot afford it: the bottom line is money, and there is never enough of it.

The economic dimension is the basis of the whole social structure the sustaining dimension of life.

The trouble for too many in the West, however, is that money dominates rather than supports life.

The Western mind sees culture as an option, an extra; a form of relaxation from the ‘real stuff of life which is acquisition and control. The people of the Pacific has not yet lost the joy of celebrating who they are. It’s fine to dance or to write a book to let others see something of what you treasure, but it is real life to dance for yourself or write for the people you write about, so they can see themselves and learn to guard their treasures.

The people of the Pacific can hold for the world the true place of culture; to articulate and enhance the values the community’s economic effort should sustain; and that its political effort should enable. □ 8 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988 OPINION

Papua New Guinea

Behind The Border 'War' Frank Senge reports exclusively on PNG’s escalating border conflict.

N OCTOBER 16, 17 and 18 this year a number of Indonesian patrols crossed the border from Irian Jaya into the Papua New Guinea province of West Sepik.

The soldiers established temporary bases 300 metres into PNG. Each patrol, consisting of about 100 men, was searching for the OPM supporters of Max Rumbiak, currently held prisoner in Jayapura.

On October 22 another patrol crossed the border to the PNG border village of New Seram, where they took eight prisoners including a mother, a three-year-old child and another child, fi has been established by PNG intelligence sources that the patrol was commanded by Second Lieutenant Sujari of 431 Battalion, based in Jayapura.

Seven prisoners were released after initial questioning, but a Mr Chris Elias was taken across the border to Skofro where he was questioned about his relationship with OPM rebels and his nationality. He was later taken to the border and released after being held for two days.

The kidnapping of PNG citizens and the incursions, totalling seven this year, have incensed PNG authorities and burnt a hole in the Treaty of Mutual Respect, Friendship and Cooperation recently signed by the two countries. Immediately after the raids PNG authorities held a series of ‘emergency’ National Security Council meetings, and relayed the usual protest notes to Jakarta.

But after the latest incursion, the government is on edge: there is a feeling that the incursions have occurred too often for Indonesian soldiers to have ‘misread’ their maps or for a ‘hot-headed’ junior commander to have defied orders in pursuit of Free Papua Movement fighters.

One official said: “People are losing sleep over this. We are concerned about the three million people of PNG.”

Chairman of the Permanent Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence Benias Sabumei put it aptly: “This time it was hostages; next time there will be dead Papua New Guineans.”

Publicly, Foreign Affairs Minister Michael Somare often referred to among OPM circles as “the silent fighter” proclaimed that PNG and Indonesia were still good friends. “We used to have a good rapport. There’s just those border incursions,” he said.

Privately, he is said to be fuming.

He has every reason to be: information obtained exclusively by Pacific Islands Monthly reveals that there is more to “just those border incursions” than meets the eye ... as Mr Somare is aware. It is apparent now that PNG authorities, particularly in Foreign Affairs and Defence, have indeed been losing sleep and have been withholding information that might alarm the public.

Two men, for example, were killed in PNG in April this year by Indonesian soldiers illegally camped there.

Indonesian troops are openly defying PNG Defence Force requests to move away from PNG, are setting up camp in PNG territory and mounting anti- OPM operations that last for weeks.

The killing occurred during a crossborder raid on April 3. A Mr Hendrikus Tabuni was killed in the raid on Hans Bomai Camp: the following day there was another raid one kilometre into PNG. The Indonesians set up another camp from which many small patrols were carried out inside PNG territory, and in one of these patrols a Mr Elly Jikwa was shot dead and his body left by a riverbank.

Though both men are named, their nationality and whether they are OPM sympathisers or not is being withheld.

PNG Defence Force troops in the area made requests to the Indonesians to withdraw, but their commanding officer ret used until July 24.

PNG officials are convinced the action was not due to any ‘navigational error’, as Indonesian troops were more than aware of the position of their camp in relation to the border maker. Tney are equally sure the action had the full backing of higher military authorities and was not just (as Indonesia has claimed of other illegal border incursions) a matter of a junior officer defying orders.

Officials said this was partly confirmed at a meeting between the PNG and Indonesian Defence Ministers in May. Indonesian officials produced falsified evidence that one border marker was 200 metres into Irian Jaya and accused PNGDF troops of crossing into Irian Jaya.

On July 3, a helicopter carrying 13 armed Indonesian soldiers landed at the village of Irim Kwi in the Western Province, well inside PNG territory.

The patrol also established a camp there, chopping down some local fruit trees in the process.

They were flown back to Irian Jaya on July 8 by helicopter; later that month, during a joint border survey, an Indonesian patrol shot at PNG soldiers at Ingemoit. Again PNG maintains its soldiers were shot at inside their own territory and, while they were under very strict instructions not to shoot, were forced to return fire to force a withdrawal.

PNG has already communicated that it considers the unprovoked attack on its soldiers “a fragrant violation of its territorial sovereignty and an act of aggression that violates and undermines the principles of good neighbourly relations”. Indonesian soldiers involved allegedly did not wear proper uniforms for identity purposes as required under international practice.

Mr Somare raised the matter with some heat in Parliament.

Then there was a series of incursions in October into West Sepik province — about which PNG has protested to Indonesia without success.

After the October incursions Port Moresby dispatched a strong protest to Indonesia, even threatening to boycott the Joint Border Committee meetings in Medan, Sumatra from November 7-9.

Receiving no response — in fact, a denial by Foreign Minister Ali Alatas was reported — PNG went to the meeting regardless, and informed the Indonesians that it would refer any further violations of the common border to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

PNG has also presented a vague threat to both the OPM and the Indonesian military that it would be taking steps to “prevent illegal groups from using its territory as a base from which illegal acts are launched”.

There is growing unease that the spirit of the treaty signed between the two countries is likely to be lost: “It’s setting the pace backwards,” one senior Foreign Affairs official said.

The treaty specifically mentions that Indonesia will not conduct military pursuit of OPM rebels without the knowledge of PNG, and then only on its own side of the border. However, one of the greatest difficulties in that is that the border is one of the least developed areas of the two countries.

There is no line of communication Please turn to Page 16 9 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

The Region

Which Direction for Palau?

Ed Rampell reports on this month’s general elections ON November 2 the Republic of Palau went to the polls to elect a new President, Vice President and National Congress (OEK) despite the fact that allegations of wrongdoing have been raised against half of the presidential contenders.

In the wake of President Lazarus Salii’s death the presidential sweepstakes consists of six men. Minister of Justice and interim President Thomas Remengesau Junior who, as Vice President, took over the remaining four months of the Salii presidency is running for a complete four-year term in office (in Palau, the President and Vice President do not run as a formal team, and then-VP Remengesau had announced his candidacy prior to Salii’s death).

High Chief Ibedul Yutaka Gibbons, who finished a poor third in the 1984 general election, tossed his hat into the ring again in defiance of United States Congress accusations that he accepted a SUS 100,000 bribe from the IPSECO power project.

Ngchesar State Governor Moses Uludong has been accused in court of rape ... by the American attorney he allegedly impregnated. The Palau press has also alleged that the Governor misappropriated public funds, though Uluclong denies the charges.

The former nuclear free and independence advocate now supports Commonwealth status for Palau, which would make the Republic a US territory in perpetuity, but is believed by some Palauan observers of being a ‘spoiler’ with no chance of winning and making use of his candidacy only as leverage for a high appointee! post.

Businessman and Ngatpang State Governor Etpison, a strong advocate of the proposed Compact of Free Association between Palau and the USA, has won the support of the faction that had previously endorsed the late President Salii.

Minister of State John O Ngiraked is another pro-Compact candidate, but perhaps the most interesting presidential aspirant is Airai State Governor Roman Tmetuchl. In the 1980 and 1984 elections, Tmetuchl came in second to late President Haruo Remeliik and, though a strong contender, did not run in the special 1985 election to replace Remeliik because relatives of his had been charged with (and were later convicted of) the president’s Killing. However, according to the American Civil Liberties Union and other bodies, the conviction proved to be a frame-up (allegedly to ensure Tmetuchl did not run in the special election) and the Appellate Division of the Palau Supreme Court exonerated his family members. Now the family has been cleared, the most highly favoured contender against Remeliik is back in the running.

Governor Tmetuchl is being backed by anti-nuclear activists and by the Coalition for Open, Honest and Just Government, which has the support of a number of prominent Palauan leaders including former Vice President Alfonso Oiterong and Senator Isidoro Rudimch. Tmetuchl is more critical of the proposed Compact than any of his opponents, and supports a renegotiation of the treaty as well as US Congressional investigations into violence and corruption in Palau. During his service as Palau’s political status negotiator the Compact was seen as an interim 15-year period of intensive development geared to full Palauan independence; but his successor none other than Lazarus Salii altered the term of the Compact to 50 years, with the USA exercising military options in the strategically located arcnipelago for as long as Washington desired.

Vice Presidential candidates include Compact stalwart Delegate Kazuo Asanuma and Senator Kuniwo Nakamura, who is backed by the Coalition.

Palauans will also be selecting 16 members of the House of Delegates and 14 Senators. In the chief executive race a candidate needs a plurality to win, not a majority of votes cast: thus a new President could be elected with only 18 per cent of the vote.

The outcome of the general election will thus determine the future for this troubled Micronesian territory ... as well as that of Palau’s long deadlocked political status. □ Aloha, Alii Nui Hawaii’s highest-ranking chief dies, aged 71.

By Ed Rampell HAWAII’S highest ranking chief, 71-year-old Helena Salazar Kalokuokamaile Elua, died on September 19, and her successor has been chosen as new leader of Ka Lahui Hawaii, the Hawaiian Sovereign Nation.

Helena was a direct descendant of Queen Kaahumanu and King Kamehameha the Great, who unified the Hawaiian islands in the late 18th century and who became the archipelago’s first monarch. Helena’s lineage also tied her to the rest of Hawaii’s royalty, which ruled until it was deposed in a United States-backed military coup in 1893.

In March last year Ka Lahui held a Constitutional Convention that proclaimed the movement’s charter; according to these framed rules, the Hawaiian Nation’s governmental system would become a sort of constitutional monarchy led by the Alii Nui, who symbolises the Nation as a figurehead with advisory powers concerning cultural and social traditions. The High Chief is also responsible for me appointment of an Alii Council, a Talking Chief . . . and a successor.

Helena Salazar was selected as Ka Lahui’s first Alii Nui, and in turn chose her grandson Noa to succeed her. However, since Noa is only six years old, Helena’s 34-year-old daughter Owana Salazar will act as Kuhma Nui, or Prime Minister, until her son comes of age.

Ka Lahui claims a following of about 2000 members, but this selfproclaimed ‘shadow government’ is not supported by all native Hawaiians: many consider the movement too radical, while Hayden Burgess, of the UN-affiliated World Council of Indigenous Peoples, believes total independence is the path to true Hawaiian sovereignty.

On a more sensible level, Ka Lahui’s Kia Aina, or Governor, attorney Mililani Trask, stresses that Hawaiians “must be realistic, given the fact that Hawaii is a State of the Union”. He points out that the United States has already fought one bloody civil war to suppress secession; and the existence of CINCPAC headquarters, a nuclear arsenal and a vast array of military installations in Hawaii have made the islands so strategically significant it is simply impossible that Washington would even consider restoring the monarchy and abandoning its mid- Pacific outpost. a 10 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

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New Zealand

A Maori Victory... Or Is It?

Controversial fisheries bill hailed as a major victory for Maori aspirations and as apartheid. David Robie reports.

ATE last year, the New Zealand V Government gave eight nego- ■■ tiators a six-month deadline to solve 148 years of Maori grievances over fishing rights. Now the country is embroiled in a bitter debate over what many regard as the most radical move ever made in the history of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, a aocument that promised the Maori people “full, exclusive and undisturbed possession” of their fisheries.

The Maori Fisheries Bill proposes to hand over half of the country’s fishing rights to the Maori people. It is an undeniable victory for Maori aspirations, and for former Maori Affairs Minister Matiu Rata. But critics regard the bill as flawed; leading NZ Maori Council members have condemned the forfeit of Maori rights as apartheid, saying it would inflame racial tension. Others have attacked what has been dubbed an “Idi Amin” clause that prohibits for all time fishing legal challenges under the treaty.

Government officials met Maori negotiators early in October in an effort to avoid court action against the Crown over the bill: 38 tribes had already filed claims involving the entire New Zealand coastline, in an attempt to protect their rights, in the High Court.

While many pakeha who dominate the country’s 3.3 million population are becoming increasingly nervous about land claims under the treaty, and the rise of Maori nationalism, tne major political parties have been unable to respond with clearsighted politics. Even a watered-down version of a national bill of rights has emerged that has dropped the treaty (included in the first draft) and will no longer be entienched as supreme law.

The handing back of 70 hectares of prime harbourside land at Bastion Point, near the affluent Auckland suburb of Mission Bay, to the Ngati Whatua people earlier this year was hailed as a landmark decision by the Waitangi Tribunal. It must be regarded as one of the crucial turning points in Maori land rights issues and claims that now cover nearly three quarters of the country.

Recommendations over Bastion Point were among a series of controversial decisions that have handed back a total of 38 pieces of land, worth SNZBS million, to Maori control since 1978. In one of the largest land claims yet to be heard, the Ngai Tahu tribe is seeking control over at least a third of the South Island. The tribunal was established in 1975 by a former Labour government to review claims under the Treaty of Waitangi, under which Maori chiefs ceded the government of New Zealand to Queen Victoria in return for protection of their traditional land and fisheries rights.

The tribunal had earlier upheld the Muriwhenua tribe’s claim to 5000 square kilometres of fishing waters in the North Island. Praising the ruling, Rata, Minister of Maori Affairs from 1972 to 1975, said at the time: “I believe this generation will be rewarded for the courage to front up to the responsibilities the Treaty of Waitangi demands of us.” Rata is also a tribunal elder and leader of the Mana Motuhake party; the first independent Maori political party in more than half a century and one that has been steadily gaining ground.

While he was minister, Rata initiated the 1970 Waitangi Tribunal Act hardly realising that it would make it possible for him to take the Muriwhenua claim before the tribunal 13 years later. The claim led to an Appeal Court ruling in June 1987 calling on the government to find a way of safeguarding future Maori land claims on Crown Land before it was transferred to state-owned enterprises.

Following an interim tribunal ruling on the Muriwhenua claim, the High Court issued an injunction against the issue of new fishing quotas and the ban was extended to all fisheries in November 1987.

Rata was also one of the four Maori negotiators with Tipene O’Regan, for the Ngai Tahu tribe; Denese Henare, for the Tainui; and the chairman of the Maori Council, Sir Graham Latimer included in the team of eight named to draft an agreement crucial not only to the fishing industry and Maori rights, but to race relations in New Zealand.

Instead, the government stepped in and initiated its own solution m the form of the fisheries bill.

The bill means the Crown will give Maori people 2.5 per cent of fishing quotas about 16,000 tonnes of fish in the coming fishing season. For the next 19 years, Maori tribes would receive 2.5 per cent a year, but only if they had ‘substantially fished’ the previous year’s quota. Eventually Maori tribes would have the potential to control half the country’s commercial fisheries by the year 2008. The government would also give Maori tribes a subsidy of $2 million a year for five years to help them become established in the industry.

However, the big catch for the Maori people is Clause 17, which imposes a 20-year blanket ban on Maori claims before the Waitangi Tribunal; including those that are currently before the tribunal.

Leading Maori Council members have branded the forfeit of Maori rights to fisheries as apartheid. Sir Graham Latimer said Maoridom could not live with such a provision and its inclusion in the bill would split New Zealand. He told the national Sunday Times newspaper that Prime Minister David Lange had said it was an “Idi Amin clause” and Sir Graham had wrongly expected its withdrawal before the bill’s introduction. □ PM David Lange: embarrassment over the bill’s “Idi Amin” clause. 12 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

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VANUATU Sope's Shock Return Rebel politician reinstated ... but for how long? By David Robie DESPITE the scenes of jubilation in Vila by supporters of rebel Vanuatu politician Barak Sope to celebrate his reinstatement to Parliament on October 21, Prime Minister Father Walter Lini’s government is confident it still holds a trump card in the form of coming byelections. Though the Vanuatu Court of Appeal upheld the case of Sope and the rest of the so-called Gang of Five, it rejected reinstatement appeals by 18 sacked members of the opposition Union of Moderate Parties.

Diplomatic sources predict the ruling Vanua’aku Pati could win up to nine seats on December 12 which, added to its current 21 seats, would give it a strong majority. VP sources are even more confident, suggesting the party could win as many as 11 or 12 seats. The party would need an extra 10 seats to give it the 31 needed to change the constitution and provide the means to oust Sope again.

Becoming consolidated as a key figure in the political equation is lawyer Kalkot Mataskelekele, one of the drafters of the party’s own constitution, who is standing as a candidate for Vila. If he wins (as is expected) he would become even more entrenched as a powerbroker through his positions as party chairman, vice-president and an MP. Like Sope, Mataskelekele is from I Lira Island, but he gave crucial party evidence to the Supreme Court hearing that upheld Sope’s ousting from Parliament during the constitutional crisis last July.

As this issue went to press the UMP was in disarray over the by-elections: a letter by ousted Opposition Leader Maxime Carlot to the Lini Government calling for a general election was rejected, and though Carlot and key supporters talked of a boycott, others opposed such a move and the party appeared headed for a split. Even Carlot’s brother Anders, an MP for Efate Rural, was unsympathetic while another MP, Willie Jimmy, warned he would stand as an independent if a boycott went ahead.

Sope and the four dissident exgovernment MPs William Edgell, Charles Godden, Anatole Lingtamat and Jimmy Simon were sacked from Parliament after they attempted to press a no-confidence motion in the leadership of Father Lini.

However, on October 21 the three judge Court of Appeal, presided over by Chief Justice Cooke along with judges from Papua New Guinea and Tonga, found that the VP’s ‘rule of conduct’ barring no-confidence motions by fellow party members was unconstitutional. The court also ruled that a section of the parliamentary 1983 Vacation of Seats Act, which insists on continuous political party membership for MPs, breached the freedom of speech clauses of the constitution and was thus invalid.

The court victory, coming on the heels of Sope’s formation of his new Melanesian Progressive Pati and a controversial meeting with Fiji’s Major- General Sitiveni Rabuka, gave his supporters a major morale boost. Sope had been blamed by the government for the Vila riots of May 16, which erupted after a land rights protest, and caused damage totalling more than SA2 million and one death. He was later sacked as Tourism and Transport Minister and stripped of the powerful post of party secretarygeneral he had held since 1974. □ TUVALU Invasion, American Style A bizarre aid effort bewilders island recipients THE far-flung atolls of Tuvalu (population 8500) were invaded by the United States in August l°r the first time since World War 11.

Ihe mam island of this resourcepoor nation, which recently celebrated a decade of independence, for several days resembled an army camp.

The US landing ship Arnold C Clinger sailed 3000 kilometres from Hawaii with a cargo of 10 25-tonne trucks, two 90,000 litre water tankers, a mobile crane, three jeeps, three portable generators, a satellite communications truck and 27 crew. A Hercules transport plane with 30 US soldiers followed e purpose of the exercise. The installation of eight water tanks.

Soon after the arrival of the Hercules, the Stars and Stripes was seen rising above the women’s jail adjacent to the airport used to house the troops. A field hospital was erected and soon proved useful: three soldiers assembling the water tanks were admitted for dehydration.

Eight 13,000-litre prefabricated steel tanks were soon put together before the aghast Tuvaluans: steel tanks are rarely used in the Pacific, because rust never gives them more than three years’ life . . . and that the tanks were bolted together using rubber washers presented yet another hitch. Tuvalu is home to the rubber-eating ‘knicker’ beetle, so called because it eats the elastic out of people’s knickers.

The whole operation is estimated to have cost around SAI million; Seventh Day Adventists recently installed 30 15,000-litre cement tanks in Tuvalu at a total cost of $27,000.

Irate Tuvalu officials were voicing concern to the Americans, tensions that spilled over into the handing over ceremony held in the country’s main maneaba, an open air meeting house.

Attending the gathering were six Tuvaluans including two senior ministers and their wives, a handful of tourists and aid workers, 30 military personnel, Suva-based US diplomat Bob Benzinga, and chief of the army’s international military affairs division in Hawaii, Colonel Sam Hemmings.

In an ad-libbed speech Benzinga reflected Tuvalu concerns by saying the tanks were not the greatest part of the exercise the important part was that the army was able to show it could transport itself and its equipment all that distance.

Our correspondent later overheard Hemmings, a soft-spoken man with a penchant for playing a Korean flute, discussing the exercise with some of his men in the bar of the tiny country’s only hotel.

“I’ve just been reading about the war. You don’t know how close this is to a real live operation,”

Hemmings said. □

Papua New Guinea

Keeping The Peace Frank Senge examines proposals for the PNGDF to serve in the Middle East PESTERED by continuing rumours of coups and at the same time accused of doing nothing, the Papua New Guinea Defence Force is preparing to defuse both sources of discord by sending troops on United Nations peacekeeping missions abroad. UN General Secretary Mr Perez de Cuellar is reportedly “most pleased” by PNG’s interest, and the PNG Defence Council has already endorsed the concept as do Prime Minister Rabbie Namaliu and Foreign Minister Michael Somare.

Only Cabinet and Parliament have yet to approve the decision (PNG’s constitution requires that Parliament formally endorse any involvement of PNG troops overseas), but does the force have the capacity to honour the political initiative?

Many believe it is unready, and blame that situation on past political decisions. Following rumours of a coup in 1977 and again in 1982, the government put in place a manpower ceiling of 3000 personnel and cut budget allocations to the PNGDF.

As a result, many servicemen were retrenched and the force stagnated: a review undertaken last year revealed that morale had deteriorated, the force was under-equipped and salaries and conditions haa not improved since Independence in 1975.

Soldiers’ pay had fallen behind the rest of the workforce by as much as 70 per cent: the military average was below K5O a week and personnel had only managed to survive through subsidised food and housing and other allowances. The review also stated in no uncertain terms that the force is in real need of more recruits, more equipment and more training.

Wnen the Wingti Government took office in 1987 Defence Minister James Pokasui himself a former PNGDF captain immediately moved to increase the manpower ceiling to 5000plus and initiated a review of salaries and conditions. He also set up an investigation into re-equippmg the force. Soldiers were granted an immediate across-the-board Kl 7 a week pay increase and negotiations were instituted with PNG’s neighbours for the supply of uniforms and equipment. At the same time, reali : ng the danger of maintaining an idle army in peacetime (and on still severely limited resources), Mr Pokasui suggested PNG troops be deployed in answer to international obligations, to “relieve frustration and complacency within the organisation”. (His submission to Cabinet had not been debated, however, when Mr Wingti was ousted by Rabbie Namaliu in July this year.) In September 1987 Mr Pokasui asked the Defence Force commander and Secretary for advice to the government on the implications of engaging in peacekeeping activities. A representation was made to Mr Perez de Cuellar, who accepted the initiative but because of budget constraints asked PNG to wait until its assistance was requested. PNG’s ambassador to the United States, Renagi Lohia, then proposed that in the interim PNG should request help from Fiji, the only small Pacific nation that has a military presence in the Middle East.

Under proposals endorsed earlier this year by the Defence Council, there was to have been an exchange of senior officers between PNG’s and Fiji’s respective defence forces: three commissioned officers from PNG would be attached to the Fijian battalion in the Middle East for six months, and at the same time PNG would request senior Fijian officers with experience in UN missions to be attached to the PNGDF to assist in the latter’s training.

While the PNGDF is awaiting a reply to its Fijian exchange proposal, Mr Namaliu has said that he sees no problems with involving PNG troops in keeping the peace, except for scarce resources. He said PNG was a member of the United Nations and as such was required to meet its international obligations and responsibilities.

Meanwhile, deputy Opposition leader Sir Julius Chan is maintaining his long-held view that PNG should first help establish a Pacific peacekeeping force. As Prime Minister in 1980, Sir Julius involved PNGDF troops for the first time in an overseas conflict when he dispatched them to help quell the Santo rebellion in Vanuatu. Since then he has repeatedly called for a regional peacekeeping force at forums in Australia and PNG: his comment on the proposal to engage PNG soldiers in UN peacekeeping missions was: “You cannot save the world if you just cannot save yourself.” □ Above: Low pay and obsolete equipment resulted in low morale. Left: Proposal author, former Defence Minister James Pokasui. 15 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

Continued from Page 9 or effective means of transportation over land; no clear line delineates the border and there are only 13 cement markets set at intervals across the almost 300-kilometre-long border.

Traditional landowners have gardens and homes on each side of the border: Papua New Guineans who live on the border speak fluent Bahasa Indonesia, harbour OPM fighters and make shopping trips into Jayapura where goods are cheap (this is quite legal, as they have border crossing passes authorised and recognised by the two governments).

Throughout the border region people are shifting their nationality at will whenever the situation suits them, simply for economic gain. If there is a project in PNG, those in Indonesia cross over: Papua New Guineans do likewise when there are jobs offering on the other side.

Already about 140 Papua New Guinean citizens are border-crossers in the Indonesian district of Waris. PNG is negotiating for their return. But in the midst of this confusing situation some 600 fully fledged OPM fighters operate, irritating both governments.

PNG wants to protest to the OPM, too, but has nobody on whom to serve the protest and even less chance of it having any effect.

In the meantime, Foreign Relations and Defence Committee Chairman Sabumei has warned that: “The very existence of OPM has now become a serious threat to the lives of our Papua New Guinea citizens, and the government must accept that reality and do what it can to solve the problem once and for all.”

Apart from protests, negotiations and development of the border, PNG can do little to stem border crossings for the present. It is caught in a dilemma if it allows the situation to continue, it might come to “dead Papua New Guineans” mistaken by Indonesian forces for OPM fighters. If it reacts militarily, it could be dragging itself (and po sibly Australia) into a conflict with global consequences.

If PNG were to combine forces with Indonesia to wipe out the OPM thorn in both their sides, they risk the wrath of world humanitarian organisations and more importantly that of the Melanesian people . . . the greatest number of whom are PNG citizens.

However there is a nagging thought in the back of PNG’s leaders’ minds that the incursions are orchestrated with the aim of irritating PNG into doing something rash. It is a dilemma any PNG government would avoid at all costs, but one the present government is finding itself increasingly pressured to face head on. □ FIJI Radical New Charter For Fiji Fiji Tunes editor Vijendra Kumar dissects Fiji’s draft Constitution a document that has already attracted controversy.

ANEW Constitution that gives ethnic Fijians political supremacy appears certain to be promulgated by presidential decree within the next two or three months.

The deposed National Federation Party-Labour Coalition has rejected outright the draft constitution the interim government published in early October: Coalition leader Dr Timoci Bavadra has described it as discriminatory, not only against the Indian community but also against certain sections of the Fijian population.

The proposed constitution creates a unicameral chamber of 67 to 71 members. Of these, 36 will be Fijians 28 elected by the 14 Fijian provinces and eight nominated by the Great Council of Chiefs. One of the eight nominees will have to be the commander for the armed forces: it is assumed this is to ensure that the army chief not only has a seat in Parliament but continues to hold the Home Affairs portfolio, presently held by Major-General Sitiveni Rabuka. Indians will have 22 seats, Rotumans one and ‘general electors’ (Europeans, Chinese and other minority groups) eight.

In addition, the Prime Minister will have the right to nominate four more, from one or more ethnic communities, to his cabinet; those nominated will also become full members of the House.

All voting will be strictly on communal rolls: that is, each ethnic group will elect its own representatives. This represents a departure from the abrogated 1970 Constitution, which allowed almost half the seats to be contested on cross-racial voting in what were known as national constituencies. People of all races had the right to vote for members from different communities in these constituencies.

From colonial days, the Fijian population has been divided into 14 provinces for administrative purposes.

Each province has its own local council. Now the 14 provinces will become Fijian constituencies as well: except for three provinces, all others will elect two members each to the new parliament. The largest province of Ba will elect four and the two smallest Namosi and Serua one each.

It is not yet clear how the provinces will vote. People from different provinces are scattered all over the country; will they be able to vote for provincial candidates where they now live, or will they have to return to their ‘home’ provinces. Electoral regulations still to be drawn up will, it is hoped, clarify the procedure.

Some Fijian people have expressed reservations about provincial constituencies. Many Fijians, while they have a natural interest in the welfare of their home areas, will have no representatives of their own for their present place of domicile. However, most Fijians have expressed support for the draft constitution because it meets the objectives of last year’s military coups ensuring Fijian paramountcy m Parliament.

Opposition has come largely from Indians, who say the draft constitution reduces them to virtual second-class citizens. It takes away the equality granted them in the 1970 constitution Handed down by the departing British colonial rulers.

The 104-page draft retains large sections of the 1970 constitution that deal with such matters as the Judicature, the Ombudsman, finance and miscellaneous administrative details.

But there are several new features besides the changes in the composition and structure of the parliament.

There is a new chapter on Fijian and Rotuman interests that provides for the protection and enhancement of the interests and rights of those groups. It says it shall be the responsibility of Parliament and government to “promote and safeguard the interests and aspirations” of these two communities so their cultures, traditions, social, educational and economic well-being are catered for.

The draft retains an independent Judiciary but creates special Fijian courts which existed under the Colonial Government, albeit with limited powers to deal with lawlessness and petty offences in Fijian villages. There 16 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

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WELCOME are only two sentences dealing with the Fijian courts, and they say in effect that Parliament will create them, prescribe their jurisdiction and powers and also determine the qualifications and tenure of their presiding officers.

Among emergency powers given to the President is the power to issue a proclamation of emergency if a situation arises considered prejudicial to the security of Fiji. Parliament will have to be summoned as soon as possible to promulgate special laws to meet the emergency. The draft retains the office of the Leader of Opposition, but the provision in the old constitution requiring consultation with the Opposition on several matters of bipartisan interests has been removed.

In short, there may not be much discussion or consultation between the Government and the Opposition.

To prevent any kind of action against the military or other disciplined forces involved in the coups last year, the proposed constitution incorporates immunity for them from either criminal or civil prosecution.

Neither can anyone claim compensation from the state for any injury or damage to person or property caused during the violent events of last year.

Indians are concerned about what they perceive as the loss of secularism that formed the basis of the old constitution. The new constitution says Fiji shall be a sovereign republic and shall uphold the “teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ”. Though the Bill of Rights in the draft guarantees religious freedom, Fiji’s Indians see an apparent contradiction between these guarantees and the founding principles of the republic.

The charter on fundamental rights and freedom of the individual is essentially the same as in the 1970 constitution, and the interim government has chosen this as its major selling point for the new charter.

The draft is presently before an advisory committee that has been asked to review it and to receive submissions from the public. But recent statements by both Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara and coup leader Major-General Sitiveni Rabuka have made it clear few major changes, will be entertained. Both have said a rejection could see the army taking over government once again.

Hidden in the draft is probably the target date for the promulgation of the constitution. December 5, 1988 is the likely date, since a clause in the draft says all laws in force on that day shall become laws of the country under the new constitution.

After the advisory committee has made its recommendations the draft will go before the Great Council of Chiefs. Once it has given its seal of approval the President, Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau, will publish a decree giving effect to the constitution which will clear the way for elections some time next year. □

First Draft Fiji Constitution As

Agreed To By The Cabinet

Committee On The Constitution

PREAMBLE WHEREAS the people of Fiji have expressed their desire to have a new Constitution for the advancement of their beliefs, rights and freedoms to replace the Constitution under which they attained Independence on 10th October 1970: AND WHEREAS they freely accept that it is desirous that the constitution of 1970 be replaced so that the will of the people may be truly set forth and their hopes, aspirations and goals be achieved and thereby enshrined: AND WHEREAS they re-affirm that the nation is founded upon principles that acknowledge the Deity and the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ, the importance and place of the family in a free society with free institutions and unalterable and unalienable belief and faith in the fundamental rights and freedoms with which all brethren in the fellowship of men are possessed.

AND WHEREAS they re-con firm that Fiji is a democratic society in which all peoples may to the full extent of their capacity play some part in the institutions of the national life and thereby develop and maintain due deference and respect for each other and the rule of law: AND WHEREAS they re-affirm that the indigenous people of Fiji are endowed with their lands and the right to govern themselves for their advancement and welfare: AND WHEREAS they re-assert their recognition that the indigenous people of Fiji in respecting the rights of their brethren to live in harmony are entitled to due deference to their customs and traditional way of life.

AND WHEREAS they reiterate their recognition that people and institutions remain free only when and for so long as freedom is founded upon respect for the spiritual and moral values of each other and a mutual observance of the rule of law . . . 17 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

New Caledonia

Conflict and Courage A New Zealand film about the ‘Che Guevara of the Pacific’ and Kanak culture is causing a stir. By David Robie WHEN Wellington filmmaker Kathy Dudding set out three years ago to make a documentary recording the Kanak struggle for independence, she expected problems with French authorities. Fortunately, she completed her filming just three weeks before the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior ; and she and her crew encountered surprisingly little trouble.

But since her film, Kanaky Au Pouvoir (Power to the Kanak People) was completed it has been a different story. She has already become embroiled in controversy in Townsville, Queensland, where French journalists covering the Pacific Festival of Arts in August tried to prevent the documentary being shown.

They failed and it went ahead as scheduled, though the documentary is more likely to oe shown on foreign television screens before it is broadcast in Australia or New Zealand. A West German distributor is negotiating for world rights and other foreign film companies are interested. It was shown at the International Short Film and Video Festival in France in September and caused a stir.

Though lack of finance delayed the completion of Kanaky Au Pouvoir, it has been produced with a brutally topical message: it begins and ends with the Ouvea massacre in May, when 19 Kanak militants were killed by French troops in a tragic political blunder. “One friend cried when she saw it at the Wellington Film Festival, “Dudding says. “There is a lot of death in the film, and it shows people are dying because of asking for those rights to which every human being should be entitled.”

The life and assassination of Kanak leader Eloi Machoro, who has been dubbed ‘the Che Guevara of the South Pacific’, figures strongly in the documentary. His brother Louis describes in an interview how Eloi was shot by French paramilitary sharpshooters on 12 January 1985.

“It shows the history of colonialism in Kanaky,” Budding says. “Chief Atai was murdered in 1878, just like Machoro. As the Kanak says: Atai and Machoro: it is the same fight’.”

But the film is far from a gruesome record of violent conflict in New Caledonia. Rather it is, in Budding’s words, a “tribute to the courage and commitment of the Kanak people” to take control of their own political, economic and social future: “What really impressed me was the strength of the people, of how they were prepared to pay such a price for their freedom.”

Which brings Budding back to the source of her inspiration for the film Susanna Ounei, a Kanak activist from the island of Ouvea who is now married to David Small, a former education officer of the aid agency Corso (New Zealand’s equivalent of “People are dying because of asking for rights to which every human being should be entitled” the Australian Council for Overseas Aid). She met Ounei when the Kanak insurrection was in the news early in 1985, and the former publisher of the Kanak newspaper Bwenando provides an important link for much of the history portrayed in the film, including the ‘events’ on Ouvea and Socialist Prime Minister Michel Rocard’s peace plan for the territory.

“Meeting Susanna at an anti-racism demonstration in Wellington and chatting to her, I was impressed by her personal courage and commitment to the struggle,” Budding says. “I’d heard about a low-budget tape being produced for Susanna, which had apparently not been finished. I rang Corso about it but it had been lost. We talked about completing something with the use of slides. But I asked, ‘Why don’t you get live footage?’”

Budding met cameraman John Kirk, they put forward a proposal for making a film and Television New Zealand showed an interest. “The idea snowballed, quickly the film gained a life of its own we had to run to catch up with it.”

Eventually a large slice of the $NZ32,000 budget was negotiated through TVNZ, the Film Commission’s short film development fund, the National Council of Churches, QEII Arts Council, Corso and the Catholic Commission for Evangelisation, Justice and Development. (Postproduction funding also came from the Film Commission.) Budding, Kirk and interpreter Patricia Maunier flew to Noumea early in June 1985. A senior official of the FLNKS political bureau met the crew and they were driven to Houailou, a Kanak independence stronghold on the east coast; they were considered safer in the country than in the ‘white’ city of Noumea, where anti-Kanak feelings were running high.

Equipped with three cameras and 100 rolls of film, the crew filmed almost in secret and gained such privileged access to the Kanak villages and political activities that it was soon the envy of French journalists trying to cover events.

Though they kept a low public profile, the filmmakers had a tense moment while trying to film the nuclear killer-submarine Rubis, which was at the centre of the Rainbow Warrior affair over its reported role in plucking three secret service agents off the yacht Ouvea before scuttling it.

Budding’s crew also filmed classes at one of the first ‘people’s schools’ set up to give a Kanak education in defiance of the closed French education system. Kanak villagers farming and a co-operative were also filmed.

The biggest frustration for Budding has been to get the film completed.

She has laboured on a construction site, helped build the set for a children’s television series and done odd jobs to tide her over while fundraising to complete the film.

The value of the film, however, derives mainly from its portrayal of the ordinary lives of the Kanak villagers, their culture, their bond with the land and their hardships. □ 18 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

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United States

Polls Run Hot and Cool Tensions . . . and yawns ... as US islanders vote.

By David S North THREE of the hottest election contests under the United States flag took place this month in the Pacific ... as well, it must be said, as a couple of the dullest.

Tnere were tight races for seats in the US House of Representatives in American Samoa, Guam and in Honolulu, plus a collection of other races in those places. Here is how they shaped up at time of going to press.

Sitting Congresswoman Patricia F.

Saiki, a lonesome Republician in heavily Democratic Hawaii, faced a tough fight against former East-West Center executive Mary Bitterman, the Democratic candidate. A haole Caucasian Ms Bitterman had run the Centre’s communications program for years, and had served as a member of the State Cabinet. Ms Saiki, a Japanese American and the first ever Republican to serve as a voting member of the US House from Hawaii, had defeated a Democrat of Samoan ancestry two years ago in a close battle for an open seat.

The other races in Hawaii were dull. Senator Spark Matsunaga, a 72year-old Japanese-American Democrat, took the primary earlier in the year by 87 per cent and won six years earlier with 82 per cent of the vote.

His nominal opponent, a Republican rancher from Molikai, is 70-year-old Maria Hustace.

Congressman Dan Akaka, a Democrat whose district includes Honolulu’s suburbs and the outer islands, did not even have a Republican opponent. His third party foe is the libertarian candidate, Lloyd Malian. Malian is known to the Hawaii press for two reasons: no newspaper has a photo of him in its files, and he claims that he is a writer living underground in Puna while he investigates the hippy community on the Big Island.

There were state legislative elections as well, but the Democratic stranglehold was not threatened. The principal Republican problem was to prevent the handful of sitting Republicans bolting to the Democrats: Virginia Isbell, a member of the lower house, made the switch this spring and the Republicans could not find anyone to run against her on the conservative west side of the Big Island.

Hawaii’s Democratic Governor, John Waihee, the first native Hawaiian to hold the post, is not up for a reelection this year.

In Guam a surprisingly tough race faced incumbent Congressman Ben Blaz, a Republican and former Marine Corps general. Somewhat formal in his approach, Blaz ran against the more casual but feisty Ben Pangelinan, onetime aide to former Democratic Governor Ricardo Bordallo and more recently a health administrator.

Blaz has now served in the House for two terms, and had an easy win two years ago.

Pangelinan gave Blaz a rough time for allegedly missing 20 of 21 important votes in Congressional committee meetings. (The island delegates can vote in committee and in party caucuses, but not on the floor of the House of Representatives). Pangelinan mounted a vigorous campaign, including biting political cartoons, and benefited from an endorsement from the dean of the Pacific delegation, Hawaii Democrat Senator Daniel Inouye who, by the way, has said he will be a candidate for tne powerful and soonto-be-vacant position of Democratic leader of the US Senate.

Bordallo, despite his troubles in the courts (see PIM , October), appeared to be making a comeback and ms allies may gain control of the Guam Senate, the one legislative body on the island; the Democrats had 12 seats to the Republican’s eight as the election opened. The two ranking senate candidates in the September Democratic primary were Bordallo’s wife Madeline and his former Lieutenant Governor, Eddie Reyes. Both were expected to be elected easily. The sitting Guam Governor, Republican Joe Ada, has two more years to his term.

The race for the 21-member Senate was considerably enlivened when the taxpaid phone bills of the members were printed by the Pacific Daily News . These showed that Republican leader of the Senate, Marilyn Manibusan (see PIM September 1986) had run up more than $12,000 in phone calls, mostly in Blaz’s office in Washington. The Senator with the next most expensive bill was the Speaker, Democrat Frank Gutierrez, who had a $ 10,000-plus bill.

The Governorship of American Samoa was very much on the line as incumbent Democrat Governor A P Lutali and former Governor Peter Tali Coleman fought it out for a fouryear term. Both houses of the Fono, the island legislature, were also up for grabs but in American Samoa unlike Guam and Hawaii party labels are not used in legislative races. The greatest suspense in the Pacific races were over who would succeed Fofo Sunia as the island’s Congressman in Washington. Seeking the seat were Lieutenant Governor Eni Hunkin, Coleman’s former Lieutenant Governor Tufele Li’a and Territorial Public Defender Soli Augmoeualago (who twice lost to Sunia) as well as several lesser candidates. Given the size of the field, and the fact that American Samoa (unusually for US elections) requires an absolute majority in this contest, the chances were that the two ranking candidates would go into a second election, called a ‘runoff, in late November.

As for the presidential race, neither George Bush (shot down in the Pacific during World War II) nor Michael Dukakis, paid much attention to the area: Hawaii was regarded as one of the few states likely to vote Democratic, and both Guam and American Samoa are excluded from presidential elections. □ Sunia Goes To Slammer FOFO Sunia, until recently American Samoa’s delegate to the United States House of Representatives, is on the way to jail.

Sunia, who pleadea guilty to misusing Congressional funds (see PIM October) and resigned his seat, was sentenced to five to fifteen months in prison by a federal judge in Washington DC. His longtime administrative assistant, Matthew luli, drew three months.

Both paid steep civil fines as well $U565,000 m Sunia’s case.

The United States has sent half a dozen Congressrpen and one Senator to jail in the past decade; the government often (if not routinely) takes a tough stand against corruption.

The American Samoa delegate’s offices remain open in Pago Pago and Washington, with Mrs Hana F Atuatasi as acting administrator (by appointment of the Clerk of the House of Representatives); she had been the disgraced congressman’s office manager. It is expected Sunia’s successor will take over in January. 21 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

TUVALU Funafuti Celebrates Diana McManus reports on Tuvalu’s 10th anniversary of Independence TUVALUANS throughout the Pacific celebrated their country’s 10th anniversary of independence in October, but nowhere were the celebrations more joyous than in Tuvalu’s capital of Funafuti.

Formerly part of Britain’s colonial empire, Tuvalu was known as the Ellice Islands and constituted part of the Gilbert and Ellice group. On October 1 1975, the Ellice Islands separated from the Gilberts and exactly three years later achieved their independence from Britain. Tuvalu has remained within the Commonwealth as an independent sovereign state.

The tiny, isolated nation is made up of nine widely dispersed islands, with only about 24 square kilometres of land in total, approximately 8500 people and few natural resources. A decade of political independence is a landmark for those involved in the pursuit of self-determination and selfsufficiency for Tuvalu. The establishment of a TATI (Tenth Anniversary of Tuvaluan Independence) Committee earlier this year, to raise funds as well as national consciousness and pride, was the first of a long list of preparations for this important event.

Raffles, lotteries and auction sales were conducted by the Committee as well as management of donations from well-wishers at home and abroad. As well, all of the island communities were busy within their own social frameworks organising contributions to the celebrations: during the month prior to the festivities Funafuti was engaged in a massive program of beautification, with public buildings receiving coats of paint and longawaited extensions and renovations, as well as new flower beds and fences.

On a more personal scale, householders tidied up their gardens, completed outstanding building projects and penned in pigs and chickens. Outer islanders were ferried to the capital thanks to the timely arrival of the Nivaga 11, Britain’s anniversary aid gift to Tuvalu.

Official guests began arriving from September 28 on additional flights scheduled by Fiji Air, the Royal New Zealand Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force. Guests included His Excellency leremia Tabai, President of Kiribati and his wife, Australian Minister of Consumer Affairs Senator Nick Bolkus, New Zealand Minister of Employment Phil Goff and his wife, Fijian Minister for Forests Ratu Sir Josaia Tavaiqia and Sir Gaven Donne, Chief Justice of Tuvalu.

They were met on arrival by Tuvaluan Prime Minister Tomasi Puapua and his wife Riana, and welcomed by cabinet ministers and local dignitaries in traditional style at the Vaiaku maneaba. Around 300 guests attended a buffet luncheon on Friday in the lagoonside garden of the Vaiaku Lagi Hotel, hosted by Deputy Prime Minister Kitiseni Lopati and his wife. A buffet dinner on Friday night at Tuvalu House, hosted by the Prime Minister and his wife, completed a well organised and entertaining day.

The main celebrations began on Independence Day, Saturday October 1, with an impressive parade of island communities, the police force and community organisations, to the accompaniment of the Tuvalu Brass Band. The Tuvalu flag was raised and speeches made by the Prime Minister and the Governor-General, His Excellency Sir Tupua Leupena. A dedication service by Pastor Samuelu followed, then a traditional gift-giving ceremony, Te Alofa.

The morning concluded with the drawing of the major TATI raffle, First prize, a magnificent canoe donated oy the Government of Kiribati, was won by young Wicky Aifeu from Nukulaelae. This generous donation by Kiribati is evidence of the continuing goodwill between the two countries, despite the decision to become separate political entities.

Displays of important island events and creations were held at both the Vaiaku maneaba and the Women’s Handicraft Centre; these included photographs of the Queen’s visit in 1982, an array of Tuvaluan stamps courtesy of the Philatelic Bureau and a wide variety of locally made goods.

After lunch a crowd of enthusiastic onlookers lined the banks of the lagoon to watch Tuvalu’s young men and women paddle vigorously and sometimes erratically in separate events. The Nui community took the men’s competition, but it was the women who provided the most entertainment as the Nui canoe, which was leading, capsized 100 metres from the finish line and Nanumeans in their shark-faced canoe snatched the lead and won the race.

After the aquatic revelry a parachute jump was made on to Funafuti airstrip’s grassed runaway by an Australian air crew: full credit went to the parachutist who descended with the Tuvalu flag billowing out behind him. The runway was then cleared for traditional sports; highlight of the afternoon was the inter-island Soccer Grand Final won by Funafuti in a narrow victory over Nukulaelae.

Saturday night found most people enjoying feasts and fateles (traditional dances) at the community maneabas, including official guests who were en- 22 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

tertained at the Vaiaku maneaba after cocktails at Government House. More subdued forms of celebration took place on Sunday, beginning with an anniversary church service at the Fetuao-Lima Church, followed by traditional feasts and an island choir exhibition in the evening.

Monday’s public holiday was characterised by sports events organised by TASA (Tuvalu Amateur Snorts Association) and the drawing of the TATI lottery, worth SAIOOO. The major sporting event of the day was the open class yachting regatta on the lagoon. Local bank manager Mark Hitchinson and his New Zealand crew took line honours for the coveted Independence Day Coconut Cup in his catamaran No Worries.

A peak of community involvement was reached on Monday night at the island communities’ fatele exhibition: brilliant colours, well orchestrated harmonies and highly practised choreography saw the public thrilled by the skills of dancers and singers.

By Tuesday Tuvalu’s official guests were on their way home, Funafuti was quiet once more and locals were left to reflect on the nation’s achievements during its first decade. During those years a number of impressive changes nave taken place, thanks to local initiative and help from abroad with project planning and funding. To begin, a constitution had to be developed and government infrastructure put in place. A parliamentary system now operates based on the Westminster model, with universal adult suffrage, elections and Cabinet. Elected Island Councils represent the central government and individual island communities have also retained a traditional decision-making system.

A recent review of the Tuvalu Civil Service by lan Mackinson, a British government analyst, has revealed that “considering the difficult birth pangs of the Civil Service, the geographical disposition of the environment and the range of essential functions needed, the overall picture is indeed encouraging”. Encouraging also is the increasing involvement of Tuvalu in regional affairs. Tuvalu hosted the 15th South Pacific Forum in 1984; it is a member of the Forum Fisheries Agency and in 1987 joined other South Pacific countries in signing a major regional fisheries treaty with the United States of America. Tuvalu is also a member of the South Pacific Commission, the former South Pacific Bureau of Economic Co-operation and a number of groups committed to enhancing the Pacific’s future prospects.

In 1985 and 1988 dancers, singers and supporters represented Tuvalu at Pacific Arts Festivals held in French Polynesia and Australia.

Other major achievements have taken place in the economic and social life of the nation: financial institutions have improved their services, with Westpac signing an agreement with the Government of Tuvalu in August 1985 to become a partner in the National Bank of Tuvalu. The Business Development Advisory Bureau (BUDAB) has encouraged business with long-term low interest loans, and one of the most important steps forward in the pursuit of financial selfsufficiency and investment experience for the nation has been the establishment of the Trust Fund, made possible by several donor countries.

Many business concerns have evolved over the past 10 years. Private ventures such as Su’s Restaurant, Happy Face clothing manufacturers and retailers, Homasi’s Transport Company, several construction companies, small shops and bakeries and chicken farms are now thriving. There are cooperatives involved in activities such as importing and retailing, honey production, sale of copra and coconut products, vegetable production and the making and marketing of local handicrafts. Two successful government corporations exist in the form of National Fishing Corporation of Tuvalu (NAFICOT), which currently operates a pole and line tuna vessel in the Solomons and Boat Development Industries of Tuvalu (EDIT). The Vaiaku Lagi Hotel is also a successful government-owned business, though the major overseas income earner foi the nation continues to be the government’s Philatelic Bureau.

Communications have witnessed major steps forward since 1978. Construction of the deep-sea wharf at Funafuti has facilitated access to large ocean-going vessels, and the island group is now serviced by a container ship from Australia three or four times a year. Naval vessels, too, have been able to enter port, and goodwill visits by the Australian and French navies were recent forerunners of the TATI celebrations. Development projects on the outer islands have been accelerated by Save The Children Foundation’s gift of a 15-metre catamaran, Te Kaaleva , which operates in conjunction with the larger interisland vessel Nivaga 11 . There is a regular plane service to Suva three times a week, and to Kiribati once a week.

Telephones were installed on Funafuti in 1984 and a satellite earth station is to be constructed next year; there is radio contact between all islands and Radio Tuvalu broadcasts daily.

The standard of living has been greatly enhanced since Independence.

Healtn services have expanded and the Princess Margaret Hospital in Funafuti, opened in 1978, boasts five local doctors in addition to a UNappointed surgeon and two local dentists. A program to build new dispensaries on all islands in Tuvalu was begun in 1985, the same year a National Family Planning program was launched. The mosquito eradication scheme has also created much healthier conditions on some islands.

Education is expanding; there are 13 preschools on Funafuti alone, though the Olave kindergarten run by the Girl Guides is the only one registered at present. Each island now has its own primary school and the Tuvalu Government has taken over Motufoa Secondary School on Vaitupu from the church.

A new University of the South Pacific centre was opened just this year, and the Tuvalu Maritime School trains young men to work as seamen for foreign shipping companies. Community education programs via radio, workshops and in-service training are also on the increase and the government is creating more scholarships and opportunities for young men and women to study abroad.

As the Governor-General, His Excellency Sir Tupua Leupena, pointed out at the 10th anniversary celebrations, Tuvalu must not only continue to strive for a better economic future for her people, but make sure the social changes that inevitably accompany progress can be accommodated within the island’s traditional framework of cooperation and friendship.

Tuvalu is a very young nation . . . and a very small one. Much has been achieved with a high level of assistance from friendly countries and from regional and international organisations; however, Tuvalu can feel justly proud of its political, economic and social institutions. Few small towns in developed countries could boast the breadth of expertise Tuvalu has been able to generate in only a decade. □ Opposite: Governor-General Sir Tupua Leupena welcomes guests.

Above: Traditional dancers perform. 23 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

Finance, Banking

Robin Bromby examines the present and future of the money market WHEN the Papua New Guinea coffee producer Angco Pty Ltd went to the public recently with a K 5 million share float, not only was it badly undersubscribed but with many of the subscriptions in blocks of K2OO or K5OO, such a float became an administrative nightmare.

In a nutshell, that is the Pacific’s quandary in attempting to expand its banking and finance sector. Without a growing indigenous capital market, banking and finance institutions are limited in their ability to expand the economies of the small nations. And, because so many of the deposits and loans are for such small amounts (in 1985, the average loan by the Solomon Islands Development Bank was SSI 1300), institutions are caught with high administrative costs. In Australia and New Zealand, banks have confronted the question of uneconomic accounts either by slapping charges on transactions or actively discouraging less well-off customers during the America’s Cup races in Australia, the Bank of New Zealand launched a television advertising campaign for its Australian operations and ended up by turning away many who applied for accounts. Banks in metropolitan countries also have the advantage of many large company accounts to absorb their overheads.

Too often institutions in the South Pacific countries have been overly conservative when investing. There have certainly been comments that large superannuation funds in Papua New Guinea should be more innovative about where they place their money; and the Vanuatu Co-operative Savings Bank’s main investments, for example, are by way of bank deposits. By contrast, Western Samoa’s National Provident Fund is a major source of longterm investment in that country, with about a third of its advances going to the private sector.

The finance sector remains largely dominated by Australian, New Zealand and other foreign owners, and while that has brought considerable benefits for example, the existence of a massive capital base through parent companies there have been drawbacks. One has been to transfer Australian or New Zealand thinking to the new institutions.

In a paper on Papua New Guinea’s finance sector, Michael Skully, a senior lecturer in finance at the University of New South Wales, wrote that until banks in the nation train enough indigenous staff “the banking system must depend on expatriate officers, but it is perhaps unfortunate that prior to the two new bank entries, the foreign staff have been recruited almost exclusively from Australian banks. This has tended to perpetuate the Australian banking mentality within the local industry and missed an opportunity to add experience from a wide range of national banking systems.” As an example, the Commonwealth Bank still has 100 people on secondment from Australia working with the Papua New Guinea Banking corporation.

The Commonwealth is the only Australian bank that has reduced its profile in the region, possibly due to it being government-owned and not having the capital resources to expand. Its operations in Papua New Guinea were turned over to the then newly formed PNG Banking Corporation in 1974, but it still owns 51 per cent of Papua New Guinea’s leading merchant bank, Resources and Investment Finance Ltd. Similarlv, its operations in Vanuatu were assumed in 1975 by the Co-operative Savings Bank. The Commonweaith’s major presence is in the Solomon Islands, where it holds 51 per cent of the National Bank of SI.

Westpac (see Pacific Islands Monthly, October) operates a subsidiary in Papua New Guinea, while the Australian parent has branches in Niue, Cook Islands, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and shares in the national banks of Tuvalu and Kiribati, The National Australia Bank’s only regional operation is its subsidiary in Port Moresby, the Bank of South Pacific (BSP). The ANZ last month (October) opened an office in Rarotonga, and is a large player in the South Pacific, with operations in Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.

The Bank of New Zealand has perhaps for the same reasons as the Commonwealth in Australia not expanded to the extent of the Australian commercial banks, and maintains a branch network in Fiji, with shares in the Bank of Western Samoa and the Bank of Tonga.

Two relative newcomers are the latest commercial banks in Papua New Guinea, Indosuez Nuigini Bank and Nuigini-Lloyds International Bank, but both have reportedly found it hard to win a market share from the entrenched operators (just as the many new licensed banks in Australia discovered profits to be elusive) and the PNG Government has now issued guidelines that will make any new banking entry almost impossible.

Vulnerability to natural disasters especially cyclones and volcanic eruptions make insurance an expensive proposition in the region. 24 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

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In the insurance field, again, the old established companies dominate. QBE, with its long affiliation with Burns Philp, is strong in Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu and the French territories. Its main competitor in the general insurance market is the National Insurance Company of New Zealand, which owns tne Southern Pacific Insurance Company of Papua New Guinea, National Insurance of Fiji, National Insurance of Cook Islands, its own office in Solomon Islands and 30 per cent of National Pacific Insurance in Apia . . . which also writes business in Tonga and American Samoa. The region’s business in life insurance is in its infancy in most territories with the exception of Fiji, where the Colonial Mutual commands more than 80 per cent of that market.

The French territories are dominated by banks partly or wholly owned by the French Government, and with surplus funds remitted to Paris. The major bank in New Caledonia is the Banque de ITndochine et Suez. Finance companies in New Caledonia are linked to the banks and provide loans for real estate, consumer credit and business. Life insurance is mainly controlled by the French companies in that field, though QBE, through a local underwriting agent, has a major presence; QBE works through another agency, Arthur Chung, in French Polynesia.

Papua New Guinea

There is a substantial school of thought in Port Moresby that the country has too many banks already; the difficulties experienced by Nuigini-Lloyd in moving its share issue would certainly support that. The large branch and agency network maintained by the PNG Banking Corporation (215 at last count) and Westpac provide coverage of most of the country. These banks, together with ANZ and BSP, are deeply involved in trade and finance links with Australia, which gives them a substantial competitive edge over any newcomers.

The PNG Banking Corporation has vigorously lobbied the government not to issue any more banking licences, arguing that there is already sufficient competition, and it is understood that recent overtures from banking interests in Singapore and Malaysia have been rebuffed.

Earlier this year the central bank, the Bank of Papua New Guinea, issued new requirements for applicants for financial institutional licences, remarking that while new entrants were welcomed, “the increasing number of applicants, particularly ones with little established financial background, necessitates a more rigorous approach to assessment”. It added that tne government’s commitment to public sector spending, the repayment of large offshore commercial debts and relatively depressed commodity prices would mean private sector growth would need to he restrained.

At its May meeting the central bank laid down that new banks will have to show they can be self-sufficient within two years, offer services not presently available in PNG and that those services are sought and that it has the capacity international finance markets and can maintain a capital adequacy ratio of 10 per cent of deposits. Equally stringent requirements were laid down for other financial institutions.

The banks have been affected by the restriction of equity by the central bank, but nevertheless, the major banks turned in comparatively good results. The Bank of South Pacific (87 per cent National Australia, 13 per cent local equity) returned an operating profit for the 1987 year of K 1.34 million, and showed increases in deposits and loans of 32.5 per cent and 45.2 per cent respectively. The bank^ 25 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988 & INSURANCE

◄ has eight branches in PNG, including Port Moresby.

The PNG Banking Corporation reported an after tax profit last December of K 3.02 million, following a loss the previous year. The bank’s annual report noted the costs of maintaining the largest network of branches and agencies in the country, and stressed that to protect profitability it had adopted new lending guidelines to ensure there was no repeat of the high number of bad debts; there is a constant problem with all locally run finance institutions in finding skilled staff to properly vet loan applications.

Westpac Bank PNG made an after tax profit of K 2.87 million to September 1987. The bank had pursued a vigorous lending policy but by June 1987, this had to be curtailed because of a lack of deposit growth.

The PNG Government has recently been forced to respond to continuing problems with savings and loan societies (which operate along the lines of credit unions); at the end of 1987 there were 119 registered societies in Papua New Guinea, with a total membership of 100,000 and of those, 79 societies are either dormant or under liquidation.

The trend to lend money for consumption school fees, for example, or household appliances has been increasing and there is a tendency for some of the boards to exercise lax control over officials of the associations, so that loans are made without full checking of ability to repay and moneys have not been adequately accounted for. Administrative expenses for wages, staff benefits and other operational needs have, in many cases, exceeded income, so officials have resorted to members’ savings to make up the shortfall. The situation has been exacerbated in some of the rural savings and loan societies by members not meeting their loan commitments. On June 17, the central bank issued new investment and lending rules aimed at ending this abuse.

The major merchant bank in Papua New Guinea is Resources and Investment Finance Ltd (RIFL), jointly owned by the Commonwealth and PNG Banking Corporation. It provides the full range of merchant banking services including corporate lending, corporate finance, money market activities and underwriting of securities.

In recent years RIFL has been involved with the flotation of the two new commercial banks and the public issue by Angco; financing high rise and unit developments in Port Moresby, arranging loans and leasing for helicopters and ships and issuing guarantees for prospecting licences.

John Enkelaar, the company’s managing director, told Pacific Islands Monthly that “apart from any other problems one might encounter in Papua New Guinea, finance and equity raising for business are somewhat inhibited, due to the fact that there is no stock exchange here; nor is there likely to be for some years because the market is too thin”. The October 1987 crash did not help its prospects. Mr Enkelaar would not comment on changes that might rectify this situation, but one of the problems for any merchant bank in Papua New Guinea is the level of competition for funds.

The superannuation industry is about to take a leap forward now that the government has changed the rules. Previously, companies with 25 or more employees were required to join the National Provident Fund, but under the new regulations all employees are to be covered by the scheme. One observer expects this will encourage the arrival of several private superannuation funds.

Papua New Guinea’s major challenge will be to devise ways in which innovative new savings schemes can be introduced to provide a wider capital base.

FIJI The existence of a developed cash economy has meant Fiji has the most advanced savings bank system in the islands. Most people in Fiji have at least one bank account, and banks have responded by developing good networks. Westpac has 11 branches, while the Bank of New Zealand and Bank of Baroda have wide representation. The ANZ (whose forebear, the Union Bank, had an office at the old capital of Levuka between 1880 and 1895) returned to Fiji in 1957 and in 1985 acquired the operations in the country of Barclays Bank, giving it nine branches in Fiji.

The banks are currently involved in stiff competition; depressed business confidence has left them with more money than borrowers.

The only Fijian bank without foreign equity is the National Bank of Fiji; “It’s not a great success,” says Michael Skully. “It really needs some foreign partner and foreign expertise it would love to have the Commonwealth Bank.” The National, which has a large number of small savings accounts, was founded in 1908 and has been variously called the Government Savings Bank and Post Office Savings Bank until assuming its present title in 1976.

In the early 1980 s, after several years of losses, the government had to subscribe more capital.

In 1962 there were about 30 insurance companies, but most have withdrawn over the years. Some left when new legislation was enacted in 1975, others found operations unprofitable.

As one spokesman for the Australian Mutual Provident Society put it: “We went up there in the 1960 s to write some fire insurance. We burnt our fingers literally.”

In the life field, Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society of Australia is the dominating company. The only other active operator (apart from agents who write policies on behalf of companies not represented in Fiji) is the Life Insurance Corporation of India, a branch of the nationalised Indi- Coconuts thrive in PNG (left) but the copra industry (above) remains labour-intensive (right).

Finance, Banking & Insurance

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BORAL GAS Solomon Islands Honiara 21833 Boral Gas Limited, Bth Floor, IBM House, 168 Kent St., Sydney, NSW 2000. Tel: (02) 278512. an company. British-American Life Insurance Company, incorporated in the Bahamas, now operates as a closed fund and is not accepting new business. The 1983 statistics showed that Colonial Mutual had |F36.13 million in long-term funds. Life Insurance of India $9.35 million and British- American $2.6 million. Colonial Mutual now estimates it has between 80 and 85 per cent of new life business in Fiji; Colonial Mutual, which operates in no other island state, opened its doors in Fiji in 1876 and now has assets of SIOO million. The Fijian operation is run as a selfcontained mutual fund, with all the income invested in Fiji. A Fijian has been appointed as general manager and all members of the board are Fijian nationals the company has a policy of withdrawing expatriate management. The greater part of Colonial Mutual’s business is group (that is, premiums deducted from payrolls) and the majority of members are government employees, teachers, military and police officers, bank and other large commercial company staff.

Fiji has a well developed credit union industry, and is now helping Vanuatu and Tonga develop their own networks.

Solomon Islands

Credit unions have developed in the Solomon Islands to serve the many small villages that do not justify a bank. As it is, banKs are mostly confined to the capital, Honiara, with the National Bank of Solomon Islands the only one to have representation in provincial areas.

The Solomon Islands operation by the ANZ Banking Group is unique within the company’s worldwide system: apart from being a one branch/ one country operation, the manager in Honiara is responsible for setting his own lending and deposit rates and is generally responsible for the branch’s own funds management and fee structure. ANZ says it is looking at

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4 ways of expanding into rural areas.

Meanwhile, Westpac’s market share in the Solomon Islands has jumped with the acquisition of Hongkong and Shanghai’s branch in Honiara.

At the end of 1987 the National Bank operated six branches and 47 agencies. In a year when the Solomons experienced depressed world commodity prices, cyclone damage to copra and palm oil crops and the closure of the country’s largest logging operation, the bank managed to increase its after tax profit to $51596,185 (the continued decline in new lending reflected a further tightening by the Central Bank of Solomon Islands of private sector domestic credit. The bank still operates with seconded staff from the Commonwealth in Australia.

The Development Bank which, as in most Pacific states, acts as a conduit for funds from development agencies such as the Asian Development Bank has incurred heavy administrative costs by making micro loans, a good proportion of which are arrears. Many loans are out of less than $lOOO and the average is just $l3OO.

Westpac’s subsidiary, AGC Finance, offers consumer funaing for cars and other items as well as for some agricultural projects. Insurance is dominated by the National Insurance Company of New Zealand; life insurance is held mainly by expatriates through offshore firms. While the National Provident Fund provides superannuation cover for government, private sector superannuation in the Solomons is largely undeveloped.

TONGA The Bank of Tonga, owned by the government, the Bank of Hawaii, the Bank of New Zealand and Westpac, returned a profit of T 5.427 million before tax for the year ended December, 1987; a 34 per cent increase on the previous year’s result. The bank’s largest lending sector is for housing (37 per cent), though commercial loans at 29 per cent form the fastest growing sector. The Bank of Tonga has invested some 55 per cent of its total assets as term deposits on overseas banks, where the average interest rate achieved was 14.8 per cent. It has agencies throughout the group.

In 1987, the Tonga Development Bank received lines of credit of SUS 2 million from the World Bank and SUSI million from the Asian Development Bank, most of which (in line with government policy) will be channeled into the private sector. Recently, the Development Bank changed its emphasis of lending away from agriculture and into secondary industry, tourism and investment: in the past more than half the loans have been for agricultural projects, but about 85 per cent of advances have been for (ess than TlOOO, which has involved the bank in high administrative costs.

The main insurance companies operating in Tonga are New Zealand Insurance, QBE and Commercial Union. The government is planning to set up a National Provident Fund to provide superannuation cover.

VANUATU The finance centre in Port Vila, and Vanuatu’s associated maritime register, have been well charted in recent months. The country’s three commercial banks ANZ, Westpac and Indosuez release no separate figures, but ANZ is clearly the lead player; it swallowed the Barclays operation in 1985, while Westpac took over the branch run by Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation earlier this year. The withdrawal of the British and Hong Kong banks shows how hard, even in a tax free haven, it is for bankers to make a profit unless they are involved in a major way in the host country’s trade, as are the Australian and New Zealand banks.

Barclays was to have been involved in establishing the Commercial Bank of Vanuatu before it decided to move out, but the one troubled institution is the Vanuatu Co-operative Savings Bank, which maintains 95 agencies throughout the archipelago. It is the repository for mainly small savings by the indigenous population; Michael Skully, in Financial Institutions and Markets in the South Pacific, shows that the bank’s main investment is by way of placing its money in other banks to earn interest lack of expert staff has prevented the Co-op Savings Bank from developing a loan function. In 1985 the bank accumulated losses of VT 12.43 million, the cost of administering all the small deposits being a major drain on what income was earned.

Nevertheless, the bank has provided in areas the international banks ignore a service that would otherwise not exist for the people of Vanuatu. Similarly, the Development Bank has been involved in high cost areas, mainly the extending of substantial high-risk micro loans.

Western Samoa

Western Samoa has a competitive banking climate but is nevertheless dominated by the Bank of Western Samoa, equally owned by the government and the Bank of New Zealand.

Its latest figure, to December, 1986, showed a profit of T 992,066 after tax, with deposits showing an overall growth of 23.8 per cent.

The Pacific Commercial Bank (Westpac 41.19 per cent, Bank of Hawaii 41.19, Western Samoa shareholders 17.62 per cent) reported an after tax profit to December 1987 of T 276,114 against a background of heavy government regulation, with the exercise of credit restrictions through the commercial banks being a major plank of economic policy.

Western Samoa’s finance sector saw the development of two other institutions that reflected the years of rule by New Zealand: the Post Office Savings Bank (which grew during the years when the Bank of New Zealand showed no interest in offering interest-bearing accounts, and which places its investments in bank deposits and government securities) and the Public Trust Office, acting as trustee and guardian it had assets of T 4 million in 1985 and was a major source of long-term housing finance, placing its funds in government securities in New Zealand, Western Samoa, Australia and Britain.

The National Provident Fund has assets nearing T4O million; about 40 per cent in government securities, but as much as 30 per cent invested with the private sector.

KIRIBATI The Bank of Kiribati is the Republic’s main financial institution (Westpac 51 per cent, Republic of Kiribati 49 per cent). In the year to September 1987, profit was $A791,000 after tax a reduction on the previous year but the bank had to bear the cost of establishing a branch on Kiritimati Island.

On the other hand, the bank relied for its continuing viability on profits on foreign exchange trading and on an investment portfolio.

Its annual report said that because of the structure of its international investments, the Bank of Kiribati was able to offer its customers attractive rates on their deposits.

TUVALU The National Bank of Tuvalu’s latest figures, to December, 1986, show an after tax profit of $A310,387, substantially up on the previous year. The result was largely due to better returns on overseas investments: just under half of all new lending by the bank during the year was for renovations, conversions and building of new houses in Tuvalu, the rest being largely advanced for development of new businesses and short term finance for the retail and construction sectors. □ 29 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

Finance, Banking & Insurance

FIJI A Village Opens Its Heart Far from the politics of Suva, and even further from their Canadian home, Phyllis and Ted Reeve find warm hospitality in a remote village.

PENIASI strides across the grass, his handshake ready. His friends and relations follow closely; grins and waves converge upon us.

News of our approach has preceded us to Nasau. Peniasi knows we have taken one wrong road muddy enough to defeat our four-wheel drive, and that we were rescued by Eparama from Naviqiri. The village has been watching for our arrival by the right (hair-raising but less muddy) road, with Eparama squeezed beside us in the front seat to guide our way.

My family’s relationship with the village of Nasau, in Bua Province (at the western tip of Vanua Levu) began in 1920 when my grandfather attempted to establish a copra plantation on a native leasehold south of the village.

On our first visit two years ago, my husband Ted and I were greeted like royalty. This time we are old friends.

Ted hurries off to present our yaqona offering to the Chief, while I settle in with Peniasi’s wife Asenaca.

Nasau is about 30 kilometres from the main road linking the ferry wharf at Nabouwalu with the sugar town of Labasa. Villagers make occasional excursions outward, but receive very few visitors; the Taiwanese sandalwood buyer is the most frequent. We are the only tourists to appear in a long time five or six years ago, we are told, two surprised young Australians arrived by motorbike.

Asenaca and Peniasi are young and speak English readily. The elders shyly pretend to speak only Fijian but seem to understand most of our conversation, and Ted’s prowess in the yaqona circle, with his mastery of the appropriate handclaps and exclamations, causes toe young men to roll with mirth a reaction Ted takes for a compliment.

Asenaca presents Rachieli, the daughter born since our last visit and the apple of everyone’s eye. Her brother Mitieli is three, wide-eyed and lively, On our first meeting, when he was a year and a half old, he kept the adults amused with his imitations of Rambo. That game has since been forgotten, replaced the reggae rhythms expertly beaten out with small fists.

Peniasi sports a red shirt with a picture of Major General Rabuka, but we do not talk about politics and the only allusions to current events come in questions about the number and status of Fiji Indians resident in Canada.

Peniasi and Asenaca displayed a large colour portrait of Prince Charles and family on the wall of their house one of the few in the village made entirely of grass. Since Asenaca is the daughter of the turaga ni koro, her house is a place of some prestige and a popular gathering place. Women and children come and go continually, and we cannot tell for certain which children belong to which parents: indeed, if I hadn’t been specifically introduced to Rachieli and Miti, I would be unsure about them as they pass from hand to hand and from knee to knee. Toddlers too young to be afraid of my paleness collapse as happily on my lap as anywhere.

Everything happens on the floor, which is covered with clean grass mats (despite our best efforts, Ted and I continually bring in mud, which clings to us much more than to anyone else), and meals are a communal effort. Because Asenaca is still nursing Rachieli, she is not expected to cook. Her various ‘sisters’ at least some of whom are cousins prepare food in the kitchen building, and we are very well fed with fish and wild pork, cassava and breadfruit. Canned meat is considered a delicacy, and from time to time someone takes the key to the village store and returns proudly with a tin of corned beef, mackerel or baked beans. This is Peniasi’s week to keep the store and its key.

Innocence of economic reality sometimes leads to embarrassing assumptions. The villagers know the cost of a journey to Suva, but think the expense must seem minimal to a city dweller.

In Nasau necessities for survival are at hand. It appears logical that the same should be true in the city: if money is what one needs, then the money must Laundry, dishes and people all wash here sometimes simultaneously.

Company is always available. 30 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

be available. We are happy to take Peniasi and the community bank deposit with us to Labasa, but learn to say no to more grandiose requests.

The older children walk a kilometre to the school that serves the three or four villages in Navakasiga District; when Asenaca asks us to send magazines for the children to read, we know it is the adults who want them most. The kids have their schoolbooks, but grownups seize on any printed material, in Fijian or English, within reach; newspapers, notes on photographs, even labels on cans and on boxes of film.

Though a public health nurse lives nearby, Peniasi comes with furrowed brow to seek advice from Ted: his father is suffering from a headache so severe it is affecting his entire body, Unsure that his Canadian medical training can cope with the case, Ted cautiously dispenses two aspirin. As it turns out, his prescription may be essential in fortifying the patient to withstand the more elaborate cure provided by his village; while he lies beneath his mosquito net, a file of visitors drinks his health in yaqona, sings hymns and offers sonorous prayers for his recovery. The treatment continues through the night, but at last the patient is asleep and it’s we who are taking aspirin!

Daybreak is announced by the trumpeting of the conch and the voice of the pastor detailing the day’s tasks as assigned by the turaga ni koro. For a while there is much bustling around the water taps and a scurrying of children, but the day’s work is not onerous; mainly the provision of food, There will be time for resting from the strenuous night’s effort.

But when duty calls, all Nasau rises to the occasion. The village’s pride and joy is the new church, an impressive structure testifying to the glory of God and the dominance of Methodism. To raise money for the church, the villagers sold their fishing boat; how they are almost ready to buy a new one (the money for which has been saved from the sale of sandalwood) that will take them outside the reef into commercial waters, The village’s chainsaw and outboard motor are useful tools, but they are only tools and can be laid aside. Most important to Nasau life are the ties of family and fellowship, the babies to be hugged, the yaqona to be shared, the songs to be sung. In every part of the village, the prevalent sound is the ring of peal after peal of laughter. □ Time for serious photography: Miti is second from the right.

Nasau women create a gift for their visitors.

A shy young Nasau beauty.

“Toddlers too young to be afraid of my paleness

Solomon Islands

Rusted Memories of War David J Haden continues his exploration of Pacific battlegrounds THE New Georgia Islands, in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands, are among the most beautiful islands I have had the privilege of visiting during my Pacific travels. But not only was I visiting the islands to appreciate their natural beauty; I had also come to retrace some of the World War II history that has made these islands famous. Reminders of war can still be seen from the air; the rusted hulls of landing barges still litter the white beaches and bomb craters dot the lagoons. Even today they are isolated, with roads near main centres and bush tracks forming the only transport links; travel between islands is by canoe.

As the Solair flight approached Munda airstrip on Lambete, I was astounded by the beauty of the many small islands of Vonavona Lagoon.

Some are inhabited, some are empty but all inviting. The towering peak of Rendova Island loomed through the clouds to the right of the aircraft, while below me canoes loaded with villagers and their supplies plied the lagoon. Ahead I could see the runway, and from the co-pilot’s seat my thoughts turned to the time when this field was used by the Japanese Zeke pilots; they would have seen the same view 45 years ago.

The airstrip had been constructed by the Japanese from crushed coral dredged from the lagoon; the coral soon set as hard as concrete.

Munda Field is the Solomons’ second largest airstrip outside Honiara, and stretches from Lambete to the water’s edge at Kokenglo but it remained a secret. The Americans knew it was under construction but couldn’t pinpoint it as the Japanese had used an ingenious system of coconut-tree tops suspended on cables to camouflage the runway.

Munda Guest House, managed by retired schoolmaster Don Croft, has a character all of its own. A comfortable establishment of 10 or so rooms, it has a cosy, friendly atmosphere; the main dining room and bar area runs to the water’s edge, offering an outstanding view of Rovianna Lagoon and distant cloud-shrouded Rendova Island.

With the afternoon ahead of us we decided to walk to Kia Village, along the way inspecting WWH landing barges still aground on the beaches some in reasonable shape considering their years of neglect. Traditional housing was noticeable as we neared Kia Village and the people were friendly; local children followed us, giggling among themselves before vanishing into the bush.

We crossed a small bridge built from three old truck chassis and noticed wartime 44-gallon drums being used as copra driers. The road soon merged into a foot track as we came closer to Kia Village, and we stopped to chat with a village elder.

He described in detail how the Japanese forced the locals to assist them in their occupation projects.

The walk back to Lambete was just as enjoyable; we were entertained by villagers going about their work, and the sights and smells of village life and the many beautiful flowers filled the air. Everything was peaceful, but in 1943 the scene was very different.

But mid February that year the US Forces had completed their conquest of Guadalcanal, to the south of the New Georgia group, and began the move north by implementing Operation Cleanslate, the seizure of the Russell Islands that lie between Guadalcanal and the New Georgia Islands.

Cleanslate went off without a hitch, and the US Forces were soon ready to tackle the New Georgias but the terrain had never been mapped and hydrographic data were out of date, so the Solomon Islands Coastwatchers had to provide intelligence.

On Munda, meanwhile, the Japanese dispatched Rear-Admiral Minoru Ota to the New Georgia group to rush defences to completion.

Progress on Munda airfield was stepped up; Rear-Admiral Ota based his special Naval Landing Forces at Munda and at Vila on nearby Kolombangara Island, and they were reinforced in March and May 1943.

While Japanese activities in the New Above: Despite its size and glowing white coral, Munda airstrip was rendered invisible to Allied planes by clever camouflage. Below: Unexploded artillery rounds, more than 30 centimetres long, can still be found in the jungle. 32 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

Georgia Islands reached their peak, the Allies were already planning an operation using the codename Toenails which involved the seizure of Munda and Kolombangara airfields in two stages. But while Toenails was still in the final stages of planning the Japanese were not allowed to rest easy. A series of heavy air attacks was launched against Munda and Kolombangara from Henderson Field and the newly captured strip in the Russell Islands, and from March to May the Japanese were subjected to at least one and sometimes up to three heavy air strikes each day. The attacks failed to deter the Japanese, however: reamnaissance photography showed Munda Field was nearing completion. The Americans concentrated even greater firepower on Munda with the introduction of the Night Raiders, which dropped flares and bombs, while the US Navy cruiser and destroyer taskforces rained shells both on Munda and Kolombangara Airfields.

Even today I could see bomb craters and bunkers caved in from the shelling: on a walk to the hilltop overlooking Munda Field, my friend Tony and I stumbled across two live shells that each measured more than 30 centimetres long still dangerous and still to be treated with respect (from time to time villagers in and around Munda Field dig up unexploded bombs while gardening or clearing tracks, and at times ear-shattering explosions can be heard when live bombs explode as a farmer burns off his land near Munda Field).

Just off the road to Noro at the Kokenggolo end of Munda Field, we took a small walking track and after a few minutes found two well preserved Japanese Model 88 anti aircraft guns (a 75mm gun with a range of around 13,800 metres and a firing rate of 12 rounds a minute), both m excellent condition with oil still seeping from the seals. Nearby, a monument erected by Japanese soldiers who had since returned as tourists reads: “Anti- Aircraft Gunnery, Field Operations, 42 Battalion, Munda, New Georgia Islands. A memorial to those who died here.” We removed the weeds from the momument and paid our respects to the fallen remembered there.

Walking back to the Guest House through Kindu Village, we reflected on how in the space of a few months the villagers’ lives had been changed by the Japanese occupation, then the battles with Allied forces. Many must have been confused by the activities, and puzzled about why people from far-off lands battled over land that wasn’t theirs in the first place.

The rusted remains of a Japanese heavy machine gun now stand silent guard at the entrance to a property near Munda airstrip.

Slowly being reclaimed by the elements, parts from World War II vehicles provide shelter for the darting fish of Vonavona Lagoon.

Left: Oarsman, companion and guide Pete beside one of the Japanese naval guns that once defended Enogai from US forces.

Above: A memorial honours those of all nations who fell in the battle for Munda. Nearby is a Japanese anti-aircraft gun.

We walked across to the Guest House and soon were off by canoe to Lola Island. From Rovianna Lagoon we passed into Vonavona Lagoon; the water was so clear we could see the bottom at times, with hordes of brilliantly coloured fish swimming below the canoe. From time to time Pete, our helmsman, stood to survey the course ahead and make deviations: the water is shallow in places, with coral protruding above the surface a dangerous area for someone inexperienced in these waters. Schools of fish would jump from the water beside us, and the odd floating coconut was the only rubbish in this unspoilt lagoon.

After 40 minutes we reached Lola Island, and soon we were landing our gear. The leaf hut that was to be our accommodation was built of local materials; a magnificent accomplishment that commanded a great view of the beach and lagoon. After settling in we swam in the clear water and lazed about while Pete walked the beach with a spear: a keen eye and a quick throw, and dinner was caught!

Our evening meal was cooked just before sunset, then eaten by the glow of a hurricane lamp as we organised plans for an early-morning departure for Enogai Inlet. We arose just before daylight, and it didn’t take long before we were under way across Vonavona Lagoon toward the Diamond Narrows; once again Pete dodged reefs and the coral heads that broke the surface. After passing Tovivi Island we entered the Diamond Narrows by way of Swinger Channel and passed through Lucas Channel. The scenery seemed to become more spectacular as we progressed: the steep banks were lined with palms and lush tropical growth, and we saw an occasional small village whose inhabitants waved cheerfully.

It wasn’t long before we were on the approach to Enogai (Also spelt Enoghae) Inlet and as Pete slowed the canoe we drifted close to shore in the hope of spotting Japanese coastal defence guns. The jungle grew right to the water’s edge, but we soon spotted a rusting gun barrel.

We identified it as a naval 140 mm gun; the Japanese had sited four of them here, and after a careful search we found the other three . . . and some live ammunition nearby. Some of the guns had been stripped, but they were well worth the visit.

The guns were well positioned to command Kula Gulf; this area saw heavy fighting when the US Marine Northern Landing Group under the command of Colonel Harry Liversedge attacked Enogai. On July 10, 1943, Liversedge’s men clashed with the Japanese before digging in between Enogai and Bairoko.

Snipers and sporadic machine gun fire made the task of taking the font 140 mm guns at Enogai difficult, but by late afternoon Liversedge’s men were in possession of Enogai and its guns. A total of 48 Americans were Killed and 77 wounded: the 350strong Japanese garrison was completely wiped out.

After taking Enogai, Colonel Liversedge was to have taken Bairoko but after being reinforced by the 4th Raider Battalion on July 18, it was decided to attack the barge base on July 20. The assault was to be preceded by an air attack to soften up the Japanese positions, but the aircraft failed to appear and the marines decided to launch an unsupported attack. The Japanese were concealed in concrete bunkers and “spider” foxholes, and were pinned down for half an hour before retreating to ridgeline bunkers where they regrouped to form a final defence line 450 metres from the northern side of Bairoko harbour.

The marines managed slow progress to within 270 metres of the narbour, but suffered around 250 casualties and were forced to pull back. Ironically, the Japanese evacuated Bairoko in August and shipped its defenders to Vila on Kolombangara.

On the way back to Lola Island we decided to call in to the store at Noro for a cold beer, but a throng of locals was buying beer as quickly as it could be removed from the refrigerator so we had to settle for hot beer instead, Leaving the peace of Lola Island was hard to take; but all too soon it was time to return to Munda and fly back to Honiara.

But we had enjoyed ourselves tremendously; Pete’s good humour and hospitality were going to be missed. A generation after war had convulsed New Georgia, the peace and kindness that is so typical of the Pacific had returned to make our visit a memorable experience. □ Above: Ruptured by machine gun fire, auxiliary fuel tanks lie on the jungle floor near Kia Village. Below: Inventive islanders recycled truck chassis to form a bridge over a creek outside Kia. 34 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

INVESTMENT Delegation Seeks Investment Boost Fiji works toward ‘hassle-free investment’ to promote its tax-free zone. By Robin Bromby IN an effort to boost investment, a high-powered Fijian delegation last month completed a tour aimed at convincing businesspeople that Fiji’s new tax-free zone regulations offer attractions not available elsewhere in the region; it was notable that the Fijians made a special effort to target Asian investment by hosting seminars in Hongkong, Seoul, Taipei and Singapore before heading for Sydney. In Australia, about 200 potential business investors attended the seminar, the presentation marred only by the need to defuse a reported statement by Fijian Home Affairs Minister Major- General Sitiveni Rabuka that the threat of closing Australian banks could be one way to change Australian Government policy.

So far, Fiji has attracted about SF24 million in investment under the taxfree zone legislation, the industries covering garment manufacture, cosmetics, textiles, furniture, confectionery and prefabricated housing.

The tax-free zones (TFZ) laws allow for a 13-year tax holiday to companies exporting 95 per cent of their production, no tariffs on equipment or raw materials for 13 years and easy repatriation of capital and profits. The delegation was stressing the availability of a skilled, English-speaking work force and minimum wage rates (up to $F 1.16 an hour) and access to metropolitan markets under preferential trade agreements.

The important point about Major- General Rabuka’s reported statement is that it has not been disputed that he did argue that, in certain circumstances, Fiji could consider withdrawing the licences of Westpac and ANZ Bank. Statements by Finance Minister Josefata Kamikamica and by Trade and Commerce Minister Berenado Vunibobo stressed that Major-General Rabuka’s statement was not government policy but personal opinion, and that the interim government guaranteed foreign investment.

While the Home Affairs Minister’s statement caused a brief ruffle in Australia, it is important to consider that it was made to a journalism student purportedly interviewing him as an exercise rather than to a reporter seeking an on-the-record statement.

The statement and its publicity seemed not to affect Westpac’s enthusiasm for investment in Fiji. Westpac chief economist Robert Graham offered a very optimistic view of investment in Fiji, saying: “While I may have appeared to be bullish, I do realise that investment in any country carries its risks as well as opportunities.

But I suggest investors would be foolish not to explore the opportunities being offered m Fiji.” He said interest rates were relatively attractive and there was a good level of liquidity in the financial system. Mr Graham said there were also Australian institutions that would be interested in offering project finance for Fijian ventures.

While media attention focussed on the presence of Westpac and ANZ in Fiji (which between them are now a fundamental part of the country’s financial system) there are altogether about 100 Australian companies operating in the country.

In his speech to the Sydney seminar Trade and Commerce Minister Vunibobo said he acknowledged the problems the Republic had confronted since the political upheavals of 1987, including loss of skilled and professional manpower, falling incomes and rising unemployment and a balance of payments reverse.

“We’re not out of the woods yet, and we have many problems still to resolve,” the minister said. He stressed that the interim government supported private investment and was encouraging that sector to play a more active development role. The government would continue to reduce red tape and work toward “hassle-free investment”: it could provide investors with an unqualified assurance that all agreements under the TFZ system would be honoured.

Then Mr Vunibobo addressed the controversy caused by the reporting of Major-General Rabuka’s comments that Australia must stop being domineering in its relations with his country or its banks would lose their licences to operate in Fiji. The Minister said the presence of foreign banks was essential, and told the Sydney businesspeople that none of the foreign banks operating out of Suva need fear nationalisation.

Speaking after his address, Mr Vunibobo said he was concerned about ail the unfavourable publicity given to Fiji in the past 12 months.

Asked about the Fiji army’s intervention when a bank had repossessed a chicken farm, Mr Vunibobo said he could not comment as he had been out of the country at the time.

According to The Fiji Times, the Fiji Development Bank had handed over a Sawani poultry farm to another company in an attempt to recoup $F97,000 from the owner, an undischarged bankrupt.

The newspaper reported that the man then appealed to Rabuka to help get the farm back, after which armed soldiers descended on the property to expel the company in whose control the bank had placed the farm. The Fiji Times reported that the move set “a precedent that is causing concern in the banking industry”.

Representatives of Australian companies that had operated in Fiji assured those attending the Sydney seminar that their experience in Fiji had been wholly beneficial. Roger Brown of Bonds, the clothing manufacturer, said his company had been able to achieve economies of scale in its factory there, while Geoff Ashlin, former general manager of Colgate- Palmolive Fiji Ltd, saia the company’s factory in Fiji had enabled it to penetrate Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Western Samoa. □ Fiji Trade and Commerce Minister Vunibobo: “not out of the woods yet”. 35 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

Pacific Report

□ Australia-Pacific Conference

THE University of New South Wales’

Centre for South Pacific Studies will hold its first conference with the theme ‘Australia and the South Pacific in 1988’ from December 1-4 this year.

The conference is intended, in “a year of national rethinking and evaluation in 1988” to highlight Australia’s relations with the South Pacific, an area long ignored in the national consciousness. It will provide a blueprint for future projects and activities of researchers at UNSW relating to the South Pacific.

Speakers include Mr Henry Naisali, director of the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Co-operation (SPEC), Professor R G Crocombe of the University of the South Pacific, and a range of highly qualified people in the fields of mineral development, health, women’s issues, trade, politics and humanities.

□ Aid For Fiji Agriculture

THE Asian Development Bank has approved a SUS2O million loan to Fiji to help the country’s agricultural diversification program. There will also be technical assistance grants totalling SUS 1,070,000. The loan, for 15 years with a three-year period of grace, will carry interest to be determined in accordance with the bank's pool-based variable lending rate system.

It is intended to support agricultural diversification and growth, leading to exports of agriculture-based manufactured products. Working with private sector enterprises that will help relieve rural poverty, the program is expected to help cope with adverse environmental factors.

The technical assistance grants will provide a farm-management information system, strengthen the project formulation, evaluation and monitoring capabilities of key government ministries, and help formulate the Northern Division Agricultural Development Project.

□ Marshalls Wilderness Care

AN expedition organised by Hawaii’s East-West Center is sailing the Marshall Islands to determine if the government should establish protected, patrolled areas to preserve plant and animal species and archaeological sites.

The study is focusing initially on 10 uninhabited atolls in the northwest Marshalls. “Illegal foreign fishing exploitation may nave already damaged marine life, particularly the turtle population,” said Lawrence Hamilton, the study co-ordinator. He is also investigating reports that a US company is negotiating to use one of the atoll lagoon sites to dump millions of tonnes of garbage as landfill for eventual development of tourist facilities.

□ Tahiti Hosts Pidp Group

FOLLOWING the recent South Pacific Forum in Tonga, representatives of seven Pacific nations met in Tahiti for the 14th standing committee meeting of the Pacific Islands Development Program. It was the first time such a meeting had been hosted by French Polynesia, Tahiti having joined PIDP last year with a special contribution of SUS4O,OOO, backed up by a SIOO,OOO donation from France. PIDP has its headquarters at the East-West Center in Hawaii.

□ Us Islands Population Boom

THE US Census Bureau reports that population growth is skyrocketing in islands under US jurisdiction in the Pacific. Numbers in Guam in 1987 were up 23.1 per cent over 1980, due largely to migration and military personnel movements from the Philippines. Guam’s population reached 139,400 in 1987.

The northern Marianas population increased by 21.1 per cent in the same period, to 20,300. American Samoa grew by 19 per cent to 38,400. In both cases growth was attributed mainly to increased births.

□ Aborigines Partner Bikinians

ABORIGINAL people from Maralinga in South Australia met recently with a delegation of five Bikini Islanders who visited Australia at their own expense to discuss their common experience of seeing their homelands used as proving grounds for nuclear weapons after World War 11.

Tne Australian Department of Employment, Education and Training’s journal Aboriginal Employment and Education reports on the similarity of the two situations. The US moved the 1500 people of Bikini while it tested hydrogen and atomic bombs on Bikini Atoll between 1946 and 1958: the Aborigines were also moved from their tribal lands to make way for British nuclear tests in the 19505.

Archie Barton, speaking for the Maralinga people, said “Like us, the Bikini Islanders are living a traditional lifestyle, and we are both concerned with the same thing”. That is, making their homelands sate to live in again.

The Aborigines are seeking SA7 million in compensation from the Australian Government for resettlement, while the Bikini people are asking the US Government to scrape off the top 16 centimetres of soil from their island, together with all plant life, as a prelude to restoration.

□ Nivaga Ii Welcomed To Tuvalu

A BEAUTIFUL day, throngs of people, dancing and a highly decorated deep-sea wharf welcomed Tuvalu’s new inter-island ferry and cargo vessel Nivaga II as she arrived in Funafuti on September 5 after a long voyage from England.

The SAIO million vessel, launched at Lowestoft, England, earlier this year, constitutes tnat country’s main thrust of aid to Tuvalu. Representatives of Britain’s Overseas Development Agency were on hand to film the arrival and its enthusiastic reception by the local community.

As tier gleaming white form came into view across Funafuti’s broad lagoon, excitement ran high; a colourful regatta of yachts and workboats manned by trainees from the Tuvalu Maritime School accompanied the Nivaga II across the final stretch of water to the wharf, where crowds of onlookers welcomed the arrival beneath a canopy adorned with palm fronds, ferns and flowers. The Nukulaelae Island Group gave a tremendous display of songs and dancing as the boat drew up beside the wharf.

Nivaga II will replace the original Nivanga, which has given almost 27 years of faithful service to the islands of Tuvalu. A handing-over ceremony took place at the wharf during the afternoon, and a reception was held that night at the Vaiaka Lagi Hotel.

Skipper Paueli Sione, who travelled with tne vessel on the voyage from England, has had little time to relax since his return! Already Nivaga II has made a trip to Fiji to collect the Nanumea dancing troupe returning from the Townsville Festival of Pacific Arts, and ferried hundreds of people from the outer islands to Funafuti for the Independence celebrations in early October.

□ Telecommunicators Confer

THE annual conference of the Pacific Telecommunications Council will be held at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel in Hawaii from January 15-18, 1989. Il will, as previously, bring together academic and business participants 36 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

Volvo Renta Dealers —they’re never far away.

Boating in the Pacific with Volvo Renta powered boats.

Papua New Guinea t Guam VOLVO *. PENTA Solomon Is.

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Volvo Renta are supported by a truly international network of dedicated service dealers, with factory trained personnel and genuine Volvo Renta parts to protect your investment. Dealers are strategically located in the Pacific area so you don’t have to detour from course or back-track.

Vanuatu M. Henri Leroux BP 68, Espiritou Santo Phone; 437 New Caledonia N. Johnston + Cie BP 52, Noumea Phone; 272697 Fiji Leebrown Ltd PO Box 1081, Suva Phone: 25795 Tonga Scan Tonga Engineering Ltd Private Bay, Nukualofa Phone: 22599 Tahiti Comptoir Polynesien BP 628, Papeete Phone: 28027 Guam Pacific Orient Company PO Box 6247, Tamuning Phone: 646 1400 VOLVO S-405 08 Gothenberg, Sweden Telex 20755 S KCA9B26 from all regions of the Pacific.

The Council is “dedicated to the development, understanding and beneficial use of telecommunications throughout the Pacific hemisphere”; taking in North, Central and South America, Northeast, South and Southeast Asia, together with Oceania Australia, New Zealand, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.

The conference, styled PTC ’B9, is intended to be a forum for both users and providers of communications services, as well as academics, scientists, policy makers and planners.

PTC is designed to embrace members from countries involved in the development of Pacific telecommunications.

Enquiries should be directed to PTC ’B9, 1110 University Avenue, Suite 308, Honolulu, Hawaii 96826, USA.

□ New Kon Tiki Crew May Quit

MEMBERS of an expedition trying to cross the Pacific on a raft made from r-eds (see Pacific Islands Monthly, August) are considering abandoning the attempt. The raft similar to those used by the Inca Indians of Peru was towed into Papeete late in October after suffering damage to its steering gear for the second time.

The five-man crew is seeking to prove that Incas could have sailed from Peru to New Zealand; the 20 metre raft, named the Urn, left Lima in July and all went well until the craft was damaged by heavy seas in September.

The crew put into the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia, where government workers installed a new rudder, then continued the voyage until it was again damaged in stormy seas and towed to Papeete.

□ Security Conference

AUSTRALIA’S current defence and security circumstances will be examined in the light of the country’s history and global and regional developments at a conference organised by trie Australian National University’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Research School of Pacific Studies, to be held from 6-9 December. The conference will be opened by Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Senator Gareth Evans, who will provide a political and economic global and regional overview of Australia’s place in the world The Minister for Defence, Mr Beazley, will make a major statement on Australian defence policy, and Chief of the Australian Defence Force, General Peter Gration, will discuss current issues and future prospects concerning the ADF. Professor John Molony, Manning Clark Professor of History at the ANU, will review Australia’s political legacy and identify the principal themes in Australia’s development as a nation, The conference, Australia and the World: Prologue and Prospects, will hear Professor Robert O’Neill, Professor of the History of War at Oxford University give an overview of the global strategic landscape, highlighting both constant factors and new trends, The world economy and the major geopolitical and geostrategic implications for Australian security prospects will be examined by Professor David Calleo from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC.

Dr Richard Higgott, Director of the Australian Institute of International Affairs, will speak on the politicaleconomic implications for Australia and Professor Nancy Viviani, Head of the Department of Political Science at ANU, will analyse economic developments in Asia and assess their political implications for the region, Dr Jusuf Wanandi, Executive Director of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta, will discuss security questions in Southeast Asia.

Australia’s alliances will be examined along with Soviet naval power 37 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

4 in the Pacific, US maritime strategy in the region and the prospects for Japanese rearmament and will be explored, as well as strategic developments in the Indian Ocean.

The conference will also include a session on arms control and disarmament. Dr Graeme Cheeseman, Senior Research Fellow in the Peace Research Centre at ANU, will provide a critique of aspects of Australia’s defence policy and outline alternative approaches including the possibility of a nonoffensive defence position for Australia.

The ANU is seeking expressions of interest in the conference; conference secretary is Mr J O Langtry, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Research School of Pacific Studies, ANU, GPO Box 4, Canberra, phone (062) 49 2276. □ THATCHER IN FAVOUR OF ENVIRON- MENT CARE THE United Kingdom seeks to “help countries of the South Pacific to use and manage their limited resources in a productive and, above all, sustainable way”, according to Chris Patten, Britain’s Minister for Overseas Development, to a conference on the Pacific environment at the Commonwealth Institute in London. Last year Britain spent more than 10 million pounds on technical advice and training in the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Fiji and Tonga.

Mr Patten quoted British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s endorsement of sustainable development and appropriate growth as the only effective means of tackling poverty or environmental degradation and pollution. In a remarkable speech to the Royal Society, Mrs Thatcher committed her Government to serious treatment of environmental issues.

□ New Party For Cook Islands

A THIRD political party has been formed in the Cook Islands with the establishment of the Cook Islands Labour Party. Leader of the party, Mr Rena Ariki Jonassen, said his party will field a full slate of candidates to contest general elections to be held late this year or early in 1989. Mr Jonassen said the party will have no formal ties with the New Zealand Labour Party, but among its policies is a pledge to declare the Cooks a nuclear-free zone and a ban on all nuclear-armed ships entering its ports.

The Island Press Reports from the papers, compiled by John Carter A FORMER Defence Force colonel yesterday described the National Intelligence Organisation as an “amateurish” spy organisation.

“It is a laughing stock,” said Mr Tom Poang, formerly a chief of operations and Director of the Land element in the PNGDF.

“It is unprofessional, undisciplined, unsystematic in its intelligence gathering network and has failed to serve the security and intelligence interests of PNG”.

From the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier, Port Moresby A SOUTHERN Highlands clan has rejected compensation payment for the death of a clansman in a road accident.

The Leri clan of Pangia last Saturday refused to accept money and goods from the Yoarene clan of the same area for the death of Koino Oki.

And that case has become the first from the region if not PNG.

The Leri clan is reported to have said no to any form of payment because nearly all rrtembers of the clan are Christians and they do not believe in making money out of deaths caused by accidents.

From the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier, Port Moresby A WESTERN Samoan Rugby League team leaves New Zealand today with little wish to return according to their coach.

Eddie Moore says most of the 22man squad have found it “pretty tough” having to clean toilets and make beds in Maori mareas where they stayed well as having to walk to and from training.

He says a team can’t be motivated when members know they have to do such chores before a game.

From the Cook Islands News, Rarotonga PUBLIC servants will have a short walking day next Monday and the private sector is expected to follow all in the interest of beautification.

The Public Service Commissioner, Richard Chapman, in a memorandum to all public servants this week explained that the early cessation of work of non-essential services is to enable all employees to take part in community work such as cleaning up the roads, beaches, reserves and the like.

From the Cook Islands News, Rarotonga HEALTH inspectors supervised the burial of 32 tons of imported chicken at Nikao, Monday.

Part of a cargo consigned to Foodland and Meatco Supermarkets, the perishable goods went bad after two refrigerated containers on the Urte broke down while the ship was enroute to Rarotonga.

From the Cook Islands News, Rarotonga 38 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

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Dai San Fuji Bldg 3-13 llachibon 1-chome. Osaka 550 Phone: 06(533)5821 (Rep ) Cables: MARIQUEEN Osaka Telex: 525-6271 Ssiosa J A Feast of Literature Pacific writers gather in London.

By Nicolas Rothwell FAR from the South Pacific, the region’s best-known writers and literatures were sunk in debate on the future of Pacific letters last month at a conference arranged by the Commonwealth Institute in wintry London.

In the last event of its ‘Pacific Way’ season, the Institute assembled a group of internationally known writers from eight Commonwealth nations of the Pacific for a series of lectures, round-table discussions and presentations on the special problems that confront the region as it develops its own distinctive literary voice.

Among those present were Fijian short-story writer Subramani; a group of prominent New Zealand Maori authors, including Georgina Kamiria Kirby of the Maori Women’s Development Fund; Nora Vagi Brash of Papua New Guinea; and Tonga’s star novelist Epeli Hau’ofa though some of the invited guests, such as Vanuatu’s Grace Molisa, unfortunately could not attend. Other nations represented included the Solomon Islands, with Rexford Orotaloa; Western Samoa, with Tunumafona Apelu Aiavoa: and the Cook Islands, with Kauraka Kauraka.

At times the conference veered into contentious terrain, as the organisers had doubtless envisaged: a flyer distributed by the Commonwealth Institute to whet the appetites of the jaded British press noted in titillating style that “each writer has experienced the dramatic and sometimes unwelcome changes occurring within South Pacific societies today”.

Among the events arranged in connection with the conference was the launch of the new collection of short stories by Subramani, titled The Fantasy Eaters an appropriate highlight since the author himself, doubling in his role as leading academic expert on Pacific literature, gave a moving, allusive keynote address that addressed this very topic: the destruction of fantasies in the region.

His chief literary conclusion was that Tonga’s Epeli Hau’ofa, his colleague from the University of the South Pacific and former deputy private secretary to the King of Tonga, should be considered “possibly the Rabelais of the Pacific”.

But in his broader considerations on regional politics and society Subramani touched on the strange relation that exists, even in the Pacific, between fiction and contemporary history: at once seeming to castigate Pacific writers for their lack of boldness and to commiserate with them for their situation, he traced the “self-conscious, invented origins of regional writing” and highlighted the link between political upheavals and literary output going so far as to claim that writing in Vanuatu was given an impetus by the independence movement and has virtually come to a standstill since the achievement of sovereignty.

“The innocence of the Pacific no longer exists,” he declaimed sadly, before launching into a sustained, sophisticated analysis of the Fiji coups that will win him few friends in Suva. “The disappointing fact that the reality we have known and valued may be a construction was shown forth in one island state, Fiji, where in a period of nine months government changed six times. Each time a new set of players appeared, with their own ioea of ordering reality, taking the people through a range of emotions jubilation, nightmare, fear, and a terrible waiting for the ending. We witnessed how quickly political events can ‘defamiliarise’ the world, in a way only certain kinds of fiction can.”

Subramani went on to suggest a new task for Pacific writers; the construction of alternative realities, and the dismantling of the unitary ideologies that now dominate the region ideologies such as those of the ‘Pacific Way’ or the ‘Melanesian Way’. His remarks, he explained, were meant to be provocative rather than derogatory, out he made plain his dissatisfaction with the fact that today both politics and literature share a belief that there is just one primary reality “to which the Pacific must return”.

While not all writers at the conference would have endorsed Subramani’s overriding conviction that “things are not what they seem” and that a “certain form of post-modernist fiction may be the most appropriate” for the fast-changing, multi-layered region, there was some consensus that a new phase in Pacific writing is dawning. In her introductory remarks Georgina Kirby explained her own view that there were three Pacifies the old, the Pakeha, and the new creation formed from the mingling of the previous two. In the shaping of this amalgam, she suggested, today’s writers had a vital role in play.

She concluded with the wish that Pacific writers should continue to be a “unsettling” effect on the region’s peof)le a hope that was certainly fulfilled by the troubled sentiments expressed during the conference’s keynote session. □ 39 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

Trade Winds

□ Nz-Fiji Business Partnership

A BOOST to trade between New Zealand and Fiji is expected following the formation of the New Zealand-Fiji Business Council in Auckland on October 17. One hundred NZ business representatives attended the inaugural meeting, which followed a luncheon with Fiji’s Minister of Trade and Commerce, Mr Berenado Vunibobo, and 20 Fiji businessmen representing the Fiji-based Fiji-New Zealand Business Council.

The two organisations will arrange for regular consultations between business interests in the two countries, and will make representations to both governments on behalf of their respective commercial sectors.

The first president of the NZ council, Mr Harold Titter of Sedgwick’s Limited, told the luncheon guests that business and goodwill between the two countries was of great importance to both. Mr Vunibobo for his part said NZ traders, investors and tourists were always welcome in Fiji, and he welcomed the formation of the council.

□ Fiji Bans Seafood Exports

FIJI has banned the export of giant clams for 10 years in an attempt to prevent destructive exploitation of the country’s marine products for markets in Southeast Asia and China. Exports of sandfish and brown sandfish are also totally banned and beche-de-mer must be at least 7.6 centimetres long.

□ Europe Helps Tourism

THE Commission of the European Community has approved a grant of funds equal to $F7.4 million for Phase Two of the Pacific Regional Tourism Development Program. The grant will be used by the Tourism Council of the South Pacific for the eight participating states: Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Western Samoa.

In addition to strengthening the tourist resources of the eight countries and promoting the Pacific as a tourist destination, the program will also help those countries assess the impact of tourism on their economies and plan their own most suitable kind of tourism development.

□ Samoa Goes For Gold

COMMEMORATING American Samoa’s initial participation in the Olympic Games under its own flag in Seoul this year, a set of gold and silver coins has been struck. Phillips Mint of Los Angeles, California has produced the coins in denominations of $lOO, $25 and $5. The minting is limited to 1000 sets. The gold coin is 1 oz .999 fine gold, selling for SUS6BS, and the silver coins are .999 pure silver; the soz coin costs SUS 99 and the 1 oz SUS2B.

The Phillips Mint and the Amerika Samoa Bank in Pago Pago, are taking orders for the coins.

□ Power Pumps For Miners

MONO Pumps (Australia) Pty Ltd has released a new range of moulded-tometal pumps, called Mono Merlin, that feature a modular design enabling the 16 models to be bolted together from 21 common parts to form 180 variations. The pumps are particularly suitable for high pressure washing down of mining vehicles.

Light in weight and compact, the Merlin pumps can be trailer-mounted for mobile use and can be multi-staged to achieve high pressure and/or long distance delivery.

Mono pumps use a single rotating element, without valves or gearing, so replacement parts can be fitted without difficulty.

Mono Merlin’s new high-pressure pumps: ideal for the Pacific mining industry 40 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

□ Solomons Build Own Ship

TRADITIONAL islands skills are being employed in the building of a 21-metre wooden ship under construction in Malaita in the Solomons. Master craftsman Abraham Tove and 11 labourers from Tavuilo Village are building the $81600,000 vessel for the Church of Melanesia.

They are using Solomon Islands rosewood for the ship, which will carry 1200 bags of copra. A 3000 hp Volvo engine is to be fitted.

Mr Tove has built five similar boats for use in inter-island trade. He has had no modern formal training, but claims his skills are inherited: his plans work, though they are unrelated to modern boat-building practice.

□ Png Exports Soar

THERE has been a significant increase in Papua New Guinea’s export earnings in the first half of 1988. Total export revenue was K 617 million more than in the first half of 1987.

Gold was up 25 per cent to K 249 million, while copper exports more than doubled to K2OO million. Higher world prices and increased production from tne Ok Tedi mine contributed to the big rise in copper earnings.

Export earnings from logs rose 31 per cent to K 45 million, but the overall rise in income was achieved despite a drop in agricultural exports of Kll million to KlO6 million.

□ Record Profit For Bank

THE National Bank of Solomon Islands has announced a record aftertax profit of $81826,355 for the year ending June 30 1988, representing an increase of 38.6 per cent over the previous year. The annual report said that strong growth was recorded in all areas, but of greatest significance was the level of new loan approvals they reached $l7 million compared with $6.5 million for the 1986-87 year.

The National Bank’s result was announced against a backdrop of troubled economic times for the Solomon Islands. Lower output in major export industries meant the country did not benefit from increased commmodity prices. For the second successive year, the report said, the country sustained a trade deficit that was largely offset by assistance from the European Development Fund.

The Central Bank continued its firm monetary policy to reduce private sector domestic credit and demand for imports, and recorded that a dispute between operators of the country’s largest island tourist resort and customary landowners had had an adverse effect on foreign investment in tourism and other areas. The Solomon Islands Government had approved measures to overcome problems faced by foreign investors, including a ‘one stop investment shop’, improved co-ordination between the national and provincial governments, clear investment guidelines and a range of incentives.

Tne bank’s report said economic growth for 1988/89 would be constrained by the fiscal deficit, rising inflation following depreciation of the ► LeontiefPs Plan For Tahiti FRENCH Polynesia’s President Alexandre Leontieff has followed up his controversial report on the state of the economy with a bold plan for its recovery. Many private businesses have gone bankrupt in the past nine months, or have simply closed their doors and laid off staff.

Business credit has dried up, business spending is down, and more money has been transferred out of Tahiti. The Leontieff economic recovery plan involves an immediate revival of work in heavy construction, public works and welfare housing, with an accent on job training. "

The territorial government and the government of France will foot the bill. Local autonomy has been increasing since 1984, but France pumps more money into the territory each year Tahiti depends largely on customs duties to balance its budget.

The President wants to spend: SUSB3.2 million on new government buildings and public works; SUS 4.4 million on major maintenance of existing facilities; SUSB.9 million on roads, port and river development; SUS 199,5 million on welfare housing; $U5442,000 on a juice producing factory; $U5354,000 on reafforestation, The plan also takes in aid for local fishermen, provision of ice-making machines and the creation of a territorial investment company. Phosphate mining on the westernmost Tuamotu atoll of Mataiva would also be encouraged: the lagoon is estimated to contain 12 million tonnes of good quality phosphate, and the mining would be expected to create 400 jobs that would continue for the project’s potential 12 to 15 year lifetime. During that time mining should return the territorial government some SUSS3 million.

Opposite: American Samoa celebrates the Olympic’s with gold coins. Left and below: Using traditional techniques and skill born of experience, Solomon Islanders are constructing a 21-metre wooden hulled copra vessel. 41 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

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◄ SSI and strong demand for imports, which hampers efforts to control the deficit. In the long term the outlook was better, with substantial investment in fishing, fish processing, agriculture and re-afforestation.

During the year the National Bank of Solomon Islands purchased a fivestorey building in central Honiara as its head office. New premises are planned at Auki and Gizo in the commg year, and a foreign currency exchange counter will be opened at Henderson Airport. The year also saw the commissioning of the vessel MV NBSI, which will provide a floating bank service to the more remote areas of the Western Solomon Islands. n pnRT . R| .. mu 11 wit “ rUnIABLb UlVtn KbbbUb UNI I IT MAY soon be possible for a recompression chamber to be brought to a diver stricken with decompression sickness: and more rapid treatment may thus result in saving the lives of divers who would otherwise die or suffer serious injury. The unit, called the Paracel, has been developed in Australia with the aid of a $1 million government grant. It can be transported by car, boat, plane or helicopter, and offers the possibility of a full response to trauma and thus better survival prospects for patients.

Designer of the unit, Bob Sands, said the chamber can also provide hyperbaric or added pressure treatment for burns patients, smoke inhalation victims and people sustaining crash, spinal and cerebral injuries.

Weighing only 272 kg, it can be easily earned by four men.

NZ-Fiji Business Council members, from left: Peni Bolatagici, Gilbert Ullrich, Trade and Commerce Minister Serenade Vunibobo, Harold Titter, Surendra Sharma, Christian Jean-Luis and Hari Pal Singh.

RAPANUI Chile's Bitter Pacific Legacy Grant McCall looks at Easter Island’s centenary THE remains of Captain Policarpo Toro, a Chilean naval officer who died bitter and destitute in 1921, were retained in the centre of Hangaroa, Rapanui (Easter Island) on September 9 this year in a square bearing his name.

It was on that day a century ago that Captain Toro, representing the Government of Chile, took possession of Rapanui in the name of his country’s glory and his own plans for a sheep property on the world’s most remote island. In those days Chile boasted a large Pacific merchant fleet and had won a hard fought “war of the Pacific” with Peru and Bolivia from 1879 to 1883, which provided Chile with its rich nitrate and mineral lands. At the cessation of hostilities Chile began looking to consolidate its position, to boost its image on a larger stage than South America.

To do this, argued patriotic writers of the time such as Vicuna McKenna, Chile needed to have a stake in the Pacific . . . but the much of the South Pacific had already been claimed.

It was the ambitious Policarpo Toro who thus sought to bring glory both to his country and to himself by proposing to investigate Rapanui as a possible extension of empire.

Rapanui’s first encountered with Europeans was in 1722, when the Dutchman Jacob Roggeveen rolled up in search of wealth. Due to a minor officer’s nervousness Roggeveen’s shore party of more than 120 men opened fire on its hosts, killing several.

From that time until 1862, ships carrying explorers, businessmen, adventurers and whalers came into Rapanui waters. There were continued killings of islanders, but most contacts were friendly, with trade a prime object. The islanders traded local products and services for those from the outside: taro and sweet potato for nails and cloth, sex and other entertainments for haircuts. Not only was the island known as a useful over for supplies, but its huge stone figures, the moai, were soon famous, a factor that increased its popularity with passing ships.

It was in 1802 that the course of Rapanui history changed irrevocably.

From the original settlement date the development of the island’s unique culture had followed a slow but understandable course. Early Polynesian settlers carved small moai figures than larger ones until around the 15th century. There was a shift in worship from moai to the spring arrival of the sooty tern.

This internally derived social and cultural development came to a tragic end in 1862, when labour-hungry Peru permitted a greedy and disastrous labour ‘recruitment’ trade from its port of Callao. It was an Irishman, Joseph Byrne who had already had a chequered career in the Australian goldfields and, later, New Caledonia who proposed the importation of Polynesian so-called ‘colonists’ to Peru. The trade lasted only a few months, but that was long enough for rapacious captains to raid islands throughout Polynesia.

Due to its relative proximity to the South American continent, Rapanui was attacked in December 1862 alone by as many as eight ships; in all, the raids (from which only a dozen ‘reemits’ even returned), disease and despair probably halved the pre-attack Rapanui population of 3000 to 4000.

Shortly after, Sacred Heart missionaries arrived, along with a French businessman partner named Jean- Baptiste Dutrou-Bornier, and convinced the islanders to cluster in European style settlements away from their coastal monuments and traditional lands. The missionaries and the businessman eventually parted company, the Church sponsoring the departure to Mangareva and Tahiti of more than 300 Rapanui.

By 1877, when the islanders killed Dutrou-Bornier (who had come to style himself “king”), the population had dropped to 110 persons.

That same businessman had initiated the idea of turning Rapanui into a commercial sheep station when he came to Sydney in 1872 to load building materials and 435 head of merino sheep for his enterprise. After his death his partners carried on the enterprise, mostly leaving the Rapanui to rebuild their lives. Chiefs were converted (by occasional visiting missionaries) into kings and a ‘Catholic Government’ was established in the 1880 s. There still was no direct European presence on the island.

Though Policarpo Toro visited the island several times during the 1880 s, his mission was to speak to the Tahitian ranch manager there, not the islanders: negotiations with French commercial and political authorities were carried out in Papeete and by letter from Chile, and islanders were not directly informed. Nevertheless, when Toro carried out his formal annexation ceremony on September 9, 1888, he carried with him two documents, in both Spanish and Rapanui.

One was a ‘proclamation’ declaring the cession of Rapanui, subject to Chilean government ratification. The other was termed a ‘cession’ and carried the signatures and marks of 12 prominent Rapanui’s first islander governor, Sergio Rapu (left) with Norwegian explorer and/anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl. 43 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

of the time, stating (in Spanish) that they gave political authority over their island to Chile but retained their titles.

The Rapanui/Tahitian version, on the other hand, was couched in language that claimed Chile would act as protector and “friend of the land”.

Almost every Rapanui adult knows what Atamu Tekena, the king at the time, said to Policarpo Toro at the ceremony. The islander pulled up a handful of grass and gave it to the navy man, declaring, “This is for your animals”. Tekena next scooped up a handful of earth and shoved it into the pocket of his European garment, affirming, “This is for us”.

The story does not, however, figure in any Chilean textbook.

Policarpo Toro’s brother, Pedro Pablo, came to the island as Chilean government representative soon after the annexation, along with 20-odd Chilean ‘colonists’. The trade in meat with Tahiti discontinued and the Toro brothers established their sheep station, supplied by their own ship and enjoying the patronage of Chilean President Jose Manuel Balmaceda.

Defeat for the Chilean venture was not long in coming: the colonists died or deserted, civil war broke out in Chile and Balmaceda, defeated and depressed, committed suicide in August 1891. The next year, the Toros’ ship sank at Rapanui and the settlement was abandoned the Rapanui, by all accounts, reclaiming their island and its customs. Atamu Tekena, who signed the treaty with Toro, died and a new king, the young Riro, was elected in a popular ballot.

After the Departure of the Toro interests no ships stopped at Rapanui for six years. Under Riro’s rule the island redeveloped and the 400 merinos became 5600.

The lack of Chilean interest in its new colony and declared symbol of world importance was hardly surprising, given the turmoil on the mainland. The election of 1896 stabilised affairs long enough for Enrique Merlet, a Chilean businessman, to put in his claim for the right to develop the island and, in due course, attempt unsuccessfully to claim the ownership of all lands there. Merlet contracted a manager, Alberto Sanchez, for ‘his’ estate and sent him there in 1898.

Sanchez made uneasy accord with Riro, who received him well. But despite attempts to please the manager, tne interest of the aptly named “Easter Island Exploitation Company” and the rule of Riro could not come to an accommodation.

In 1899 Riro, trusting in the honour of his adversaries and especially in Sanchez, sailed to Valparaiso to speak with Merlet. In a small hotel there, Merlet’s henchmen poisoned the young king. A short while later Merlet himself came to Rapanui, swaggered about, bragging of his triumph and setting fire to islander plantations in a professed act of contempt. Those Rapanui who had not come to live in the European settlement (site of the mission church and close to the headquarters of the Company) were forced at gunpoint to move to town.

Slowly but surely the islanders were deprived of their ancestral lands. Merlet went bankrupt and sold out to British interests, who remained until 1953. Until 1966, the Rapanui were subjected to strict control of their movements, unable to leave the few hectares of Hangaroa, the mission settlement. They had no priest, no educational or health facilities until the 19305. Movement off the island was forbidden, which prompted 50 or so desperate islanders to take to sea in Boston whalers, attempting to escape to another and presumably better life.

Petty administrators and Chilean officials made their own regulations (such as forbidding the speaking of the language) or enforced dictatorial laws applicable, it seems, only on Rapanui.

Most Rapanui know the events of their recent past, though the explanation for their megalithic prehistory is less clear. Some are still greatly bitter toward Chile, not because the government maltreated them but because those authorities who had promised to protect them in the ‘cession’ and ‘proclamation’ allowed others to abuse both the land and the people.

Rapanui became a full part of Chile in 1966, with the islanders becoming full citizens after 78 years of virtual slavery. In rapid succession a secret United States Air Force base was built, regular flights began from Tahiti and Chile and the resident outsider population increased tenfold to 500 people. Rapanui were allowed to move about their land where and when they wished, and to travel off their island without restriction. In the generation since they have come to reside, usually with foreign spouses, in Europe and America even in Australia and New Zealand though three-quarters of them continue to call Hangaroa, still the only town, home.

Despite their history, many Rapanui are married to Chileans and some have considerable experience of life on the mainland. They respect Chilean manners and good intentions, even if they despair at what they see as failure to complete promises.

Since 1966 the Chilean government, both the Socialist government of the murdered Salvador Allende or the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, has spent millions of dollars on Easter Island. Electricity, modern sewerage and water supplies are enjoyed by most of the population.

Dozens of projects have provided housing for poorer islanders, and the land is protected from being purchased by non-islanders. Various public works projects keep much of the workforce in employment (albeit mainly as labourers): one such was the construction of a huge gymnasium that can hold almost all of the 2800 population (including 700 Chileans and their families). But there are complaints that the roads remain unpaved, vehicles showering red dust on pedestrian and household goods alike.

There is a volunteer radio station and a government television service, along with radiotelephone links. The island primary school was recently refurbished and there is a large hospital, but the latter is staffed often by inexperienced doctors, recently qualified and lacking in experience to serve a population 3600 kilometres from the next medical facility. Since 1984 the Governor himself has been a Rapanui, Sergio Rapu, educated in Chile and the United States in archaeology, though most other heads of government service are outsiders.

The major grievance of most of the islanders today, as with Australia’s Aboriginal population, centres on land. Since aU Rapanui know the story of Atamu Tekena and that land was never sold or given to any outsider, they resent the land laws currently in force. While 400 titles have been granted, this represents neither the majority of the population nor the hectarage occupied. Since there is no restriction on the number of titles for which an islander may apply, and since the process takes place entirely within the Chilean bureaucratic structure, a number of the more cash- Chilean adventurer Policarpo Toro dreamt of bringing glory to his country and himself. 44 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

oriented Rapanui have two or three titles one even has nine! The main concern with the land is what is to happen with the large amount managea by the descendant of the Merlet and British ranch, known today by the acronym Sasipa. ie o _ a non OdMUd IS d UUdliyU d ClUdSl IlOIl” governmental organisation - and the Pargest employer on the island. Always managed by an outsider, whether Scots or, today, a Chilean, the enterprise occupies 40 per cent (about 6500 (tectares) of the land and lays claims to more. Though important for the Rapanui wage economy, the enterprise can hardly be judged a success- in February 1988 Sasipa declared a loss of 24 million pesos (about |A143,000 or 1U596,000) compared with a loss of 15 8 million pesos in 1986 ' ' Apart from Chilean government wage packets, the other main source of income is from tourism. In contrast to other parts of the South Pacific (and the world), tourism on Rapanui is solidly m the hands of the islanders themselves. Vehicles of various shapes and sizes participate on a contract basis with the large local tour operators and a number of hotels and pensions provide more capacity than there are tourists at the present time.

Chilean newspapers trumpeted this February the government largesse planned for Rapanui in its centennial year. Plans were announced for imprqvements to the island’s limited port facilities, including installations for small-scale commercial fishermen to be placed at useful points around the coast. Development plans include enlarging the museum, constructing a library and improved drainage about the town. The amount involved, 280 million pesos (JAI.7 million or SUSI.I2 million) is big money in Chilean terms, especially since it is in addition to recurrent expenditure.

Rapanui’s foreseeable future is thus bound to the destiny of Chile. Most islanders are bilingual, speaking their own language and Chilean Spanish.

Their educational qualifications and • * * | <i • experience are with Chilean mstitutions and the mmority of tourists who SU PP ! V the with some cash mcor " e c ° me from Chile.

As the rate . of intermarriage with Chlleans Brow’8 row ’ ln- ‘eSratlon of the Oceanic Chileans (t , he currei " Governor s dramatic P hrase > “?> n .f l0 c nal '' fe ? I,ke ' y increase. Already, Summer Institute of Linguistics researchers on the island " ole a d , edme m knowledge of the Rapanui language as Chilean Spanish comes to predominate.

But rurm ing counter to these powerful waves of influence from distant p arts there is a growing indigenous p r id e . In 1983 an islander-based ‘Council of Elders (or notable persons)’ was founded, with questions of land and local autonomy its central concerns. This Council, under the leadership of retired naval nurse Alberto Hotu, writes letters to the Chi- | ean p ress about local grievances and, to those who speak Spanish, will give interviews on local afmirs to any visiting journalist or casual visitor. Perhaps emulating the government-nominated ‘Sons of Rapanui Award’, the council has also designated certain outsiders to represent the island to the world.

One of these, the redoubtable Thor Heyerdahl, was invested with the title in 1986, just after he received the government award. Heyerdahl, whose Aku-Aku adventures thrust Rapanui into modern world consciousness, returned to Rapanui for the first time since his 1955-6 expedition in 1984.

Since then he has carried out three seasons of archaeological work to promote his theory that the original inhabitants of Rapanui came not from Polynesia, but from South America, Ethnic pride, apart from its political manifestation in the Council, man- • r ip I ifests itself in an interest in things ancient, as a growing number of voung persons interest themselves in body decoration and dances. To be sure, such activities are intended for contmuesto tourist consumption; but they also highlight pr.de in the past It is unlikely that a special feeling of lslanderness TT P erha P s ev . en RaPanu.ness - will disappear. A positive side of tourism is hat the local population is constantly reminded of its uniqueness, its special quality: implicity because people come from such distances to see the monuments, explicity because the island’s culture has a commercial value. There is a wistful dream among some even quite sober Rapanui as they glance at the microstales of Niue and Tuvalu and the proposals for autonomy for much smaller Tokelau: What if . . .? It is not a serious or even daily thought, but an abiding query. Some have estimated its cost, others its consequences, Rapanui rests, like the other two points of the Polynesian triangle, not a land with its own destiny but a captive of outsider influence, with the resentful disadvantages and the admitted benefits that come from such a status. □ Associate Professor Grant McCall lectures on social anthropology and is the Director of the Centre for South Pacific Studies at the University of New South Wales. He has conducted fieldwork on Rapanui since 1972 and has written many books and articles on the South Pacific.

Rapanui’s famous moai, or ancestral figures, represent the apogee of an isolated Polynesian culture that proved to be terribly fragile when confronted by the greed and arrogance of 19th century Chilean ‘colonists’.

Tropkalities

Japan In The Pacific

■ N response to the special report on ■Japan’s Pacific plans Pacific Islands ■ Monthly, September; One or two decades ago it may have been debatable where Japan’s economy would be in the 21st century. Today it appears inevitable that Japan’s economy will be at the forefront.

Japan’s emergence as an economic superpower raises several questions on what role Pacific basin nations will play in “the Pacific century”. What status will the basin nations acquire in a Japanese-dominated environment?

Will they be Japanese backwater banana republics (similar to the unequal relationship between the US and its dependent southern neighbours of Latin America) or respectable trade partners with Japan and the world (akin to US/Canada relationships)?

Perpetual dependence may require reconciliation at a later date under less than peaceful circumstances. Leaders must take an in-depth look at developmental strategies. Could the basin effort be unknowinglv careering toward disaster?

In Latin America we see USsupported dictatorships controlling a discordant peasantry a peasantry left out of the economic equation of modernisation. Only the elites have prospered, squandering profits on US and European consumer goods rather than re-investing in local growth in effect, preventing any chance of wealth trickling down.

In Nicaragua, the Philippines, Haiti and South Africa attempts at reconciliation have resulted in bloodshed.

In the Pacific, Fiji’s upheaval was caused in part by an economically motivated ethnic rivalry. As an economic underclass, native Fijians demanded political superiority. This time a general was on their side. Perhaps Rabuka’s plan of development will lessen dependency and move Fiji closer to modernisation.

New Caledonia represents a witches’ cauldron. As nickel mining profits continue to flow out of New Caledonia the indigenes are denied fair and equitable opportunities. A French withdrawal tomorrow would only result in a dependent New Caledonia, unless nickel profits are re-invested in the local economy now.

To avoid fretting over similar scenarios in future, today’s basin leaders must ensure that the bywords of basin development are, for example, reafforestation not deforestation; reinvestment not disinvestment; economic incentives not economic disincentives; fisheries development not fisheries depletion, and equal opportunity.

The basin nations must become energetic self-starters to attract Japanese investment. Relying on exports to Japan and the rest of the world to drive development will only deny opportunities for meaningful modernisation. At all costs, the basin nations must prepare for trade agreements offering opportunities for selfsufficiency and national pride.

G W Comstock California USA

Know These Pacific Ships?

A MARITIME museum at Jervis Bay on the South Coast of NSW is recording, with the aid of photographs and artifacts, the history of Jervis Bay for the public.

Huskisson, a small town on Jervis Bay, was a thriving boat-building town from 1864 until 1980. Of the 120 ships known to have been built in Huskisson, seven were built especially for the Papua New Guinea and Pacific Islands area. We have some information on these ships, but are seeking any photographs, information or anecdotes about these ships that would help us in our research.

The Maclaren King was built in 1923 by Joseph Dent as a mission boat for New Guinea Mission.

The John Bolton was launched on February 11, 1933, arriving in Rabaul on June 1, 1933. This ship and the following ships were all built for W R Carpenter by R W Settrie 8c Son.

The Desikoko was launched May 28, 1934. In 1937 the Desikoko escaped the Rabaul volcano eruption but sank off Newcastle on January 9, 1947.

The Duranbah was launched on August 5, 1936, and was seized by the Japanese on January 23, 1942.

However, she appears in the Australian New Zealand Register in 1946, and in Lloyds Register in 1947-48.

The Komaiwai, launched in 1947, escaped the Suva earthquake in 1953.

The Madang was launched in 1947.

The JBC, launched in 1949, was a wooden ketch. We have no information on the last two ships.

We would be extremely grateful for any help readers may give us.

Vera Hatton

Tropicalities: Festival

IN 1971 I was asked to create and direct the first Pacific Festival of Arts, held in Suva in 1972. The object of the festival was to safeguard, resurrect and preserve the cultural heritage of the people of the Pacific islands. The concern of the South Pacific Commission in particular many of the leaders of island countries was that their cultures were being stifled and endangered by the impact of influence such as movies, television and pop music.

The first festival was a great success; for the first time in history the people of the islands came together to show the best of their dance, music, arts and crafts to the world. They began to understand and to respect the value of their own cultures; they saw and enjoyed the work of their brothers and sisters from other islands.

It was decided to continue the festivals every four years, on each occasion in a different host country. The emphasis and the reasons for the festivals were to remain the same; to show the best of each country’s cultures and their development. It was never meant to be a forum for political activity; in fact the fourth festival scheduled for New Caledonia was cancelled following attempts to transform it into a political platform.

Having been given the responsibility to direct that first festival, I nave been involved as an adviser or as a very interested spectator in the festivals that followed. At the fifth festival, in Townsville, I was distressed to see the way the festival was heading.

Instead of the coming together of groups in brotherhood and friendship, at this last festival we saw a selfish emphasis on the unhealthy sponsoring of political activities. Even the festival logo did not follow the tradition that required it to embrace features common to all the Pacific; the sun, the Pacific Ocean and canoes.

The Townsville festival showed an unforgiveable lack of organisation; little thought was given to helping the participating countries show their performances to best advantage. Many were unable to present the full programs they had prepared for this festival programs that had been rehearsed over months and at considerable expense; there was no overall program of events and performers, Press and public were mostly in the dark as to what might or might not be performed, when and where on any 46 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

SPEC X

Forum Secretariat

(formerly South Pacific Bureau for Economic Co-operation [SPEC] Applications are invited from citizens of member countries tor the following positions within the FORUM SECRETARIAT (formerly the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Co-operation):

Project Officer (Investment And Industry)

The successful candidate will be responsible for initiating measures to assist Forum Island Countries (FICs) in their efforts to promote investment and industry development. In particular, measures that will assist the production capability of firms in the FICs will be given emphasis.

The officer will be a member of the professional staff of the Trade Division and will be required to assist in a team effort on a wide variety of matters relating to trade, investment and industry promotion, and will undertake special assignments as directed.

Applicants for this position should be university graduates with a major in economics or commerce, or possess relevant industry experience. A minimum of five years experience in the commercial and/or public sector is essential. Experience in dealing with regional and international organisations would be an advantage.

Information And Publications Officer

This is a new position, designed to establish effective information, publicity and publications services covering all aspects of the Secretariat’s work programme, political and other activities. The successful applicant will be responsible to the Secretariat’s Deputy Director (Policy, Development and Administration) for acquiring and distributing information materials required by member countries, liaising with regional and international media, issuing press releases as required, speech-writing, producing publications, newsletters, brochures and other promotional material, in addition to some public relations duties.

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced and versatile person to make a substantial contribution to awareness of the role of the Forum Secretariat, both within and beyond the Pacific region. Applicants should have relevant tertiary qualifications, and/or equivalent experience, in the information, media or publications fields. They should also possess sound writing, photographic and commuications skills, and a working knowledge of editing, design, typesetting and the production of publications. Previous, relevant experience in the Pacific Islands region would be highly regarded.

General Information

These appointments will carry attractive remuneration packages, taxfree for non-Fiji citizens and payable in Fiji dollars, including housing or housing allowances, education and child allowances, superannuation payments and medical, life and travel insurance benefits. The appointees will be based at the Secretariat’s Headquarters in Suva, Fiji, but may be required to undertake periodic duty travel. Appointments would be for two years initially, renewable by mutual agreement.

Applications for both vacancies close on 16 January 1989. As it is intended to make the appointments as soon as possible, the successful applicants must be able to take up the positions shortly afterwards.

Applications should contain full information on education and career backgrounds and should list names, addresses and telephone numbers of at least three referees with whom the applicants have been associated in professional capacities.

Applications should be addressed to: The Director Forum Secretariat GPO Box 856 Suva, Fiji Telephone: 312600; Telex: 2229 FJ; Fax: 302204 All enquiries should be made to Mr Rene Wilson, Deputy Director, on 312600 extension 202. particular day.

This concerned many of the visiting delegation leaders who had been involved in the other festivals. As a direct result of their wishes, and acting from my own concern about the festival’s future, I would like to restate some points I made in reports after the first and second festivals.

All future festivals should be held only in island countries. The islands of the South Pacific have a tradition of hospitality; everybody becomes involved to welcome guests and honour them. In metropolitan countries this sense of tradition simply does not exist, and it is further marred by a misinformed media too often ignorant of Pacific affairs. In metropolitan countries the festival can also be a target or an opportune platform for political activists, which is completely contrary to the aims of an arts festival. In Townsville one wondered if we were really attending a festival of the arts, so restrictive and rude was the army of security personnel.

The metropolitan members of the South Pacific Commission France, Australia, New Zealand, England and the USA could best help this revival by contributing financially to a Cultural Fund. Even modest amounts set aside each year could accumulate in four years to create a worthwhile sum: for example, the millions the Australian Government gave for the Townsville festival could have provided $lOO,OOO each year for more than 50 years. This would have been much more valuable in supporting Pacific arts . . . and could have created goodwill for Australia that would have flowed throughout Oceania.

For each festival, half of this money could go to the host to help with the costs of feeding, housing and technical requirements. The rest could be divided evenly among the South Pacific Commission nations that will participate in the next festival; this would give each a basic amount to start their own fund-raising to pay the costs of preparation and travel. What a boon this would be for small island countries! What a help to the Cook Islands, which has the responsibility of hosting the sixth festival in 1992.

I, like so many, feel very strongly that the festival is a worthwhile event, a ‘must’ for the South Pacific’s peoples if they are to retain their pride in their arts and cultures so these can survive and enrich the world. The festival must not be divisive: it must above all remain opposed to those elements that divide us, and instead should accent that which we can share: brotherhood, peace and joy. □ Victor Carell Sydney Australia 47 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

Pacific People

Tonga's Cultured Crown Prince Urbane in appearance and manner, Tonga’s Crown Prince Tupouto’a has a refined British accent, legacy of his training at Sandhurst and Oxford, and is endowed with a keen, inquiring intellect. He has been received by Queen Elizabeth, Emperor Hirohito and a variety of European royalty, and has travelled widely. As the eldest child of the Kingdom of Tonga’s reigning monarch, King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV, Crown Prince Tupouto’a is next line to the throne: barring some unforeseen event, he is to paraphrase Kipling the man who will be King. By Ed Rampell I IS Royal Highness (or “HRH” to his friends) says he had "a | Jj fairly normal childhood” —at least Tor a member of the ruling class and that “it was not at all like a fairytale”. His childhood alternated between Nukualofa’s Royal Palace and preparation for his future reign with overseas education at New Zealand and Swiss boarding schools, Sandhurst and Oxford, where the future Minister of Foreign Affairs and Defence studied international law (a discipline he dismisses, since those who have the power to enforce it never obey international law, and those who seek its protection are never powerful enough to put it into effect).

The Crown Prince is an amalgam of European erudition and Oceanic aristocracy. What will his ascendancy to the throne herald for his domain?

“Naturally, every sovereign would like to leave his country better off than he found it. I will do more or less the same thing my father does,” declares the Crown Prince, who promises to take into account public opinion.

The thoroughly modern HRH has been surprised by criticism regarding his economic development initiatives: “I always thought that one might be criticised for going too slowly,” he says, “but I was taken aback by criticism that I was moving too fast.” Some traditionalists believe the Crown Prince’s Continental education has made him more Western than Tongan in his thinking. He admits to an admiration of the economies of small nations such as the Vatican, Switzerland and Singapore ... as well as Monaco. He favours the growth of a manufacturing industry in Tonga and introduced a computer training program to his armed forces (schooling also available to the public at large).

The Kingdom’s current 250-man military force and its Sandhursttrainea Defence Minister represent much more than tin soldiers on display. The Tongan army and navy receives one million pa’anga per year out of a total P 33 million annual national budget; its strengths includes Israeli Uzi machine pistols, Australianbuilt patrol boats, and participation in training programs provided by the United States, New Zealand, Australia, India and Taiwan.

“We’re more or less locked into the strategies most prevalent in the Pacific, and whatever affects the peace in the Pacific is obviously going to affect us eventually. We have a tremendous interest in seeing that peace is preserved in the Pacific,” explains the Crown Prince, whose nation was a staunch ally of the United Kingdom during World War 11.

The Defence Minister dismisses the possibility of a military coup in present-day Tonga, though he points out that the Kingdom experienced its own putsch and high-ranking political assassinations more than 100 years ago. The Friendly Islands experienced periods of great instability, and a series of civil wars that lasted for almost 50 years during the 19th century. As Foreign Minister, HRH indicates that this bloody history conditioned Tonga’s foreign policy “to be a stabilising influence in the Pacific and to steer a middle course . . . ingrained in the Tongan people is a marked desire for orderly progress”.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs concedes that “our foreign policy is more conservative than most countries in the Pacific, simply because we are a more conservative nation”. Tonga, which is the new Chairman of the South Pacific Forum, is one of the few Forum nations that has not signed the regional body’s South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty.

The Crown Prince admits to a love of the world of espionage, an interest that probably stems from growing up in literally the corridors of power. “I’m quite good at palace intrigue,” he says with a smile: power plays can reach positively Shakespearian proportions in the Kingdom, and HRH’s office in the modern Foreign Ministry building is lined with books about covert actions, military strategy and the like. The former Sandhurst cadet who also saw action in Cyprus is even at work on a spy novel of his own, set during World War 11.

Crown Prince Tupouto’a asserts that Kingdom’s democratisation process “does not have to adhere to a timetable imposed by foreigners and journalists . . . Without any fanfare, it’ll just happen. Tonga will merely evolve without any great celebration or fuss or noise. Because the structure is already there”. Presumably, he is referring to the realm’s constitution; however, Tonga still remains more monarchial than consitutional.

When combined with a landowning gentry class, it remains to be seen whether South Seas revolutionaries will some day storm the Royal Palace.

Already ’Akilisa Pohiva, an MP representing a commoner constituency, has 48 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

caused a stir by professing admiration for China’s land reform policies.

In his capacity as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Crown Prince Tupouto’a has travelled to the Soviet Union three times; during his most recent trip in January 1987, he met with USSR Foreign Minister Shevardnadze. “He is very intelligent and knows a lot about the Pacific every PM, minister, and GNP of every island, even Tuvalu. He knows much more about Oceania than US Secretary of State Shultz,” insists HRH. “I was very impressed with Mr Shevardnadze’s very detailed knowledge of the Pacific.”

During the Crown Prince’s visit to Moscow, Soviet foreign aid “came up in the discussions, but from our point of view we’d prefer to develop trade links rather than straight-out transport-aid”.

In July this year, however, Tonga signed a Friendship Treaty with the United States which, among other things, reaffirms Washington’s right to transit nuclear powered and armed naval craft within that archipelago.

Will Nuku’alofa permit the Soviets to transit nuclear capable craft within its territory? The Crown Prince responds with a chuckle: “I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.”

Tonga is an old hand at playing the Great Power rivalry game; during the 19th Century it signed no less than five treaties with Western nations. Last year the King visited France’s Mururoa nuclear testing site; this year, with the visit of CINCPAC commander Admiral Hays, plus a US Congresswoman and Ambassador taking part in a high level delegation during Her Majesty’s 70th birthday celebrations, Tonga tilted toward Washington. It remains to be seen whether the future King will play his Moscow card.

The Crown Prince is part of a regal quarter of the court’s children, including Their Royal Highnesses Princess SaTote Mafile’o Pilolevu Tuita, Prince ’Alaivahamama’o (the Hon Ma’atu), and Prince Lavaka-Ata-’Ulukalala.

With a twinkle in his eye, Tupouto’a claims that the reason King Taufa’ahau and Queen Halaevalu Mata’aho never divorced is because neither wanted custody of the children! Their Majesties’ firstborn has never married, presumably because he has too much personal integrity to be yoked to an arranged marriage.

“Royalty doesn’t stop you from having personal problems,” he confesses.

In any case, Crown Prince Tupouto’a will be a force to reckon with when he assumes the Crown.

Born in 1948, he spent much of his adolescence in Europe as a member of the Flower Children generation. As a youth, he protested the Vietnam War and even wore “longish hair” which is now short and greying. The Crown Prince has matured from idealist to pragmatist, but his island background will serve the Kingdom well as it moves into the next century. One thing is certain the reign of this cosmopolitan man will be characterised by true style. □ A Notion of Readers Tonga s new cosmopolitan attitude reflected in literature. By Ed Rampell ONE of the many surprising delights the Kingdom of Tonga offers is a thriving literary scene. This includes a number of news-related publications, correspondents, poetry, fiction, a bookstore and even a local publishing house. To what does Tonga owe its flourishing and sophisticated literary life?

“Now it’s reached a point where ale want to read, to find out more, e past it didn’t catch on, but from 1980 people have been dying for information, and they want to read more about Tongans,” declares Pesi Fonua, one of the Friendly Islands’ literary lions. Fonua is the publisher of Vava’u Press, which prints Tongarelated books and a bilingual, bimonthly magazine. A poet and fiction writer, he has written a collection of short stories, Sun and Rain , and is at work on a novel.

Matangi Tonga is one of the finest magazines in the Pacific islands today.

Its hard news and feature stories are well written and thoughtful, dealing with subjects ranging from the history of Tonga’s constitution and a controversial proposed hazardous waste plant to a Rotuman Polynesian prince seeking secession from Fiji and a Tongan pro-football player in the St Louis Cardinals team. In journalism or fiction, Pesi Fonua knows his beat his native land. Vava’u Press boasts two computers at its modest offices to enhance the publishing of Matangi Tonga's six issues a year and the publishing house’s fiction and nonfiction Tongan-linked literature.

The government-owned and operated Tonga Chronicle is a weekly newspaper with Tongan and English editions published by His Majesty’s Information Office. Although an organ of the administration, it is not mindless propaganda, and the quality of the writing is on a par with other Pacific papers. Feature writer Fuaiapi Sime, tor example, writes with insight and compassion about the needs of the handicapped, alienated youth and the like. The weekly, which has been published since 1964, also employs computers at its Nukualofa offices.

Tonga Today is another indigenous magazine, privately owned and printed monthly. It, too, deals with the issues of the day in each bilingual issue. In addition, there are four or so monthly church publications.

Tonga even has its own, internationally respected novelist, Epeli Hau’ofa, a satirist and author of Tales of the Tikongs and Kissing the Nederends , perennial sell-outs in Nukualofa. Dr Hau’ofa is currently a professor of Literature at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji the perfect Pacific locale for any budding Pacific Mark Twain. Epeli Hau’ofa is widely regarded a prime candidate for author of ‘the Great Oceanic Novel’ and Tonga’s answer to Samoa’s brilliant Albert Wendt.

Many factors have combined to produce Tonga’s literary renaissance. One key element is Tonga’s constitution, which has enshrined freedom of speech as a basic civil liberty. Despite some limitations imposed by the Internationally educated and the first of his country’s leaders to be truly global in outlook, Tupouto’a (left) will nevertheless retain the conservative style of his father the King (above).

Tonga’s Epeli Hau’ofa: a literary lion causing a stir in the Kingdom with his outspoken fiction. 49 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

Transition Appointed: Justice Michael Kruse, as Chief Justice of the High Court of American Samoa. The first indigenous Samoan to hold the post, he took office on November 1.

Mr Kruse was appointed an Associate Justice of the court in 1987, and before that practised law in American Samoa for 15 years.

Nominated: Dr Sang Tae Han (Republic of Korea) as regional director of WHO for the Western Pacific by the WHO Regional Committee. Dr Han is presently the special representative of the WHO Director-General for the Western Pacific.

The nomination will be sent to the WHO Executive Board, which will make the appointment during its meeting in Geneva in January, 1989.

Born in Seoul in 1928, Dr Han gained his Doctor of Medicine from Seoul National University in 1955, a Master of Public Health from the University of Minnesota in 1957, and a PhD in Medicine Science from Seoul National University in 1966.

Died: Dr Lasarusa Vusoniwailala, 45, general manager of the Fiji Broadcasting Commission, at Suva on September 24. He was educated at Queen Victoria School and first joined the FBC as an announcer in 1962. He spent five years with Philips Electrical before rejoining the FBC for a brief period on contract in 1975. That year ne won a scholarship at the University of Hawaii, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in communications, later taking a master’s degree and then a doctorate at the University of Washington.

Appointed: Dr Sione Latukefu, as principal of the Pacific Theological College, Suva. The college provides further education at BD and MTh level for ministry students from the mainline churches of many Pacific countries.

Dr Latukefu is a minister of the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga. After doctoral studies at the Australian National University, he taught history at the University of Papua New Guinea until 1985. Since then he has held visiting fellowships at the Australian National University. His best known work is Church and State in Tonga, and he has written many articles in the field of Pacific history.

Died: Mr Pomani Teio, 44, general manager of the Cook Islands Development Bank, at Rarotonga on September 19, after a short illness. He is survived by his wife and five children.

A former scholarship student and public service clerk, Mr Teio was one of the first Cook Islanders seconded to the National Bank when it opened in Rarotonga in 1972.

Died: Mr Ponia Maka, a respected teacher in the Cook Islands, at his home in Aitutaki on September 4, aged 74. He was educated at Wesley College, Paerata, and Te Ante Maori Boys’ College in New Zealand, and became a teacher in Aitutaki in 1935.

He taught in several schools and was a principal for many years, as well as lecturing at the Nikao Teachers’

Training College. Mr Maka retired officially in 1976, but continued to meet requests for relief teaching.

Died: Mr William Mune Morrison, on March 13, at Te Awamutu, New Zealand, aged 93. Born in 1895 at Ba, Fiji, Mr Morrison was the son of John Goodbrand Morrison of Scotland and his wife Jane Emmaline Mune of Brisbane, Queensland.

William was the third of six children; his older sister Grace will long be remembered for her pioneering work with mothers and babies in Fiji (the Morrison Maternity Unit at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva is named after her).

After World War I, Mr Morrison worked as a fitter in Foster’s Dry Dock, Milwall, London, and in the British merchant fleet before returning to Fiji and in 1924 becoming chief engineer of the Penang sugar mill. He was also for a time second engineer on the SS Malake and the government ship Pioneer.

When gold was discovered in the Tavua Basin, Mr Morrison left the sea to try his luck in what is now Vatukoula in 1935, where he remained until 1970. He lived for a period in Australia with his son John, and at the time of his death was living with his daughter Enid in New Zealand. His wife, formerly Beryl Bentley, predeceased him in 1968; she was buried in Suva and her husband’s ashes are interred in the same grave. Mr Morrison is survived by two sons and a daughter, seven grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

Appointed: Ms Maryanne Bailhe, as program administrator of the Section 177 Health Care Program, which offers health care services to residents of the atolls adversely affected by US nuclear testing in the Pacific. Mercy International Health Services of Michigan manages the program on behalf of the Marshall Islands Government in the atolls of Bikini, Eniwetak, Rongelap and Utrick. □ < Crown (for example, one can not mock the aristocracy in print), the free speech tenet was upheld in May by a historic Supreme Court decision, (see , PIM , August). ‘Akilisi Pohiva, dismissed from his post as a civil servant in 1985, won a court case over his dismissal plus damages as well as a seat in Parliament representing a commoner constituency.

Along with a number of fellow dissidents, Pohiva also publishes Kele’a, the main organ of dissent in Tonga.

Kele’a fearlessly publishes allegations of royal malfeasance and corruption, openly challenging the powers-that-be, and nas added a new, politicised aspect to the Islands’ print media. If anybody in the Friendly Isles has the courage to say that the Emperor isn’t wearing any clothes, it’s ‘Akilisi (which means, appropriately enough, Achilles) Pohiva and Kele’a.

Another essential element in Tonga’s literary rebirth is the society’s nigh literacy rate. Pesi attributes high literacy to “Tonga’s compulsory educational system”, and Crown Prince Tupouto’a believes that the source lies in fealty to religion; “each family teaches its children to read the Bible”, he says. Missionaries introduced the written word to Tonga, already rich in oral literature.

But today’s Tongan history and culture are being recorded by the printing press, perhaps in part because this relatively underdeveloped island nation has deliberately not been inundated by other mass media. Television is still in its infancy as a new station begins limited broadcasts; King Taufa’ahau installed a satellite dish on the Palace grounds in June. Radio station A3Z, which has been on the air since the 19605, was recently joined by an FM station on July 4 to mark the Sovereign’s birthday. Nukualofa has a well patronised cinema, and videos have gained a strong foothold.

Yet because of this development in Tonga’s own communications revolution, reading is the public’s main source of information. At least two bookstores, including the Friendly Island and Family Christian Bookshops, offer marketplaces for local and offisland printed matter. Advertisers look to magazines and newspapers in the nascent consumer society.

And it is largely through the written word that the outside world keeps tabs on Tonga, just as Tonga keeps in touch with the lands beyond the reef via the print media.

There is no fear of books being burned in a system dominated by TV in the archipelago, where reading as well as writing are not forgotten art forms. In the quiet of the Polynesian night, far from the workday world, there is still time to meditate, to compose one’s mind, and to read. □ 50 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

Pacific Stamp Box Edited by John Hunter NEXT year marks the 50th anniversary of the year in which no new stamps were issued. Barry Gentle (one of a growing number critical of the ‘explosion’ in new issues appearing at Australian and other countries’ post office counters) made this comment in Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph some time ago, and like him I believe many postal authorities are beginning to feel the pinch as collectors quit the hobby. Consequently, revenue for philatelic sales is falling alarmingly Australia Post, for example, has experienced a 30 per cent drop and it is likely 1989 will see a smaller number of stamps issued by many countries. Australia Post is forecasting only 44 issues, compared with 70 for 1988.

This year has, admittedly, been characterised by a number of special events such as Australia’s Bicentenary and the Olympics in South Korea.

However, many agencies have issued far too many stamps for the average collector, who has only a limited amount to spend . . . which has led to a dramatic fall in the number of collectors and a resulting fall in revenue for postal authorities.

Another effect this has had has been in the investment area of the hobby (see Robin Bromby’s article in Pacific Islands Monthly, October).

Prices haven’t shown the expected increase since the 1980 crash in the stamp market. Rare material has held its price, but stamp collecting no longer offers a gilt-edged method of making money when compared to investment in, say, antiques, jewellery or debenture stock.

I think there is hope in 1989 for a return to stability, sensible stamp issues policies and some recruitment of people to the hobby: and on this subject, Stamp News reports that Australia Post has initiated plans to move all its philatelic mail-order operations to Melbourne. The Barrack Street, Sydney Philatelic Sales Office will close and be relocated in the main Sydney GPO building.

NORFOLK ISLAND released its Christmas issue on September 27: 30c, 42c, 58c and 63c young artists’ impressions of Norfolk Island. December 6, convict era buildings: 39c pier store; 55c Royal Engineer’s office; 90c old Military Barracks; $1 Commissariat store and new Military Barracks. On February 14 next year, Norfolk Island will release stamps featuring endemic insects: 39c, 55c, 90c and $1 insects found only on Norfolk Island.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA will issue four more stamps in the historic ships series on November 16: It La Boudeuse ; lOt Swallow, 30t Vitiaz ; K 3 Samoa.

On September 19, PNG issued four stamps featuring the lifecycle of the magnificent Queen Alexandra Birdwing Butterfly in denominations of st, I7t, 25t and 35t.

Ornithoptera alexandrae, the Queen Alexandra Birdwing, is the world’s largest butterfly: females may have wingspans of more than 25 centimetres. The genus contains nine very large and extremely beautiful species, six of which are found only in Papua New Guinea.

The caterpillars of these butterflies feed only on Aristolochia vines, also known as ‘birthworts’ because of their medicinal properties; the plants contain toxic chemicals that do not, however, affect the birdwings and are in fact stored in the body tissues of the caterpillars, later being passed through to the adult butterflies for protection from predators. The chemicals render the birdwings distasteful and the larvae are coloured black with bright red fleshy spines and a yellow saddle mark to deter predators.

Due to their large size, great beauty and general unavailability, birdwing butterflies are prized by insect collectors and the Queen Alexandra is the rarest, restricted to the Popondetta region of Northern Province.

Unfortunately, this area has been (and continues to be) subject to much environmental disturbance by the oil palm and timber logging industries, and equally important local extinctions are being caused by slash and burn agriculture as people destroy forest to create food gardens.

For these reasons a detailed study of the biology and conservation requirements of the Queen Alexandra Birdwing was begun by the Papua New Guinea Government in April 1979.

NEW ZEALAND is not to be outdone in the race to produce unusual stamps, having issued a $1 round stamp featuring the Kiwi on October 19. The $1 Kiwi round stamp pictures a common kiwi, Apteryx australis, and will be sold only in booklets of six stamps. A traditional engraving process was used to produce a limited edition of high quality intaglio stamps in one colour; olive green. The stamp design was cut into a metal plate, from which the stamps are directly engraved.

Stamp designer Allan Mitchell of Wellington pictured the kiwi with ferns and leaves of its natural forest habitat. A Maori motif around two pars of the circular border represents the kowhai flower, symbolising the infinite cycle of life, Nature’s continuous regeneration guaranteeing absolute continuity.

The metal plates were engraved in Canada by G T Prosser of British American Banknote Inc, Canada. The stamps were printed in Australia by Leight-Mardon Pty Ltd.

On October 5 NZ Post issued stamps featuring landscapes: 40c Lake Pukaki; 60c Lake Arthur; 70c Auckland; 80c Mt Egmont; $1.05 Anakiwa; $1.30 Lake Rotmahne. 51 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

Book Reviews

Chuave Politics: Changing

Patterns Of Leadership In The

Papua New Guinean Highlands

by Wayne Warry. ANU Political and Social Change Monograph No 4, SUSI 2.

Reviewed by JOHN CONNELL IT IS barely 50 years since Mick Leahy, explorer and gold prospector, crossed into what is now the Chuave district of Simbu (Chimbu) province in the Highlands of PNG.

So much has changed since that first fleeting contact that, for the Chuave people, “the past seems distant, cloudy and elusive”. Already it is interpreted in different ways; men delight in showing battle scars from wars fought before pacification while simultaneously stressing that pre-contact life was harsh, even evil.

Examining contemporary Simbu politics is no easier than recording history, not least because the Simbu have a passion for politics. Virtually every man aspires to be a big man, a leader in one or more spheres of activity, and every discussion and transaction has political implications; rivals manoeuvre in intricate circles of innuendo and intrigue to protect and enhance their reputations. The Simbu are agressive, argumentative and litigious, and in every way leadership has become much more competitive since the 19305.

Wayne Warry has produced a finely grained analysis of Chuave that does justice to the richness of contemporary politics and reveals that new political institutions have not been without teething problems. Community governments were slow to develop, since many confused them with communist government and the missions were said to have taught that communism is “evil, Satan’s work and a portent of the second coming”. Warry himself, because of his interest in politics, was initially regarded by villagers as an agent of Satan! Fortunately, however, he managed to overcome this disadvantage.

Chuave villagers have rapidly become disillusioned and disenchanted with the local government councils thrust on them: their operations were poorly understood and promised projects often failed to materialise, funds were mismanaged and finance went primarily to the wards of councillors who sat on the finance committee.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the region has contributed a new phrase, wokim sistim, to the Pidgin language.

Partly because of this ability to manipulate the system and because political leadership has retained its great traditional significance politicians remain more prestigious than businessmen. So, too, are the village court magistrates, whose local authority is much greater than that of the councillors. Missions have created a further rank of new village leaders.

Nevertheless it is the emergence of wealthy businessmen, with vast incomes built on coffee, store and vehicle ownership, that so dramatically characterises the contemporary Highlands of Papua New Guinea. In all these contexts the Chuave play out old struggles for power and authority in completely new arenas. Symbolic of the novelty of the new and of the vast changes to Chuave life is the role beer has come to play in transactions of any and every kind.

No ceremony is complete without gifts of beer. In parts of the Highlands bottles of beer are so important that they have come to be known as “little pigs”, while pigs begin to fade into an earlier era. Drunkenness, moreover, has become the camouflage for challenging the authority of leaders. Beer has played a manifold role in transforming the Highlands.

Conventionally, most accounts of social, economic and political life in the Highlands have thoroughly ignored women, hitherto regarded as of little or no account in the important issues of life. Warry hammers another nail into the coffin of this particular myth by revealing the extraordinary significance of Kafaina, or work meri (women’s work), a loose organisation linking thousands of women from different tribal and language areas and drawing them closer to economic and political equality with men. The new movement was sparked off as far back as 1953, when the coronation of Queen Elizabeth resulted in three days’ public holiday, and many Chuave then believed tnat the Queen, Jesus and God lived together in Heaven. For Chuave women Queen Elizabeth remains the symbol of a politically dominant woman.

Despite their new power women still have few political and legal rights in comparison to men: no woman has ever been elected to political office, their words are politely listened to but ignored in practice, and though women provide the bulk of labour they retain only a tiny share of the income from the coffee they grow.

Men, on the other hand, continue to both fear and mistrust women. Menstrual blood still threatens men, and women are believed to be more closely in tune with the ancestral spirits new mission beliefs cannot challenge. All Chuave witches are female.

Males may dominate public affairs but, in private, women’s power can be awesome. Women have, however, established a fundamental new relationship between female power, productivity and material success. Kafaina groups run businesses, maintain substantial savings accounts and employ men; so the women in these groups have achieved an unprecedented degree of political power and status.

They have created an alternative political domain where they dominate men: unable to join them, they have in some respects beaten them. Men mistrust, even fear, Kafaina groups.

Wayne Warry tells the tale well, though the detail and extensive crossreferences betray the signs of a doctoral thesis and are likely to discourage casual readers. It is rarely light reading, despite many intriguing case studies, but there are no better accounts of political change in the Highlands of PNG. With this substantial illustrated volume the Australian National University has provided a real bargain in an era of extravagant publishing. □ INTEGRATED RENEWABLE RE- SOURCE MANAGEMENT FOR US IN- SULAR AREAS, Congress of the US Office of Technology Assessment (Washington, DC: Order No 052-003- 01055-1) SUSIB.

Reviewed by DAVID S NORTH FROM time to time Washington has been criticised for ignoring important Pacific issues witness the snail-like progress of the tuna treaty but this awkwardly titled document is quite different; a remarkably useful, thorough study of the region’s ecological problems and what to do about them. While the focus is on US-flag territories, much of it could be read profitably by island leaders in other Pacific jurisdictions.

The Office of Technological Assessment (OTA), the newest of the thinktanks attached to the United States Congress, has invested close to half a million dollars in this volume. A research team headed by Alison L Hess has been working on it for several years; the report is based on both extensive OTA staff work and on 43 commissioned papers by specialists such as Paul Callaghan and Lucius Eldredge of the University of Guam and the University of Hawaii’s Professor Robert Kiste (an occasional contributor to Pacific Islands Monthly). 52 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

The report covers the inherent and growing ecological problems in the islands, some efforts now under way to cope with these problems, and options the Congress has evolved to help solve them. The territories covered are Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Marianas, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and, in the Caribbean, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

An underlying thread in the discussion of ecological matters is concern about the islands’ dependence on the United States. The report lists five factors as contributing to this dependence: lack of full political status and benefits of statehood; scant natural resources and large distances between islands and markets; rapidly growing populations; tropical resource characteristics with generally high natural productivity but extreme vulnerability to disruption; and common histories of resource degradation. One of the report’s great strengths is that it provides in its text and effective graphics, descriptions of the way different kinds of islands were formed and their vulnerability to a variety of assaults, from nature to Western civilisation.

Island resources have been buffeted by typhoons, wars, exploitative mining and fishing practices and widespread thoughtlessness. (The villains are not all colonisers, it seems; island residents’ use of explosives in fishing and the virtual extinction of the Marianas fruit bat are not ignored.) On the more positive side, the OTA report provides Brief descriptions of a range of ecologically sound economic practices either under way or under study. The Pacific islands could, for example, do much more with two different kinds of fish: sharks and fish for First World aquariums. There is unrealised potential for development of the spice trade (high value agricultural products that could be shipped by plane), but there are problems.

It is difficult for an island grower to appreciate that one variety of cinnamon, for example, may be beloved in Europe but economically useless in the USA. Similarly, the once-bright promise of exports of black pepper from Pohnpei nas faded as quality control problems reduced sales.

OTA is an arm of Congress and it has made some recommendations, called ‘options’, to that body. There are in fact dozens of these, such as suggestions that Congress support studies of typical small-scale farmers and ‘artisanal’ fishermen so that appropriate technologies could be designed for them. Support for the retention of traditional skills such as the Palau Museum’s Master-Apprentice program is recommended, as is the educational work of Hawaii’s East-West Center.

Congress is also urged to provide marketing assistance for the new agricultural crops and aquacultural harvests discussed in the report.

This is a well-written, well-edited, well-produced book though the drawings are of higher quality than the photographs. It is also a gentle book replete with careful research, sound analysis and unthreatening proposals. The authors are understandably pleased that one of their recommendations has already been adopted: the modest suggestion that the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Insular Affairs be restored, following a two-year lapse.

The history of resource exploitation and the horrors of war are covered rather too blandly: there are only mild suggestions that Washington’s sea of dollars has all but wiped out the incentive in many islands to engage in farm work. The options proposed are in research, education, dissemination and experimentation each sound in itself but there is little on more grating subjects such as tighter regulations of exploitative commerce, investment of Government funds in islandbased enterprise, and removal of some of the subsidies that have so badly skewed life in the US islands.

These caveats aside, the Office of Technological Assessment has found the Pacific, and has done something useful about it. □ SONGS OF BELLONA by Jane Mink Rossen. Acta Ethnomusicologica Danica 4, 1987, 2 volumes Reviewed by DR ALLAN THOMAS ONE of the delights of the Festival of Pacific Arts is to see among the many cultural groups the dancers of Mungiki Island (Bellona) in the Solomon Islands. No one viewing the performance of this group can fail to oe impressed by the ancient classical arts displayed: restraint, dignity and power are manifest in the concentrating rhythm of the papa (sounding board), the distinctive costumes, the unusual circular dances (‘hovering like a shark’) and the ancient chants. For the people of Bellona these are clearly treasures, but in the pantheon of Pacific arts they are also precious in that they are the survivors of arts taken westward from a Polynesian homeland some 30 or so generations ago. They may even represent (albeit with Melanesian mixtures, and later additions) early Polynesian forms.

It comes, therefore, as a shock to learn that the local Christian missions prohibit the performance of these dances and that they have suspended from membership those who have taken part. This prohibition does not seem to derive from any erotic quality or sacred purpose in the dances, but is simply church policy; of course, such prohibitions were commonplace in Pacific missions a century ago.

So the arts of Bellona may well qualify as an endangered species. Only a few fortunate circumstances provide for their continuing survival. The first of these is the chance for the arts to be shown at the Festival of Pacific Arts: this gives a focus for rehearsals and an incentive to teach younger people, as well as to counteract the local prohibition.

The second support for tradition has come from a group of foreign scholars who have meticulously documented Bellona’s language, history, arts and culture. The recent twovolume work by Jane Mink Rossen is a part of this documentation, immensely valuable to the Bellonese as it carefully probes the complexity of their music system, relying on the skill and knowledge of outstanding native scholars (some of whom have died since the work was begun). Like the best ethnomusicology the work does not solely deal with scales, melodies and technical detail though it does not neglect them, either; composers so often neglected in Pacific music studies are named and a biographical sketch given. Dance is explored as an important accompanying art in most performances. Poetry, history, special terminology and categories of music making are all documented, and the musical system presented is outstanding for its quantity of terminology a feature unravelled with great care.

Jane Rossen also places herself in the study, with a record of her involvement, as it is indeed essential for an ethnomusicologist if the particular qualities of a work are to be understood. I particularly liked the acknowledgment of the numan dimension of the music: when, after years of analysis in Denmark (of tapes recorded by linguistic researchers) Jane Rossen came to hear the music of Bellona, she writes that: “the place, the context, and especially the people who sang and explained the songs, have enriched the music for me many times over. When listening ... I also remember the occasion on which a song was sung and the human being who sang it. How much stronger the associations must be for a person who has lived on Mungiki all oi his or her life, whose father or grandfather is singing, and for whom the symbolic and historical implications of the song have personal significance.”

This is a valuable work, sensitively undertaken and significant for scholars and musicians throughout the Pacific especially for the Bellonese who wished that their music tradition be recorded for future generations. □ 53 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

Shipping Schedules

Australia New

Caledonia Fiji Hawaii

North America

PACE Line (ACTA Shipping) operates a fully containerised service every 17 days from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane to Noumea, Suva and Lautoka. The vessels continue on to the North coast of America, calling at Hawaii at frequent intervals.

Details from ACTA Pty Ltd, Sydney (266 0633); Tlx AA121369; Fax 267 1148; Burns Philp (SS) Co Ltd. Rodwell Road, Suva (31 1777); Tlx FJ2168; Fax 31 1804; Burns Philp (SS) Co Ltd, Lautoka (60 777); Sato SA, Avenue James Cook BPC 2, Noumea, Cedex (28 1122); Tlx 163 NM SATO: Fax 27 8532.

Australia Samoas

TONGA Warner Pacific Lines operates a regular container service from Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne to Nuku’alofa, Pago Pago, Apia and Vava’u with transhipment to Rarotonga.

Details from Hetherington Wesfarmers Shipping Agency, 37-49 Pitt St, Sydney (223 1600).

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, Nuku'alofa, Sydney. Cargo centralised from Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane.

Details from Pacific Forum Line, PO Box 796 Auckland; Union Bulkships, 333 George St, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne; Union Co, Lautoka; Pacific Forum Line, Suva, Nuku’alofa; Pacific Forum Line, Apia; Polynesia Shipping, Pago Pago.

Australia Kiribati

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

Details from K, Asia Pacific Pty Ltd, Goldfields House, 1 Alfred St, Circular Quay, Sydney (232 2277), Tlx 122143.

KAP New Guinea Lines calls Tarawa after PNG ports on a 35-day basis from Melbourne and Sydney/Brisbane.

Details from K. Asia Pacific Pty Ltd, Goldfields House, 1 Alfred St, Circular Quay, Sydney (232 2277), Tlx 122143.

Australia Tuvalu

K. Asia Pacific operates a direct service every second voyage to Tuvalu (Funafuti).

Details from K. Asia Pacific Pty Ltd, Goldfields House, 1 Alfred St, Circular Quay, Sydney (232 2277), Tlx 122143.

Australia Norfolk

Island Lord Howe

ISLAND Norfolk Island Shipping Line operates a direct service every 5/6 weeks ex-Sydney.

Details from K. Asia Pacific Pty Ltd as managing agents for NISL, Goldfields House, 1 Alfred St, Circular Quay, Sydney (232 2277).

Australia New

Caledonia Vanuatu

Norfolk Island Shipping Line operates a direct service every 5/6 weeks ex-Sydney.

Details from K. Asia Pacific Pty Ltd as managing agents for NISL, Goldfields House, 1 Alfred St, Circular Quay, Sydney (232 2277).

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

Details from Compagnie Generale Maritime 12 Castlereagh St, Sydney (231 3700).

Australia Nauru

Nauru Pacific Line operates a regular cargo service from Melbourne to Nauru, passenger service to Nauru only.

Details from Nauru Pacific Line (Aust) Pty Ltd, Nauru House, 80 Collins St, Melbourne (653 5709). Nedlloyd Swire, 8 Spring St Sydney, (20 522).

Australia Solomon

Islands Vanuatu

NGAL/PNGL joint service operates a monthly service.

Details from Nedlloyd Swire Pty Ltd, 8 Spring St, Sydney (20 522).

Australia New Zealand

The Australian National Line and the New Zealand Line operate a 10-day container service (TRANZTAS) between Sydney and Melbourne to Auckland, Wellington, Lyttleton and Port Chalmers.

Details from Australian National Shipping Agencies, 131-137 York St, Sydney (225 7333) and Australian National Shipping Agencies, “World Trade Centre", cnr Flinders and Spencer Sts, Melbourne (611 2323) or New Zealand Line, Pastoral House, 96 Lambton Quay, Wellington (72 2245).

Australia Nz Fiji

Vanuatu New

Caledonia Solomons

New Guinea

Sitmar Cruises operates a year-round cruise program from Sydney to include the better-known ports in the above countries plus a number of unspoilt, and largely unknown, island paradises.

Details from Sitmar Cruises, 39 Martin Place, Sydney (239 9000) for NSW; reservations and inquiries (008 42 2277); rest of Australia, reservations and inquiries (088 22 2277),

Australia Nz Fiji

Tonga Vanuatu New

Caledonia Solomons

S Amo As Tahiti

P&O Liners call at Auckland, Bay of Islands, Honiara, Lautoka, Noumea, Nuku’alofa, Pago Pago, Papeete, Port Moresby, Santo, Savusavu, Suva, Vava’u and Vila on cruises from Australia.

Details from P&O Booking Centre, Thomas Cook Pty Ltd, 33 Bligh St, Sydney (237 0333).

Australia Png

Solomons Vanuatu

A consortium of NGAL/PNGL and CONPAC/NEL has four vessels operating a joint service from east coast Australian ports to Port Moresby, Lae, Alotau, Madang, Wewak, Rabaul, Kavieng-Kimbe, Kieta, Honiara, Vila, Santo.

Details from Burns Philp & Co Ltd, PO Box R 124, Royal Exchange, Sydney (20 547); Nedtloyd Swire, 8 Spring St, Sydney (20 522); New Guinea Express Lines, 37 Pitt St, Sydney (241 3991); Vila Agents PO Box 27, Port Vila (2456), Tlx NHIOII.

New Guinea Express Lines operates a weekly container service from Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane to Port Moresby, Lae, Alotau, Kimbe, Rabaul, Kieta, Honiara, Kavieng, Madang, Wewak, Santo, Vila.

Details from New Guinea Express Lines, PO Box R 73, Royal Exchange Sydney (241 3991); 127 Creek St, Brisbane (221 9333); 84 William St, Melbourne (602 5544); Port Moresby (21 4572); Steamships Trading (agent), Rabaul (92 1400); Bougainville Agencies Pty Ltd Kieta, (95 6089); Steamships Trading Co, Madang (82 2446); Graumut Enterprises, Wewak (86 2106); Burns Philp (PNG) Ltd, Kavieng (94 2133); Alotau Stevedoring and Transport, Alotau (61 1318); Ngatia Wholesalers Pty Ltd, Kimba (93 5102) and Tradco Shipping, Mandana Avenue, Honiara (2 2588); Vila Agents Ltd, PO Box 971, Vila, Vanuatu (2490); John Lum & Associates, PO Box 65, Santo, Vanuatu (329).

Europe Tahiti New

Caledonia Vanuatu

The Bank Line and Columbus Line operates a regular joint cargo service from 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 St, Sydney (251 6688), Tlx: AA24063, Columbus Line, Lae (423466), Tlx: NE44171; Ets A.M. Fare LITE, Papeete, Ets, Ballande, Noumea and other local agents.

Europe Png

SOLOMONS The Bank Line & Columbus Line operate a regular joint cargo service from Hamburg, Bremen, Antwerp, Rotterdam and Le Havre to Port Moresby, Lae, Madang, Kimbe, Rabaul, Kieta and Honiara and on inducement to Yandina.

Deta.is from The Bank Line (A'asia) Pty Ltd, 51 Pitt St, Sydney (251 6688). Tlx: AA24063, Columbus Line, Lae (423466), Tlx: NE44171; or lines’ local agents.

Europe W. Samoa

Tonga Fiji

The Bank Line & Columbus Line operate a regular joint cargo service from Hamburg, Bremen, Antwerp, Rotterdam and Le Havre to Apia, Nuku’alofa, Suva and Lautoka.

Details from The Bank Line (A’asia) Pty Ltd, 51 Pitt St, Sydney (251 6688), Tlx: AA24063, Columbus Line, Lae (423466), Tlx: NE 44111, or Lines’ local agents.

Singapore Hong Kong

Fiji Islands Ports

Kyowa Shipping Co Ltd operates a monthly containerised and break-bulk cargo service from Hong Kong to Lautoka, Suva and then to island ports.

Details from Carpenters Shipping, Private Mail Bag GPO Suva, Fiji (31 2244): Fax: (679) 30 1572, Tlx FJ2199. 54 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

Your Direct European Connection

ili ijbi * mmm : S I

Europe-South Pacific Joint Service

The South Pacific Specialists offer facilities for shipment of: Containers (FCL/LCL) and Breakbulk Cargo plus reefer space and deeptanks for carriage of vegetable oils and other liquid bulk cargo.

Carriers also accept heavy lifts, overlength and cumbersome parcels.

CJ vIEj Ports of Service: Loading: Papeete, Apia, Suva, Lautoka, Noumea, Port Vila, Santo, Honiara, Port Moresby, Lae,Madang, Kimbe, Rabaul,Kieta, Darwin.

For: Rotterdam, Antwerp, Hamburg, Hull, Dunkirk, Le Havre.

Round The World Service

Additional ports on enquiry.

Please contact our regional offices for further information: The Bank Line (Australasia) Pty. Ltd.

Suite 701, 51 Pitt Street Sydney N.S.W. 2000 Phone: 251 6688 Telex: 24063 Columbus Line Reederei GmbH P.O. Box 1667 Lae/Papua New Guinea Phone: 42 3466/42 3287 A.H. 42 2481 Telex: Colline NE 44 171

The Bank Line Ltd London

Columbus Line Reederei Gmbh Hamburg

C0L0024

4 Far East Fiji New

ZEALAND New Zealand Unit Express (NZUE) operates a monthly service accepting containerised and break-bulk cargo from Manila, Keelung, Kaohsiung and Hong Kong to Lautoka, Suva and thence to New Zealand ports.

Details from Carpenters Shipping, Private Mail Bag GPO Suva. Fiji )(31 2244), Fax: (679) 31 1572: Tlx FJ2199; Burns Philp, Suva, (311 777); New Zealand Unit Express, Maritime Building. 2-10 Customhouse Quay. PO Box 890 Wellington (72 7865), Cables ENZUEMAN WELLINGTON, Tlx NZ31340, NEDLNZ, or Nedlloyd Swire Pty Ltd, Sydney (20 522).

Far East Mid South

PACIFIC China Navigation's New Guinea Pacific Line operates a regular container and Break Bulk-Heavy Lift service from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Manila, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand to Port Moresby, Lae, Rabaul. Kieta and Honiara with 18 days frequency Wewak and Madang will receive four direct calls a year or more on inducement. A T/S service via Lae to these and other PNG ports connecting with monthly sailings is available at cost. Cargo from the same Eastern ports to the South Pacific ports of Noumea, Santo, Vila, Papeete, Pago Pago, Apia.

Nuk’j’alofa. Raratonga and Tarawa will be shipped via Japan or Busan on the monthly Bali Hai service.

Details from Steamships Shipping, PO Box 634, Port Moresby (22 0283 or 22 0289) Kyowa Shipping Ltd operates monthly services from Japan to Guam, Saipan, Solomons, New Caledonia, Fiji, Western and American Samoa, Tahiti. Cook Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu.

Details from Hetherington Wesfarmers Shipping Agency, 37-49 Pitt St. Sydney (223 1600); Carpenters Shipping, Suva (31 2244), Tlx FJ2199.

Guam Northern

MARIANAS Saipan Shipping Co operates a weekly service via barge carrying containers and conventional cargo between Guam and Saipan and Tinian Details from Saipan Shipping Co, Inc, PO Box 8, Saipan CM 96950 (322 9706 or 322 9707), Tlx 783619; Fax (670)322 3183; Guam agents Maritime Agencies of the Pacific Ltd.

Hawaii Samoas

Tonga Cook Islands

Hawaii-Pacific Lines operates a monthly container service between Honolulu, Pago Pago, Apia, Nuku’alofa and Avatiu (Rarotonga) Details from Hawaii-Pacific Maritime, Inc, PO Box 3264, Honolulu HI (9680)-32641 (808 531 4841).

Details from Morris Hedstrom (Samoa) Ltd, PO Box 189, Apia, Western Samoa (21 355, 22 722), Tlx 224 (MORISHED SX), Fax 24 279; Union Citco Travel Ltd, Rarotonga, Cook Islands (682 21 780); Tlx 62024 (UTRAV G); Fax (682) 20 859: Kneubuhl Maritime Services, PO Box 39, Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799, (684 633 5121); Tlx 782505; Fax (684) 633 5100; Union Maritime Services Ltd, PO Box 4, Nuku’alofa, Tonga (21 644/5); Tlx 66227, Fax (676) 21 645.

Japan Fiji Island

PORTS Kyowa Shipping Co operates a monthly containerised service from main ports of Japan to Suva, Lautoka, thence to island ports.

Details from Carpenters Shipping, Neptune House. 3/4 Floor, Tofua St, Walu Bay, Suva (31 2244), Fax: (679)30 1572 Tlx FJ2199

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 St Sydney (259 1000).

Saipan Shipping Co operates a monthly service from Japan to Saipan, Guam, Truk, Ponape, Majuro (Kosrae and Ebeye on inducement).

Details from Saipan Shipping Co, PO Box 8 Saipan, CM 96950 (322 9706 or 322 9707), Tlx 783619, Fax (670)322 3183.

Japan agents Kyowa Shipping Company Ltd; Guam Agents Maritime Agencies of the Pacific Ltd.

Japan Korea Png

Paradise Service

Mitsui OSK Lines operates a monthly service from main ports in Japan, Wewak, Lae, Rabaul, Kieta, Port Moresby.

Details from Robert Laurie Company (PNG) Ltd.

PO Box 1032, Lae (42 3642, 42 3811), Contact: W O Hackenberg, Group Shipping Manager.

Japan Korea Png

Japan Paradise Service

Mitsui OSK Lines in joint service with NYK Lines operates a monthly service from main ports in Japan and Busan in Korea to PNG ports of Wewak, Rabaul, Kieta, Lae, Port Moresby, Kavieng, Kimbe, Madang and Oro Bay Details from Robert Laurie Company Pty Ltd, PO Box 1032, Lae (direct: 42 3642 or a switch: 42 3811), Contact: W O Hackenberg, Group Shipping Manager & Marketing; Tlx NE 42508, Fax 42 3801.

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 trans-shipment facilities.

Details from PNG Line, Box 543, Port Moresby (21 1174), Tlx 22269.

Png Taiwan Hong

Kong Singapore

INDONESIA The Bank Line & Columbus Line operates a regular joint cargo service from PNG Ports to Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Singapore, Jakarta & Surabaya Details from The Bank Line (A’asia) Pty Ltd, 51 Pitt St, Sydney (251 6688), Tlx: AA24063: Columbus Line, Lae (423466), Tlx: NE 44111; or lines’ local agents.

Png Uk/Continent

The Bank Line and Columbus Line operate a regular joint 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 St. Sydney (251 6688), Tlx AA24063; Columbus Line. Lae (42 3466), Tlx NE44171; or lines’ local agents.

SOLOMONS

Uk/Continent

The Bank Line and Columbus Line operate a regular joint cargo service from Honiara to Hull, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Antewrp and Le Havre, Details from The Bank Line (A’asia Pty) Ltd, 51 Pitt St, Sydney (251 6688), Tlx AA24063; Columbus Line, Lae (42 3466), Tlx NE44171; or lines’ local agents.

SOLOMONS

Uk/Continent

The Bank Line and Columbus Line operate a regular joint cargo service from Honiara to Hull, Hamburg. Rotterdam, Antwerp and Le Havre Details from The Bank Line (A'asia) Pty Ltd 51 Pitt St, Sydney (251 6688), Tlx AA24063; Columbus Line, Lae (42 3466), Tlx NE 44171; Tradco Shipping Ltd, Honiara (22 588), Tlx 66313.

New Zealand Australia

Png Solomon

ISLANDS Pacific Forum Line operates a containerised and ro-ro service from Lyttleton, Napier and Auckland to Brisbane, Port Moresby, Lae, Honiara, Brisbane then New Zealand.

Details from Pacific Forum, Auckland, Christchurch; Union Bulkships, Brisbane; Steamships Shipping. Port Moresby and Lae; Sullivans Ltd, Honiara; Seabridge, Wellington.

New Zealand Cook

Islands Tahiti

New Zealand Line operates cargo services based on pallets and similar units from Auckland to Cook Islands and Tahiti.

Details from NZ Shipping Agencies International Ltd, PC Box 3420. Auckland (39 2650); Waterfront Commission, PO Box 61, Raratonga Cook Islands; Shipping Office, Govt of Niue, PO Box 107, Niue Island; Compagnie Maritime Polynesienne, PO Box 36, Papeete, Tahiti.

New Zealand Fiji

Reef operates a regular 18-day service from Auckland to Suva and Lautoka. Also passenger accommodation.

Details from Reef Shipping Agencies, PO Box 3382, Auckland (771 2213), Tlx 60633; MV Fijian Shipping Agencies Ltd, Private Bag, Suva (31 1056).

Pacific Line with one ship operates a three-weekly ro-ro cargo service New Zealand, Lautoka, Suva. No passengers.

Details Sofrana Unilines, 18 Customs St, Auckland (77 3279), PO Box 3614, Tlx NZ2313; Carpenters Shipping, Neptune House, Tofua St, Walu Bay, Suva (25 141), Tlx FJ2199.

New Zealand 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 (73 9029); Burns Philp (SS) Co Ltd, GPO Box 355, Suva (31 1777), Tlx FJ2168 Burnship.

New Zealand Fiji

Samoas Tonga

Pacific Forum Line operates a containerised and ro ro 21 day service from Auckland to Lautoka, Suva, Apia, Pago Pago and Nuku’alofa.

Details from Pacific Forum Line, Auckland, Christchurch, Suva and Apia, Union Maritime.

Lautoka, and Nukualofa; Polynesian Shipping, Pago Pago. 56 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

Ace Agencies

Indent agents on any brand of machinery industrial hardware and parts. Machinery brokers & Valuers CPO Box 12631, Suva, Fiji. Tlx 2581 F|.

Phones 381-497 383-766 (24 hours) Fax: 384392 * Logging & Sawmilling * New & used heavy equipments * Pumps & Motors * Wire Rope & Accessories * Industrial belts & saws * Woodworking machinery * Farm Tractors * CM/Detroit parts, stockists * Drilling & Mining * Earthmoving Equipment * Design, layout of factories * Machinery Brokers & Valuers * Industrial hardware * Machinery parts any brand

We Deal In Any Brand From Any Country

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Bookings through Union Steamship Company of NZ, Pan Am, Air New Zealand or direct to Aggie Grey’s, Apia, Western Samoa. Cables: AGGIES’ Apia.. ivyflj-isANTIQUE PACIFIC ARTIFACTS Send for details of items available.

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New Zealand Tonga

SAMOAS Warner Pacific Line Services from Auckland to Nuku’alofa, Vava’u, Apia, Pago Pago monthly carrying general and freezer cargoes and FCL Dry Freezer.

Details from McKay Shipping Ltd, 2nd Floor, Ferry Bldg, Ouay St., Auckland PO Box 3 (39 0229), Cables MACSHIP, Tlx NZ2554f; Warner Pacific Line, Box 93, Nuku’alofa, Tonga; Mealelel (Western S.'rnoa) Ltd, Private Bag Apia, Western Samoa, Burns Philp (SS) Co Ltd, PC Box 129, Pago Pago, American Samoa (633 2709), Burnsouth SB.

Nz Cook Islands

Aitutaki Niue

Cook Islands Line services Auckland, Raratonga, Aitutaki, Niue monthly carrying general and freezer cargoes.

Details from McKay Shipping Ltd. 2nd Floor, Ferry Bldg, Ouay St., Auckland/PO Box 3, Auckland (39 0229). Cables MACSHIP, Tlx NZ2554; Fax 32 931.

South East Asia Fiji

Nedlloyd Lines (NZEAS) Service operates regular fast cargo service from Surabaya, Jakarta, Port Kelang, Bangkok and Singapore via New Zealand to Suva and Lautoka. Details from Carpenters Shipping, Neptune House, 3/4 Floor, Tofua St, Walu Bay, Suva. (31 2244) Fax: (679) 30 1572 Tlx; FJ2199

Tahiti New Caledonia

Vanuatu Solomon

Islands New Zealand

Png Singapore

EUROPE Polish Ocean Lines operates semi-container type vessels to the following ports; from Papeete, Noumea, Santo, Vila, Yandina, Honiara, Auckland, Singapore, Port Kielang, Penang then to Mediterranean ports and Europe via the Suez Canal (other New Zealand ports subject to inducement).

Details from Universal Shipping Agencies Ltd, 7th Floor, 14 Emily PI, Auckland 1 (39 0931, 39 0727, 32 104), Tlx 21 517.

Taiwan Hong Kong

Singapore Indonesia

PNG The Bank Line & Columbus Line operate a regular joint cargo service from Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Singapore, Jakarta, Surabaya to Papua New Guinea Ports.

Details from The Bank Line (A’asia) Pty Ltd, 51 Pitt St, Sydney (251 6688), Tlx: AA24063: Columbus Line, Lae (423466), Tlx: NE44171; or lines' local agents.

Europe Tahiti W Samoa

Fiji New Caledonia

Compagnie Generale Maritime operates services from Europe and Mediterranean ports to Papeete and Noumea using three ro-ro and multi-purpose vessels thus ensuring a bi-monthly sailing to and from.

Details from Compagnie Generale Maritime, 12 Castlereagh St, Sydney (2313700).

Europe Tahiti New

Caledonia New Zealand

Vanuatu Solomons

Png Europe

Polish Ocean Lines offers regular monthly sailings for containerised and break-bulk cargo, also conventional reefer space and reefer containers from Hamburg, Rotterdam, Dunkirk, Le Havre to Papeete, Noumea, Auckland, Santo.

Honiara, Rabaul, Lae, Singapore, returning to Europe via Suez, Other ports in the South Pacific can be served directly with inducement or otherwise via transhipment.

Details from Sotama, BP 9170, Papeete (42 7805), Tlx Sotama 373FP; SATO; BP, 02 Noumea Cedex (27 2094), Tlx 163 NM; Universal Shipping Agencies, PO Box 2282 Auckland (30 930), Tlx 21517; Vanua Navigation, PO Box 44, Vila (2027), Tlx 1033; Melan Chine Shipping Co, PO Box 71, Honiara (21 678), Tlx 66335; Steamships Trading Co Ltd, PO Box 85, Lae. (42 4666), Tlx 42423; Union Steamship Co NZ Ltd, PO Box 50. Apia (21 781), Tlx 225; Warner Pacific Line, PO Box 93, Nukualofa (22 088), Tlx 66219; Fiji Agents TBA.

Europe Tahiti New

CALEDONIA Nedlloyd offers regular cargo services from Continental ports to Papeete, Apia, Fiji and New Caledonia.

Details Nedlloyd (Aust) Pty Ltd, Spring St, Sydney (27 3801); Carpenters Shipping, Ist Floor, Harbour Centre Bldg, 100 Thomson St Suva (31 2244) Tlx 2199FJ and Vetari St, Lautoka (63 988), Tlx 5215FJ.

Uk W Samoa Tonga

FIJI The Bank Line and Columbus Line operate a regular joint cargo service from Hull, to Apia, Nukualofa, Suva and Lautoka.

Details from The Bank Line (A’asia) Pty Ltd, 51 Pitt St, Sydney (251 6688), Tlx; AA24063: Columbus Line, Lae (423466), Tlx: NE44171; or lines’ local agents.

Uk Png Solomons

The Bank Line and Columbus Line operate a regular joint cargo service from Hull, to Port Moresby, Lae, Madang, Kimbe, Rabaul, Kieta and Honiara and on inducement to Yandina.

Details from The Bank Line (A’asia) Pty Ltd, 51 Pitt St, Sydney (251 6688). Tlx: AA24063: Columbus Line, Lae (423466), Tlx: NE44171; or lines’ local agents.

Uk Tahiti New

Caledonia Vanuatu

The Bank Line and Columbus Line operate a regular joint cargo service from Hull, to Papeete, Noumea, Port-Vila and Santo.

Details from The Bank Line (A’asia) Pty Ltd, 51 Pitt St, Sydney (251 6688), Tlx: AA24063: Columbus Line, Lae (423466), Tlx: NE44171; Ets A M. Fare UTE, Papeete, Ets Ballande, Noumea and other local agents.

Us Hawaii Micronesia

PNG PM&O Lines operates two fully self-contained container vessels on a sailing frequency of every 30 days between the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Honolulu and Majuro, Ebeye, Kosrae, Ponape, Truk, Saipan, Yap, Palau, Cebu, Davao, Manila, Lae, Kieta and Rabaul.

Details from PM&O Lines, 353 Sacramento St, San Francisco, California 94111 (415 421 5400), Tlx 278016 PMC UR; owner’s Representative PO Box 803, Saipan, NMI 96950 (234 6819), Tlx 783605 CMCAA. 57 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

Out Of The Past

Joyita: The Mystery Lingers Stuart Inder recalls a Pacific tragedy that inspired bizarre ‘solutions’.

THIRTY-THREE years ago this month, the Joyita mystery was a sensation. Speculation about the fate of the missing 25 passengers and crew, when the vessel was found drifting north of Fiji, pushed even Princess Margaret’s love affair with Peter Townsend off the front pages of Australian and New Zealand newspapers.

In Suva, the Fiji Times had gone quite mad: “All aboard Joyita murdered!”, ran its banner of November 20, 1955, over a report it claimed was “official”, that a Japanese fishing fleet had rammed and boarded the vessel, looted her, murdered all aboard and then attempted to sink the Joyita to cover the crime.

The wooden hulled 21-metre, 71tonne Joyita a Honolulu-owned and registered twin-screw motor vessel built in Los Angeles in 1931 and used as a US Navy patrol vessel in World War II left Apia, Western Samoa, for the Tokelau islands on October 3, 1955. The passage usually took about 40 hours.

On board were her skipper, wartime Royal Navy officer Thomas Henry Miller, the mate, American C H “Chuck” Simpson, 14 other crew members including two supercargoes from Apia, G K Williams and J Wallwork, and nine passengers: R D Pearless, the Tokelau District Officer, Dr A D Parsons, Government Medical Officer in Apia, H T Hodgkinson, the Apia Hospital dispenser, and six Tokelau islanders including one woman and a child. Captain Miller had for some years operated Joyita in a commercial fishing enterprise under a bare-boat charter from trie owners.

When Joyita failed to reach Tokelau by October 6 an air search began but found no trace of her. On November 10 the Gilbert and Ellice islands Colony vessel Tuvalu found the vessel waterlogged, partly submerged and abandoned about 145 kilometres north of Vanua Levu.

The inquiry that opened in Apia in February 1956 heard a story of an experienced, competent captain whose business was in financial trouble and who had not properly maintained the boat. He was not licensed to carry passengers, and his lifesaving equipment was inadequate for the number aboard the fatal trip. Nor did the conditions of his charter allow him to subcharter, yet for that voyage he had chartered her to the Apia firm of E A Coxon & Co Pty Ltd.

The inquiry found the tragedy could be explained without recourse to the sensational and fantastic views published by the world’s press. There was no evidence of damage by ramming, fire, explosion or by contact with rocks or reef. The disaster was caused by the flooding of the vessel, due primarily to the corrosion and fracture of a pipe taking cooling seawater to an engine. This and other leakages would have brought about 9000 litres of water per hour into the vessel . . . but the bilge pumps were not working. Joyita ’s radio transmitter was useless because of a broken aerial connection Miller had known about; however, the radio was found tuned to the distress frequency.

The inquiry had no trouble in explaining why there was no cargo aboard Joyita ; the basis of stories of Japanese looting. It said competent seamen would have thrown cargo over the side to increase buoyancy. The three light oval floats and the individual life-jackets aboard the ship were missing Joyita carried no lifeboat or workboat), but the inquiry commented that the floats a type that would only have befm capable of keeping the company above water for a few hours in the expectation of rescue. The comparatively small quantity of fuel expended could be an indication that the ship was not far from land.

None of this information inconvenienced Lord Maugham (nephew of Somerset and for some years owner of the remains of the Joyita) whose solution to the Joyita mystery was that there was a fight between Miller and Dr Parsons, in which the captain received a serious head injury and was left unconscious while all aboard except a Gilbertese leading hand took to the rafts. Weeks later, he said, Japanese fishermen boarded the drifting ship, disposed of the Gilbertese and the body of the dead captain and looted the vessel.

Less in the realm of fiction were the views of the late Peter Plowman in the September 1962 issue of Pacific Islands Monthly, in a story titled “I share responsibility for the Joyita tragedy”. Plowman, a highly respected Apia businessman and former naval officer, was a member of preindependence Western Samoa’s executive council with responsibility for marine matters when Joyita left Apia on her last voyage.

In his article, Plowman explained he had advised the administration that it could not charter Joyita to get muchneeded supplies and personnel to Tokelau because her papers were not in order; and in any case Joyita should not be allowed to leave port on a long voyage without submitting to engine, radio and pump trials.

Nevertheless, the administration went ahead with the voyage through the device of allowing the Coxon company rather than the government to charter the vessel, and didn’t concern itself with her seaworthiness.

Plowman said the government’s share of the responsibility for the tragedy was never properly addressed by the inquiry, at which he was not called to give evidence.

From his knowledge of the weather at the time and the storm damage done to the ship, Plowman believed Joyita had turned back not far from Samoa and was actually less than 70km from Apia when she went out of control. Later, as she drifted close to the northwestern end of Savaii, the ship’s company would have been tempted to try to reach shore in the rafts. But, Plowman said, unless they got away from the vessel in exactly the right place, the floats would have drifted away from the point.

Plowman said Miller often claimed Joyita was “unsinkable” and that he would never leave her if she was in trouble. Only the closeness of land, he considered, would have got Miller over the side unless, for some reason, he was out of action when the' disaster stuck.

In the end, of course, we will never know what really happened. □ The disappearance of Joyita’s crew and passengers fuelled rumours of cannibalism and murder. 58 PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY NOVEMBER 1988

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