Pacific Islands Monthly - 1 November 1978

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Cover: The beautiful old public school at Levuka, in Fiji, celebrates its centen ary next year. The school is of keen interest to all those people newly cons ■cious of the need for conservation of the Pacific architectural and cultural heritage.

See PI M’s special treatement of this theme on p 22, and ppso-51. (A PIM pho tograph.)

Pim

Vol. 49 No. 11

November 1978

Elsewhere: $A16 Payment by personal cheque is accepted in Australian, US, New Zealand, UK and Fiji currency For other remit tances please obtain a bank draft in Australian dollars made payable to the ANZ Banking Group, 88 Wentworth Avenue. Sydney, Australia

Representatives

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Honolulu, Hawaii 96822 Published monthly by Pacific Publications (Aust) Pty Ltd and printed in Australia by Kralco, Flemmgton. NSW Australian cover price is recommended retail only Regis tered at the GPO Sydney for transmission by post as a publication — category B. Second class postage paid at Honolulu, Hawaii Pub = 952480 Copyright c 1978 Pacific Publications (Aust.) Pty Ltd

PIM is airfreighted to most subscribers and agents in the Pacific Islands and the United States Aust Other American Samoa $13 $US16 Australia $12 Canada $14 $US18 Cook Islands $13 Fiji $12 $F12 French Polynesia $14

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• Niue Island— ‘Sub-regionalism rears it head at the South Pacific Forum 17 • The Cooks ‘New Zealand’s the villain’, Sir Albert tells the United Nations 19 • Tuvalu A royal fever ruins the fervour of an island peo ple’s independence celebrations 21 • Pacific Heritage There’s a growing urge to preserve a precious heritage 22 • Afterthoughts Percy Chatterton observes ‘Of the mak ing of legends there is no end' 27 • New Hebrides Another move to unite the political par ties 28 • West Irian Papua New Guinea police net catches two big fish from Irian Jaya 28 • United States The Americans take a fresh look at their relationships with the Islands 29 • Guam What happened when some top brass from Washington crash-landed in the ocean 33 • Fiji When you take a bus ride on Vanua Levu anything can happen 48 • Yesterday Levuka, the hub of Fiji’s history and a living museum worth preserving 50

Letter* 12 Pacific Report 15 Niue Forum 17 Sir Albert to UN 19 Tuvalu Independence 21 Ttopicalities 23 Afterthoughts 27 Political Currents 28 People 33

Islands Press 36 Busride In Fiji 48 Yesterday 50 Books 53 Boating Featu.e 59 Tradewinds 66 Obituaries 73 Shipping Services 74 Classified Ads 80

Mahe Tupouniua . . . SPEC needs him for another year

Tuvalu's Prime Minister Toalrpi Lauti . . . disappointed

Andrew Jakeo . . . reluctant exile from Bikini who insisted on using his own canoe

A Miniature

Bouquet

1 spent 40 years in all the South Pacific Islands. Your articles are wonderful.

Charles S. Deuben

(US Navy retired) Santa Maria California

And A

Bigger One

Earlier this year I wrote you a letter criticising your Pacific Islands Monthly. You so kindly responded, and 1 cannot rest until I send my wholehearted CONGRATS! Every issue is a

delight, photos, all supremely

lovely, contents informative, timely and an inspiration. My admiration goes to every mem ber of your staff, as teamwork I’m sure is a must. i have the impression the subject matter is most unbiased and that, in a turbulent world, is top achievement.

Again, my sincere congratu lations on a magnificent publi cation. May success always be yours.

I look forward to every scrap of information re Pitcairn Island. The world cares, I feel.

Ellyn Greywitt

Ohio.

Usa

How Old

The Ladies?

Mrs Alice Brewster, widow of

Adolph Brewster (formerly

Joske) who was district com missioner, Colo, Fiji, and author of The Hill Tribes of Fiji, had her 107th birthday in England on September 16. She is believed to be the second

oldest person in Britain (the eldest being 108). It would be interesting to know from your readers if her age is known to have been exceeded by (a) any indigenous persons in the Pa cific (b) any Europeans who have lived in the Pacific.

Her husband’s post was one that I held about half a century later.

A predecessor of mine as dis trict commissioner of the Lau Group in Fiji, also about 50 years earlier, was Sir Basil Thomson who arranged the 1900 Treaty of Friendship with Tonga. He had no sons and his only daughter, Mrs Enid Wise, who was given the Tongan name, Anaseini Veihola Tupou. has recently died in England aged 87. She acted at times as secretary for her father who was the son of an Arch bishop of York and, after leav ing the Pacific, became governor of several English prisons and interrogated, as head of British intelligence, German spies in the First War.

He became head of the Crimi

nal Investigation Department

at Scotland Yard, London, and managed to find time to write several books, many of them classic works on the Pacific.

Philip A. Snow

Angmering

Sussex

England

Whither The

White Horse?

I read with interest in May PIM Harald A. Rehder’s letter about the ‘Coral Route’. Mr Rehder said he was unable to locate The White Horse Inn, one of the lodging spots in Western Samoa for Coral Route passengers. Whilst I do not have the full facts, perhaps I can shed some light on the

subject.

I have been told that-it was around 1964 that The White Horse Inn last housed guests, the closure of the lodgings per haps having been caused in part by the fact that a further guest house on the Apia water front, not far from ‘Aggies’, had opened its doors.

However, The White Horse Inn continued to be available

for special specific functions up until about 1970, when it finally closed its doors. The building was converted into four self-contained flats. That’s how it is today.

It may be of interest to some of your readers to learn of the fate of the inn’s main bar.

Having been a resident of Apia from 1967 until 1973, it was in late 1971, whilst driving past The White Horse Inn during its transition stage to flats, I noticed the main bar resting on the disused tennis court. (Both the bar and tennis court were in a bad state of repair.) The princely sum of $lO purchased the bar, complete with its ‘cash’ drawer. The bar was then put on the tray of a large truck and reinstalled in the very large lounge of the old colonial Ger man house that I, a fellow-New Zealander and an Australian

were sharing.

Finally, two points that I share with some other PIM readers in New Zealand: one, we would like to see the feature ‘Twenty Years Ago this Month’ reintroduced it was not only of great interest but often

amusing and topical; second,

the present index, in terms of reference to content country by country, is very poor compared to the index in the previous smaller size editions of PIM.

Randal J. Lockie

Auckland New Zealand (*Twenty Years Ago’ we are con

sidering. Hope you approved the

new indexing introduced in Sep tember Editor.)

Thevenin:

A Reply

I read with interest and grave concern the interview between Mr Jean Massias and Mr Rene Thevenin New Hebrides Past and Present by Veteran ‘Colon’ {PlM October).

My first reaction was: Why does Mr Massias choose this time to have an interview of this nature with Mr Thevenin, who has long been seen by New Hebrideans as one who has taken and exploited lands rightfully belonging to them?

My second thought was that the interview had a marked

political colouring, and that j

this is unlikely to be the only! article of this nature which Mr] Massias will endeavour to have]

printed. Questions one mustj

ask include: What is the real purpose behind interviews of] this nature? Is PIM allowing] itself to be used as a political] instrument in this subtle pres-i entation? Is this another] attempt at dividing the people

not directly on political

grounds but rather on religious

grounds through Mr Theve

nin’s references to the work of the various Christian churches in the New Hebrides? What point is Mr Thevenin trying to make when he says things were much better in the old days than they are now would he like the New Hebrideans still to be isolated in their villages andj fighting each other with stone axes as he claims they did in the]

early days?

While Mr Thevenin has no good word for the work of the] various churches, it seems to many people in the New Hebrides that these same]

churches are largely respon-l

sible for bringing about the

peaceful conditions existing

among the people of the New Hebrides today. Indeed, the churches have succeeded in this work in many cases where the British and French Governments themselves have failed.

It would appear that only now, with his planned depar-j ture, has Mr Thevenin caught up with the modem thinking of an oppressed people who des perately want freedom and self government.

One thing that the article

Mr Massias ... his real purpose?

makes clear it that Mr Fhevenin, who has often :laimed to be a ‘New Hebri dean’, is a Frenchman after all.

It was interesting to read his re marks about coming back to ;he New Hebrides in the 'uture. Will he come back be fore or after independence to :heck on his vast properties, or vill he be glad to sell now and brget all about investments ind the New Hebrides?

This interview is a dangerous me because others can build m what has been stated in it ,nd thus produce serious div

sions, damaging the present

conomic climate individual Anglicans could react about /hat Mr Thevenin said of their

hurch, or Presbyterians could

eel hurt: Both would be quite jstified in their reactions, 'hose of the Catholic faith ould take exception to what he aid of their church; some ould take up and support his laim that that church should ave been more influential as le national church of the Tench in New Hebrides. On le other side of the con ominium coin, it could never e claimed that the Anglican hurch has been influential to le point that it has dictated olicy to the British Govern tent. It should not be forgot n that most British resident ammissioners have been

[embers of the Anglican

hurch. It would therefore ave been difficult during the mod of which Mr Thevenin >eaks for leaders of that lurch to criticise the leader of e British administration.

For the record, alongside the ackground of Mr Thevenin, a w questions should be asked aout that of Mr Massias. Was - one of the Frenchmen )liged to leave Algeria after at country gained indepen mce? Does he still hold a nior position in the infor ation service in the New ebrides? Is he still political Iviser to the French Resi mcy in the New Hebrides?

Let us hope that future tides of this kind in PIM are

danced by a reply from the

her side. Otherwise they will oduce nothing but tension in situation which already has i overdose of heat in it, and

the French land-owners, who are extremely powerful, will re sist moves by the French Government to return land to its rightful owners, the New Hebrideans.

(Rev) R. F. Wootton

Secretary Commission of Justice & Human

Development Uniting Church

in Australia Commission for World Mission Melbourne Australia

Mistaken

Identity

In view of the grim expression on my face which you kindly reproduced on page 27 of your September issue, I hasten to write to say that it was not David Barwick but

Yours sincerely

P. T. N. Donegan Qc

Attorney-General Honiara Solomon Islands

In Search

Of Loane

In PIM, March 1977, p 57, your report of the tragedy of the Ravakai in which loane Dean was drowned interested me, and I wondered if you could let me know more about the ident

ity of this person. At about the end of World War 11, I knew the Hoille family from Lae, the son being ‘Jim’ and the daugh ters loane, and the other bear ing a second classic Greek name that I cannot recall. I may have the spelling of loane wrong but it was pronounced eye-own-ee. The other sister’s name was pronounced nar-ee or nar-eed-a I think. The family was well known, especially from the Eadie Creek gold

mining days.

Although your article men tions that ‘one man was lost, I thought this could perhaps be a misprint, as there are surely not many loanes about. I would appreciate it if you could give me some indication of whether it could have been the Hoille girl.

I did hear that ‘Jim’ was drowned or killed somehow.

His initials were A. R. W.

Hoille. If you know anything about him, I would be glad to hear. If he is in fact still living I would like to make contact with him.

Normally I would consult the Papua New Guinea tele phone book, but they aren’t too common here at Tewantin.

Just about every time I read through a copy of your maga zine I come across some event involving a person I knew, or

a yacht or ship which I had something to do with. ‘Cruising Yachts’ is always of great interest (to a frustrated yachtie who never ever really made it).

Dennis Gittoes

Tewantin Qld Australia (PIM has replied to Mr Gittoes to the best of its ability, but prob ably not to his entire satisfac tion. Can other readers help him? Editor).

Which Is

Biggest?

I wish to make a correction to the article ‘Fiji: More than “Black Sex” ’ which appeared (p 61) as part of the ‘Japan and the Pacific’ supplement in PIM

September. The Fijian Hotel,

on Yanuca Island, is Fiji’s lar gest hotel, not the Regent as stated in the article.

Radike Qereqeretabua

Group Sales Manager,

Fiji Resorts Ltd, Owners and Operators of the Fijian and Mocambo Hotels Nadi

Fiji

(If number of rooms is the cri terion, the Fijian Hotel has it over the Regent by 16 rooms 316 to 300. - Editor.)

The Fijian ... it’s the biggest.

Yet Another Oil Superport Plan

4 New York-based oil company has revealed plans to construct a multi-million dollar oil superport in the Northern Marianas, Dossibly on the island of Rota, according to the Guam news paper, Pacific Daily News. A spokesman for the company con :erned, Northville Industries, said: ‘We would only move if we /vere assured of the kind of local support which the Patau project nas not yet received.’ The proposal for an oil superport at Palau, much larger than the one now proposed, has run into strong apposition within Palau and from environmental groups through out the world.

Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Join Forum

Solomon Islands and Tuvalu were admitted to full membership of the South Pacific Forum at its annual conference in Niue in September and immediately found the going this year was ■ougher than ever before for everybody. But there were hopeful signs, as well. See p 17.

Pacific Forum Line Cost Shocks

fhe cost of keeping the Pacific Forum Line (PFL) afloat is worry ng South Pacific Forum members, founders of the line. But they lave decided to keep it going, largely as a result of New Zealand’s offer of a further overdraft guarantee of SNZISO 000. : unds requested were much more than that in September but t seems it will continue to operate. Australia’s Prime Minister i/lalcolm Fraser, whose government has already put in almost >A3OO 000, wants a thorough costing of the operation before le commits Australia to a further input. PFL and Forum officials net in Auckland early last month to keep up the rescue vork. r OUNG VIVIAN GETS THE SRC NOD Jiue’s Young Vivian is to take over the secretary-generalship if the South Pacific Commission (SPC), but not before present ecretary-general Dr Macu Salato of Fiji has done some fence lending with the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Co •peration (SPEC). Pre-SPC conference committee sittings last lonth agreed on Mr Vivian, Niue’s Minister for Economic )evelopment, Agriculture and Education, taking over as ecretary-general by about mid-1979. Although the proposal lad not received full conference blessing as PIM went to press, was not expected it would be opposed. Dr Salato’s brief is d sort out lines of demarcation and areas of co-operation with ;PEC. Petty bickering between SPC and SPEC officials has ieen a headache for some time.

Yphoid In American Samoa

n outbreak of typhoid fever was reported in American Samoa i late September. Eleven cases were admitted to the LBJ Trop :al Center in Pago Pago between September 13-24.

Ligh: Once More Into The Longboat

et another Captain Bligh and Bounty film is on the way. Film takers have been searching for suitable Pacific Islands sites >r several months. Construction of another Bounty for the film under way in New Zealand. Meanwhile, an unenviable fate

is in store for an unnamed and fictional Pacific island: US producer-director Irwin Allen (who made the original Poseidon Adventure in 1972, the first of the modern disaster stories) plans a film called The Day The World Ended. In it a South Seas island is slammed simultaneously by an earthquake, a volcano eruption and a tidal wave the works, in fact. Stars signed for the film include Paul Newman, Michael Caine, Telly Savalas and Sally Field.

The Troubles Of A Princess

Following the contretemps of her illness at Tuvalu (see else where, PIM), Princess Margaret was annoyed while in Australia by press rumour-mongering about a ‘romance’ between her and Australian Foreign Minister, Andrew Peacock. As if this were not enough, press cables from England were simultaneously reporting that her son, Viscount Lindley, 16, had been carpeted at Bedales School in Hampshire after he was found with two schoolmates finishing off a bottle of scotch in a dormitory.

Argument On Blackbird’ Descendants

A parliamentary inquiry into the conditions of South Sea Islanders in Australia has found ‘very little evidence’ of overt racial discrimination against Islanders. A spokesman for the Islanders, descendants of ‘blackbirding’ victims of the 19th and early 20th centuries, contested the claim. He also pooh-poohed the inquiry’s estimate that there were only 3000 to 3500 people in Australia who identified themselves as South Sea Islanders.

Said he: The number would be more like 30 000.’

Magic Staircase’ Stole The Show

The ship’s escalators stole the show when a floating trade dis play came to Papua New Guinea in October. The Japan Industry Floating Fair Association had its ship, Shin Sakura Maru, on a cruise of the South Pacific displaying a big cross-section of Japanese products and technology. But cars, a helicopter, ma chinery and electronic devices took second place to ‘the magic staircase’ many among the 7000 who flocked to the ship had never before seen or heard of an escalator.

Poor Sailors Are Drowning In Hawaii

Hawaii’s coastguard authorities are concerned at the rate of fatalities in boating accidents in the State the drowning of a Kailua man in September brought the number of deaths for 1978 to 15, compared with one in the whole of 1977, and two in 1976. Correlated statistics indicated that Hawaii’s rate is five times greater than California’s, the State with the largest number of fatalities last year. Authorities say nearly all Hawaii's fatal ac cidents have been caused by lack of boating knowledge and/or carelessness.

Brazil Frost Good News For Some

Reports that frost is expected to curtail Brazil’s coffee crop led to upward movement in the stock exchange standing of Australian-based Island trading companies Burns, Philp, Steam ships Trading and W. R. Carpenter, The latter two companies stand to benefit directly from a recovery in the price of coffee.

Burns, Philp should benefit indirectly from increased prosperity in the Islands.

Hammer Strikes - Huge Libel Action

Nauru’s President Hammer Deßoburt has filed a US$7.5 million libel suit in the US District Court in Honolulu against the American newspaper giant, the Gannett Publishing Group. The president is claiming that he was libelled in a story in the Gannett-owned, Guam-based Pacific Daily News which alleged that he had flown to the Marshall Islands to personally deliver a cheque for a $678 600 loan, which the newspaper said was illegal. The article charged that Nauru was ‘secretly backing the separation of the Marshall Islands from Micronesia’. In his suit, the president said the story was ‘untrue in every significant re spect’; and that, if it was true, it would constitute accusation of the commission of four separate criminal offences under Nauru law.

Those ‘Western’ Diseases Hit W. Samoa

A survey of cardiovascular and metabolic disease will be under taken in Western Samoa. The World Health Organisation re gional adviser for chronic diseases, Dr Shoichi Endo, says hospital statistics show that the rate of cardiovascular and meta bolic disease is increasing in the country. WHO is providing a short-term consultant to investigate the problem. (See also Tropicalities.)

$250 000 House For Solomons P.M.

The Government of Solomon Islands is to build a new house for the Prime Minister in the capital Honiara. The house is expected to cost more than 515250 000.

Statisticians Huddle In Honiara

Statisticians from all over the Pacific gathered in Honiara in Sep tember at a conference sponsored by the South Pacific Com mission. The conference reviewed the 1976 round of population censuses and discussed preliminary plans for a large number of censuses to be held in 1980-81.

Nauru Buys Apia Hotel

The Nauru Local Government has bought the Apian Way beachfront hotel in Apia for SWS2BO 000 from Mrs Mary Croudace. Intentions are to pull the building down and replace it with a new structure to house the Nauru consul, Air Nauru and Nauru Pacific Shipping Line. Meanwhile, Mr Edward Annan dale, managing director of the Apia merchant firm, O.F. Nelson, has been appointed honorary consul for Nauru in Western Samoa.

Aggie Grey Dances At 81

Legendary Aggie Grey, Apia hotelier, who turned 81 on October 31, was guest of the crew of the USS Horne for a pre-birthday celebration. A navy band travelling in the Horne played music for her after Captain James A. Barber, commanding officer, presented her with a colour picture of his ship. The band music inspired Aggie to perform the siva.

Tuvalu Talks With Uncle Sam

Tuvalu, looking away from Britain, was on the verge of signing a treaty of friendship with the United States in mid-October, Prime Minister Toalipi Lauti will have none of Uncle Sam’s prom ise to drop its claims to reefs within Tuvalu’s newly declared

sovereignty. An acceptance of this sort, feels Mr Lauti, might 1 give credibility to the US claim. Washington is very eager to get 1 its own and third-nation fishing vessels into Tuvaluan waters. 1 A ‘friendship treaty’ is one way in.

Vd Outbreak At Png Co-Ed School

One student in every eight at a co-ed boarding high school in J the Papua New Guinea Eastern Highlands is suffering from VD. j One girl in every three and one boy in every five is infected. \ Some are 12-year-old first formers. Education officials, worried I by the outbreak, did not name the school in their public re port.

$350 000 Fishing Deal, Solomons-Japan

Japanese fishing associations will pay a licence fee of $350 000 J for a year's fishing in Solomon Islands’ exclusive economic J zone. A draft agreement to this effect reached after more than two weeks of talks in Honiara was subject to endorsement by j the Solomons Cabinet and the Japanese Government. Japanese pole and line vessels will be allowed to take up to 6000 tonnes! of skipjack tuna under the agreement.

TONGAN KING BACKS OFF ON SOVIET DEAL King Taufa’ahau Tupou, of Tonga, aware of concern in Australia, I New Zealand and the USA, has backed off from a .proposal by ■ Russia to build a fishing fleet base in Tonga is return for an aid ; programme including extensions to Fua’amotu airport.

Marshallese Act On Kwajalein Base

Angry Marshallese landowners were still occupying parts of the i important US army Kwajalein missile base in September. They| were demanding more land rental money from the US Govern-1 ment. The base commander said they were in no danger so.long ! as they did not ‘stray into wrong areas’.

International Sports Body In Png

Riding on the enthusiasm of its first medal win in a Common-wealth Games, Papua New Guinea is to set up an International ; Sports Foundation. The government will finance the foundation; with an annual grant of SA2SO 000. PNG boxer Tumat Sogolikj won a silver medal at the August games at Edmontonl Canada.

Wrong Medicines Bring Tragedy

Incorrect medication for minor stomach upsets is believed to have caused the deaths of eight babies and toddlers at KimbeJ Papua New Guinea, in October.

The Hard News

Major news stories of the month including the Niue meeting' of the South Pacific Forum, along with accompanying divisions« over fisheries policies, and Tuvalu independence celebrations on October 1 are covered in PlM’s early news pages, starting p 17. Other major stories - the arrest in Papua New Guinea of Irian Jaya rebel leader Jacob Prai, the new Anglo-French plans for an independent New Hebrides, and the recent, some times acrimonious, exchanges between leaders of the two Samoas appear in Political Currents, starting p 28.

The Niue Forum:

Sub-Regionalism?

PIM editor. Bob Hawkins, was in Niue in September for the meeting of the South Pacific Forum. He found the ‘Pacific Wav' under some strain as conflicting interests among

member countries emerged, and

the shadow of new, sub-regional groupings took on more sub stance than has been known be fore.

fhoughts of a sub-regional

grouping have been exercising

Polynesian minds for some ime, particularly in the eastern

3 acific. Wrangles, unaccept

ible decisions and deteriorat ng personal relationships at he South Pacific Forum meet ng in Alofi, Niue, in Sep ember, have served to leighten speculation that an

:ast Polynesian sub-regional

grouping, involving initially

Vestern Samoa and American lamoa, Niue and Cook slands, will soon be formed.

But the east Polynesians are tot alone in their thoughts. r iji’s Prime Minister Ratu Sir Camisese Mara, less than a /eek after the Niue Forum nded, said in Suva that there /as pressure at the other end f the Pacific for another sub

egional grouping. ‘We may

3in with Papua New Guinea nd Solomon Islands,’ he aid.

What then are the confor the Forum? In

ae short term, probably

othing serious. What it will lean is that problems peculiar ) one or the other end of the acific will be worked out

trough the coming sub-

Jgional groupings. Only prob

;ms of a common nature, of ital interest to all members nd on which there is reason ble hope of acceptable con msus, are likely to find their ay onto a Forum agenda.

This year’s Niue Forum was ke none before. Ratu Mara as quite openly shocked at le lobbying which went on at lofi, both on the fisheries con trition issue and on the ques on of a successor for Mahe upouniua who was supposed

to be retiring from his post as director of the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Co operation (SPEC). This had never happened before, said Ratu Mara. Western Samoa’s Prime Minister Tupuola Efi was clearly bitter at the atti tudes of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Fiji which prevented the United States from becoming a mem ber of a South Pacific Regional

Fisheries Organisation

(SPRFO). And so was Cook Islands Premier Tom Davis.

It seems that leaders from east and west are beginning to feel that as well as problems common to all, there are two other kinds of problems in the South Pacific: those that worry the little boys, and those that affect the big boys. When the little boys have a problem there’s little sympathy from the big; when it’s the other way around the feeling is mutual.

Well, anyway, that’s how some delegates at Niue saw the situ ation.

In the case of the fisheries, the little boys were eager to capitalise on the royalties as pect of their 200-mile resources zones. Premier Tom Davis summed it up this way: ‘When my own people have an econ omic status so low, any source of income is most welcome.

And the faster the better.’

From the west came the voice: ‘Royalties returns are peanuts,’ intimating that some

members couldn’t see any further than the end of some one else’s fishing line. The real way to affluence, this voice argued, was for the island nations to work vigorously toward exploiting their own re sources instead of licensing out rights to all the big distant water fishing nations to come in, take what they want and. to make matters worse not always telling their hosts how much they had taken.

Basically, the position was

this. Western Samoa. Cook Islands, Niue, possibly, with less conviction, and maybe the odd other tiny island nation, were keen to see the draft con vention, negotiated in Suva in June, on the formation of the SPRFO. signed, sealed and put into operation.

But this draft negotiated on the Forum’s behalf by SPEC with United States State Department officials and which would have allowed membership of SPRFO to dis tant water fishing nations, including the US, Britain, France, Chile and others in no way, it seemed, suited Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands.

While supporters of the draft were eager to get on with the

job of negotiating 200-mile

fishing agreements with distant water operators with the appar

ently comforting knowledge

that they were all in SPRFO together, the ‘antis’ were reluc tant to allow an organisation which brought in nations out side of the ranks of the Forum

membership.

Was it a distrust of US motives? Was it a concern that the US which has a federal law which does not recognise the right of coastal nations to control the exploitation of the

‘highly migratory species’ el

ement of their 200-mile fisheries wealth had been party to the Suva negotiations

with the objective of‘screwing’

the South Pacific nations en bloc in one agreement rather than having to negotiate with them one at a time and ‘screw’

then individually?

PIM, after a week of listen ing to the viewpoints of both sides, and coming to realise the complexities of the situation political and technical is not ready to comment. What did

become clear was that PNG.

Fiji and Solomon Islands went home satisfied at a job well done. Western Samoa and Cook Islands, in particular, were not impressed. By the time I got to Pago Pago to talk with American Samoa’s first elected Governor, Samoan Peter Tali Coleman, he was

positively discussing the pros

pects of a sub-regional group

ing of eastern Polynesian

interests to settle problems, peculiar to them, which are not

shared by the big boys from

centre and west.

Perhaps, logically, it was one of the two real big boys Aus tralia, the other being New Zealand who came up with

an interim proposal, ‘accepted

without a vote’, which at least got SPRFO off the ground.

Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser suggested that the Forum should decide ‘forth with’ to establish a fisheries or ganisation. with the Port Moresby declaration of 1977 as a guide but with membership restricted to the Forum ‘at this stage’. Mr Fraser’s proposal called for SPEC officials to re port ‘in not more than six months on any changes, modi fications or amplifications to the terms of reference, re sponsibilities and powers that may be required’ and, more pointedly, ‘that officials also report at the same time on the

advisability and practicality of

the draft convention together with any modifications that may be desirable’.

It seemed Australia was holding out the hope that time, more talking, and a cooling

period, might eventually lead

to a compromise, acceptable to

the big boys, which could bring

distant water fishing nations

Ratu Mara .. . openly shocked.

Tupuola Efi . . . clearly bitter.

into SPRFO membership. Not likely.

A moment to record a couple of comments, typical of dis

gruntled delegates emerging

from the downstairs assembly chamber of Niue’s smart new Fale Fono parliament or as

sembly building a gift from

New Zealand. ‘We were really screwed by those big bastards,’ said one. Puzzled. I observed: ‘I thought Australia and New Zealand were keeping a pretty

low profile and behaving

themselves.’ ‘No, not Australia and New Zealand,’ he replied.

T mean those big bastards - PNG and Fiji.' Quote two a lonely one: ‘lt looks as if we are going to have to do it all by our selves.’

A skerrick. picked up else where, in two different island

capitals, perhaps gives some

insight to a part of the reason the Forum big men were not ready to allow the going to be easy for the US or their smaller fellow Forum members. Ap parently, while the nego tiations on the draft conventions were going on in Suva in June, the Fiji capital was almost buzzing with US fisheries industry represen tatives, very much to the con sternation of some Island leaders.

Poor America, it seems it comes on too strong even when it is apparently trying to be

helpful.

Whatever, SPEC officials had simply done their job.

Working on the guidelines of the Port Moresby 1977 Forum, they had come up with a draft convention which they knew, and not so deep down either, would get short shrift from PNG, Solomon Islands and Fiji. Australia and New Zealand, who, it seems, would have liked to see the draft con vention adopted, were soon to shift their ground when the Forum power-brokers showed their hands.

So, for the time being any way, advantages as seen from the east Polynesian view point will not be available.

They amount to almost immediate revenue for hard pressed economies, more efficient surveillance (from within and without their waters because official US Govern ment involvement would have

helped policing), and, in

American Samoa’s case, no uncertainty about sources of supply for their two big American cannery operations of Starkist and Van Camp.

Governor Coleman was obviously concerned at the Forum outcome. Pago Pago’s

canneries depend heavily on

access to the waters of neigh

bouring nations. Apparently

Starkist and Van Camp are already mumbling a bit about performance. The latest hiatus isn’t going to cheer them up.

The fisheries agreement wasn’t the only ‘head on’. The directorship of SPEC appar ently generated even more bit terness. Mahe Tupouniua, hailed for his performance as director since SPEC’s foun dation, had announced he was returning to ministerial duties in Tonga at the end of the year.

A replacement had to be found. The position was adver tised several months ago. A flood of applications 36 poured in, many applicants not realising that the SPEC direc torship involves a lot of politi cal considerations. The only two nominees which came to my notice were those of PNG’s Sir Maori Kiki and Western Samoa’s Professor Felix Wendt. (Sir Maori is a former deputy prime minister of PNG, having lost his seat at last year’s general election and then

having failed to regain a place

in parliament in a by-election this year). Professor Wendt is head of the Agricultural College of Alafua in Western Samoa.

Even then, as a PNG del egate described him. Sir Maori began to ‘look like a yo-yo’.

First he was in as a candidate.

Then he was out. Then in. On the eve of the appointment de cision, it seemed he was back in. Visible discussion,'if not solid lobbying, was going on among PNG and other del egation members in response to equally enthusiastic Western Samoan lobbying for Professor Wendt. But, in the morning and final session of the Forum, the news came from downstairs that Mahe Tupouniua, if the blessing of the Tongan Government was forthcoming and it seemed it would be was in the chair for probably another 12 months.

The press gets nothing official on these matters. PIM

heard that one delegation leader had threatened to walk out if PNG pushed the Sir Maori line. To avoid such an un-Pacific happening, PNG Prime Minister Michael Somare had withdrawn Sir Maori’s nomination. We’re pretty sure we’re right that far.

Then the picture fades a bit.

Did Western Samoan Prime Minister Tupuola Efi then withdraw Professor Wendt’s nomination? And from some where was the name of Niue’s Minister for Economic Development Young Vivian put up? And did Mr Vivian withdraw because no written nomination had been put in on his behalf? Anyway, Niue was lobbying members to support Mr Vivian’s nomination for the

secretary-generalship of the South Pacific Commission.

Whatever the chain of events, apparently the atmos phere was tense. The old rift between Tupuola Efi and Fiji’s Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, looked like becoming a chasm.

But why they should have been at loggerheads on this issue was not entirely clear, unless the Fijian leader had been pushing the Kiki line harder than Mr Somare. Later in Suva. Ratu Mara said his choice would have been an applicant from Geneva, whose name never surfaced.

It wasn’t all as bitter as the fisheries and SPEC direc torship issues might suggest.

The brighter side of the Niue Forum is in PIM Tradewinds.

It was the biggest thing that had ever happened on Niue. With out the new Fale Fono this little island nation’s national assembly, a gift from New Zealand and still being painted on the morning it was officially opened Niue could not have volunteered to host the ninth South Pacific Forum.

About 100 outsiders among them national leaders and two deputies came to Niue. There was no way the island’s only hotel as neat and clean and attractive as it was when it opened about three years ago could accom modate everyone. And, though

security was hardly necessary,

it was somehow fitting its 20 rooms should be reserved (with the odd exception) for leaders

only.

For the supporting officials and the small press contingent much better was in store. They were billeted with families in villages, some at the other side of the island and that’s about as far as you can go on Niue.

More embarrassing, but very touching, was the Niuean cus tom of making a gift to their guests on their departure and that after a week of lavish hospitality (two for those in volved in South Pacific Bureau for Economic Co-operation pre-Forum deliberations).

Never at any stage did any one seem short of transport. ‘Official’ drivers often were senior Niuean public servants.

Hosts laid on their own trans port to supplement the govern ment pool of less than 20 cars, pick-ups and four-wheel drives.

If the national leaders and their delegations thought the pace of both a demanding Forum and a seemingly never ending round of fiafia (feast ing) was exhausting, what must those delicious coconut crabs of Niue have thought about it?

They died literally in their hun dreds to adorn pigs backs and to give a pink glow to table upon table of island wealth.

After the crab in the favour stakes came inimitable Niuean raw fish in lime juice and coco nut milk, chickens probably in their thousands, pigs by the score, beef, reef fish, deep fish, taro (which Ratu Sir Kamisese

Mara of Fiji, using the Fijian

word dalo, described as among the best he has tasted), sweet potato, pumpkin, yams, pas

sionfruit juice, lime juice

(Niuean water). ..

Niue’s Premier Robert Rex and its population of less than 4000 living on their lonely 250 square kilometre island, did it in style. Solomon Islands, next year’s host, can view Niue’s

performance with both opti

mism and trepidation. But, as

Solomon’s representative

Minister for Natural Resources Paul Tovua said as he flew out to Pago Pago: Tf Niue can do it, there is no reason why we should not be able to do it.’

some may think

•mall but hot. That’s how 'liueans like to think of them elves and their island nation, lut their 250 square kilometre oral outcrop home might be lotter than they think. It’s not

lews that radio-activity levels

•n Niue are the highest in the louth Pacific at least among

dands where the radio-activity

> regarded as being of natural

•rigin.

What is news is that mining iterests are now putting down sntative feelers to find out if t is uranium. ‘Who knows /hat is down there,’ said the Jiue Government’s resident conomist Ron Layton. ‘There > a radio-active anomaly. It aust have been caused by □mething. It is virtually cer ain that radio-activity of that was caused by uranium. It light be gone now. It is on that ind of basis, plus a few geo igical theories, that we are

nding out.’

The government has been airly cautious in its approach d uncovering the secret of their •land but not cautious enough s far as New Zealand, with /horn Niue has a special re ationship, is concerned. The uestion was discussed exten ively in both the Niue cabinet nd assembly and it was de

ided last year to push through

mining act to cover all contin encies before allowing in the liners.

Three individuals appear to

lake up the investigating

;am. John Barrie, who is

k.vian Mining; John Rowntree,

Canadian geologist who is ustral Syndicate; and Frank elly, whose company, F. A.

elly Ltd, is doing the drilling.

Drilling rig on Niue: hopes and fears Drilling began about 11 kilo metres along the road from Alofi to Hakupu toward the southern end of the island. Two holes were abandoned for tech nical reasons, one at about 50 metres, the other at less than 20 metres. It is understood drilling to a depth of something short of 200 metres is planned.

Which is why both the New Zealand Government and some Niueans are concerned.

The people of Niue live in enviable harmony with nature.

Because of its porous surface, Niue, for all its area, has no lakes, rivers or streams. When it rains the water is sucked in, spongelike. But the water lies in a lens, just beneath the sur face, a delicate lens which some observers fear could be disturbed should uranium or other riches be found and the government give in to the

temptation to exploit those

riches. Open-cut mining is the method being talked about. ‘Can you imagine what would happen if Niue’s fresh water table were exposed to the at

mosphere? pondered one resi

dent.

There’s also the folklore.

Secretary to Government

Terry Chapman mentioned

that some Niueans see their island as being in the shape of a mushroom, the stem plung ing to the bed of the ocean. Too much shaking around could break the stem causing Niue to plunge beneath the waves.

And then there are those who fear radio-activity could pol lute the water. And some who think holes bored at random around the island could lead to salt water mixing with fresh.

Some obviously feel that, well, it is best left alone.

Albert tells UN

The Cook Islands’ former Premier Sir Albert Henry wants the United Nations decolonisation committee to check the role played by the New Zealand Government in the Cook Islands’ March gen eral election, and the sub sequent court action that dumped his ruling party, writes William Gasson from Welling ton.

The decision of the Cook Islands Chief Justice last July invalidated the votes of passen gers on charter flights arranged by Sir Albert to fly Cook Islanders from New Zealand to Rarotonga, and cost the ruling party nine seats, and political power. ‘lnformation now gathered and placed in safe keeping in Melbourne proves about 50-50 that Wellington did have some thing to do with this whole drama,’ Sir Albert claimed when he arrived in Auckland from a September visit to Aus tralia. He said the petition call ing for the investigation was filed with the UN committee by Professor Otto Ulc, pro fessor of political science at New York State University. He acts as the Cook Islands honarary representative to the UN.

He bases his evidence for calling for the investigation on suspicions. ‘We gave the com mittee some ideas of what hap pened. I don’t like to say more,’

Sir Albert said.

He then repeated his claim made earlier this year that a New Zealand government department has assisted the then opposition party leader Dr Tom Davis during his elec tion campaign. Sir Albert said he felt there had been inter ference in the internal self government of the Cook Islands and claimed tht the whole political situation there now seemed farcical to the people. ‘The only alternative is to go back to the people and let them decide,’ he added.

And would he want to be

Premier again?

i would ... I don't know.

But I think the people say they haven’t found one yet who could beat me.' Mr Muldoon’s reaction was to shrug off the UN petition. ‘I don’t think we should take this seriously,’ he said. ‘Albert Henry was obviously deeply shocked when the court found against him. but the court was operating under Cook Islands law and he has been the head of the government since the time of self-government and is thus responsible for the Cook Islands law. ‘lt was under his own law that his Cook Islands court found in the way that it did and that was the end of his govern ment so at that point there in no case for any allegations of outside interference. The whole thing has been done in the Cook Islands and in ac cordance with Cook Islands law.’

Mr Muldoon’s view was that no UN committee would take

Sir Albert’s petition seriously.

The Christchurch Star, in an editorial about the ‘irrepress ible’ former premier, said he ‘may be down, but he’s not out’. For years he had lent comic relief to New Zealand’s newspaper columns and tele vision screens with his outrage ous comments. ‘Now he’s at it again. It makes no difference that his government has been ousted by the judgment of Chief Justice Donne, who branded the elec tion “the greatest perversion of

representative democracy’’.’

The Star said that Mr Justice Donne’s judgment was well reasoned, ‘and will doubtless serve as a warning to emerging Island governments for many years to come’. ‘Sir Albert in his early years of office did much good for the Cook Islands and is still

remembered affectionately by

many in spite of his double dealing nosedive. It would be better for all concerned if he left it that way and slipped quietly into history,’ the edi torial said.

Reluctant Elder

Of Bikini Atoll

A merican journalist Mike Malone covered the September

relocation of Bikinians from

their home atoll to Kili made necessarry by Bikini’s continu ing high radiation levels. In par ticular he investigated the case of Andrew Jakeo, a man who, with some 30 followers, refused to make the move to Kili. He filed the following exclusive re port, with the accompanying pictures, for PIM: Andrew Jakeo was a young man of 36 when the Americans first asked him to leave his homeland in 1946. In Sep tember on Bikini, the site of 23 nuclear tests that ended in

1958, history repeated itself.

Jakeo, now a Bikini elder and traditional leader of 68 years, and about 140 other islanders, reluctantly left their coral-and-sand atoll for the second time, after learning that they were absorbing levels of radioactive cesium-137 at an

alarmingly high rate.

Their departure did not come easy. When Trust Terri tory High Commissioner Adrian P. Winkel arrived on Bikini with nearly 40 newsmen from around the world, Jakeo and his people declared their intention to stay on Bikini. For Jakeo and other Bikinians who came back here after being told by American scientists in 1968 that their homeland was safe, the news that they would be asked to leave was a bitter blow. T don’t care about radi ation on Bikini,’ Jakeo told the

high commissioner through an

interpreter. T will send out my children and family if that is necessary. Bikini is my home, my freedom, my happiness.

You can take my life now. Bury me beside my home, but I will never return to Kili.’

After being told in 1946 that their removal for atomic test ing would be for the ‘.. . good of mankind and to end all wars,’ the Bikini people trusted the Americans’ assurances that they would be well cared for.

But less than a year after their relocation to Rongerik Atoll,

they were starving. In 1948 they were taken to Kili, an isolated island of about I.3sqkm. In contrast to Bikini Atoll’s huge

lagoon surrounded by numer

ous islands, Kili lacks a lagoon and heavy seas make it inac cessible in winter months.

An American teacher on Kili, Ralph Waltz, 36, recalled

losing 18 kg in weight during

one winter when six months passed without the visit of a

supply ship. Many people refer

to Kili as ‘the prison’. ‘Thirty years ago you (the US) took us to Kili and left us there,’ Jakeo told the high com missioner. ‘Then you forgot about us. Many years passed and your promises were not kept. Now you want to take us back to Kili. I am afraid you will forget about us again.’

To ease the situation. High Commissioner Winkel brought news that Kili would only be a temporary relocation site.

Twenty-eight wooden tin-roof houses have been built there, in addition to a dispensary and a school. There is the promise of a dock to be built soon all

part of a $l5 million relocation program now being considered by the US Congress.

But the Bikinians want eventually to return to Bikini Atoll, to Eneu Island, which is thought to be safe by scientists,

although radiological tests will

continue there until next year.

Failing that, the Bikinians have asked to be given land in Hawaii or on the US main land.

However, a day of delicate negotiations with High Com missioner Winkel brought an agreement whereby Jakeo and his followers, about 30 people, would leave Bikini, but not go to Kili. Instea'd, they will settle on an uninhabited island in Majuro Atoll near the Marshalls district centre and medical facilities. The rest of the Bikinians agreed to resettle on Kili.

Before leaving Bikini, Winkel acknowledged the ‘re grettable’ error made by the scientists in 1968 when Bikini was declared ‘safe’, and praised the people for their ‘respon sible decisiofi’ to leave their homeland again. ‘As far as the present risks are concerned’, Winkel said, ‘we cannot afford to play God. The risk is indeed great. Ten years from now, who knows, maybe the scientists will determine Bikini safe again. But the risk exists if you stay.’ Medical examinations

will be given to the Bikini people every three months to I monitor their body levels of

radioactivity.

Shortly before sunset on that final day on Bikini, after all the islanders and their belongings were loaded aboard the two I ships that came to take them ] away, Jakeo walked the length 1 of his deserted home island I alone perhaps for the last] time. As a ship’s whistle sounded, Jakeo put his outrig ger canoe into the blue lagoon I and paddled out to the waiting 1 vessel.

Micronesian News Service I adds to Mike Malone’s \ account: The islanders were given a I memorandum of understand-1 ing which declares that the I Government of the United States ‘considers itself gener ally responsible for the well being of the Bikini people and their descendants’. It also pro vides that the Department of the Interior, which administers 1 the Trust Territory, will call I upon other agencies of the US j Government to assist it, par ticularly the Department of Energy. This is to ensure that, I among other things, the medi cal needs of the Bikinians will be met.

Each Bikinian was given 100 • dollars as a relocation allow-] ance to purchase necessities. Winkel emphasised that this j was ‘not intended to constitute j compensation’ but was a one time, lump-sum relocation payment. Bikinians are the i

beneficiaries of a SUS 3 million]

trust fund set up by the United States and administered 1 independently by a bank in Hawaii. Winkel said this will be doubled when Congress ap- j proves a new allocation to be j used on behalf of the Bikinians. Approval is expected this year or early next year, he said.

No restrictions were placed \ on foreign media personnel in talking with the Bikinians or

photographing events con- j

nected with the relocation.

Two events lifted the j Bikinians’ spirits and served to dispel somewhat the sadness of departure the births of babies: one on Bikini the night before the move, the other aboard ship en route to Kili. ■

Andrew Jakeo (right) speaks to High Commissioner Winkel through interpreter Henchi Balos. His message: He will not go back to Kili.

just a sunset but a total eclipse

Says Bob HAWKINS ;

English and unimpressed

1953 London; Coronation time. It’s pouring.

Tonga’s irrepressible Queen Salote rides the city streets in an open carriage. Britons love it. 1078 Tuvalu: Independence time. It’s raining on Funafuti. Princess Margaret, reportedly with a 104 degree F temperature, stays confined on the HMNZS Otago.

Tuvaluans do not love it.

It may not be a fair comparison. But it seems that the one and only characteristic of empire I could ever admire a refusal to surrender to whatever adversary is dead in the Briton’s soul. Or, perhaps, royal flu, penumonia, or whatever, is much more serious than the common variety.

English-born, and with residual pride, I waited in the hope that Princess Margaret would rise from her sick bed, make an eleventh hour dash ashore, and appear dra matically falteringly, if necessary at the

September 30 midnight switching hour

(Tuvalu’s flag for Britain’s). Sure, there were three cheers for Queen Elizabeth 11. But Tuvaluans, who know just how tough living can be, were nol impressed at Meg’s frailty.

One British official observed: ‘lf Margaret is not up to the job, she should say so and give it up.’

Somehow, royalty’s non-appearance fit ted the occasion. It is clear that both Tuvalu politicians and some British officials serving on Funafuti are disgruntled at the UK’s part ing attitude. Britain is finished in Tuvalu.

Prime Minister Toalipi Lauti said he was ‘disappointed’ at the outcome of London negotiations on assistance for Tuvalu after

independence. It seemed he would have liked to have come on stronger. This large man of imposing presence seemed more hurt at UK’s demeanour than its lack of gen erosity. He’s not worried about other aid sources several other nations and agen cies are willing to stand by Tuvalu. In his speech to a parting Britain, Prime Minister Lauti pointedly observed that Tuvalu had moved into constitutional and political independence; economic independence was yet to come.

All in all, it was hard to find a good word from anybody for Britain. So little it seems had been done on the ‘Brits’ part to learn about Tuvalu: so much had been done on the Tuvaluans’ part to cope with the influx of visitors on an island hard-pressed to feed its own people without a heavy import bill, let alone a crowd of hard-drinking diplo mats, officials, soldiers and sailors off five vessels, and various other interested par ties.

Tuvalu with a combination of throbbing traditional music and dancing, a ready smile, traditional hospitality, and a superb dignity personified in the presence of Prime Minister Lauti had no problem matching up to the occasion. But for the Brits, it all seemed to be summed up in Lord Napier’s pronunciation when he read Princess Mar garet’s speech for her on October 1. It just made him seem so very alien when he talked

of ‘Fun-uff-at-ee’ (say it fast).

Bob

Hawkins

I love you Tuvalu' says the message across this broad back but hardly echoed in Britain's farewell. It maybe wouldn't be a bad idea to incorporate it in the new nation's official insignia.

Conservation

Conserving the Pacific heritage: Idea whose time has arrived?

There’s nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has arrived - so runs an old saying. It doesn’t seem too far-fetched to apply it to the theme of this month’s PIM cover the need for a conscious effort to pre serve the architectural and cul tural treasures of the South Seas.

Consider the following facts.

In May, 1977, PlM’s publisher, Stuart Inder, devoted his column ‘Up Front’ to this

theme, focusing particularly on

the buildings in the former Fiji capital of Fevuka. His column drew an enthusiastic response, in a letter published in PIM, September, 1977, from Honolulu architect, George J.

Wimberly, who said in part: ‘We, in the Development Authority of the Pacific Area Travel Association, are push ing very hard for just this type of preservation and are

presently exploring the means

and methods of organising (for want of a better term) what we call The Pacific Society ... ‘The Pacific area needs a great deal of help in its preser vation efforts as most of the architecture has not been con structed with very permanent materials. Even well intentioned maintenance sometimes obscures the archi tectural grace of the original structure.’

Things have moved a bit since then. A more recent letter to Mr Inder from John Kena ston of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, reports that last year’s 26th PATA conference, held in Hong Kong, adopted a resolution for the creation of a Pacific Heritage Society. A sub-committee was formed within the PATA under the chairmanship of Dale Keller, ‘who.’ says Mr Kenaston, ‘has achieved a position of inter national prominence for his design work and sensitivity towards the preservation and development of the heritage and regional culture in those

many areas where he has been involved’.

Among PATA documents enclosed by Mr Kenaston is one that asks the question; ‘Why should a travel organis ation concern itself with the

protection of heritage?’, and

offers the following reply: ‘ln many PATA member coun tries, the characteristics that make that country different are steadily, and in some cases rap idly, being eroded. If action is not taken to modify this situ ation we may be in danger of losing some of the qualities that led PATA, from the outset, to urge people to “discover the

friendly Pacific”...

‘Something needs to be done to draw the attention of the public in general and of the travel industry in particular to the existing dangers. It is not too late in the Pacific. We can and should take steps to pre serve that part of everyone’s ethnic or national heritage that makes them unique. Unlike Europe, which is now “trying to correct the mistakes of the

past”, we must try to “prevent the mistakes of the future”.’

The document makes some hard-headed business points: ‘Unique cultures attract man’s interest in other areas of the world and thus open the door to travel. There is, in fact, an interdependence between tour ism and conservation, in which each contributes to the econ omic viability of the other.’

Putting its money where its mouth is, PATA resolved to al locate $lO 000 ‘for activities in 1978-79 aimed at furthering the objectives and facilitating the formation of a Pacific Heritage

Society’.

Plans for 1978-79 include development of a mailing list and a membership pro gramme, completion of a re search project already begun, publication of two papers re lated to the functions and aims of the Society, and the organis ation of a Pacific-wide meet

ing.

PIM correspondent Victor Carell, w orking a parallel fur row', makes a special examin

ation of the problems of

preserving the beauties of Levuka in PI M’s Yesterday feature this month (see pp 50-51).

Vila’s big show

pulls in crowds

The sixth Vila Agriculture I Show was held in September! with seven out of every eight of I the population of the New!

Hebrides’ main island, Efate, I attending, writes Greg Nos-1 worthy from Vila. Held ini excellent conditions, a carnival! atmosphere prevailed through-] out the two-day show.

Custom dancing was prob-| ably the biggest attraction, with I a group from Tongoa Island I winning the first prize of SASOO I with their highly authentic dis-| play. A charity queen compe-1 tition is also held in I conjunction with the show and I this year FNHS7O 000 J (about 5A6900) was collected] by entrants vying for the valu-1 able prizes.

With agriculture the New]

Hebrides principal industry,!

there was no shortage of] exhibits in the livestock and I produce divisions. Ships visit-! ing outer islands collected I more than four tonnes of pro-1 duce for exhibition.

The show is held in Colar- j deau Park.

Strongly supported by all levels of government and by] Mayor Remy Delaveuve, the

agricultural show seems j

assured of continual success. I

In less danger than many fine old buildings through the Pacific is Vailima, former home near Apia of famous author Robert Louis Stevenson, and now official residence of Western Samoa’s Head of State.

Tropicalities

Treasuring the

The leading French daily Le Monde has just carried a series of three long articles by French journalist Yvonne Rebeyrol on the Galapagos Islands, 1100 km off the coast of South America, which form part of the Republic of Ecuador. . Entitled ‘ The Enchanted Noah’s Ark\ the articles pro vide vivid descriptions of the unique flora and fauna of the Galapagos which, in 1835, pro vided Charles Darwin with im portant elements of his then

revolutionary theory of the

evolution of the species

through natural selection. The Ecuadorian Government has

proposed that the Galapagos

)e included in the world cul ural and natural heritage insti ution whose establishment

vas proposed last January by

he United Nations Edu

:ational and Scientific Organ

sation.

Rebeyrol provides details of

he strict measures taken by the icuadorian Government to

irotect this heritage, which

ould be of interest to other Pa ific governments with natural

reasures to be guarded.

She writes: The Galapagos /ere opened to tourists in 1969.

Tey have since become acreasingly popular. In 1977 here were 6790 tourists, 18.5% f them Ecuadorians. But it has ow been decided that under o circumstances will more lan 12 000 tourists be ccepted in any year. ‘Tourists cannot move about lone. Either they go on an rganised trip headed by one f the 25 official guides, or they ike one of the guides aboard

ieir yacht, or, thirdly, they can

•avel in one of the 20 fishing

oats captained by authorised

uides. All guides must do a aining course at the ialapagos’ Darwin Station be- Dre being approved by the ark service.

‘Twenty-seven itineraries

ave been planned on several f the islands (5% of the park’s irface) so that visitors may see 5 much interesting flora and luna as possible. But, accord ig to the itineraries, the num er of tourists is limited in

some cases to 80, and in others to as few as 15, a day. No dom estic animals may be taken on these trips. No food may be given to the native animals, and it is forbidden to touch them. Visitors are asked not to drop paper, fruit, plastic bags or cigarette butts (though smoking is permitted) during their walks on the islands or the sea crossings between them . . .’

Then she makes the follow ing comments, which will have a familiar ring for those who have come in contact with a certain type of tourist: ‘One

wonders why some foreigners

come from so far away to the

Galapagos. Guides welcoming

their groups sometimes hear aggressive statements like the following, made by way of introduction, by some tourists; “I don’t believe in evolution anyway .. .” Some visitors also protest: “These islands aren’t interesting at all. You can see the sea anywhere. Animals too.

Anyway, if I wanted photos, I could buy them in Quito.”

Some don’t even get out of the boats. You can also hear idiotic quesions such as: “Those birds flying over there, are they the local cormorants that can’t fly?” ...

Call for ‘million

PNG soldiers’

There is not enough money available to increase the yearly

recruitment of soldiers, Papua New Guinea’s Defence Force Minister, Mr Louis Mona has said. Mr Mona told parliament that at present the defence force was recruiting 100 men a year. He was replying to Mr Ibne Kor (Nipa-Kutubu) dur ing question time in parlia ment.

Mr Kor said he was con cerned about the size of the de fence force in comparison to Indonesia and feared that another country may invade PNG. He said there are three million people in Papua New Guinea, and at least a million of these should be soldiers. Mr Kor said many Grade 10 school leavers who did not have jobs should join the defence force.

Mr Mona said he too was concerned about the size of the defence force but could not do anything at this stage due to

financial problems.

The Club Med

puts to sea ...

The Club Mediterranee is the name, not only of a French company which has been highly successful in the tourist business, but also of one of the strangest ships to be launched since the classical iron monster, the Great Eastern, write Marie- Therese and Bengt Danielsson from Papeete. Although this magnificent, 72 m long, four-

masted ship, which cost .more than SA2 million to build, arrived here in Tahiti to a great fanfare as recently as June this year, she has already been hid den away in the local naval

yard and seemingly forgotten.

We have delved into this mys tery and have discovered what

has happened.

It should first be said that from whatever point of view we look at this extraordinary vessel, she should never have been built at all. But built she was, and for the sole purpose of allowing the famous French navigator Alain Colas (who, you might remember, in 1974 raced alone around the world in 169 days in his Polynesian catamaran Manureva) to win the trans-Atlantic race in 1976.

The organising committee did not bother to impose any re strictions on the size of par

ticipating craft, probably

thinking that common sense and limitations of finance would form a natural barrier to the entry of sea-going extravaganzas like the Club Mediterranee.

As it happened, Alain Colas’s consuming desire to beat his arch-rival Eric

The August issue of PIM, with its widely acclaimed coverage of the phenomenon of the Third Sex in Polynesia , found itself in unusual company on this news-stand at downtown Sydney’s busy Wvnvard railway station.

Tabarly, combined with the Club Med director’s love for

lavish promotions, to give

birth to a 245-tonne iron ship, with a specially built 50-tonne uranium keel and four masts, all of them of equal height at 31 m, wholly steered and manoeuvred by a push-button system from a well-protected bridge cabin. To give some idea of the degree of sophisti cation achieved, let us say only that a TV camera at the foot of each mast permitted Colas to observe on a screen at his com mand post, at any time, the exact position of every sail. The total surface of canvas employed was 972 sq m, which made it possible for the craft to maintain an average cruising speed of more than 10 knots.

Fortunately for everybody Eric

Tabarly won the race, thus showing the way back to a competition of more human dimensions, where skill and courage are the decisive fac tors.

The owner coped with the

questions of impertinent

newspapermen as to the embarrassing failure of this floating data bank to win the race saying that the ship’s ultimate destination anyway was Tahiti, as confirmed by her registry at the time of launch

ing.

As soon as the sleek monster swept into Papeete harbour on June 2 the Club Med directors proudly announced a most im

pressive schedule, according to

which she was to make every week no fewer than three trips to or around Moorea, as well as one to the Leeward Islands.

The departure and arrival times were shown for each voy age, exactly as on a railway schedule. This made many old

timers laugh incredulously. But

a few more charitable individuals remarked that we had, after all, to do with a new phenomenon a kind of ocean train. The number of passen gers to be carried was 96 for the day trips, and 40 for the longer trip to Bora Bora and Huahine.

It all worked beautifully for a few weeks, until the ship

simply vanished. On inquiries,

the representatives of the Club

Med either kept mum, or mumbled something about urgent repairs. This seemed strange, since the ship had undergone extensive remodell

ing and improvements just be

fore coming out to Tahiti.

The true explanation, as it turned out, was that the uranium keel had split ver tically, and that there was no way of repairing it short of per

haps taking the whole ship to

pieces.

We have a feeling that des tiny is pointing to the ultimate solution, which would be to cut up the hull into parts and make four separate sailing vessels of it, each with its own mast.

As to the unusual choice of metal for the keel, the only comment worth making is that to bring a 50 tonne piece of uranium to these islands, already exposed to the radioac tivity released by 42 nuclear test in the atmosphere, re sembles nothing more than carrying coals to Newcastle.

Harder to visit

Moresby’s sick

Free meals and casual round the-clock visiting are coming under the axe at the Port Moresby general hospital.

writes Angus Smales from the

Papua New Guinea capital.

Hospital officials say that long established concessions for

hospital visitors, including the

entitlement of some to free meals, were being abused.

The hospital was tightening

security following the disap

pearance of two babies from the maternity ward. (Both were later found and returned to their mothers.) Unofficial freedoms under which relatives almost camped in the wards to be with patients are being withdrawn. Visiting hours will come down from five hours a day to two. But the effective reduction in visiting hours is much greater, because unofficially visitors have been coming and going at all hours.

Hospitals in Papua New Guinea face a special problem because large numbers of rela tives often camp in the grounds when patients are brought in from outlying villages. On sev eral occasions in Rabaul, Port

Moresby and the Highlands

relatives were found sharing patients’ beds at night on a ros ter system.

Officially recognised ‘guard

ians’ of some patients are also entitled to meal tickets at

hospitals.

Hospital officials said the situation was getting out of hand. Only one guardian would henceforth be recog nised. and the new visiting hours would be rigidly enfor ced, they said.

Old frigate still

serves science

HMAS Diamantina, launched in 1944 and the last of the

Royal Australian Navy’s

World War II frigates still in service, was in Suva in late Sep tember. It was her first visit since 1967.

Her task, in conjunction with the New Zealand oceano

graphic research ship HMNZS

Tui, was the study of factors affecting underwater sound transmission. These include sea floor topography, sea floor sediment structure, sea water temperature and salinity struc ture, and local ambient noise factors.

Australian and New Zealand research establishments have a programme of such sound transmission projects in the Tasman and Coral Seas, and in the South Fiji Basin.

There was an historical side to Diamantina’s voyage as well.

The four-masted, four-in-one uranium ship Club Mediterranee a wonder, or white elephant, of the age?

Her visit to Suva almost coin cided with the 33rd anniversary of the surrender of Japanese occupation forces in Nauru (September 13, 1945), and Ocean Island (October 1). Sur render ceremonies in these places took place on Diaman

tina’s quarterdeck.

Record fund for

Leper Man Appeal

Far-reaching plans for

developing the Twomey Mem orial Hospital in Fiji into a lep rosy training centre are now well under way. A joint agree ment for the project has been signed on behalf of the Lepers’

Trust Board of New Zealand by the chairman, Mr A. H. T.

Rose, in Suva. Participants are the Lepers’ Trust Board, the Fijian Government and the

World Health Organisation.

The Twomey Memorial

Hospital, the Leper Man

Appeal’s pioneering contri

bution to leprosy treatment and prevention in the Pacific Islands, will become a training centre for the whole of the

South Pacific. Proposed train

ing programmes and other activities include a his

topathology service, laboratory

indentification of drug resist

ance, drug trials, immun

ilogical studies and

epidemiological work.

Such ambitious and compre

hensive planning was good to

see, Dr W.J. Smith, chairman if the Board’s Medical Advis ory Committee, told the Lepers’ Trust Board’s Annual

General Meeting recently.

Various planned consultant

services requested by territories

vere already progressing, he

said.

More than $2l 000 for the irst year of development was approved by the board. In the following year the Lepers’

Frust Board will contribute 8 12 760 annually to the pro ect.

About $34 000 was also

allocated for the Hospital’s

lew activities area being

Manned by the Fiji Govern nent and the Fiji Lepers’ Trust Board. This would meet a need evident for some years, Dr smith told the meeting. Rooms

for sewing, handcrafts, such as

printing and bookbinding, a

studio for Semisi Maya and a showroom, the workshop and shoe shop, will replace the pre sent cramped quarters.

The total grants announced came to a record $406 500 as a result of the 1977 Leper Man Appeal. All grants are for the South Pacific area which is the

Board’s special responsibility.

PNG man warns

Australia

Sweet talk was in short supply at the September reception in Papua New Guinea House, Sydney, to mark the third anni

versary of the country’s

independence.

PNG Consul-General Aus tin Sapias told the assembled 150 Australian businessmen and government officials; ‘Australia will have to get up north and sell or lose its market supremacy in PNG. ‘Australia is losing its hold over the $5OO million-a-year PNG market to Japan, the US and New Zealand. ‘We know what we want and that is quality with quantity.

We are looking for the right

price.’

Mr Sapias told newsmen later that although Australia still supplied half the country’s

needs and PNG was its sixth best market, other nations were

making inroads.

‘We don’t want to discrimi nate against Australia, but it is up to Australian businessmen to supply the right goods at the right price. Australia is pricing itself out of our market. We know you have industrial troubles, but your costs are eroding your position in the PNG market.'

Diseases, too,

go ‘Western’

The South Pacific Commission and the World Health Organis ation have joined forces to stage a conference on meta bolic diseases in the Pacific.

Venue was the Republic of Nauru.

According to Nauru’s official news bulletin: ‘The meeting was organised as a re sult of growing concern at the emergence of diabetes and other chronic diseases, such as high blood pressure, gout and heart disease in certain Pacific countries. ‘While these diseases appear to be uncommon in the coun tries of Melanesia and tradi tional-living Polynesian and Micronesian societies, there has been a dramatic increase in their incidence as Polynesian and Micronesian populations move from their traditional way of life to one of Western

style dietary and physical

activity patterns.’

Opening the meeting,

Nauruan Health Minister Joseph Audoa said that in the past the main emphasis of medical programmes in the Pa cific had been on infectious diseases malaria, leprosy, tuberculosis, filariasis, and so on. Medical science had done much to reduce the impact of these diseases, even though some remained problems.

But a new pattern of disease had now emerged in the related disorders of obesity, diabetes, gout, hypertension and heart disease.

He said; ‘Our health prob lems are obviously related to

important changes which have

been taking place in our lifes tyle, in the structure of our so ciety, our modes of work.’

Fuatai Sole, Western Samoa, winner of the South Pacific Coconut Climbing Contest, pictured in happy mood on palm tree trunk in Suva’s Sukuna Park after victory.

Afterthoughts

Of The Making Of

Is No End

with Percy Chatterton in Port Moresby

One of the most fascinating of my experiences during the half-a century in Papua New Guinea has been that of watching the growth of legend.

A persistent legend in pre-war Papua related to the pioneer London Missionary Society missionary, James Chalmers, who was killed and eaten at Goaribari Island in the Papuan Gulf country in 1901. All along the Papuan coast from west to east the story was told of how, on the day of Chalmers’ death, the sun was darkened from noon till afternoon. Those who told the story were probably not aware that in fact Chalmers’ death oc curred in the early morning, not at noon; and the resemblance of the story to the New Testament account of the crucifixion is unlikely to be accidental. Yet I have talked with elderly men who have said that they were boys at the time and that they remem bered it happening.

I have searched the records for a reference to some natural event which might have given rise to the story, but have failed to find one.

This sort of thing rather shakes one’s trust in eye-witness accounts of happenings. In this connection I recall an occasion when a rather spectacular event took place in a Papuan coastal village. A few days later I asked three of my students (adults, not children), who had been eye-witnesses of the event, to write for me an account of what had happened. The three accounts they turned in differed quite startlingly from one another in quite

important ways.

This kind of thing also makes one a bit cynical about the masses of ‘oral history’, the collection and publishing of which is now all the rage in academic circles. I am not implying of course that all ‘oral history’ is unreliable. On the contrary, in the 19505, an elderly man from a village on the shores of Hall Sound, about 60 miles north-west of Port Moresby, gave me a graphic account of the murder of two Europeans in that area in 1875. He drama tised the story in a one-man act of considerable histrionic merit.

I enjoyed the performance but took it with a grain of salt. How ever, some time later I came on a contemporary account of the event in an unpublished document in the LMS archives, which tallied point by point with the orally transmitted story handed down over four generations.

But in many cases the stream of oral history has been muddied by ingredients imported from the Bible, from European fairy tales, and even from the writings of eminent anthropologists. On one occasion a university student who had spent a vacation in his home village reported that the people of his village had a tradition that their ancestors had come from Egypt. My recollec tion is that this was published quite uncritically as a contribution

to ‘oral history’.

But to get back to the growth of legend. In the years since the war, stories have been cropping up all over the place of how, when the first missionaries arrived at the place of which the story is being told, they were met by hostile tribesmen intent on slaught ering them. At the last moment, a fearless villager sprang in front of them and declared that only over his dead body should the

strangers be harmed. Thereafter all was sweetness and light.

These stories, of course, provide marvellous material for dra matic re-enactment, and young people get a lot of fun out of blackening their faces and brandishing spears. But are the stories true? In a few cases they probably are; and of course there were some cases in which the missionaries really did get killed. But in many others, contemporary missionary accounts suggest a friendly and peaceful reception rather than a hostile one.

How then did the stories arise? I think it is because a new gener ation of admirers of the glorious Melanesian past have felt that it would have somehow been unmanly of their ancestors not to try to kill the intruders. Surely they must have done. So a new legend is bom.

The most recent crop of legends has nothing to do with mis sionaries; it is concerned with Papua New Guinea’s accession to independence in 1975. Already, only three years later, university students and other young nationalists are prating about ‘our fight

for independence’.

The fact is that the only people who had to do any fighting for Papua New Guinean independence were the successive Aus tralian Governments, which as time went on became more and more impatient with Papua New Guinea’s reluctance to accept the independence which Australia was so anxious to press upon it.

True, the Pangu Party had from its inception advocated early self-government and independence; but its supporters were heavily outnumbered by those of the United Party, which had been established specifically for the purpose of delaying indepen dence as along as possible. Right up to the end of 1971, when the second House of Assembly was prorogued. United Party spokesmen were declaring robustly that if they were returned to power in the forthcoming elections there would be no indepen dence for a long long time.

Six months later, Pangu’s Michael Somare became Chief Minister, and thereafter progress towards self-government and independence was rapid, to the relief of the Australian Govern ment. Nobody had to fight for it. But no doubt the legend of Papua New Guinea’s heroic fight for freedom will echo down the years.

It was echoed recently in a letter from a university student to the PNG Post-Courier. From there he proceeded to bundle together a declaration by Commodore Erskine in 1884, a punitive expedition mounted by C. S. Robinson in 1904, and a decision of the Australian Government implemented in 1906, and to blame Sir Hubert Murray, who began his long reign as Lieutenant- Governor in 1908, for the whole package.

He then went on to reject the names ‘Papua’ and ‘New Guinea’ as colonial impositions, and declared that the country must have a new name, a truly Melanesian name. His choice was ‘Niugini’. , I couldn’t quite follow this bit, but perhaps he thinks that phonetic spelling is a Melanesian invention.

UPNG’s library has a very fine ‘New Guinea Collection’ with a full range of contemporary records covering the whole colonial period. And the colonial period is one of the facts of history, how ever glad we may be that it is over.

It would be a good thing if more of our students had more recourse to this collection and so found out what really happened, instead of making up the history of their country out of their heads.

Political

Vanuaaku’S

Vital Talks

The Vanuaaku Party’s political

commissars are to meet on Ambrym Island, New Hebrides, in the first week of November to consider the suggestion by French Minister for Overseas Department and Territories Paul Dijoud for a 50/50 share in a New Hebrides Government of national unity, writes PIM Editor Bob Hawkins from Noumea, where he covered the South Pacific Conference in October.

Informed Vila sources suggest this could mean a cabi net with as many as 14 mem bers, the new portfolios taking over certain responsibilities now held by incumbent minis ters. It seems that some extreme Left elements in the VP are only willing to go along with the proposal, which has British backing, if Chief Minis ter George Kalsakau is willing to step down. The chief minis ter is unlikely to accede to such a request.

Vanuaaku Party president.

Father Walter Lini. and sec retary, Barak Sope. returned last month from a world tour during which they met Pacific leaders, visited the US, talked with the UN committee of 24 on decolonisation, and talked in London to Lord Goronwy Roberts (Minister responsible for dependent territories) and in Paris to Mr Dijoud.

If the Ambrym meeting

accepts the proposal the New Hebrides may be ready to embark upon a four-step path to independence in early 1980; a government of national unity, drawing up of a consti tution, a referendum to accept the constitution, and an elec tion late next year to find a government to take the New Hebrides into nationhood. The Vanuaaku Party would prefer an earlier election date, but it would complicate what is

already a tricky course of action.

Capture Of

Jacob Prai

A dawn raid by Papua New Guinea police on a house in Vanimo, about 40 km from the Papua New Guinea-Irian Jaya border, may spell ‘finish’ to organised guerrilla rebel resist ance in Irian Jaya. The police raid, late in September, netted 36-year-old Jacob Prai, self styled president of West Papua, and one of his lieutenants, Otto Ondawame. along with the occupier of the house, Aus tralian Frederick Eiserman, a

public works employee.

All three later appeared in court, Prai and Ondawame on a charge of illegal entry into PNG, and Eiserman on a

charge of harbouring illegal

immigrants. Prai, commander in-chief of the West Papua guerrilla force and chief thorn

in the flesh of the Indonesians, and Ondawame, Prai’s deputy and minister for defence in the rebel de facto Government of West Papua, were sentenced to two months gaol; Eiserman to six months.

Speculation was rife after the news of the arrest was out. Was there some arrangement be tween Prai and PNG Prime Minister Michael Somare for the former to give himself up?

Some think so but although the query is founded on the fact that Mr Somare and his Cabi net were in Vanimo at the time, this is regarded as mere coinci dence. Under a plan drawn up several years ago, Mr Somare and his executives move their meetings around to show the government to the people. And the Vanimo meeting was planned months ago.

Prai may have known of the

meeting but he could hardly have entertained any hope of a secret meeting with the Prime Minister. The police raid, so re ports say, followed a tip-off.

The two rebel leaders were found to be ill when they were arrested. It has been common knowledge for months that Prai has suffered severely from arthritis and there were reports that a man with first-aid

knowledge had been treating

the two men since they arrived in Vanimo about a week earlier.

For months, the Indonesians with a force of about 2000 troops, planes and helicopters have been hunting the guer rillas, who have claimed sev eral successes against the Indonesians, not least being the capture of a helicopter and seven hostages. The Irianese have paid dearly. Villages and food gardens have been de stroyed and there has been a

steady stream of refugees

across the border into PNG, many with stories of deaths,

suffering and hardship caused

by the Indonesian troops.

Prai’s future is bound to embarrass the PNG Govern ment. The Indonesians have indicated that they will seek the extradition of the two leaders, but there is no extradition treaty between the two coun tries.

Whatever happens, PNG will be vitally interested and involved. The government has been wishing for a long time that the whole problem would go away and there has been much criticism of its actions by Papua New Guineans, who feel that support should be given to their Melanesian brothers across the border.

Ideas are being expressed that some approach should be made to the United Nations, but the UN is hardly likely to attempt to interfere. The Indonesians claim that Irian Jaya and its rebels are purely internal matters.

The UN may be satisfied to salve its conscience by allowing the UNHCR to continue his work of helping PNG to look after the refugees. In August, the UN Commissioner handed over SUSIOO 000 as a grant towards the cost of building

houses at Oksapmin in West Sepik for Irian Jayans who fear to return home.

PNG Opposition Leader Mr lambakey Okuk was due in Indonesia in mid-October after visiting Australia. He has been a critic of Mr Somare’s hand ling of the Irian Jaya problem.

He might have some ideas when he returns to Port

Moresby.

Plus, Minus In

Png’S 3 Years

Papua New Guinea was three years old as an independent nation on September 16, writes Angus Smales.

Dancing, singing and music

groups from other South Pa cific and Asian countriesjoined the Papua New Guineans in their celebrations. Australian Aborigines were among the

visiting groups.

In its three years of nationhood since Australian administration ended, Papua New Guinea has given the lie

to widespread predictions that

independence would bring in

stability and a shaky econ omy.

One of the new country’s strongest achievements has been the establishment of its financial integrity on the inter national scene. It has become a trusted borrower of develop ment funds from international agencies and commercial insti tutions, and it is using its earn ings from the big Bougainville copper mine to establish an economy which can take over when the copper runs out.

PNG still receives a quarter of its annual budget from Aus tralia in the form of untied aid.

But Prime Minister Michael Somare and his ministers be lieve that this dependence can be ended in five years.

The country’s greatest weak ness as it entered its fourth year was seen as political and re-'

gional fragmentation, despite

constant promotion of national

unity. The system of provincial :

government is becoming a growing source of friction and

discontent, although originally

designed to promote national

unity.

Personal power struggles

Jacob Prai . . . removal of the main thorn in the flesh of the Indonesians.

have also tended to disrupt the political scene, and there has been an upsurge in crimes of violence and theft, much of it attributed to excessive

drinking.

Polynesia’S

Burning Cross

A model of the Cross of Lorraine, symbol of Gaullism in French politics, was burnt during the visit to French Polynesia of the Gaullist Mayor of Paris. Jacques Chirac (PIM September). Mr Chirac was the guest of the Gaullist deputy of French Polynesia to the National Assem bly in Paris, Gaston Flosse.

A letter, signed ‘Liberation

Movement of Polynesia’, was

delivered anonymously to the

Papeete newspaper. Les Nouvelles , in which the move

ment claimed responsibility for

the burning.

Among other things, the let ter said; ‘We affirm to the French Government that it will be unable to continue to re press our desire for indepen

dence: the day before

yesterday it was Fiji; yesterday

it was the Cook Islands; today it is the Solomons; tomorrow it will be the New Hebrides and Micronesia. Is it really to be be lieved that Tahiti can be :heated of its history and its legitimate desire for free dom? ...

The cross-burning is the latest in a series of incidents 3ver the past 12 months show ng new stirrings of various ndependence movements in

French Polynesia (PIM

April).

Js Discovers

Fhe Islands

'he Pacific journeyings of

JSS Home (PIM. October) re not the only sign of the

wakening of US policy

swards Pacific Island coun ties from the torpor and indif erence of past years.

Testifying before the US

lenate Foreign Relations sub

ommittee on East Asian and •acific affairs, Richard

Holbrooke, assistant secretary of State, said the US will establish ‘a larger and more effective presence in the South Pacific’ over the coming years.

Noting ‘signs of growing

Soviet and Chinese interest in the area’, Holbrooke, whose

special responsibility is East

Asia and the Pacific, said that the US saw ‘the orderly de velopment of the South Pacific region as a contribution to the stability of the broader Pacific

community’.

Holbrooke said that Soviet interest ‘seems to be concerned

largely with advancing their

fishing interests in the region

and promoting their diplomatic

standing vis-a-vis our own and that of the People’s Republic of China’. As for China, Holbrooke said: ‘Peking is also interested in expanding its diplomatic presence in compe tition not only with Moscow but with Taipei.’

The US was tied to the re

gion by history, geography and

a ‘growing economic interest’, he said, adding that US policy would ‘not in any way

impinge’ upon the sovereignty

of the independent Island countries, or usurp the leader ship role they shared with Australia and New Zealand.

Holbrooke dismissed the idea that the US should de velop ‘massive programmes’ for the South Pacific, but declared ‘the time is ripe for more active interchanges’.

The US programme, as summed up by Holbrooke, would include; • Active participation in

South Pacific regional organis

ation; • Adaptation of existing pro grammes and elaboration of new ones to fit the unique needs of the developing Island states; • Improved co-ordination among American and multi lateral programmes; and • Pursuit of the Micronesian status negotiations with the aim of achieving a free associ ation agreement between the US and Micronesia and ter mination of the US trusteeship by 1981.

Holbrooke also said the US would take ‘a Lesh look’ at its representatic. n the region ‘to see if we are making the best

use of our limited resources’.

He announced the assign ment of an Agency for Inter national Development officer, Robert Craig, to the US Embassy in Fiji, the first AID person ever assigned to the re gion. Mr Holbrooke attended the Solomon Islands indepen dence celebrations in July in the company of a member of the Senate sub-committee.

Senator John Glenn.

Also testifying before the committee was John H.

Sullivan, assistant aid adminis trator with AID. Mr Sullivan

listed the principal develop

ment problems faced by the

region as:

• Smallness and relative iso lation of the Island states: • A very limited natural re source base from which to de rive increased income; • Extensive but undeveloped and unmanaged ocean fish re sources:

• Inadequate agricultural

production and lack of diversi fication; • Decreasing amount of available arable land;

• Increasing population and

limited domestic employment opportunities; • Costly and unreliable com munications and transport facilities.

He commented: The lim ited nature of the US pro gramme and the development problems which 1 have men tioned have led to the design of a US assistance programme for the area consisting of three principal components. The first approach is through oper ational programme to private and volui .y agencies to enable them to improve current programmes or to undertake new projects. The ana is assistance to regional institutions whose activities are located in or ben eficial to several of the coun tries in the area. The third is an accelerated impact pro gramme which will enable us to support small-scale self

help projects, primarily aimed

at community and rural

development.’

Within this framework, Mr Sullivan discussed in detail specific US activities now being undertaken in Western

US President Jimmy Carter checks the quality of the soil on his peanut farm in Plains, Georgia . . . his administration sees the pos sibility of real paydirt for US interests accruing from a more active and attentive policy towards Pacific Island nations.

Samoa, Fiji, Tonga and Papua New Guinea. He also dealt with a current US examination of needs in the now indepen dent Solomon Islands.

‘Put Custom

In Png Law’

The Law Reform Commission of Papua New Guinea has recommended that the law should give greater weight to traditional customs and beliefs than it does at present.

The advice was contained in a report the commission sub mitted to the Government in October.

If the commission’s recom mendations are accepted, the maximum penalty for a killing, committed in accordance with traditional beliefs, would be

three years’ imprisonment. The

commission also recommends that courts be given much wider powers than they have at present to order compensation payments, both in cash and kind. If traditional law re quired that a pig should be

given in compensation, then

the modern law should do the same.

Two Samoas: A

Touchy Tale

Since the partition of the Samoan islands in the 1890 s, the relations between American Samoa and Western Samoa have often been far from happy, writes Felise Va’a from Apia. The latest case of

‘apparent’ misunderstanding

involves remarks attributed to Tupuola Efi. prime minister of Western Samoa, concerning the delicate issue of the unifi cation of the two Samoas.

These remarks appeared in a recent edition of the Los Angeles Times, according to its

correspondent, ‘Tupuola Efi.

prime minister of the sovereign state of Wesl vn Samoa thinks it is only a question of time be fore his flag flies over neigh bouring American Samoa, a

US territory’.

The report angered many of American Samoa’s political

leaders. Senator Fofo Sunia insisted that Tupuola should either deny its accuracy or make a public apology. The president of the American Samoan senate, Salanoa S.P.

Aumoeualogo, said he re spected the right of free speech, but that discussion of such issues was fruitless. ‘One might talk of moving Aunuu (an island in American Samoa) to the mouth of the harbour, but why do so when it shall never happen?’ he was reported to have said.

For his part, American Samoa’s first elected governor, the highly experienced and af fable Peter Tali Coleman, ex

pressed the opinion that

Tupuola was unnecessarily dis

turbing calm waters, and the question of unity was prema ture. He told Pago’s Samoa News, ‘We can work together closely in many fields but the separate development of the two Samoas for the last 78 years has created a situation where only time will give us the answer to the question of pol itical union.’

The irony of the whole thing.

as seen by some sources, is that it was Governor Coleman who took it upon himself to soothe the angry feelings of many of the territory’s political leaders caused by the remarks attribu ted to the prime minister. They said the governor told American Samoa’s political leaders that Tupuola should be forgiven for he was only a young man. While the Pago leaders spat out their hatred for what they suspected to be an

imperialistic design by Western

Samoa, Prime Minister Tupuola went on the defensive.

In a press statement, he for mally denied not only the

charges made against him by

the Pago leaders and his critics but also that he had ever made the remarks attributed to him.

According to Tupuola, a re porter asked him about reunification and he had re plied. T take a biblical attitude about reunification. Every thing under the sun has its season. Reunification will have its season. When it will be I cannot say.’ In reply to another question, he had said.

‘Hypothetically speaking there

is nothing to stop Western Samoa if it chose to promote reunification in the United Nations. In my assessment the proposition will not lack sup port in the UN. Significantly, however. Western Samoa is not promoting reunification in the UN for it is not convinced that it is the season for it.’

It is also a fact that reunifica tion is not the type of issue that can be bulldozed through the United Nations by one party.

There are two other parties to be considered; the US Con gress, legal owner of American Samoa, and the American Samoan people themselves.

The move towards reunifica tion can come from any of these parties, but the wishes of all parties must be taken into account. An American Samoan leader has put it bluntly: ‘There is no such thing as a season for reunification for the power over American Samoa lies with the United States Government.’

Prime Minister Tupuola may have oversimplified what is, in effect, a highly complex issue. Moreover, he may have

misunderstood American Samoan public opinion.

Some eight years ago, the American Samoan Fono (legis lature) established a Future Status Political Commission to study and report on the type of system American Samoa should adopt in the future. The commission visited many Island nations and territories in the South Pacific, including Western Samoa, to study the political systems of those coun tries and to see how these could be of use for American Samoa’s future.

After many months of meet

ings, the commission finally

came out with a report. It re jected an organic act, which would have made American Samoa an official territory of the United States. (American Samoa is still an unincorpor

ated, unorganised territory of

the United States ruled by

Congress.) It also rejected

union with Hawaii, as well as

the option of independence.

Above all. it rejected union with Western Samoa.

Union with Western Samoa entails many serious disadvan tages for American Samoa.

Problems that could arise, for instance, include that of how many seats American Samoa would have in parliament, how much of the national wealth would go to American Samoa, and the status to be accorded to American Samoan matai, traditionally considered of inferior rank to the matai of Western Samoa. Such things considered, the commission had no hesitation in vetoing union with Western Samoa.

The commission felt’

American Samoa ‘never had it so good’ as under American ad

ministration, so why change

things? It recommended to the Fono that American Samoa, should retain the present politi cal status and enjoy the best of both worlds. That remains the situation.

As for the territory’s future, a new commission is expected to be appointed in two years’ time for a further review of forms of future government.

While American Samoan leaders have not completely abandoned the possibility of one day uniting with their

Tupuola Efi... ‘only a young man’, says . . .

American Samoa’s Governor, Peter Tall Coleman

cousins in Western Samoa, the

Los Angeles Times article

struck a severe blow at any future reunification. Prime Minister Tupuola appears to lack real understanding of the

sensitive feelings of the people

mf American Samoa. He may not have meant what has been attributed to him, but if his re narks carried any such impli

:ation he was certainly gravely

n error.

Banabans Are

Fighting On

\ fresh international campaign

:s being launched by the

Banaban people to win

ndependence for Ocean Island and to obtain more compen ialion for the phosphate mined Tom it, according to a recent mress release from Banaban iources. Appeals will be made o the United Nations, the south Pacific Forum and an

dready largely sympathetic

British public.

As a last resort the Banabans nay use their support in Bri ain’s House of Commons to

dock independence for the

Gilbert Islands, of which Jcean Island is at present pol tically part as a British colony.

Our platform is not changed

fom that of the previous coun il.’ the newly-elected chair nan of the Rabi Council of .eaders, the Rev Tebaiti "awaka, said in a message to upporters. ‘We want immediate self letermination for Banaba (the lanaban name for Ocean sland), immediate direct pay nent of the $A 10,000,000 'ffered to us by Britain, and mancial assistance for our ad

ministration and develop

ment.’

The Banabans, most of /horn live in Fiji, have been /aging a campaign over Ocean sland, their original home, for many years. They want the >land to be separated from the jilberts, which are expected to ecome independent soon, and iven its own independence, ossibly in association with

■iji.

They also want a bigger hare of the benefits derived rom mining of the island’s

phosphate deposits by the Bri tish Phosphate Commission directed by the British. Aus tralian and New Zealand Governments.

Judges: Local

Or ‘Expat’?

Despite the pressures being

brought upon the Papua New Guinea Government in certain quarters to appoint PNG law graduates to the bench to re place the Australian incum bents, it has met difficulty in the fact that of nearly 100

qualified graduates only a

handful have the basic require ments for appointment, writes

Sydney lawyer Robert W.

Moin.

Mr Buri Kidu, the PNG Sec retary for Justice, is recorded as opposing the making of local

appointments merely for the

sake of it, without considering the essential requirements of skill and maturity. ‘We have got to be very careful who we put on the Bench,’ he says. ‘You can’t have any Tom, Dick or Harry. One thing I’m afraid of is putting PNG men on the bench before they are ready. If they muck it up we’ll be a laughing stock around the world,’ he said.

Mr Kidu added: ‘People think that, merely because we

get PNG judges, they will work miracles. They would make mistakes just the same. I don’t think a PNG judge from one area who is sent to the opposite end of the country to hear a case would have any advantage over and an Australian judge in the same situation.’

Another difficulty experi

enced throughout the Pacific is the fact that the suitably quali

fied graduates are ‘grabbed’ by

their governments for import ant political and public service posts, particularly those with the capacity to progress to the bench. The opportunity of a steady job compared with the

uncertainties of private legal

practice are added consider ations for the new graduate

returning usually from either

Australia or New Zealand and wishing both to contribute his

acquired knowledge to his

homeland and improve his status.

One could ask how would

other expatriate judges deal

with the recent case of canni balism before Mr Justice Wil son in PNG (PIM October)?

How much judicial notice should be taken of local tra dition or custom?

Before the colonial adminis tration system moved into the Western province of PNG in

the early 1960 s cannibalism

was accepted, witchcraft prac

tised (It still is) and illiteracy, resulting in legal ignorance, the rule rather than the exception.

Should a conviction be recorded where the presiding judge states as did Judge Wil son: ‘They saw nothing wrong in what they did. They were ignorant of the introduced law which seeks to outlaw canni balism’. How can people be educated in the law? Surely a challenge to every govern ment! The process will cer

taiunly be long and will require

sympathetic understanding

from everybody involved in

legal administration.

Even countries reasonably advanced in legislative

development have continuing

difficulties assimilating with customs. Some countries like Western Samoa have given rec

ognition to incorporating,

where practical, traditional

practices into their legislative

process.

In almost direct contrast, Tonga, with a few exceptions, makes no recognition or men tion of custom at all. It seems that this was the desire of King George Tupou I, who held that the new order of change from the ‘old ways’ should be through the law. While in cer tain land cases a Tongan As sessor or Advisor sits with the European judge to advise him of Tongan custom where there is some dispute, his advice is usually on the pattern of what the law has come to mean since its introduction, by usage and practice in other words how the law has become custom, and not custom the law.

How do the simplified laws designed to meet a country’s needs even a mere 20 years ago now cope with the more

sophisticated and demanding

society that is being thrust upon it?

Countries like Australia and New Zealand have the legal

machinery itself already

fully extended to cope more of less adequately with such progress, particularly in the business world. Perhaps these countries should be more con scious of the need to assist their neighbours to cope with the

problems of legal development

when assessing their aid pro grammes.

A one-time Chief Justice of the Territory of Papua New Guinea, Sir Alan Mann, inspects a parade of troops from Headquarters, Papua- New Guinea Command.

US Under-secretary of the Interior, James Joseph, 43, his deputy Wallace Green, and Ruth Van Cleve, director of the Office of Territorial Affairs, were in good spirits as they left Guam’s Government' House bright and early on Monday August 14, writes Paul Addison from Guam. The three senior US officials were looking for ward to what promised to be a novel and relaxing flight to Ulithi in Micronesia’s Yap dis trict for the dedication of a new dispensary.

At the Naval Air Station, the three officials from Washing ton greeted their fellow travel lers whose names read like a who’s who of US Pacific mili tary and federal policy-makers.

There were two rear-admirals, David S. Cruden, commander Naval Forces Marianas, and Neal Clements, head of the Pa :ific Facilities Engineering Command; Trust Territory of fie Pacific Islands High Com missioner Adrian Winkel,

\merica’s highest-ranking rep

resentative in Micronesia; Captain Ralph Smith, in his ast month as officer in charge )f construction and the over ;eer of SUS4OO million worth )f construction projects on Tuam and in Micronesia; and Captain Edward Estes, 44. :ommanding officer of the sland’s Naval Air Station,

klong with these dignitaries

he 20-year-old C-117 plane arried a number of lower anking military officers and 13

lervous military band mem

>ers who were to perform at he Ulithi ceremony.

Shortly after 9 am, as the rew tried to start the plane, me of its two engines splut ered and refused to grind into ction. But after a mechanic’s left twist of a screwdriver at omething inside, the engine prang into action. After a nor mal take-off, the plane quickly ose to about 2000 m.

As the plane, co-piloted by "aptain Estes and Lieutanant lobert Bell, banked over the

sland’s picturesque Turnon

Jay, the 30 people inside could ee the clear, shark-infested vaters lapping on the reef, and l few tall buildings in Guam’s

apital, Agana.

Shortly before 11, Rear-

Admiral Cruden and some crew members noticed oil leak ing onto the starboard engine.

Although the leak appeared soon to stop, the engine started to flutter and the plane’s pilots realised they would have

trouble reaching Yap. They

radioed naval officials on Guam that they had no option but to return. The navy im mediately activated all its emergency units, putting

planes, helicopters, boats and

personnel on immediate

standby.

The plane proceeded to limp back towards the island, with the sea loomimg ever closer.

Band members looked at each other silently, each caught up in his own thoughts. Prep arations were begun for a ‘con trolled ditch’ in the 2 m swells.

Passengers were told to put on life jackets and remain seated.

About 30 km off Guam, the plane was 70 m above the water, where a coast guard patrol vessel. Point Harris, and a submarine missile retriever were awaiting the crash. In the air, a B-52 bomber from Andersen Air Force base and two navy helicopters moni tored the rapid descent. Also monitoring the crash was a Soviet spy ship, the Vega, which poses as a fishing trawler off Guam’s coast.

In a desperate attempt to stay airborne the crew opened the cargo door and passengers

began to jettison their baggage.

First to go was the band’s

sousaphone; trumpets, a sax ophone and drums followed

shortly after.

It was to no avail. At 11.53 am the plane touched the swells tail first. Then it reared in the air and ploughed into the

Philippines Sea.

Tt was one loud sound,’

Under-secretary James Joseph

said later. ‘Then there was a second sensation and we were in the water. The pilot did a fantastic job. It was almost like

a regular landing.’

The plane’s fuselage had ac tually cracked open at the bot tom and water begun to pour in. Two men were drowned.

One of them, Ronald H. Cur tiss, 27, an aviation engineer from St. Louis, was apparantly sitting at the spot where the split occurred. The other dead person, 20-year-old musician Scott Smith, from Rio Linda, Calif., was thrown to the same area on impact, according to a

navy spokesman.

Within seconds, liferafts were inflated outside the plane.

In the high noon of the broiling tropical sun, most of the pass engers crawled onto the crowded rafts while the plane sank slowly into the world’s deepest ocean, the Marianas Trench.

Overhead, as 15 minutes

slowly ticked by, a navy plane

kept watch on the survivors.

Then, naval medical aides and divers were dropped from heli copters to assist the injured.

Those with the worst injuries were whisked into helicopters and away to Guam’s Naval

Hospital. Others, including

Joseph, waited for more than 90 minutes for the Point Harris to pick them up. From Guam’s port, a convoy of ambulances carried the injured to the Naval Regional Medical Centre where wives and friends waited tensely for news.

Miraculously the injuries

were not great. The two co pilots, Estes and Bell, under went surgery during the night while seven other passengers were held until morning. Ruth Van Cleve, the only female on the plane, and Wallace Green,

sprained their backs; Captain

Ralph Smith had a broken arm. Joseph, Cruden, Clem ents and 15 other passengers were treated and released the same day. As the rescue oper ations for the two men missing, presumed dead, came to an end for the evening, the crash site was marked only by a 6 m oil slick.

Joseph later sat resting at Government House where through the windows he could watch a bright red sunset. ‘lt’s

US Under-secretary of the Interior, James Joseph, still shaken from his experience, sits in Guam Governor Ricky J. Bordallo’s car after the plane crash. (See main story, People.) Photo: Rick Padden.

Rear-Admiral Neal Clements talks to navy officials on the coastguard ship Point Harris after his rescue at sea.

beautiful,’ he told a Pacific Daily News reporter as the sun sank below the sea. ‘Partic ularly as I didn’t really expect to see it.’

Dr Feleti Sevele recently took up appointment as economist with the South Pacific Com mision. Dr Sevele, a Tongan, did his tertiary studies at the University of Christchurch, New Zealand. He holds a BSc in mathematics, an MA (Honours) in geography and a PhD in economic geography.

Returning to Tonga in 1973, Dr Sevele was appointed sec retary of the Commodities Board, a statutory body re sponsible for the export of all agricultural commodities. The board also runs the Tonga

Construction Company, the

largest building and construc

tion enterprise in the kingdom.

Apart from government, the

board is the largest employer in

Tonga, with a workforce of over 600 persons. In 1974 Dr Sevele became director and :hief executive of the board, a post he held until joining the South Pacific Commission. He vas also a director of a number 3f companies, and a member of

Longa’s National Scholarship

Board.

Dr Sevele’s duties with the ;ommission will include econ omic studies, with special em phasis on rural and agricultural

development, analysis and in

erpretation of regional econ

omic statistics, advisory

services, and organisation of

neetings and training

xourses. iebastian Hurrell did not last ong as director of Tonga’s Zommodities Board. He was ippointed to the post on a

Wednesday. On the following

-riday the Tonga Privy Coun

cil had second thoughts and de rided he would be better )laced as his country’s rep esentative to the European

iconomic Community in Brus

els. In Brussels he will rep esent Tonga at the enegotiation of the ACP Con tention. which expires at the :nd of February, 1979. Mean-

while the Tonga Government is looking for another director of the Commodities Board.

The Rev Mosese Naivolasiga, a Methodist minister in Fiji, stripped of his pastoral duties because he twice stood for par liament, has been given a full pardon and will resume church work in January, 1979. In

standing for parliament he

defied the church’s policy that it does not align itself with any political party. He had stood on

a Fijian Nationalist Party

ticket. He went to Australia soon after his second defeat and returned to Fiji in August.

Church leaders said Rev Mosese had been re-accepted because he had confessed his breach of church law in the

Fijian weekly newspaper, Nai

Lalakai.

Detective Constable Talakai Misa, of the Tonga CID. was selected in September for a special course in criminal in vestigation at the Brisbane Police College, Australia. The course, which is not costing

Tonga anything, was arranged

by Rotary International Dis trict No. 960, Queensland, which is footing all bills for fares and accommodation. The

Queensland Police Depart ment is providing free train ing.

Ricky Mitio, a Papua New Guinean, has been appointed to the top executive position of the PNG Coffee Industry Board, succeeding Barry Beil.

Mr Mitio, who has worked with the board for nearly six years, during which time he has undertaken management and promotional studies in PNG and overseas, is the first Papua New Guinean to hold the post.

A former editor of the Samoa Times of Apia has become a

training development officer in

the New Zealand National Council of Adult Education.

Peter Creevey, Christchurch born, worked on metropolitan newspapers in New Zealand and Australia before joining the Samoa Times in 1963. He spent the next 12 years in American and Western Samoa during which time his interests were in economic planning,

community development and

vocational training. He re turned to New Zealand in 1975.

An Australian who served two terms in Fiji on the staff of Cable and Wireless, next year is expected to become chair man of Intelstat, a communi

cations satellite system offering international communications and television services. Ran dolph Payne, 51, a director of marketing of Overseas Tele communications Commission (Australia), was selected a vice chairman of Intelstat this year.

A name still fresh in Papua New Guinea science circles is that of Dr JJ.H. ‘Joe’ Szent- Ivany who retired in 1966 after 12 years with the Australian administration. News is that Dr Szent-Ivany is still at work, in his own words, ‘in research, sci ence policy, science adminis tration and conservation’.

Among eight honorary pos

itions, he was president of the Royal Society of South Aus tralia for 1977-78. He has been an honorary associate since 1966 of the South Australian Museum. He retains his links with PNG, mainly through the Wau Ecology Institute which he has visited, on research grants, on three occasions.

Australian Rules is coming on apace in Papua New Guinea, and to give it a shove along the PNG Australian Rules Foot ball Council has gone big time in hiring Peter Evans, a former general manager of the Haw thorn Victorian Football League club. Mr Evans follows on the heels of Dick Kidby, ARFC’s first full time national general manager.

The Rev Setareki Tuilovoni (above), formerly of Fiji, is now a ‘reverse missionary’, bringing the Gospel to Australia. He lives at Chatswood, Sydney, where he’s on the staff of the Synod Board of Mission of the Uniting Church, which groups the for mer Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational Churches in Australia.

PIM reader Irvin Black was a corporal with the Royal Australian Air Force when he picked up this Japanese war propaganda leaflet, and a number of others, on the beach of Los Negros Island, part of Manus, off the coast of New Guinea, in February 1944.

From the

Press

From a message from New Zealand Prime Minister Muldoon to Cook Islands Premier Tom Davis on the 13th anniversary of self-government in the Cook Islands, as reported in the Cook Islands News: ... It is clear from recent events and the responsible reaction of the people of the Cook Islands to them that democracy in your country is alive and well. . .

From the American Samoa News Bulletin: It is estimated that nearly two and a half million that’s right, 2.5 million aluminium cans will be imported into the territory of American Samoa in 1978. This includes soft drink and beer cans as well as other various aluminium containers. Because of the devastating effect this number of cans can have on the territory if disposed of improperly, plus the fact that an enormous amount of energy and natural resource is lost when these aluminium containers are simply buried in land fills. Governor Coleman has written to the Environmental Protection Agency in Honolulu inquiring as to the feasibility of crushing and packing the cans in Samoa and sending them back to Hawaii or the West Coast to be recycled.

From The Fiji Times: Syphilis killed 22 babies in Suva in the first six months of this year. Dr Mary Schramm told the Fiji Medical Association seminar yesterday. She said that out of 2200 deliveries at Anderson Maternity Unit in the first half of this year, 60 cases had positive syphilis test results. Dr Schramm, a Colonial War Memorial Hospital consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, said syphilis in Fiji had reached epidemic proportions .. .

From the Tohi Tala Niue: Niue has a dwindling police force at the moment with villages with no constables. It was voiced at the Assembly meeting last week all villages should have a constable. It is not that people are not law-abiding, but it is a custom they are used to, that every village should have a constable. Minor offences do occur every now and again which annoys certain parts of the community. One of the worst offenders today is traffic. During the day, all vehicles especially motor-cycles move silently along the roads making little noise. After sunset you can hear the roar of these bikes miles away.. .

From a letter by Joe Nason, ex-United States Navy, written to Papua New Guinea’s Allans Nius after a ‘nostalgic return to the Solomons and Rabaul’: ... There is, however, one bitter reaction which I will carry away from these islands, and that is the complete dearth of recognition of the role that America played in the eventual liberation of these islands. In no way do I wish to minimise the gallantry of the Aussies and New Zealanders, but the fact remains that without the United States, probably New Zealand and Australia would

have fallen to the Japanese. Yet, at the War Cemetery, I didn’t see one mention of America. No recognition of my many compatriots who died in prison or over the skies of Rabaul could I find in this city. This saddened me.

From a plea by Samoan author and poet Albert Wendt for preservation of the Samoan language, reported in the Samoa Times: . .. English seems to be the dominant language at any function.

Even on our local radio station, the local news is always read out in English before Samoan. It should be the reverse. Mr Wendt said.

From the Fiji Times: The president of Savusavu Chamber of Commerce told yesterday how the two rear wheels of one of the buses serving the town came right off on a journey from Buca Bay. Mr J.A. Khan, who was a passenger on the bus travelling back to Savusavu last week, said the wheels rolled down the road, narrowly missing oncoming traffic. The bus crunched down on to the road, grinding to a halt without causing injury, he said. ‘People here do not know when they travel by bus whether they will get home in one piece,’ he said. ‘Nowadays they travel only if they have to.’

From the American Samoa News Bulletin: Governor Peter Tali Coleman attempted to set a good example by joining ... in a clean-up party which worked their way from Faga’alu Park to Utulei Beach Park. Mrs Coleman was among the party. All along the road the Governor and Mrs Coleman found themselves practically knee deep in litter and they cleaned it all up! But when you drive home today you will notice that the roadside is again full of litter.

From the Lae Nius: Members of the newly-formed venereal disease control committee have called on the Provincial Government to repatriate unemployed non-Morobeans from Lae City. The call was made by an active leader in the committee and a representative of the Public Health Department, Dr Sugoho. Dr Sugoho claimed that venereal disease was becoming a major problem in all centres of Papua New Guinea. He said the number of cases of venereal disease had increased rapidly in the last couple of years because of unemployment and poverty which resulted in men selling their wives into prostitution . . .

From a speech by PNG Minister for Defence Louis Mona at the opening of the 1978 National Congress of the PNG Branch of the Returned Services League and reported in Allans Nius: ... In my Anzac Day speech at the Dawn Service at Bomana I spoke of how WWII united people where a black man fought alongside a white man against a common enemy, and neither man was worried about the colour of the skin of the other. I also asked for the people of PNG to forget racial discrimination and unite to make our country a better land for us, for our children, and for your children’s children. It can be done but. like localisation, it must start at the top and the bottom at the same time. As terrible as war may be, it does at least serve one good purpose, it united people. If we can do it in war, why can’t we do it in peace?

From the Cook Islands News: Some of the people worst hit by the floods of last week were our planter friends. Their taro patches were heaped up with rubbish from the hills but worse still from families who emptied their rubbish into the once-dry streams. I watched a disappointed planter close to tears, examining his newly-turned taro patch covered with debris from the neighbour’s kitchen.

Tourism

You haven’t seen Fiji ’till you’ve taken a bus ride

By Lema Low

The bus moved forward again. There wasn't space for another single thing. There was hardly space to draw a breath. I wondered how I would leave the bus when the time came, and decided the best way would be to leap through the window, rather than walk on everybody's baskets.

We turned the corner at the Three Lamps and at last headed for the Great Outback of Buca Bay and interim ports so I thought. But the bus pulled up at the first building round the corner. Linder a verandah sat a man strumming a guitar.

All the passengers (including myself) yelled, Vodo mail" meaning "Come aboard"!

Without further ado, he did with a companion, a guitar, a briefcase, two suitcases and a bundle of mats!

With a creaky protest, the dear old bus got under way again, everybody smiling happi ly, in the irrepressible Pacific way. Well (I thought) no more stops now we haven't a spare centimetre. Just then, the bell rang. A passenger, with a few muttered words to the driver, left the bus. Hooray! One less that's more like it.

The bus didn't move. The driver chewed gum and stared into space. Presently, the same passenger hurried back and clambered aboard with a suitcase!

Well (I thought) nothing else will surprise me. I've seen

everything now.

But I was speechless with wonder for the bus did not stop again until it reached my own gate. It roller-coasted over the hills and down into the valleys. It swept along the air port road in a cloud of dust, and drew up with a flourish that sent the goats scampering for cover.

"Eight cents, ma'am," chirped the driver, with a distinct twinkle in his eye.

The bus driver chewed gum and read the latest Fiji Times. To anxious enquirers, his stock rep ly was, "Leaving in 10 minutes."

There was an air of excite ment when finally, only a few minutes behind schedule, the bus moved off but, of course, that meant nothing at all. It was destined to meander all along Savusavu town before taking off for the Great Outback of Buca Bay, Napuka, Natuvu and other points east of Savusavu.

Waving an impassioned farewell to friends as if we were setting out on a voyage of discovery around the world, in stead of on the daily run for Buca Bay we wandered along the waterfront road.

The bus-driver was on the watch for his "regulars". There was a loud screech from Matai's Store and a gay sulu flapped in the breeze as a woman rushed out with a child on one hip and a parcel of groceries.

"No hurry," the driver con soled her, as he helped her aboard.

Yesterday

Preserving old Levuka, hub of Fiji history

From VICTOR CARELL in Levuka

Levuka is a beautiful place ... a spreading circle of waterfront inside the ridge of reef and stepping steeply up to dramatic hills. Snug in the security of these hills, the town’s old stores cover the narrow level of the foreshore.

Levuka offers attractions of historical interest with its background as a rip-roaring mid-19th century port and whaling centre. Its streets then were lined with grog shops and hotels, and thronged with sailors from all over the world.

Levuka’s history begins that of modern Fiji. It was here that the proud chief Ratu Seru Cakabau, along with other principal chiefs of Fiji, joined together to sign the Deed of Cession giving the Fiji Islands to England. Levuka of Ovalau Island became the first capital of Fiji. Many of today’s thriv ing businesses began there.

Among these were The Fiji Times (1869), and Morris Hedstrom Ltd.

When the capital was mov ed to Suva on Viti Levu, the largest island, Levuka began

to slide back until it has become the quiet town of today. The shops, along narrow Beach Street fronting the harbour, are all still of the old era. These 100-year-old storefronts in weatherboard and high “false fronts’’ are reminiscent of many a movie ghost town, but these shops run by Indians or Chinese are very much alive. Many of the rambling houses that hide up on the hills, accessible only by pedestrian paths or stairs, are reminders of a more gracious era. One can easily visualise the men in immaculate whites and pith helmets, their ladies gowned and gloved, strolling beneath graceful parasols.

For a time the port of Levuka remained busy handling shipments of copra, but this too was moved to Suva.

Today, however, there is again activity. Levuka has a new cannery and is the centre of a busy fishing industry. A number of pleasant new houses have been built and Levuka has always remained the centre for some of Fiji’s

best schools. The first school in Fiji is the old Levuka Pub lie School which opened in 1878. Today it progresses through secondary school to New Zealand University entrance level. The Catholic Convent is in the centre of town. About eight kilometres away, the imposing St John’s College is at Cawaci nestling in a wonderful valley spread between surrounding hills and peaks. Its fine old French style church stands forth like a sentinel on the shorefront.

Up the famous Mission Hill (with its 199 concrete steps) is the old Methodist Mission and its Delana school. Below it is the rambling old Royal Hotel with the town’s busy sports field directly behind it.

With its many schools, Levuka attracts children from all over Fiji. They congregate on the field each day. At the one time rugby, soccer, tennis and basketball matches can be seen, while on another side of the grounds sedate members of the old Levuka Bowling Club walk up and down their

Old Levuka ... how many of these buildings have been preserved?

greens dressed in spotless whites. This kaleidoscope of colour and energy illustrates the multi-racial harmony of Levuka. There are Chinese, Fijians, Indians, Japanese, Europeans, Taiwanese and Polynesians all enjoying their sports together.

The Ovalau Historical and Cultural Preservation Com mittee has been formed with the aim of preserving and im proving Levuka as the living heart and pride of Fiji.

Levuka is the history of Fiji.

Its history is the history of proud chiefs and their people; the history of the dramatic events that led to cession to England; the history of Fiji as a colony and today, it is still an important part of the histo ry of Fiji as an independent nation and as a leading mem ber of the South Pacific coun tries. The aim of the com mittee is to retain all the treasure of the past while at the same time stimulating

Levuka to remain viable as a town of today.

Believing that practical ex ample will achieve the best re sults, as a first initiative the committee has planned a series of community clean-up campaigns. Town councillors, committee members, service club volunteers, school children and the public have all been urged to help, armed with cutting implements, rakes, buckets, etc, they have begun the job of gathering up all the accumulated rubbish they can find. A main target has been Totoga Creek. This picturesque waterway flows down from the hills past the Levuka Public School, the Police Station, Admin istration Buildings, Ovalau Club, Town Hall, Masonic Temple, Levuka Bowling Club, Royal Hotel and then, at the old market place, it finally empties into the sea. At a number of points this creek is spanned by sturdy old bridges.

As its next task, the com mittee aims to prepare a careful Master Town Plan specifying that particular buildings of significant historic and cultural value shall be preserved and, where possible, restored to their original condition. The town will be zoned into historical, cultural, residential, business or industrial areas.

There seems little doubt that many people will be at tracted to old Levuka. Trips can be arranged to see the famous Cession Stone which is flanked on each side by stones marking Fiji Independence in 1970 and the Centenary of Cession in 1974. Tourists may raft on the Bureta River near the centre of the island and visit Lovoni Village in the heart of Lovoni valley near the cone of an extinct volcano.

The road from Levuka towards the airport passes the site of the Cession Stone and the large Fijian bure built nearby. It continues past the

Draiba Cemetery, resting place of many early pioneers, and on past Loreto Roman Catholic Mission. Marist mis sionaries established them selves in Levuka in the 1840 s.

As a memorial to the pioneer French priest Pere Breheret the township built a town clock and tower at the Marist Catholic church in the centre of Levuka.

At the edge of Levuka town and just past the Anglican Church of the Holy Redeemer is an old bridge. Nearby is another cemetery, disused since 1876. The United States consul, Williams, whose monetary demands on Ratu Seru Cakabau led that chief to seek the protection of Queen Victoria, is buried here. Near by is the oldest Fijian Methodist Church, built in 1869. Cakabau worshipped there after his conversion to

Christianity.

To get to Levuka one flies, or you can take a bus to Natovi and then the ferry.

Levuka's celebrated shop fronts. A picture taken in the 60s, but nothing much has changed.

Books

‘God Is Never

In A Hurry’

When I went to the Solomons in 1964 the sign outside the unpretentious office in Honiara of the Anglican Dio :ese of Melanesia still bore the title, Melanesian Mission.

Today that church is an independent Province of the

worldwide Anglican Com

munion, with its own Melanesian Archbishop, the Most Reverend Norman Palmer. A Melanesian Chris tianity is in the making; and the dream of Melanesia’s first bishop, the martyr John

Coleridge Patteson. is coming

true.

But the missionaries of the Melanesian Mission, ‘God’s gentlemen’, as David Hilliard calls them in the title of his new book, had no illusions about quick success. And those who

have experienced the enervat

ing tropical climate of

Melanesia know that this in itself is enough to slow down the rate of missionary progress.

But it was comforting for the

missionaries that theological

insight reinforced climatic re

ality.

God's Gentlemen tells the his tory of the Melanesian Mission from its beginning in 1849 to 1942, just before the enforced turnabout of the Japanese armies on Guadalcanal. In the postwar years the headquarters of the mission were moved from Tulagi to Honiara, and an old igloo hut left behind by the American Army became the ‘world’s most ramshackle ca thedral’. Today, the church’s headquarters are on that cen tral site, but the attractive St Barnabas’ Cathedral stands in

spacious grounds in the

residential section of the town just past the hospital. Those who pass by at night can see through the open side of the ca thedral the illuminated figure of the Melanesian Christ on the cathedral’s east wall.

The author of the book is David Hilliard, senior lecturer in history at Flinders Univer

sity in South Australia. Along with two other recent books.

Reluctant Mission by David Wetherell (PIM December 1977), and Messengers of Grace by Niel Gunson (PIM October), God's Gentlemen adds significantly to our knowledge of Pacific history, and the impact of Christianity on that history through the church, and the church’s agents, ‘God’s gentlemen’.

One of God’s gentlemen, the Englishman Charles Bice (they were nearly all Englishmen), who spent 20 years in the New Hebrides provides the title of

this review, ‘God is never in a hurry’, in a book about his ex periences. Bice also said: ‘I can’t see any entrance to their hearts. I fear it will be a long, weary and toilsome process to bring them to a sense of their needs.’ And Arthur Hopkins, who spent 25 years in Melanesia, spoke of ‘the sal vation of Melanesia from within, a long, slow, patient task, by means of a native

Christianity’.

Foundations for a ‘native

Christianity’ were laid by

Bishop George Selwyn of New Zealand, on his first missionary journey in 1849. Selwyn’s aim was to cruise among the islands, opening up friendly re lations with the Islanders, and persuading them to entrust to him ‘a few promising youths' who would be taken to the college he had established in Auckland, where they would

be taught the English language, arithmetic, writing, ‘all social and civilised habits’, and the saving truths of the Christian faith.

Bishop Patteson continued this policy, with Norfolk Island as the mission headquarters, until, as Hilliard records, ‘the spectacular failure of the entire, first generation of mission scholars to carry out formal teaching when they returned to their homes pointed to a need for a supportive European presence during their vulner

able early years'.

In 1861, therefore. Patteson formed a plan to bring out

English clergymen who would

be based at a central spot in each group of islands, visiting

adjacent islands. training

teachers, and winning the goodwill and confidence of the

people, and by their example

recommending the Gospel of

Peace to the heathen. Pat teson’s ideal missionary, according to Hilliard was a man of similar stamp to him self, a young English gentle

man. public school (preferably

Eton), and university educated, who would go any where. could learn a native language, and who held ‘no taint of the common and fatal heresy concerning the natural inferiority of the black races’.

Though this ideal was patiently sought it was not fully realised.

Between 1850 and 1900 there were about equal numbers of

graduates and non-graduates

on staff; and Bishop Winnington-Ingram of Lon don, who had a high regard for the Melanesian Mission, spoke of its staff as ‘a crack regiment’.

Hilliard points out that after 1900 the nearest the mission came to an Old Etonian in its midst was to have the son of an Eton science master!

Patteson had a warm per sonal affection for Melanesian people, and a profound respect for their culture. One of his col

leagues, Robert Henry Codrington, who was to stay at Norfolk Island for 20 years, be came famous for his scholarly works on Melanesian society and culture, a tradition nobly

upheld by the liguist W.G.

Ivens and, more recently, by the Grand Old Man of the Melanesian Mission , Charles Edward Fox, who gave over 70

years of distinguished service

to the mission, and who died only last year.

Australian Anglicanism and the church in Melanesia be

came inseparably linked when

Bishop George Selwyn came to Sydney in 1850 and was present

at the formation of the Aus tralian Board of Missions of the Anglican Church. This book throws interesting light on that link. It is a thoroughly researched, lucid, informative and entertaining story of an heroic, if not unblemished (be cause human) enterprise.

Tony Bagnall

(GOD'S GENTLEMEN: A HISTORY OF THE MELANESIAN MISSION 1849-1942. By David Hilliard. Published by University of Queensland Press. Brisbane. 1978. $15.95.) *The Rev. Tony Bagnall is rec tor of St Peter's Anglican Church, Cremorne, Sydney, and

deputy-chairman of the Aus

tralian Board of Missions

(Anglican).

John Sweatman

The Royal Navy’s part in the control and suppression of the Pacific labour trade during the 19th century received consider able publicity at the time and it has been the subject of many

books and articles published

since then. Comparatively little

attention has, however, been paid to the scientific and hy drographic work which was the RN’s other main task. Apart from contemporary and later books on the voyages of Beagle, made famous by Charles Darwin’s presence,

and Challenger, there were

only two detailed accounts, J.

B. Jukes, Narrative of the Sur veying Voyage of HMS Fly (1847) and J. MacGillivray, Narrative of the Voyage of HMS Rattlesnake (1852) until 1968 when Adele Lubbock’s Owen Stanley RN, Captain of the ‘Rattlesnake ’ came out.

This is a pity because the sur vey voyages gave many Papua New Guineans their first con tact with the outside world.

The voyages of Beagle (1837-43), Fly{ 1842-45), Bram ble (1842-47) and Rattlesnake (1847-50) resulted in important contributions to the search for the shortest route from eastern Australia to India and Malaya.

Moreover, serious scientific data were obtained.

John Sweatman, a Lon doner, was just over 19 when he commenced the second volume

of his journal of his two cruises in HMS Bramble, commanded by Lieutenant Yule, between February 1845 and July 1847.

First as clerk, then as victualler, he took part in meeting and trading with Torres Strait Islanders, Papua New Guineans, and Australian Aborigines. While most of

those meetings were peaceful,

a few ended in violence. Sweat man’s observations on the Islanders’ appearance, cus toms, languages and mode of warfare are of surprising depth.

Even more surprising and com mendable, they do not display the extreme ethnocentricity of most Europeans, missionaries included, of his day. As the edi tors of his journal put it, Sweat man ‘was at least innocent of the cardinal sin of comparing

primitive people to children’.

He tried to appreciate the Islanders’ position. Take, for instance, his note on meeting some people near Cape Pos session: ‘From their coming so well armed it is probable they anticipated hostilities, we were perfectly in their power and few savages would have spared our lives as they did ... I doubt much if we should not have met with worse treatment on the west coast of Ireland or in Cornwall.’

Parts of his journal appear to be plagiarised from contem porary sources and, compared

with the accounts of Jukes and MacGillivray, Sweatman’s writing and observations are simplistic. Even so, this is a

lively and highly interesting

account, particularly valuable as it deals with events during 1846, the one year not covered in other contemporary

writings.

Except for a lack of dates ‘on the margin’, to help the reader, this second volume of John

Luis Sccuiiu Vuiuiiic Ul Jullll

Sweatman’s journal, bought in , , , . w . , ..

London in 1926 by the Mitchell

Library, has been competently

edited by Drs Jim Allen and Peter Corns who have also pro vided a scholarly introduction,

The general presentation of

this fascinating account is excellent.

The first volume of Sweat man’s journal has so far not

come to light.

Harry Jack-

man.

(the journal of john sweatman: a nineteenth cen- TuflY SURVEYING VOYAGE IN NORTH AUSTRALIA AND TORRES STRAIT. Edited by J. Allen and P. Corris. Published by University ol Queensland Press. Brisbane. 1977. $24.00.1

HMS Bramble off Sydney.

Seas Tradition

One of the interesting minor figures in the early history of the Pacific Islands was Captain John Nicholson, master of the missionary ship Haweis and other vessels that plied between the Society Islands, Tonga, New Zealand and Australia.

Nicholson, originally of the Royal Navy, went from England to Moorea in 1818 to take command of the Haweis, which had been launched there that same year. His first task was to survey part of Moorea’s east coast and remove the printing equipment that the LMS missionaries had set up at Afareaitu the previous year to print the first books ever produced in the South Seas.

Nicholson was in the Pacific at a sufficiently early stage to make a discovery or two and to leave his name on the map.

One of his discoveries was a shoal south of Tonga, originally called Nicholson’s Reefs, but now known as

Minerva Reef after the brig Minerva, wrecked there in 1 829. Another of his dis coveries was the harbour of Wellington, New Zealand’s capital, which is still called Port Nicholson.

Captain Nicholson even tually settled in Sydney and became the port’s harbour master. He left many de scendants, one of whom is lan Hawkins Nicholson, a captain in the Royal Australian Navy, This latter-day Captain Nicholson has just made a valuable contribution to the study of early South Seas maritime history as the com piler of a book entitled Ship ping Arrivals and Departures, Sydney, 1826-1840.

The book is a companion volume to John Cumpston’s Shipping Arrivals and Depar tures, Sydney 1788-1826, which was published in 1963.

In reviewing the Cumpston volume in these columns in September 1963, the present reviewer said that Australian

The Book of Luelen: a questionable work on Micronesian history?

“The clothes were made from breadfruit bark. They would cut down a length of breadfruit, a span long or more. They would then remove the bad part of the skin and they would then make a thing for pounding the breadfruit bark. They would take care lest it tear, and it would be spread apart and become broad, and also become longer. These were the women’s wrap arounds and also their sheets at night. When they slept they were very good, soft, and warm. This kind of cloth was called breadfruit sheets be cause it was made from the breadfruit tree.”

So writes Luelen Bemart in his book on Ponapean tra ditional lore The Book of Luelen. At first glance, it appears a shoddy attempt at recording the traditions and history of Ponape Island. The writing style is stilted, the spell ing system archaic, and the story, by admission of the author himself, incomplete.

Nonetheless, the book marks a

significant watershed in Pacific historiography: The Book of Luelen exists as the only his tory of a Micronesian island written by a Micronesian. The impact which the book has on Micronesian intellectual and social development will be well worth watching. It is ‘must’ reading for Pacific historians and all keen observers of the Islands-.

Luelen Bemart, a wise and

respected Ponapean elder with

strong familial ties to the ruling families of two of Ponape’s five kingdoms, took upon himself the task of setting down in writing the stories which tell of

Ponape’s origins and develop

ment. Luelen’s sources were oral.

That the book was written in the first place is of considerable

historiographical significance.

In cultures based on an oral tradition where “some know ledge, like coconut milk, passes from darkness to darkness”, there is no written word.

Luelen’s achievement suggests a quantum jump in Microne

sian patterns of culture. Those knowledgeable on Ponapean matters speak of others who, inspired by Luelen, have writ ten or are now writing about what they know.

What motivates a man from a totally oral tradition to set down in writing the lore of his island?

Luelen was 68 years old when he began writing this book. Perhaps the old man, aware of his failing memory, desired to make a written re cord of his knowledge for his own sake.

Political considerations pre sent still another possible mo tivation. As do people in many oral societies, Ponapeans rely upon legends as the source and justifier of their traditional pol itical system. The legends dic tate which clans and sub-clans of those clans hold legitimate claim to the chiefly titles. In an oral tradition, the possibility of deliberate distortion for politi

cal gain always exists.

In the second decade of the 20th century, a dispute arose over the succession to the title of Nahnmwarki (king) in the Kitti kingdom where Luelen lived. After much bitter debate, the title passed from the one sub-clan of the ruling clan to a second sub-clan. Legends may have been intentionally altered to assure this outcome. One very authoritative source on

Ponapean legends believes that

Luelen may have purposely written a clouded version of the legends involved in the dispute to cement the fait accompli.

Luelen was related by marriage to the sub-clan which wrested the title.

Luelen’s editors are no less

impressive than their subject.

Saul Riesenberg, former Trust

Territory anthropologist and

presently senior ethnographer

at the Smithsonian, gets the credit for “discovering” the manuscript when he first visi ted Micronesia and Ponape in 1947 and was shown a copy.

Fischer and Whiting of Har vard first came upon the manu script in the early 19505.

Anthropologists both, and at a time when their discipline was at its peak in Micronesia, they were shown other copies.

The traits which make The Book of Luelen a questionable work of history in Western eyes are the exact qualities which give it such importance and sig nificance to the Micronesian intellectual tradition. The book raises more questions than it answers; this is encouraging for those people concerned with

the preservation of Ponape’s

customs and traditions.

Hopefully the publication of

The Book of Luelen will encourage Micronesians, young and old, to redouble their search for their roots, and share some though under standably not all of what

they find.

David L. Hanlon

and Dirk A. Ballendorf

(THE BOOK OF LUELEN: LUELEN BERNART Trans lated and edited by John L. Fischer. Saul H. Riesen berg and Marjorie G. Whiting. Published by the University Press of Hawaii. Honolulu. USSIS.OO.

Annotations. Ussio.Oo.S

• David Hanlon teaches his tory at the Community College

of Micronesia , Ponape. For

merly a Peace Corps Volunteer on Ponape, he is fluent in the

language and very knowledge

able on the culture. Dirk Ballen dorf is director of the Community College and a long time Micronesia watcher.

and Pacific historians would probably still be thumbing through it with gratitude a century hence, and those remarks may now be applied with equal justice to the Nicholson opus.

Like the original volume, Nicholson’s book-aims to provide a record of shipping movements in and out of Sydney during the 15 calendar years indicated in its title.

Each vessel is listed in chronological order according to its date of entry, and details are given of its type, master, provenance, cargo and notable passengers. If a ship happened to be wrecked after leaving Sydney, that, too, is noted.

The book was produced offset from typescript and was printed in Singapore where Captain Nicholson is currently naval attache at the Australian High Commission.

The book is title No 23 in the Roebuck Series, which John Cumpston (a former Australian consul in Noumea) launched several years ago as an outlet for “books of merit on Australian historical sub jects” that could not otherwise find a publisher. Its cost direct from the publisher in eluding postage within Australia is $16.50.

Title No 22 in the Roebuck Series is a reprint of Cumpston’s own Shipping Ar rivals and Departures, Sydney, 1788-1826, which has been out of print— but much in demand for several years. Its cost plus postage within Australia is $11.50.

The two volumes may be had for $27.00.

Roebuck books are availa ble from booksellers or from J. S. Cumpston, 42 Araba Street, Aranda, ACT, 2614 Robert Langdon.

his world ‘first’

If you’ve ever felt that the age of discovery and exploration is over, and that all a poor yachts man can do nowadays is to fol low the beaten track around the world, take heart, write Marie-Therese and Bengt Damielsson from Papeete. Liv ing proof that it is still possible to chalk up a geographical ‘first’ is Dutch solo navigator Willy de Roos - he is circum

vavigating America!

Willy slipped almost un

noticed into Papeete in August.

Admittedly this latter-day Fly

ing Dutchman has not yet com pleted this circuit which has never before been attempted.

But there’s no doubt he will succeed since the most difficult stretch, the Northwest passage, is already behind him. This ex

plains his leisurely approach to

the second half of the voyage: from Cape Horn up the east

coast of the two Americas. He has deliberately postponed it in order to circumnavigate, as an extra dish, the Antarctic con tinent.

Willy was 50 before he gave up a successful business career to make his first voyage round the world under sail, between 1972 and 1975.

Still unsatisfied, and anxious for new challenges, Willy sud denly had the idea that he could achieve his ambition for a world ‘first’ by sailing right around America provided, of course, he managed to get

through the icy Northwest

passage. For the discoverer, the Norwegian Roald Amundsen, it had taken four long years. 1903-07. The hardships he and his five companions endured were almost incredible. Since that time only half a dozen naval vessels, some super

colossal tankers, and the atomic submarine Nautilus have repeated the achieve ment.

Willy de Roos had at his dis posal only a 12 m saving boat named Williwaw (after a tur bulent wind that blows in Patagonia). But he crammed it full of the most modern equip ment: radar, automatic pilot, sounding devices, and so on.

Plus a heating system. For shore excursions he took a one man sledge, to be pulled by himself.

Leaving the coast of Greenland in June 1977, Willy bravely entered the first of an endless succession of narrow and winding channels which constitute the intricate maze called the Northwest passage.

In open water, a constant 24-hour watch had to be kept in order to avoid collisions with the countless icebergs, the size of buildings many storeys high.

When the sea was frozen, the pack ice often threatened to

crush the yacht. All the time.

Willy had to make snap de cisions as to which course or channel to follow. If the de cision proved wrong and there was no exit, it was impossible to turn back. His only recourse was to wait and hope that a new channel would open up in the

right direction. During this

tricky navigation, the compass

was of no use at all. due to the

proximity of the magnetic

pole.

i was certainly scared all the time.’ Willy told us. ‘But that constant fear was a good thing, for it acted like an alarm clock when I dozed off. The only trouble was I did not get enough sleep. On several occasions, I was seriously tempted to follow Amundsen's example and hibernate. To sleep the whole winter seemed to me, at this stage, to be the highest form of human happi ness.’

Fortunately, Willy kept his

eyes open, continued to make

Willy de Roos and Williwaw in Papeete harbour.

the right decisions and also to have lots of plain good luck.

He was deservedly given a hero’s welcome in Vancouver, BC, at the end of October, 1977. But fame is a fickle lady, and nobody paid the least attention here to the red painted yacht with the strange name tied up at the wharf in Papeete for a little more than two weeks. Even more aston ishing, the movie of this extra

ordinary voyage screened by

Willy at the House of Culture attracted an audience of only about 150. practically all fellow sailors from the other yachts in the harbour. Should we con clude that the world’s greatest navigators, the Polynesians, have now become so thoroughly Westernised that they have turned their backs on the sea? And who was on the Papeete waterfront to bid this daring and courageous navi gator goodbye, when he left on his Antarctic cruise? Only a local radio ham and the present writers.

The only British vessel in the Funafuti lagoon on October I when Tuvalu gained its independence from Britain was the Aventura skip pered by Jimmy Cornell, accompanied by wife Gwenda, daughter Doina, 11, and son Ivan, 9. Mr Cornell, a naturalised Briton of Rumanian birth, is a regular contributor to the BBC's world service, providing weekly programmes on his travels for transmission on the Rumanian service. In the three and a half years since the Cornells left London they have travelled about 50 000 kilometres and visited more than 40 countries. After Tuvalu they set sail for Fiji, New Zealand and Tonga before heading north again for the New Hebrides and points west.

Royal Papua’s keen yachties

Leafing through the latest issue of the Year Book of the Royal Papua Yacht Club enthusiasm

positively jumps from every

page, writes John Collins. And small wonder. The club caters for just about every type of boat known to man. The larger sizes feature a Folkboat, a Tahiti Ketch. Trailer Sailers, tris, etc., down to the latest Lasers, Fire

balls, Lightweight Sharpies,

various catamarans and the

übiquitous Heron sailing

dinghies to a vast array of power boats and even a house boat. A lineup like this must surely make the club unique.

Included in the Year Book is an article on the welcome

renaissance of Papuan sailing

canoe racing, and a list of cruis ing yachts which have visited Port Moresby over the past year.

SAR (Safe Aquatic Rec reation) is the local volunteer rescue group. Included in the book are their ‘Command ments for Boat Loading’. They are well worth repeating;

Verily I say unto thee: Spreadeth out the people and

things evenly in thy little

boat, for he that spreadeth the load not wisely bringeth much woe unto the SAR and him

self.

Wisest is he that keepeth the whole load in his boat as low

as possible. Thy first com

mand to thy people in the boat shall be... ‘SID DOWN!’

Suffer thee not the fools who would ride on the bow for they are non believers, and not

long for this world.

Regard not the number of seats in thy boat, for oft they mis lead and may bring thee to sin

of overloading.

Commit thee to memory the words engraved upon thy ca pacity tablet for they shall

bring thee comfort and keep

thee from committing a no no!

As well as hosting a ‘world

championship’ for Lightweight

Sharpies this year the club also has a boat entered in the world’s Quarter Ton cham pionships, to be held this year in Japan (see Cruising Yachts).

Yachts

» CHALYBIS, 10.4 m Temp :ress sloop, was outfitted for cruising in Townsville, Aus xalia, by Mervyn Flynn and his wife Rosemary. Mervyn sailed ;o Cairns, through the _ouisiades to Papua New Suinea and Solomon Islands.

It was an outrageous trip,’ he said. ‘lf a taxi had come by I’d lave gladly taken it.’ Ken A/retham, underwater photo grapher, joined the Chalybis in Honiara. The two men plan to jo extensive diving and pho ©graphing of World War II elics, sunken ships and ighter planes. • KLARABORG registered n Gothenborg, Sweden, and :hought to be the oldest work ng sailboat in the world, arrived in Marau Sound, Solomon Islands. Built in the 1850 s, Klaraborg is 36.6 m ong, has a beam of 6.9 m and a 2.6 m draft. She is a gaff- Igged ketch, displacement 120 tonnes. Ove and Jan Lin cer bought the Klaraborg in 1965 in Sweden, where she nad fallen into disuse from her days as a cargo freighter. They spent two years remodelling ner into a passenger ship with comfortable accommodation for 16 people. > KARLOO, 9.14 m Water witch class sloop, with owners Beoffrey and Ruth Goodman, arrived at Bundaberg, Queensland, on July 11 after an absence from Australia of seven and a half years, spent cruising around the islands in :he South-west Pacific. On eaving Suva, Fiji at the end of :he last cyclone season they nad a fast passage to the New Hebrides and stayed in Vila for a month. Then followed a very slow passage, with light head winds or no wind at all. to New Caledonia, where prolonged

westerlies delayed their planned early departure for Australia. More light head winds made the final stage from Noumea to Bundaberg another leisurely one. For the next few months the Good mans will be renewing ac quaintance with friends and anchorages on the Queens land coast. The Goodmans feel that yachtsmen bound for Australia could well consider making Bundaberg their port of entry. The Burnett River is a convenient and safe place for arrival, and the city of Bun daberg, 10 nautical miles up the river, has good anchorage and facilities. • VIVALDI, 17 m yawl built in Sydney, is the only yacht registered in Solomon Islands.

Roy and Margaret Clement left Sydney in September 1975 and sailed to Honiara. Roy is stationed in Solomon Islands, and does all the pleasure cruising he can find time for.

Fulltime crewman is Thomas Teago, from the Santa Cruz group. Roy is extremely proud of his newly installed Decca radar. • WINDSON 22.3 m steel ketch from Savannah, Geor gia, arrived in Marau Sound, Solomon Islands, with Jim and Cheryl Schmidt. The Dutch built Windson left the US east coast in December 1976, and sailed to the Bahamas, through the Panama Canal to the Galapagos, Tuamotus, American Samoa, Fiji, to New Zealand, where Jim’s brother Tom joined the vessel. They then proceeded to the New Hebrides and Solomon Islands. The brothers are div ing enthusiasts and plan some serious diving in Solomon Islands. Later in the year they plan to sail to Truk to explore wrecked ships. • OCARINA departed Honiara in early September for Kieta, Rabaul and Madang, Papua New Guinea. Among those on board is Mrs Roderica Laymon to whom PIM August addressed a message in the Cruising

Yachts section. Mrs Laymon writes; ‘When Ocarina finally sailed into Honiara and we went ashore to the yacht club people greeted us with “So you’re here at last! We’ve been saving up your mail for you, and have you seen the latest issue of PlM?’’ Our first greeter explained to us what the message had been, the next greeter explained it again to us, and the next and the next. We considered ourselves truly informed, and you might consider that everyone at the yacht club reads PIM!’ (PlM’s thanks to all concerned.) • VENTURE, 10 m ketch built in Okinawa, left Guam at the end of July for the Caroline Islands and Solomon Islands.

On board are Jack and Sonoko Welborn and son Ken. • Five yachts planned to take part in an inaugural race be tween Cairns and Samarai,

Papua New Guinea, in August.

They were GANDALF, a 9.7 m cutter, sailed by Al and Marion Vroom from Vancouver; WARLOCK, 9.5 m, sailed by Nick and Janice Wooller; WINGS, 11 m steel sloop, sailed by Dave Muse and Suzanne Martinek; TOMIKO 11, 9.2 m timber ketch, sailed by Kris and Russell Smith (ac companied by eight-months old Jodi) from New Zealand; and ALINAR 10.3 m steel cut ter, sailed by John and Heather Wilks and son Nathan. Each yacht donated a bottle of rum as prize, which was won by Wings. But all con cerned helped to drink it.

Wings did the trip in 86 hours.

Second was Warlock, third was Tomiko 11, fourth was Alinar but as its skipper said ‘We did have hot meals every day’. In the event, Gandalf did not compete in the race. • INTERMEZZO, Columbia 50, arrived in Marau Sound,

Solomon Islands, with Skip and Linda Dashew and daugh ters Elyse 9, and Sarah 6. The family sailed from California in November 1976, heading down the coast of Mexico to the Marquesas, Tuamotus, Cook Islands, Pago Pago, Apia, Tonga, Fiji, to New Zealand, where they spent the 1977 winter. There the vessel was remodelled from a racing craft to a cruiser with comfort able accommodation for the family. From New Zealand the Intermezzo sailed to New Caledonia, New Hebrides, and Solomon Islands. • HONEYWIND. 15.9 ferro cement cutter rig from Syd ney, arrived in Honiara with skipper Andrew Bray and Vicky Garland. They had called at New Caledonia and the New Hebrides. Plans are to go from Solomon Islands to Cairns, returning to Sydney for Christmas. • VELOCITY, skippered by Bruce Tardrew, was to take part in the quarter-ton world championships in Yokosuka, Japan, in October. The boat was shipped from Port

Moresby for the event. Unfor tunately, John Malins and Topaz pulled out as chal lengers, but, as noted in the

Avaganda, the Whiting Keeler hired and skippered by Greg Sheehan while still living in Papua New Guninea. Avaganda finished 16th in the 1977 World Half Ton Championships, hosted by the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron. Greg now lives in Sydney. (Photo: courtesy Royal Papua Yacht Club.)

Detail from Port Moresby car toonist ‘Bob’s’ impression of scenes outside the clubhouse of the Royal Papua Yacht Club. (Courtesy RPYC.)

Poya/ Papua Yacht Club News-sheet for September, they will at least be involved n competitive sailing in Port yioresby for the rest of our season’.

> Monsoon 14 6 M

/vooden gaff-riggged ketch, Oolin Archer design, berthed n Honiara. Monsoon was built n British Columbia, Canada, as a fishing boat. New owners Mastair and Beth Robertson, vith son Stewart, 10, plan to sail to Australia and New Zealand. With them will go srew members Faye and Ross 3 almer. • RHODORA, 12.9 m cutter, 3 erry design, home port Key /Vest, Florida, arrived in Honiara after cruising Papua Mew Guinea islands. Skipper Hayden (DSN, ret.) las been sailing for 25 years.

He designed the interior layout )f Rhodora, which he had built

This picture was originally used in PIM in January 1963. The caption then described it as the 47 ft San Diego yacht Monsoon '. Is it the same Monsoon whose recent call at Honiara is reported on this page? PIM'S cruising authority John Collins thinks so. Maybe the Robertsons-or anyone at all who is interested - would like to join the discussion.

to his specifications in Taiwan.

He sailed from Guam in August 1977 with first mate Nancy Wolfe. They plan to proceed to Fiji, New Zealand, Tahiti and Hawaii. • JULIE J, home port Geelong, Victoria, Australia, 11 m staysail schooner built in Tasmania in 1958, arrived in Honiara. Skipper Bill Ashley, a retired chemical engineer, is accompanied by his wife Clyda who, unable to walk for several years, is confined to bed or wheelchair and their good friend Eileen West worth. Visitors are extremely

impressed with the arrange ments made to meet the needsj of an invalid passenger, which include a special winch to lower Clyda into the dinghy so she can go ashore and see the sights in the various ports of call. The trio came to Honiara after 1.2 months cruising around Papua New Guinea. 1 • SYZYGY, a Laurin 32, with] Bob and Mimi Morse from Bos ton, Massachusetts, continues her circumnavigation after a I brief lay-over in northern Queensland for the birth of their new baby, Richard, born end of July. Syzygy is headed 1

Course for the 1978 World Quarter Ton Championships conducted from October 28-November 5 in Sagami Bay, Japan, by the Nippon Ocean Racing Club of Tokyo. Yachtsmen from Papua New Guinea planned to take part. (Drawing by Hugh Vautier courtesy Royal Papua Yacht Club.)

or Bali, en route for the Medi erranean. The Morses will hen hurry back to Boston vhere Bob must resume his eaching job. ■ MORTAIL custom-built 2.5 m trimaran, was in Fiji Lautoka-based) in September i/ith owner-skipper Guy teach and crew, Nick Gaze England), and Joanie Harvey md Pierre Belanger, both of Canada. San Francisco egistered Mortail left Florida in March 1, 1977, sailing Trough the Panama Canal for to South Pacific. She was two /eeks in the Galapagos and nen made a 26-day passage 3 the Marquesas. After three Tenths in French Polynesia dortail spent the hurricane eason in Samoan waters and Ten three months in Tonga iefore making for Fiji. Captain teach plans to leave for New iealand in October. The rest ; uncertain, but Guy is con idering two possibilities a

voyage to the New Hebrides and Australia or through Indonesia. ‘‘lt’s a strange situ ation and a wild occupation, living your life like a song,” writes Guy to PIM. • SONGEUR, 7 m Achilles type craft, was in Rarotonga in August. Solo sailor owner Rodney Vendail left his English home port in 1976 for the USA, West Indies, Galapagos, French Poly nesia and the Cooks. On departure he headed for New Zealand. • REINGA, 7 m Achilles type craft, called at Raro tonga in August. With her crew of two skipper owner Dmitri Zotov and Sue Dunford she had come from England via Spain, Portugal, Madeira, West Indies, Galapagos, Mar quesas, and Tahiti. She left the Cooks for New Zealand.

• Summer Wind 23 M

Rhodes steel ketch, Miami registered, was in Raro tonga in August. On board, were owner Gerry Hood, skipper Robert Lad Rod man, four more Rodmans Karen, Greg, Gail and Sum mer and Nat Hanison and Dexter Baum. Summer Wind quit the Cooks for Moorea.

• Wanderlust, 17 M

craft, was in Rarotonga in September. She had come from Acapulco, Mexico via the Marquesas and Tahiti.

With owner Henry Stine on board were skipper Steve Carter and crew members Nadja Sayovic, Mitch Terkildsen, Scott Hendrick son, Marie Hendrickson, Suzie Johnstone, Martin Howe and Lorea Chilton.

Wanderlust left Rarotonga for Tonga and New Zealand. • lONA, of 9 m, home port

San Francisco, was in Raro tonga in September. With owner-skipper Y. Leßoux were crew members Lon Bubeck and Jean-Marie Pare. She left for Niue. • ISATIS, 9 m craft of Romance type, designed by Philippe Harlet, was in Rarotonga in * September.

On arrival her crew com prised owner-skipper Jean Lescure, Mme Claudin Les cure, Rebecca Lee and Jean-Marie Pare (who later transferred to Iona). Isatis had sailed from her home port of La Rochelle, France, to England, crossed the Atlantic, and after passing through the Panama Canal, visited Alaska and the Marquesas. • ATRIA, a 9 m, Golden Hind type craft, was in Raro tonga in September.

Owner-skipper James Stamps was accompanied by Roslyn Woodhead.

Tradewinds

Pacific Master

Market Plan?

Two-hundred mile resources zone euphoria, apparent after last year’s Port Moresby South Pacific Forum, has palled a bit in the months since. Those instant riches weren’t forth coming and perhaps are even further away after this year's Niue Forum in September. But while the euphoria of 1977 was an over-reaction, so was the de pressed mood of some dele gations after the Niue get-together, writes Bob Hawkins who was in Alofi dur ing the talks.

At least a fisheries organis ation will be set up; an associ ation is to be established among regional airlines; there is enough goodwill to push the

newly-established Pacific

Forum Line on through its dif ficult teething stage; but, much more importantly, the ground work has been laid in a vital area which could, in the not too-distant future, become the Forum’s greatest single achievement.

Before the Niue meeting was a document, compiled rather presumptuously ‘by a team of experts’, entitled Industrial Development and Trade Re lations in the South Pacific. It is a significant report and gives the reader a feeling it may prove to be the first step along the road to the formation of a South Pacific economic com munity. The report was com missioned by the Commonwealth Secretariat and the experts called upon to compile it were assisted by the South Pacific Bureau for Econ omic Co-operation (SPEC).

Australia obviously appreci ated the impact the document would have on Forum mem bers and indicated its willing ness to offer assistance to Island members along lines recommended.

The industrialisation side of the report in itself makes interesting if not too optimis tic reading, but it is the trade

relations portion which pro vides possibly the best ap praisal yet of the various forces at work in the region and then goes on to suggest ways in which Island states can im prove their performance.

It looks at trade with devel oped nations (noting that while more can be sold to Europe and other developed areas Islanders should not rely too heavily in that direction), and trade with developing nations (particularly Association of South-east Asian Nations - ASEAN countries). But its main focus is on improving Island performance vis-a-vis Australia and New Zealand.

The going will not be easy but, with the goodwill of Aus tralia and New Zealand, the re port suggests two ways in which the lot of Island nations could be enhanced. Each, the reports stesses, depends on how forth coming Australia and New Zealand prove to be on the question of access to their markets.

The existing trade agree ment between Australia and its former territory, Papua New Guinea, provides the basis for the first approach. The report suggests an extension of the Australia Papua New Guinea Agreement on Trade and Com mercial Relations (PATCRA) by the accession of the Pacific Island countries and New Zealand.

The report observes that while cast in the form of an agreement establishing a ‘free trade area’. PATCRA is ‘un usual because of the way in which it protects the somewhat different interests of its

developing and developed

members. In brief the agree ment is designed so that PNG gives no tariff concessions to Australia . . . PNG benefits from free access to Australia for most goods whilst Aus tralian interests are protected by the provision of a finely graded range of safeguards’. In other words, PNG has far from open slather but it is a relation ship which other Island groups would like with both Australia and New Zealand.

PATCRA also has articles dealing with the promotion of investment, industrial, tech nical and administrative co operation, trade and technical assistance. And, interestingly.

the agreement provides that the member states may agree to the association of any other] state with the agreement sub-1 ject to the negotiation of ac ceptable terms.

The report says the chief advantages, of an approach i through PATCRA are; that an agreement already exists with provision for accessions and that the process of extension

depends primarily on unilat

eral action by Australia and New Zealand; and that the concessions Australia makes to PNG would provide a yard stick against which Pacific j Islands would measure Aus tralian concessions to other countries and New Zealand concessions to all regional countries.

The report states: ‘Leaving aside the central question of the extent of substantive con cessions by Australia and New Zealand the main problems ... arise primarily from attempt ing to build an agreement, which essentially formalises existing trade relations be tween two countries, out into a full fledged international agreement.’

The second course suggested is for the creation of a new re gional agreement in which Australia and New Zealand would grant preferential or

The conference room at SPEC headquarters In Suva. There’s hard work ahead for those who will be warming these seats from now on-and no place at all for those who are happy just to warm the seats and do nothing else.

duty-free access to goods from Island countries on a non reciprocal basis. The main dif ference, it says, from PATCRA ‘would flow from an essentially tactical judgement that it would be possible to avoid un necessary international diplo matic activity by building a new agreement, rather than extending an old one’.

This would require the Forum to call for a review of trade between member coun tries with a view to assisting developing member countries.

Australia and New Zealand would then have to review their current practices and come up with changes they would be prepared to grant to their fel low Forum members. Provided the A-NZ offer looked good enough, ‘the Forum could then ... welcome ... the offers ... and initiate proceedings to gain

international acceptance’.

While a new regional agree ment would give some flexi bility over an extension of PATCRA, the report notes that the ‘gain is ... slight and would need to be weighed against the danger that Australia and New Zealand might ... make less substantive concessions Australia has long argued for non-discrimination in inter national trade relations and has

recently argued that PATCRA

does not offend against the principle of non discrimination. Experience in GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) has shown that this position is not fully accepted by some other coun tries and Australia would prob ably find it easier to argue the case for a new agreement rather than an extension . . .’

The Forum’s reaction to the report was to ask SPEC to get senior trade officials of mem ber countries together to exam ine it in detail and to prepare recommendations ‘on a non reciprocal trade agreement be tween Australia and New Zealand on the one hand and the Forum Island countries on the other’.

Other Forum directives on the same report were to instruct SPEC to look to measures to encourage the rationalisation and development of industries in the Islands, to promote

greater market access in Aus tralia and New Zealand and other countries outside the re gion as well as looking to ways in which to improve inter island trade.

Australia’s response to the report was to offer to fund for five years a trade commission in Australia which will pro mote Island exports.

SPEC has the footslogging

ahead of it but if Australia is to put its goodwill where its mouth is and prove that there’s some substance in its sometimes hollow assertions that it is not protectionist there’s no reason to believe sonething substantial in terms of a South Pacific-wide trade agreement can’t be on the table in time for next year’s Forum in Honiara.

Bank Line

changes course

The Bank Line, at the end of November, will launch a

monthly regular and direct

container/unitised cargo ser vice from Hull to Suva and Lautoka, in response to a de mand for a direct service. The new service is part of a restruc turing of the line’s overall South Pacific trade.

Fast, modern, composite cargo liners of the Cedarbank class will be used, offering break bulk containers, bulk liquids, reefer space and heavy lifts up to 50 tonnes. The main destinations are Papeete, Suva,

Lautoka, Noumea, Port Moresby, Lae, Rabaul, Kieta, and Honiara, with occasional calls at Madang, Yandina and Tarawa. Trans-shipment car goes will be accepted for other ports.

The UK loading brokers for the new services to Fiji will be Eastern Liner Services, which already handles Bank Line South Pacific services, with offices in London, Liverpool, Glasgow and Hull. Burns Philp (SS) Co Ltd are the agents in Suva and Lautoka. Details of services may also be obtained from the Bank Line in Syd ney.

At the same time the Bank

Line has announced it is ter minating its services from Fiji, Tonga and Western Samoa to the UK and the Continent.

Legal setback

for Nauruans

An application by Nauru Pa cific Line and Nauru Local Government Council for an

injunction against the Aus

tralian Shipping Officers’

Accociation (ASOA) restrain ing the association from im posing a black ban on the line’s chartered motorship Fentress was dismissed in the Federal Court in Melbourne in Sep tember.

The ruling by Mr Justice Northrop was a double blow to the Nauruans, for the judge, as well as refusing the injunction, said the line was operating il legally in Victoria because it had deliberately refrained from registering in Victoria as a foreign company.

The ASOA had slapped a ban on the Fentress now becalmed in Melbourne be cause of alleged breaches of the shipping officers’ award by its Melbourne travel department.

The Nauru Co-operative So ciety has taken over the travel department’s functions and then notified the ship’s officers that they would be employed under the less favourable con ditions of the Clerks’ Determi nation Award for Victoria.

Harder on ‘expats’

in Solomons

New laws aimed at increasing

employment opportunities for

local people and protecting

customs and culture have been enacted in the Solomons.

There will also be tighter con trol of vessels, including yachts, entering the country.

People wishing to work in the Solomons for more than 14 days will need a clearance from the Commissioner of Labour.

Expatriates looking for work

will not be considered unless the immigration authorities issue a permit. Expatriate wives and husbands of Solomon Islanders, unless they are citi zens of the Solomons, will have to have a permit to enter and

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser (back to camera), greets a smiling New Zealand PM, Rob Muldoon. Despite the apparent bonhomie, its one of the the worst-kept secrets of the trans-Tasman politics that there’s no love lost between these two. But a lot depends on them being able to get their ideas together on their countries’ economic relations with Pacific Island nations.

ive in the country, and will not >e allowed to work, unless they

lave a permit.

Employment of expatriates

vill only be allowed when con idered necessary, and will be ;übject to the localisation pol cy. The new laws protect the :ountry from having to under ake the financial burden of

:aring for destitute expatriates

md returning them to their >wn countries.

During the debate on the en ibling bills, there were com

jlainls about yachts

‘trespassing”, and pleas for the jovernment to make efforts to ratch intruders.

ndonesia-PNG

alk aid, trade

ndonesia will give technical issistance to Papua New Guinea in small scale indus ries, and the two countries will vork toward establishment of

lirect trading relations. These

igreements were reached dur ng a two-week visit to ndonesia in September by the S NG Minister for Commerce, Mr Pita Lus.

Agreement on technical as ;istance came after a request by Vlr Lus to the Indonesian Minister for Trade and Co operatives, Mr Radius Prawiro. [t will cover the hand loom and

veaving industry, wooden

landicrafts, the use of leather, oamboo and rattan and rooftile

making.

Training in these fields will

;oe conducted either by sending

PNG trainees to Indonesia or Indonesian technical instruc tors to PNG. Further details of the scheme will be worked out through an exchange of letters, expected to be drawn up soon.

Mr Lus and Mr Prawiro agreed that a direct and more

substantial trading relationship

should be brought about

through an increase in visits of government officials, chamber of commerce and industry and

private businessmen.

Trade between Indonesia and PNG is meagre, with an annual value of about $A200,000. The balance of trade, heavily in PNG’s favour, mainly involves re-export of

finished goods through PNG to Irian Jaya.

EEC ‘dumps’

sugar in PNG

A new front was opened up in September in the continuing warfare between the Aus tralian Government and the European Economic Com munity. As well as fighting the EEC over access of Australian primary products and steel to the EEC, the Australian Government now plans to take the EEC to task for its alleged ‘dumping’ of sugar on the Papua New Guinea market.

Australia’s Minister for Trade and Resources, Mr Anthony, said in Parliament that Australia sold about 20 000 tonnes of sugar annually to PNG, but that the EEC had

recently been penetrating this

market with heavily subsidised sugar.

The subsidy content of the EEC sugar amounted to about $350 a tonne, which was about three times the world price for sugar.

Mr Anthony said that pre

vious complaints by Australia

to the EEC about its export practices had not yet had any major impact on the communi

ty’s trading policies.

He added; Tn view of the seriousness of the situation for Australia’s exports to PNG, I have instructed officials of my department to consult with officials of the Australian sugar industry to prepare formal no tification to the General Agree ment on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) challenging the EEC on its behaviour in respect of Article 16 of the GATT to see whether we cannot take some positive action to stop this

dumping.’

Article 16 of the GATT effectively demands the elim ination of export subsidies.

PNG love affair

with Star-Kist?

The Papua New Guinea Government in September sent an eight-man delegation to the United States to complete negotiations with Star-Kist

Company unveils

<uirvpillance nod

surveillance puu Pacific Island governments brooding over the formidable problems of surveillance of

newly proclaimed resources

zones could well look with interest at a technical develop-

ment recently fathered by

Hawkerde Havilland Australia

Pty Ltd.

Economy was the key consideration in the company’s development of its new Surveillance Pod. They sought to develop a device which would provide a genuine air surveillance capability, but which , u r /’ • . could also be fitted to a variety r . 1W e . .. ■ J of utility aircraft, thus sparing vr u • users the expense of buying ‘fully dedicated’ surveillance

aircraft. (The pod displayed by

the company to journalists at

Sydney’s Bankstown airport in

September was fitted to a Britten Norman Islander aircraft.)

Pointing out that it is only one ofthe P ossible solutions to the problem, a company bro chure says of the pod: it pro

vides night and day

surveillance capability over land and sea ... It allows taking of vertical and oblique

air photographs . .. incorporat

ing Infa-red Linescan equip

ment (developed by British

Aerospace) providing real time display in the cabin and having the capability to accept air to ground data link options to provide in addition immedi ate display at a ground station.’ ... ■ , The pod is certainly com- T • . , ■ ,• , pact. It is only .4 m in diameter, *; , , J 2.6 m long and has a maximum . . jP in .. wei & ° The company is at work on other versions of the pod, including one adapted to natu ral resources exploration, and another geared to search and

rescue operations.

Fishing Company on the con struction of a tuna cannery at Lombrum in the Manus prov ince. The delegation included two representatives from Manus Provincial Govern ment.

Acting Director for Fisheries, Araha Vale, said that talks on the establishment of the cannery with Star-Kist had been underway for two years.

He said that while dis cussions centred on the method of sale of tuna, the delegation would maintain a firm stand

regarding the environmental aspects of the proposed tuna cannery. The government hoped to sign an agreement with the company before the end of 1978, if negotiations were successful.

The American Star-Kist company is already well known in the Pacific, especially for its

big operation at Pago Pago,

American Samoa. Its name is so well known, indeed, that the East Sepik Provincial Execu tive Council has agreed to establish and fund a small fish

A Britten Norman Islander with the de Havilland surveillance pod fitted under its starboard wing.

ing company in Wewak to be known as Star-Kist Fishing.

The company, which will be 100% PNG-owned, has been initiated by a local business man and two expatriates who have come to an agreement with the East Sepik Provincial Government.

Currency cramp

condominium

One of the weirder aspects of the New Hebrides con dominium’s rule is the dual currency system, writes a Vila correspondent. Both Aus tralian dollars and New Hebrides francs are legal ten der and in the days of parity, before the Australian devalu ation of November 1976, this point was of little significance.

But today, with the generally accepted rate of 80 francs to the dollar, it makes a great dif ference, especially to the larger trading companies (Burns Philp, CFNH) which, coupled with cheap labour and lack of taxation, enhances their

already healthy profits.

The actual franc to dollar rate varies daily at each of Vila’s seven trading banks.

There are also the usually stable condominium and chamber of commerce rates to assist businessmen and retailers. The local banks work their NH franc rates directly from the French franc which has been steadily improving for most of this year.

This all seems reasonable enough until one realises that

pricing is almost universally

done in New Hebrides francs and many people, especially those in the outer islands, are paid in dollars. The large retailers are notorious for their lightning changes in rates with out notice. Any stock already on the shelves or in warehouses obviously was bought at a more favourable rate. But the writer has yet to see any compensat ing price reductions. If every

thing was imported and paid

for in French francs one could see their point, but of course this is not the case.

Both Chief Minister George Kalsakau and Vanuaaku Party leader Walter Lini agree the country needs just one cur-

rency, but nothing positive has been done. The question then would be whether Australian dollars or N.H. francs should be retained. Surely the most rational solution would be the introduction of a new cur rency.

Solomon Islands had their new currency in circulation well before independence so the ball is obviously now in the court of the New Hebrides Government.

Tuvalu service by

Auckland airline?

The Auckland-based airline Sea Bee Air is expected to form an amphibious airline to serve Tuvalu.

Managing director, Murray Pope, said the airline would need to buy Goose amphibian aircraft for the service. ‘We have been looking around and we don’t anticipate any prob lems in getting the aircraft.’ he said.

Sea Bee Air was formed two years ago and operates an am phibious service to the Hauraki Gulf islands.

This is Mr Gordon McKenzie, who is likely to become a fam iliar figure in the South Pacific Islands. He’s heading the newly established office of Nelson & Roberston in Auckland. With a record of more than 80 years of service to the Islands, Nelson & Robertson plans through their new branch to provide NZ manufacturers with ‘on-the

spot’ representation throughout

Papua New Guinea and Fiji. Mr McKenzie, who has 13 years ex perience of exporting to the Islands, will assist clients and manufacturers with any and every query.

of Islands People

/Lary Columba

ister Mary Columba, SM,

dio taught many Samoan

;aders and businessmen to ead and write, has died in American Samoa, aged 73. She /ent to Samoa in 1939 where he became known as an expert sacher of infants. She was also n artist and left many paint rigs as a memorial to her tai nts. The Prime Minister of

Vestern Samoa, Tupuola Efi.

nd the Governor of American lamoa, Mr Peter Coleman, ttended her funeral.

Mlikesa Balekiwai

Tlikesa Balekiwai, father-in aw of the Governor-General T Fiji, Ratu Sir George has died aged 75. He rad been living in retirement at lau. He was a well-known portsman in his younger days.

Je leaves a widow, six daught ers and two sons.

: Rank Mahony

Dr Frank Mahony, a familiar igure for six years at South Pa :ific Conferences as SPC Director of Social Programmes md later Director of Adminis ration in a reorganised sec retariat, died at La Jolla,

Zalifornia, early in September

ifter a heart attack. He was 53. \n anthropologist with a repu ation enhanced by valuable vork for the Third World in Micronesia, Africa and with the South Pacific Commission, Dr Mahony joined the com mission early in 1972 from the University of Hawaii. When he left the commission last January, he planned to take a long vacation and then seek to renew his university career at the University of Hawaii. For most of the 19505, he worked

as an applied anthropologist in

the Truk and Ponape districts of the US Trust Territory and then, for four years, was with the United States Agency for National Development in the

Somali Republic. He spent four years at Stanford Univer

sity, USA, completing his

studies for his PhD in anthro pology and followed this with four years in Honolulu before going to SPC headquarters at Noumea.

Inoke Cati

Inoke Cati, 50, master of the Fiji ship Moea, 31.7 m. was incinerated when the ship caught fire at Savusavu wharf.

He was trapped in his cabin and was unable to free himself.

The Moea was towed into the harbour after the fire broke out and later drifted ashore at Samo. about 800 m from Savusavu town.

F. E. M. Warner

Frederick Ernest Moore Warner, ISO, MBE, has died in Auckland.

Born in England, he began work as a clerk in Malaya.

Later, after a period in New Zealand as a farm worker, he was employed by an islands trading company, his work taking him around the Pacific, particularly to the Cook Islands and Samoa.

In 1944 he joined the British overseas colonial service and was invited by the Fiji Govern ment to establish a co

operative marketing system.

He headed the Fiji Co operative Department for nine years and when he left its ser vice in 1965 there were 377 co operatives and 11 500 members. He was awarded the Imperial Service Order for meritorious and long service.

After his retirement in 1968 Mr Warner agreed to oversee the transfer of Pitcairn Island administration from Suva to Auckland. He was Assistant Commissioner for Pitcairn from 1968 until 1973 when he became Commissioner, an

appointment he relinquished

in 1974.

Alan Gibson

Mr Alan Gibson who worked for Burns, Philp (SS) Co Ltd in Fiji, American Samoa and Western Samoa for about 12 years, has died in Sydney. He

was prominent in sporting

activities in Apia.

Shipping

Sydney - Lord Howe Is -

Norfolk Is

Compagnie des Chargeurs

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

Details Hetherington Kingsbury

Pty Ltd, 37-49 Pitt Street, Sydney (27-1671).

SYDNEY - NZ - FIJI - HAWAII -

Canada - Us

P & O liners call at Auckland, Suva, Honolulu and Vancouver on eastbound and westbound voy ages between Sydney and the US.

Details from P & O Booking Centre, World Travel Head quarters Pty Ltd, 33 Bligh Street,

Sydney (231-6655).

AUSTRALIA - NZ - FIJI - TONGA

N. Hebrides - Noumea - Png

Solomons-Samoas

Royal Viking Line, with first-class cruise ships Royal Viking Star, Royal Viking Sky and Royal Viking Sea, cruises the Pacific from Syd

ney and Cairns calling at a variety of Pacific and Asian ports.

Details from With, Wilhelmsen Agency Pty Ltd, 13-15 Bridge Street, Sydney (2-0517).

P & O liners call at Auckland, Bay of Islands, Honiara, Lautoka!

Noumea, Nukualofa, Pago Pago’

Papeete, Port Moresby, Santo!

Savusavu, Suva, Vavau and Vila on cruises from Australia.

Details from P & O Booking Centre World Travel Headquarters Pty Ltd, 33 Bligh Street, Sydney (231-6655).

Australia - Fiji - Samoas -

New Hebrides - Tonga -

Norfolk Island

Pacific Navigation of Tonga op erates a five-weekly refrigerated general cargo/container service from Sydney and Brisbane, to Vila, Santo, Suva, Lautoka, Apia, Pago Pago, Nukualofa and Norfolk Island.

Details from Beaufort Shipping Agency Co, 2 Castlereagh Street, Sydney (221-2388).

Australia-New Caledonia

(And/Or) New Hebrides

Daiwa Line operates a container service from Sydney to the New Hebrides.

Details: Union Bulkships Pty Ltd, 333-339 George Street, Sydney (2-0238).

Karlander operates a monthly service from Sydney to Noumea.

Details from Karlander (Aust) Pty Ltd, 19-31 Pitt Street, Sydney (27-6301).

Sofrana-Unilines ships serve Noumea every three weeks from the main ports along the east Aus tralian coast.

Details from Sofrana-Unilines, 37 Pitt Street, Sydney (27-2031), Trans-Austral Shipping Pty Ltd, 570 Bourke Street, Melbourne (67-9162), ACTA Pty Ltd, Bris bane (221-3116), Elders-ANL Pty Ltd, Port Adelaide (47-5688), ANL, Newcastle (049-24364)1 Clements & Marshall, Burnie, Tas mania (31-1833).

Compagnie des Chargeurs Caledoniens operates a three weekly containerised cargo ser vice from Sydney to Noumea.

Details Hetherington Kingsbury Pty Ltd, 37-49 Pitt Street, Sydney (27-1671).

Compagnie Generate Maritime operates a monthly service from Sydney to Noumea, Port Vila and Santo, using Ro-Ro vessels.

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

Australia - Fiji

Karlander (Aust) Pty Ltd oper ates monthly cargo services from Sydney to Suva and Lautoka.

Details from Karlander (Aust) Pty Ltd, 19-31 Pitt Street, Sydney (27-6301), Dalgety Shipping, 461 Bourke Street. Melbourne (60-0731), Burns Philp (SS) Co Ltd, Suva and Lautoka.

Sofrana-Unilines (Fiji Express Line) operates to Suva and Lau toka every three weeks from the

main ports on the east coast of Australia and monthly to Lautoka from Melbourne and Sydney.

Details from Sofrana-Unilines; 37 Pitt Street, Sydney (27-2031)1 Trans-Austral Shipping Pty Ltd’ 570 Bourke Street, Melbourne (67-9162), ACTA Pty Ltd, Bris bane (221-3116), Elder-ANL Pty Ltd, Port Adelaide (47-5688), ANL. Newcastle (049-24364) Clements & Marshall, Burnie, Tas mania (31-1833).

Australia - W Samoa

Compagnie Generate Maritime operates a monthly service from Sydney to Apia, using Ro-Ro vessels.

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

Australia - Fiji -

Samoas - Tonga

Pacific Forum Line operates a container, unitised/palletised and reefer cargo service from Mel bourne and Sydney to Lautoka, Suva, Funafuti, Pago Pago, Apia and Nukualofa. Other ports are in cluded on inducement.

Details from ANL Melbourne and Brisbane, Union Bulkships, Sydney, Hobart, Port Adelaide and Fremantle, Burns Philp (SS) Company Ltd, GPO Box 355, Suva, Fiji (311-777); Polynesia Shipping Services, Pago Pago; Union Steam Ship Co of NZ Ltd, Nukualofa: PWD, Funafuti; or Pa cific Forum Line, PC Box 655, Apia, W Samoa.

Ustralia - Northern

Marianas - Micronesia

Nauru Pacific Line operates a jgular container service from lelbourne to Saipan, Truk, onape and Kosrai.

Details Nauru Pacific Line, auru House, 80 Collins Street, lelbourne (653-5709), Nedlloyd wire, 8 Spring Street, Sydney >-0522).

Australia - Tonga -

Samoas - Tahiti

Karlander operates a monthly argo service from Melbourne and ydney to Nukualofa, Apia, Pago ago. Papeete, US west coast.

Details: Karlander (Aust) Pty td 19-31 Pitt Street, Sydney >7-6301).

Australia - Tahiti

Daiwa Line offers a four-weekly arvice from Australia to apeete.

Details: Union Bulkships Pty Ltd, 33-339 George Street, Sydney >-0238).

Compagnie Generale Maritime perates a monthly service from ydney to Papeete using Ro-Ro assels.

Details Compagnie Generale laritime, 12 Castlereagh Street, ydney (231-3700).

Australia - Png

Containers Pacific Express 3urns Philp and AWP Line) and IGAL/PNGL Operate chief Con liner Service from Australia to NG-Solomon Islands ports on

joint slot sharing basis. Three con tainer vessels operate on 28-day turn-around from Melbourne, Syd ney and Brisbane to Port Moresby, Lae, Rabaul, Kavieng, Wewak, Madang, Kieta and Honiara.

Details from Burns Philp & Co Ltd, 51 Pitt Street, Sydney (20-547) and Interocean Swire, 8 Spring Street, Sydney (2-0522).

Farrell Lines operates a service every month from Tasmania, Mel bourne, Sydney and Brisbane to Lae and Rabaul.

Details from Wilh Wilhelmsen Agency Pty Ltd, 13 Bridge Street, Sydney (2-0517), 60 Market Street Melbourne (61-3031), J. C. Waller (Rabaul) Pty Ltd, Rabaul, Robert Laurie-Carpenter (NG) Pty Ltd, Lae.

New Guinea Express Lines op erates three-weekly conventional and container services Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Port Moresby, Lae, Rabaul, Alotau.

Details from New Guinea Ex press Lines, PC Box R 73, Royal Exchange PC, Sydney (241 -3991) MacArthur Shipping Agency Co, 82-92 Eagle Street, Brisbane (229-3777), New Guinea Express Lines, 327 Collins Street, Mel bourne (61 -3053), Niugini Express Lines in Port Moresby (214436), Lae (42-1536), Rabtrad Niugini Pty Ltd, Rabaul (92-2911).

Karlander New Guinea Line’s cargo vessels call at Melbourne, Sydney, Port Moresby, Lae, Madang, Wewak, Manus, Kimbe, Rabaul.

Details from Karlander (Aust) Pty Ltd, 19-31 Pitt Street, Sydney (27-6301), Dalgety Shipping, 461 Bourke Street Melbourne (60-0731).

Australia - Solomons -

Gilbert Is - Micronesia

Daiwa Line operates a container service every 30 days from Sydney to Honiara, Kieta, Tarawa and Guam. Gizo cargoes transhipped at Honiara, Saipan, Majuro, car goes transhipped at Guam.

Details from Union-Bulkships Pty Ltd, 333-339 George Street, Sydney (2-0238, telex AA20397).

Australia - Nauru -

Majuro

Nauru Pacific Line operates reg ular cargo/passenger service from Melbourne to Nauru and Majuro.

Details Nauru Pacific Line, Nauru House, 80 Collins Street, Melbourne (653-5709), Nedlloyd Swire, 8 Spring Street, Sydney (2-0522)

Us-Png

Farrell Lines operates regular services from all US west coast ports to Lae and Rabaul.

Details from Wilh, Wilhelmsen Agency Pty Ltd, 13 Bridge Street, Sydney (2-0517), Farrell Lines, 1 Market Plaza, San Francisco. L.A. (9-4105). J. C. Waller (Rabaul) Pty Ltd, Rabaul, Burns Philp (NG) Ltd, Kieta, Robert Laurie-Carpenter (PNG) Pty Ltd, Lae.

Png - Us - Canada

Farrell Lines operates regular services from Lae and Rabaul to US west coast ports and Van couver.

Details from J. G. Waller (Rabaul) Pty Ltd, Rabaul, Robert Laurie-Carpenter (PNG) Pty Ltd, Lae, Farrell Lines, 1 Market Plaza, San Francisco, L.A. (9-4105), Wilh, Wilhelmsen Agency Pty Ltd, 13 Bridge Street, Sydney (2-0517).

Png K Uk/Co.Ntinent

Bank Line operates regular cargo service from Kieta, Rabaul, Kimbe, Madang and Lae to Liver pool, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Ant werp and London.

Details from Bank Line (A’asia) Pty Ltd, 1 York Street, Sydney (27-2041), Burns Philp (PNG) Ltd, PNG ports.

Png - Us

Bank Line operates regular cargo service from Kieta, Rabaul, Kimbe, Madang and Lae direct to San Francisco; calls at US Gulf and East Coast ports on inducement.

Details from Bank Line (A’asia) Pty Ltd, 1 York Street, Sydney (27-2041); Burns Philp (PNG) Ltd, PNG ports.

Solomons - Fiji - Tonga -

W. Samoa - Uk/Continent

Bank Line operates regular cargo service from Honiara, Suva, Nukualofa and Apia to Liverpool, Hamburg, Rotterdam and Ant werp.

Details from Bank Line (A’asia) ty Ltd, 1 York Street, Sydney 17-2041); Burns Philp (SS) Co ;d, Fiji, Tonga, W Samoa: Trading o Honiara.

Far East - Fiji - New

Zealand

New Zealand Unit Express )NC, MNOL, Nedlloyd) operates three-weekly cargo service from ong Kong to Lautoka, Suva, NZ orts, Manila, Kaoshiung. eelung, Hong Kong.

Details from Nedlloyd, 8 Spring treet, Sydney (2-0522).

Nedlloyd operates monthly argo service with three ships from urabaya, Jakarta, Bangkok, Port elang and Singapore to Suva and Z ports.

Details from Nedlloyd (Aust) Pty td, 8 Spring Street, Sydney >7-3801); Burns Philp (SS) Co td, Suva and Lautoka.

Japan - Nz - Png

China Navigation Co, with three hips operates a monthly cargo ervice from Japan to New ealand calling at Lae on return >urney.

Details Nedlloyd, 8 Spring treet, Sydney (2-0522).

Far East - Mid-S. Pacific

China Navigation Co’s vessels perate a regular cargo service om Hong Kong, Taiwan and Sin apore to Rabaul, Wewak, ladang, Lae, Port Moresby, loniara, New Hebrides, Noumea, 'apeete and Samoa.

Details from Nedlloyd, 8 Spring Itreet, Sydney (2-0522).

Kyowa Shipping Co. Ltd, oper tes monthly services from Hong tong, Taiwan, S. Korea and lapan, to Guam, Siapan, >olomons, New Caledonia, Fiji, Vestern and American Samoa, ahiti, Cook Is., Tonga and New lebrides and 45-day con ainer/break bulk cargo service rom Kobe, Nagoya and tokohama to Guam, Suva, Lau oka and Noumea.

Details: Hetherington Kingsbury >ty Ltd, 37-49 Pitt Street, Sydney 27-1671).

NYK Line, in conjunction with Daiwa Line, with container ships jperates 30-day service from Moji, <obe, Nagoya and Yokohama to 3 apeete, Pago Pago, Apia, Suva, _autoka, Noumea, Sydney, Honiara, Kieta, Tarawa, Guam and Faiwan. . Details; Union Bulkships Pty Ltd, 333-339 George Street, Sydney '2-0238).

North Europe - Tahiti -

New Caledonia

Hamburg-Sued operates nonthly cargo services from Ham )urg, Dunkirk and Le Havre to 3 apeete, Noumea, via Panama.

Details from Columbus Over seas Services Pty Ltd, 333 George Street, Sydney (290-2966), Oolumbus Maritime Services, 17 Mbert Street, Auckland 77-3460).

Europe - Pacific Islands

Compagnie Generale Maritime operates services from Europe and Mediterranean ports to

Papeete and Noumea using three Ro-Ro and three multi-purpose vessels thus ensuring a bi-monthly sailing to and from.

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

Europe-Tahiti-W. Samoa

Fiji-N. Caledonia

Nedlloyd offers regular cargo services from Northern Europe and UK to Papeete, Apia, Fiji and New Caledonia.

Details Nedlloyd (Aust) Pty Ltd, 8 Spring Street, Sydney (27-3801).

JAPAN - GUAM - FIJI - TAHITI -

Samoa - N. Caledonia -

Solomons - Gilberts

Daiwa Lines runs a monthly cargo service from Japan via Guam to Lautoka, Suva, Papeete, Pago Pago, Apia, Sydney, Noumea, Honiara, Tarawa, Guam.

Details from Burns Philp (SS) Co Ltd, Suva.

NZ - FIJI - TONGA - SAMOAS Union Steam Ship Co of NZ op erates a roll-on, roll-off, unitised service from Auckland to Lautoka-

Suva-Pago Pago-Apia-Nuku'alofa

on a 14 day frequency.

Details from Union Steam Ship Co of NZ Ltd, PC Box 12, Auckland or from Branch offices/agents in Fiji, Tonga and the Samoas.

Nz - N. Caledonia -

N. Hebrides-Png -

Solomons

Sofrana Unilines with three ships operates to Vila and Santo, to Honiara and Papua New Guinea and to Noumea.

Details from Sofrana Unilines, 18 Customs Street, Auckland (773-279), PC Box 3614, Telex NZ2313.

Nz - Australia -

New Caledonia -

Solomons - Gilberts -

Micronesia

Union Co/Daiwa Line operate a container service from New Zealand through Sydney to Noumea, Honiara, Tarawa and Guam, Transhipment to Saipan, Majuro and Gizo.

Details: Union Steam Ship Co of NZ Ltd, PC Box 12, Auckland, or Union Bulkships Pty Ltd, 333-339

George Street, Sydney, (2-0238).

Nz-Png

Farrell Lines operates regular service every 30 days from Auckland to Lae and Rabaul.

Details from Dalgety NZ Ltd, 41-45 Albert Street, Auckland (7-1859) J. C. Waller (Rabaul) Pty Ltd, Rabaul, Robert Laurie (NG) Pty Ltd, Lae.

Nz - Fiji - North America

(WC) Blue Star Line Crusader service to West Coast North America. Only direct service to and from New Zealand. Blue Star vessels call at Suva and Honolulu on NZ-US- West Coast voyages.

Details from Blueport ACT (NZ) Ltd, PO Box 192, Wellington (739-029), Burns Philp (SS) Co Ltd, GPO Box 355, Suva, Fiji (311-777).

Nz - Fiji

Pacific Line with one ship oper ates fortnightly roro cargo service New Zealand, Lautoka, Suva.

Details: Sofrana Unilines, 18 Customs Street, Auckland (773-279) PC Box 3614, Telex: NZ2313.

Nz - Fiji - Gilberts -

Solomons - Png

Pacific Forum Line operates a container, unitised/palletised and reefer cargo service from Lyttelton and Auckland to Suva, Tarawa, Honiara, Madang, Lae and Moresby. Other ports are included on inducement.

Details from Shipping Corpor ation of NZ Ltd, Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington.

Burns Philp (SS) Company Ltd, GPO Box 355, Suva, Fiji (311 -777) Sullivans, Honiara; Gilbert Islands Shipping Corporation, Tarawa: Steamships Trading in Port Moresby, Lae and Madang or Pa cific Forum Line, PO Box 655, Apia, W. Samoa

Nz - Fiji - Samoas -

Tonga

Pacific Forum Line operates a unitised/pallatised and reefer cargo service from Lyttelton and Auckland to Lautoka, Suva, Pago Pago, Apia and Nukualofa. Other ports are included on inducement.

Details from Shipping Corpor ation of NZ Ltd, Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington, Burns Philp (SS) Company Ltd. GPO Box

355, Suva, Fiji (311-777); Polynesia Shipping Services, Pago Pago: Union Steam Ship Co of NZ Ltd, Nukualofa or Pacific Forum Line, PC Box 655, Apia, W.

Samoa.

Nz- Samoa - Tonga

Pacific Navigation of Tonga op erates a four-weekly cargo ser vice, Auckland - Nukualofa - Pago Pago - Apia - Auckland.

Details from McKay Shipping

Ltd, Downtown House, Queen Street, Auckland (33-65)6).

Warner Pacific Line services Onehunga - Nukualofa - Vavau fortnightly, and Timaru - Nukualofa - Vavau monthly and Onehunga - Apia and Pago Pago every 21 days carrying general and freezer car goes and Timaru - Apia every 21 days carrying freezer cargo.

Details from Air Marine Services (NZ) Ltd, PC Box 2505, Auckland (796-841).

NZ - COOK IS - NIUE -

Tahiti

Shipping Corporation of NZ Ltd operates cargo services based on pallets and similar units from Auckland to Niue, Cook Islands and Tahiti.

Details from the Shipping Corp of NZ Ltd, PC Box 3420, Auckland (797-210); Waterfront Com mission, PC Box 61, Rarotonga, Lighterage and Stevedoring Go, Aitutaki, Niue Govt Offices, Niue Island Compagnie Maritime Polynesienne, B’P’ 368, Papeete.

Uk/N. Continent - Tahiti -

N. Caledonia - N. Hebrides

Bank Line operates regular cargo service from Hull, Hamburg, Bremen, Antwerp and Rotterdam to Papeete, Noumea and Vila.

Details from Bank Line (A’asia) Pty Ltd, 1 York Street, Sydney (27-2041); Ets A M Fare UTE, Papeete; Ets Ballande, Noumea, Burns Philp (NH) Ltd, Vila.

Uk/N. Continent - Png -

Solomons

Bank Line operates regular cargo service from Hull, Hamburg, Bremen, Antwerp and Rotterdam to Port Moresby, Lae, Madang, Kimbe, Rabaul, Kieta and Honiara and on inducement to Yandina, Tarawa and Nauru.

Details from Bank Line (A’asia) Pty Ltd, 1 York Street, Sydney (27-2041); Burns Philp (PNG) Ltd, PNG ports; Trading Co Honiara.

San Francisco - Honolulu -

Nauru- Micronesia

Nauru Pacific Line operates reg ular conventional/container ser vice from San Francisco and Honolulu to Majuro, Nauru, Ponape, Truk and Saipan.

Details from Nauru Pacific Line, Nauru House, 80 Collins Street, Melbourne (653-5709); North American Maritime Agencies, 100 California Street, San Francisco, California 9411 (981 -0343).

Us-Fiji-Tahiti-Nz

Australia

Bank and Savill Line Ltd, oper

ates regular cargo services from!

US Gulf ports to Australia and NZ. 1 Calls at Suva, Lautoka and] Papeete on demand.

Details from Bank Line (A’asia)l Pty Ltd, 1 York Street, Sydney! (27-2041) or Howard Smith Indus-1 tries Pty Ltd, 1 York Street, Sydney! (27-5611).

US - A. SAMOA - NZ -

Aust

Farrell Lines LASH ships operate I regularly from US to Australia, vial Pago Pago and Auckland and| Canada.

Details from Wilh, Wilhelmsen] Agency Pty Ltd, 13 Bridge St., Syd-1 ney (2-0517); 60 Market Street,] Melbourne (61-0301); Farrell] Lines, 1 Market Plaza, San Fran cisco, L.A. (415-777-3300); Dal gety NZ Ltd, Auckland (7-1859);] Kneubuhl Maritime Services, Pago Pago (633-5121).

Us - Tahiti - Samoa

Pacific Islands Transport oper-j ates a five/six weekly cargo ser vice from North America west coast ports to Papeete, Pago Pago, Apia.

Details from Trans-Austral Ship ping Pty Ltd, 19 Pitt Street, Sydney (27-2441). Polynesia Line operates con-1 tainer and general cargo service from US west coast ports to Papeete and Pago Pago.

Details from Polynesia Shipping Services Inc,. PC Box 1478, Pago Pago (9-6799).

Marine

School For

Western

Samoa

A large quantity of equip

ment has arrived in Western Samoa for the new marine training school. The school is

being built by Samoa Shipping

Services Ltd, a joint Western

Samoa-Columbus Shipping

Line Company formed to oper ate and manage the vessel that Western Samoa will be con tributing to the Pacific Forum

Shipping Line.

So far 20 candidates have ap plied for entrance to the school

although formal applications

have not yet been called for.

The applicants will be inter viewed in due course by rep resentatives of Samoa Shipping Services and the Samoan Government.

The final plans and cost estimates for the school have

been prepared by the Special

Projects Development Corpor

ation of Western Samoa and the plans are being forwarded to Hamburg for approval of the head office of the Columbus Line and the West German Government.

The seamanship training

school will include three build ings providing full facilities for

seamanship training and dor

mitory accommodation. It will be established on Upolu near Satapuala, where some of the old buildings that formed part of the old sea-plane base are

being pulled down.

The school will enrol 24 students in each course. They will spend three months at the school on basic training and about nine months at sea be fore they become qualified seamen. Some of the trainees will be trained on a specially equipped vessel owned by the Columbus Line,