The Fiji Times from December 2
SPECIMENS of the new dollar notes in full colour are on display in banks throughout Fiji. A set of the new coins is on display also. The Decimal Currency Board has arranged the display so the public can see the new notes and coins and become familiar with the designs and values before the new currency goes into circulation on January 13.
WITH no rain for two weeks, Suva is running short of water. The Public Works Department has called for an economy drive in its use. Consumers have been asked to conserve water.
A SMALL girl slipped through a gap in the Medical Department’s tetanus immunisation campaign. She caught the disease. The six-year-old from Nadroga had injured her foot. Fortunately, the attack was mild.
SUVA will have a new 120,000-pound pumping station operating by December next year capable of pumping six million gallons of water a day from the Waimanu River to satisfy the city’s needs.
THE Government yesterday lifted a restriction on the import of overseas potatoes which it imposed on Monday. The restriction was initially placed to encourage the planting and purchase of potatoes grown in Fiji.
A UNITED States destroyer returning to San Diego in California after a top-secret mission in Vietnam’s Gulf of Tonkin will leave Suva this morning after a fuelling stop.
A DENT in the new bow of the anti-submarine frigate was put there on Saturday morning, when the ship bashed head-on into the face of the King’s Wharf in Suva. The accident was blamed on strong wind gusts.
THE problem of overcrowding in urban schools was referred to by the Chief Minister, Ratu K.K.T.Mara, when he spoke at the prize-giving ceremony at Ratu Sukuna Memorial School. He said the search for employment and better educational facilities forced large numbers of Fijians to flock to urban areas.
BUSH fire in the Western Division which threatened forest reserves was put out by Forestry Department. A spokesman of the department made an appeal to people in the area to take the utmost care to see that they did not start fires.
LEGISLATIVE Council adjourned at 3.45 pm yesterday until 9 this morning as a mark of respect for the late Sir Thomas Lloyd, father of the Acting Governor, G.P.Lloyd.
SALES of contraceptives by automatic vending machines should be permitted, two members of the Legislative Council pleaded yesterday. Meanwhile, calls for a clamp-down on gambling at Fiji festivals were made by an Assistant Minister.
THE United States Apollo 8 mission to the moon, which will carry three astronauts on the first-ever round-the-moon trip at Christmas, could end with a splashdown near Fiji, reports from Pago Pago have indicated.
THE Grumman Mallard amphibious aircraft which the New Zealand Government is presenting to the Fiji Government, for use by Air Pacific, is expected to arrive in Fiji next month. It will be officially handed over this week at Christchurch where it will undergo various modifications and an overhaul.
A ONE million dollar scheme to establish a car assembly plant in Samabula providing work ultimately for about 1000 men is planned by a New Zealand businessman. It is hoped the assembly plant will be in full production by 1970.
FOUR hundred tiny migrants from Malaysia arrived in Fiji at the weekend after an 11-hour flight by UTA French Airlines from Kuala Lumpur. They are an assortment of grass, silver and bighead carp, and of the tilapia hybrid from the Amoy River and other waterways of the Far East.
TOGALEVU on the Queen’s Rd, about 12 miles from Suva, is the winner of this year’s Fiji Visitors Bureau competition for the most attractive village. Mr D. Ragg, bureau chairman, will present a cheque of 100 pounds to the village.
SUVA will need a combined heliport and hoverport within the next 20 years, the Fiji Visitors Bureau board feels. The board suggests that a