March 30, 1974

Nations spokesman said an international team of medical experts was studying the disease. The experts would draft technical guidelines to diagnose and treat dengue, to control epidemics, and to keep the disease and disease-carrying mosquitoes under close watch.

MARCH 23

SUVA’S taxidrivers want a further increase in taxi fare rates in the wake of yesterday’s petrol price rise. They want 60c for the first mile and 25c for each subsequent mile or part of a mile. It is just a month since the Prime Minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, announced that taxi fares from July 1 would be 40c for the first mile and 5c for each subsequent quarter of a mile. The existing legal fare is 30c for the first mile and 20c for each subsequent mile or part of a mile.

MARCH 25

FIJI’S medical service has begun using an injection contraceptive which lasts for three months. A Medical Department spokesman said the contraceptive, depo provera, was available at family planning clinics at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva and the Lautoka hospital. Some private doctors have prescribed the injection to women for the past three years.

MARCH 26

THE Prime Minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, has lodged a formal protest about Australia’s decision to cancel the “easy visa’ system for Fiji Islanders. Australia early this month deported 12 Fiji Islanders because officials said they planned to work there although they did not have permits for working. The Australia Government later reimposed stricter requirements on Fiji Islanders wanting to visit the country.

MARCH 27

PACIFIC Transport Ltd is running some buses to be on the road, according to the company’s general manager, Charles’s Chun. He said he had to keep old business running because replacements for them had failed to arrive from England. The company is selling for scrap two three-year-old luxury coaches.

MARCH 28

UNSCRUPULOUS Fiji landlords have been increasing rents illegally by between 10 per cent and 253 per cent, according to replies to a rent survey. The Prices and Incomes Board has approved only 31 residential rent increases since June 30 last year. But rises in rents helped to push up the cost of living almost 2 ½ per cent last month. The rent freeze will end on Sunday.

A BOATFUL of villagers armed with sticks chased a fishing craft in the Ba River and assaulted the occupants, a Ba Fisherman told One of the fishermen received treatment at Nailaga Hospital for cuts and scrapes. The dispute started over issues of fishing grounds and rights.

MARCH 29

A FREEZE on domestic, commercial and industrial rents in Fiji will continue indefinitely. Cabinet decided this after studying evidence that landlords were planning substantial increases in rents from next Monday. All restrictions on rents were to have ended then under phase three of the Government’s counter-inflation policy.

MARCH 30

THE Fiji Government would continue to establish a national electricity authority, an official spokesman said in Suva yesterday. He was commenting on the mass resignation of the Fiji Electricity Authority’s general manager, Robert Atkinson, and its board members, Robert Kay (chairman), David Ragg senior (deputy chairman), Yanktesh Reddy, Eddie Wong and Aminiasi Katonivualiku. They resigned mainly because the FEA has been unable to take over Suva City Council’s electricity system.