The Fiji Times excerpts from April 1 to

APRIL 1

FOURTEEN Fiji Islanders whom Australia deported said Brisbane immigration officials treated them “like animals”. “We were dragged out of our beds at 5.30 in the morning, stripped naked and forced to wear prison dungarees,” Rashid Ali of Vatulaulau, Ba said at the Nadi Airport yesterday. “Then we were thrown in Brisbane prison cells like common criminals,” he said.

APRIL 2

ABOUT 100 vendors from Sigatoka Market went on strike yesterday after accusing the Sigatoka Town Council of failing to negotiate about an increase in stall strikes. The council announced earlier that the rates would rise from 30c to 40c a day from the beginning of this month. The town clerk, Amar Singh, said maintenance costs had risen and the council had to borrow money to improve the market facilities.

APRIL 3

A SUVA-based Rotuman community leader has called for a Fiji Government inquiry into activities in Rotuma. He is the principal of Ratu Sukuna Memorial School in Nabua, Pat Managreve. He said the Rotuma Co-operative Association now controlled the island’s economy. He said the association expelled people who disagreed with the way it operated and refused to buy copra from expelled members or sell them goods from its shop.

APRIL 4

A MAN whose mother died while he was in gaol in Australia was very weak when he arrived home in Fiji, a relative said yesterday. The man was arrested in a Brisbane immigration raid last Friday and held in gaol until he was deported to Fiji on Tuesday night. When a reporter went to see his relatives at Raviravi, Ba, yesterday one of them said Mr Ali had not eaten while in prison in Australia.

APRIL 5

AIR Pacific will offer one of its two jet airlines for hire, buy two new airplanes and seek a fare increase in an effort to get out of financial trouble. The airline announced the moves yesterday following a 100 per cent rise in fuel costs and snarl-ups in its move to open new routes. aviation reporter says the airline is partly blaming the Fiji and Tongan governments for the difficulties.

APRIL 6

STUDENTS at the University of the South Pacific in Suva want someone from the university region to be the next Vice-Chancellor. The present Vice-Chancellor, Dr Colin Aikman, has announced he would resign at the end of the year. The public relations officer of the USP Students’ Association, Isikeli Mataitoga, said the association was thankful for Dr Aikman’s services during his six years as Vice-Chancellor.

APRIL 9

THOUSANDS of Muslims celebrated Jalsa-e-Miladun-Nabi, the birthday of the prophet Mohammed, in Fiji yesterday. The main celebrations were in Suva, Lautoka and Labasa, where people heard songs, prayers and speeches by community leaders. People of other religious denominations took part in the celebrations, the first time the event has been a public holiday.

APRIL 10

ONE of the Leaders of the Opposition’s senior lieutenants defected to the governing Alliance Party yesterday. He is Suva lawyer Vijay Parmanandam, the House of Representatives Indian member for Suva West-Navua. He contested the 1972 general elections on a National Federation Party ticket. Mr Parmanandam said there had been lack of discipline in the NFP.

APRIL 11

DRASTIC curbs on imports of cars, light goods vehicles, earthmovers, heavy machinery and water heaters are the Fiji Government’s answer to the soaring national bill for fuel imports. The Government banned the import of cars with engines larger than 2000cc and household electric water heaters. It cut the annual limit in private car imports which had been 2000 cars to 1500.

APRIL 13

A WOMAN could not find where her husband was buried because some of his relatives took his body from the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva after he died. She is Ananaiasa Kirikirikula, 49. Her husband was Peceli Kirikirikula, 53, a ship officer of the Marine Department. On Wednesday a reporter helped Mrs Kirikirikula trace her husband’s grave to Nasinu Cemetery, where he was buried on Sunday.

APRIL 15

TWO Fiji companies face price-cutting orders for their products under an order from the Prices and Incomes Board. The PIB made the order in a statement it issued on Saturday in which it accused some Fiji companies of manipulating the Government’s prices and incomes policy.

APRIL 16

MANY butchers in Fiji have warned that another beef shortage may develop soon. They said farmers were demanding higher prices for their cattle, mainly to cover transport costs. The butchers reported inadequate supplies of beef to cater for the whole country. Butchers said farmers received a rise from $26 to $28 a 100 pound for their animals and some were threatening to refuse to sell without another rise.

APRIL 17

THE Fiji Employers’ Consultative Association yesterday rejected a Prices and Incomes Board allegation that some employers blatantly disregarded pay guidelines. In a statement after a special meeting, FECA said the PIB acted alone in deciding to order reductions in the prices of two company products. They are Carlton brewery (Fiji) Ltd and Fiji Industries Ltd.

APRIL 18

A DOCTOR at Lautoka Hospital has had to amputate the lower part of a young man’s leg after a desperate bid to save the limb with special surgery. Hospital sources said the doctor could have avoided the amputation if an instrument worth about $25 had been available in Fiji. The amputee entered the hospital after a car hit him along Vomo St.

APRIL 19

FIJI citizens will get what the Government says is one of the best pension schemes of its type in the world. The Fiji National Provident Fund will operate the scheme and it is due to begin next January. At the age of 55, FNPF members will have the choice of either withdrawing all their fund money, getting it in instalments as a life pension or a combination of both.

APRIL 20

THE Fiji Government was accused yesterday of failing to keep its word that it would be as good a landlord as the CSR Co. Ltd. CSR tenants had enjoyed virtually perpetual tenancies, but now that Government had taken over CSR land, they could not get leases of even 30 years, the Opposition Whip, Karam Ramrakha complained. The Government’s land lease policies came under attack in the House of Representatives yesterday.

APRIL 22

CATHAY Hotels Fiji Ltd closed the Cathay Hotel and Saweni Beach Hotel at Lautoka yesterday. A company spokesman said some members of the hotel’s staff