The Fiji Times excerpts from May 1 to
MAY 1
A FORMER Fijian member of the Senate Ratu Glanville Lalabalavu has left the National Federation Party and joined the Fijian Association arm of the Alliance Party. Ratu Glanville said he resigned from the NFP because infighting was “wrecking and causing a lot of friction among party members”. He condemned the Fijian Nationalist Party as “acting contrary to Fijian progress”.
MAY 2
AN Alliance politician has said a stamp the Australian High Commission in Suva is using to mark Fiji passports is the ‘height of cheek and an insult to this country’. The politician is Vijay Parmanandam, member of the House of Representatives for Suva City West-Navua communal constituency. He said people who applied to the high commission for visas but did not go were getting their passports back with the stamp ‘Australian visa applied for’.
MAY 3
THE Australian Minister for Immigration, Al Grassby, has told an Australian Government trade skills mission seeking workers from South-East Asia and the Pacific to give ‘special priority’ to Fiji. The mission, representing Government, employers and trade unions is touring the region to help select permanent migrants who have the skills some labour-starved Australian industries need.
MAY 4
MORE than 500,000 dirty banknotes were withdrawn from circulation last month and replaced by 600,000 new ones. The change, done with the help of the banks, was part of a move to improve the condition of currency in circulation in Fiji. The general manager of the Central Monetary Authority, Ian Craik, said the switch was a success.
MAY 5
PARENTS must get away from the idea that the only respectable work for their children was a white-collar job, the Minister for Education, Jone Naisara, said. Mr Naisara was speaking at the Derrick Technical Institute annual prize-giving ceremony at the Suva Civic Centre. He said the Government had no intention of squandering limited resources to develop degree resources at the institute.
MAY 6
BURGLARS took three cartons of cigarettes worth $549 from a shop at Samabula. But police said yesterday one carton of cigarettes was recovered. Thieves also took watches and money from a locked van at Wailoku between 4pm and 5pm and took $6 in cash and two watches worth a total of $95. In another incident thieves took a cassette tape recorder, tumblers and mugs worth $78 from a house in Colo-i-Suva.
MAY 7
SUVA Taxi Union and several fellow unions have asked the Government to defer enforcing the taxi meter laws due to take effect on July 1. The union’s secretary, Mahmood Khan, said taxi operators had differing opinions about the best type of meter to use. Some were in favour of electronic types while others preferred those that worked mechanically.
MAY 8
THE Minister for Education, Jone Naisara has called for a revolution in the “Fijian attitude” on education. He said the parents’ obligation to a child went further than finding him a place in school and paying the fees. Home has to be an extension of the school and vice-versa, he said while opening the Fijian Teachers Association conference at the Nasinu Teacher’s College in Nasinu.
MAY 9
NEW Zealand is developing proposals to enlarge work permit schemes for people from the South Pacific alongside preparations to accept permanent immigrants from countries such as Fiji and Tonga. The Prime Minister, Norman Kirk, announced the new immigration policy.
MAY 10
THE Prime Minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, announced aid for farmers and provisions to ensure the completion of land sub-divisions. He was speaking in Suva after a Cabinet press conference.” We promised that we would be giving further assistance to people on the land. Farming is an exacting and exhausting life,” Ratu Sir Kamisese said.
MAY 11
ABOUT 80 workers at Suva’s only biscuit factory received a week’s dismissal notice yesterday because Flour Mills of Fiji Ltd could not supply the factory with flour that has adequate protein. A spokesman for the company, Cope Allman (South Pacific) Ltd told The Fiji Times it would withdraw the notice only if the flour mill guaranteed the factory a week’s supply of flour.
MAY 13
THE National Federation Party’s win in the House of Representatives by-election for a Northern Division Indian communal seat is not great surprise. Indian communal constituencies have developed into safe NFP seats. In such constituencies electors tend to vote for the party rather than the candidate.
MAY 14
FIJI’S senate heard a plea yesterday for the dispassionate discussion of national land issues. The plea came from a Suva lawyer, Senator Ramanlal Kapadia, who is one of the PM’s nominees in the Senate. He was speaking during the debate on a motion by Ratu Senator Mosese Tuisawau about land reclamation.
MAY 15
FIRE gutted the Lido café in Suva’s busy Cumming St early yesterday afternoon causing an estimated $8000 worth of damage. More than 20 people in the café fled down the stairs on the only exit to the safety of the street as the fire blazed and smoke belched from the building.
MAY 16
POOR drainage was causing Fiji more than 100,000 tonnes of sugarcane - at least $700,000 worth – every year, the secretary of the central drainage board administration, Ken Macgregor, said. He said the estimated average loss of cane in the country’s poorly drained areas was five tonnes for every acre of sugarcane and he thought this was a conservative estimate.
MAY 17
FIJI’S Agricultural Landlord and Tenant Tribunal has a backlog of about 350 cases to hear. But the Government has yet to name a successor to the previous adjudicator, who has resigned. A former Suva magistrate, Patrick Donegan, took the appointment in January. He left on overseas leave early in March and, while away, he resigned. He will not return to Fiji.
MAY 18
SOME big companies have expressed of up to 77 per cent in Suva City Council’s electricity charges. Last week the Prices and Incomes Boards approved a rise because of fuel costs. The present minimum rate is 5c a unit and the new minimum charge will be 6.7c. Local cement manufacturer, Fiji Industries Ltd was the biggest user of electricity in Suva and used nine to 10 million units a year.
MAY 20
A YAQONA shortage is worsening in Suva because of the destruction of the crop during the recent cyclone. Yaqona vendors said their stocks were falling and they doubted whether they would be able to find reliable sources. The vendors said they were worries about a sharp rise in the price set by growers.
MAY 21
SUVA Taxi Union will protest to Cabinet about what it calls an affront to the principles of democracy by some police constables. The annual meeting of the union decided this at the Merchant’s Club in Suva. It says some of the constables are immature and lack the experience for this job.
MAY 22
AIR Pacific suspended all its flights after about 150 employees walked off their jobs at Nausori Airport soon after 6.30pm. The company had not been told the reason for the worker’s ac