May 30, 1974

tion at 8pm, a spokesman for the management told The Fiji Times. The association called an emergency meeting early last night and members decided to go on an unofficial sympathy strike.

MAY 23

AIR Pacific will try today to operate two flights using senior members of the engineering staff for work normally done by striking local aircraft maintenance engineers. The general manager of Air Pacific, Chris Ritchie, said the airline hoped to make one Nausori-Labasa flight and one from Nadi to Nausori.

MAY 24

DOCKWORKERS are likely to become the mostly highly paid hourly labourers in Fiji after they reached a wage agreement with shipping companies. Both parties agreed to a basic wage of 66c and 70c an hour for permanent and casual labour, increases of 20c. The agreement is subject to approval by the Prices and Incomes Board.

MAY 25

SOUTH Pacific regional co-operation has taken a giant leap forward on a historic occasion in the capital of Papua New Guinea, which is due for independence later this year. The Prime Minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, and the Fiji High Commission in Australia, Mr Raman Nair, attended a PNG Cabinet meeting on Wednesday. It lasted more than an hour and Government ministers asked Ratu Sir Kamisese questions.

MAY 27

FIJI’S Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara officiated at Rabaul at two moving ceremonies connected with Fiji. One of the ceremonies was at a memorial to Fijian missionaries whom local tribesmen killed and ate almost 100 years ago. The other was a war cemetery which contains the WWII graves of Fiji soldiers.

MAY 28

FIJI’S Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kmisese Mara is due home today after an immensely successful visit to Papua New Guinea. He and the official Fiji party are due to arrive at Nausori Airport tonight. The highlights of the tour have included ceremonies and meetings marking historic links between Fiji and PNG – the type of bonds to which the PM referred in a speech to university students here last week.

MAY 29

THE leaders of Fiji and PNG have hailed the state visit to PNG of Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara as “a significant step” towards bringing a closer understanding between the two South Pacific countries. A communique from Ratu Sir Kamisese and PNG’s Chief Minister Michael Somare described the visit as being an opportunity for a closer and more intimate friendship in sharing their aspirations and problems.

MAY 30

FIRE destroyed an abattoir valued at $50,000 and stocks of meat worth more than $25,000 at Lautoka on Tuesday night. It was one of two fires which occurred within an hour of each other in the town. The other fire, at the clothes shop of H. Ishwarlal at Vakabale St, could have threatened a whole block including the First National City Bank.

MAY 31

FARMERS at the Lakena rice project in Nausori say they stand to lose thousands of dollars if they cannot finish harvesting their rice within the next week. Heavy rain and high winds have flattened acres of mature rice which now is beginning to rot in the fields. The Agriculture Department, which farms 520 acres of rice in the area, has almost 200 acres ready for harvesting.

FIJI’S visible deficit increased by more than 50 per cent and exceeded $100 million last year for the first time. But the Bureau of Statistics said the real balance of payment situation was not as bad because of tourism earnings and direct capital flow.