The Fiji Times excerpts — April 1 to

SCHOOL children and workmen in Savusavu were stranded yesterday morning when the bus which picks them up daily did not turn up. The bus is owned and operated by the Savusavu Fijian Bus Company. A spokesman for the Transport Control Board said the company owned buses but only two had certificates of fitness.

THE 56-year-old history of the Garrick Hotel in Suva as a hotel and public house will end on July 30. Situated in the heart of Suva, with frontages on Thomson Street, Pier Street and Renwick Road, the hotel will now become a block of shops and offices. It is owned by the Garrick Estate.

THE Fiji Arts Council will hold a series of subscription concerts in Suva in 1970. The concerts, by overseas and local artists, have been a feature of music life in Suva for the past five years. Initially presented by the Fiji Arts Club, with assistance and the support of the Fiji Arts Council, they later became the full responsibility of the FAC.

GRASS carp appears the most effective weapon to pit against hydrilla, the weed which threatens to choke the Rewa River and its tributaries. This is the opinion of Helen P. Hughes, a Fiji Department of Agriculture officer who is doing research on the weed.

ANY one of several mineral exploration projects now being undertaken in Fiji could lead to the development of a new town of several thousand people, according to the Minister for Natural Resources, Mr D.W.Brown.

Samabula residents will send a petition to Suva City Council objecting to a hotel at Kings Road, 2 ½ miles near Grants Theatre. Mr G.N. Pathik, a retired school teacher who has been living in Nabua for many years said plans to build the hotel had caused great concern.

WORLD Health Day was celebrated throughout the globe yesterday with the help of the World Health Organisation. The theme was "Early detection of cancer saves lives".

THE Fiji Government is involved in a plan to build a luxury hotel, set in parklands, on the site of Bilo Battery site, about 10 miles west of Suva. Government holds lease on two pieces of land in the area, owned by the people of nearby Waiqanake Village. Government is trying to find a developer to build a hotel on the larger of the two leases, which were taken up during World War II for defence purposes.

THE future happiness and progress of Fiji depended far more on everyone left behind in Fiji than on those going to the London Constitutional Conference, the Chief Minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, said at Nadi yesterday on the eve of his departure for London.

THE recently formed Fiji Muslim Youth League is trying to establish a reference library on the Islamic religion. The president of the league, Mohammed

A. Khan, has appealed for books and for contributions toward the purchase of books for the library.

SIX men escaped unharmed but lost most of their possessions when fired razed a wood and iron building at Waiyevo, Taveuni, early yesterday morning. Police and civilian volunteers formed a bucket brigade to carry water from the sea, about 10 yards from the burning building, but were unable to make any impression on the flames.

LAUTOKA Rural Authority has begun a massive number of prosecutions against squatters who have been putting up unauthorised homes in the suburbs of the town. Fines ranging between $15 and $45 have been imposed in Lautoka Court on several of them during the past week. Other cases are pending. Among those fined was a destitute woman who receives a $2 welfare grant every month.

TWO traditional Fiji foods have been canned and released to local and overseas markets during the past few weeks by a Suva company, Polynesian Food Packers Ltd. One of the products came into the market in February and was followed last week by canned lolo (coconut cream).

SIX men - one working as a watchman and five as wharf labourers in Suva – have been able to save enough money within a year to buy building material for a new church for their village on Kadavu. The men's fundraising campaign in April 1969 included a contribution of $152 by fellow villagers living in Suva.

RUMOURS that millers have planned to stop buying copra in three weeks were discounted yesterday by the chairman of the Coconut Board, Mr C.D. Aidney. "It has been reported to me that rumours in country areas suggest that copra-burying might cease from April 27," Mr Aidney said.

THE chairman and managing director of the Carpenter Group of companies in Fiji, Mr W.G. Johnson, will retire on June 30 after 34 years with the company. Mr Johnson, who will be 70 years in July was with the old Fiji firm of Brown & Joske Ltd in Suva when W.R. Carpenter of Sydney, acquired the majority of the issued capital of the company which is now Carpenters of Fiji Ltd.

CIVIL aviation authorities are looking forward to the arrival of the first Boeing 747 airline at Nadi Airport later this year even though the airport will not be ready to handle it. Although the main runway is long and strong enough for the Boeing 747, extensions to the aircraft taxiway and parking areas are needed.

FIJI's political leaders filed into the palatial conference room at Marlborough House for the opening session of the Constitutional Conference at 2.30pm on Monday, London time. They sat in red leather chairs under the glistening lights of three massive chandeliers and listened to speeches by