The Fiji Times excerpts from March 1 to
MARCH 1
JUSTICE Clifford Grant is the new Chief Justice of Fiji. The Ombudsman, Justice Moti Tikaram, resigned and reverted to his former post of puisne judge. Senior legal officer in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions has been recommended for promotion to principal legal officer. The events follow a report about the Fiji judiciary which said Mr Bale’s resignation was to take effect yesterday.
MARCH 2
THE driver of a National Marketing Authority cab died on Kings Rd at Samabula three miles about 1pm yesterday after a collision with the ready-mixed concrete delivery lorry. He was Taitusi Kaunilagilagi (35) of Waila, Nausori. The van and the lorry were travelling in opposite directions.
MARCH 4
AN emergency medical mission from Fiji saved the life of a woman from Wallis Island at the weekend. Doctors successfully operated on the woman at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital soon after bringing her from Wallis Island on a light aircraft. The manager of Fiji Air Services, Bryan O’Loan, said they received a message from the aircraft control tower at Nadi asking for help to fly the seriously ill woman to hospital.
MARCH 5
MEAT, eggs, powdered milk and some other foods are costing housewives much more to buy from this week. Eggs are 20c dearer and meat is up to 31c a pound more under a new price control order in the Fiji Royal Gazette yesterday. A representative of the price control office in Suva said the main cause for the increased prices was higher costs of poultry feed and stock feed.
MARCH 6
LAUTOKA is still short of water because of continuing trouble with the pipeline from the intake area at Varaqi to the treatment plant at Saru. A Public Works Department
spokesman said the department had been unable to fill the town’s reservoirs. The main reservoir at the treatment plant was empty because of the supply line problems.
MARCH 7
AUSTRALIA deported 12 Fiji Islanders yesterday after they failed to convince immigration officials they were there for a holiday and not to work illegally. Officials put the men aboard a Qantas airline which was to leave Sydney at 9am for Nadi Airport. The Australian Minister for Immigration, Al Grassby, ordered the deportation after a report from officials who interviewed the men.
MARCH 8
TWELVE Fiji Islanders who Australia deported on Wednesday night dodged reporters and dashed out of the terminal buildings when they arrived at Nadi Airport yesterday. Immigration officials in Sydney detained the men at the beginning of last week when they arrived there with three-month holiday visas. The men did not have enough money to support themselves.
MARCH 9
SHELL Co. service stations in Fiji have been told the company will deliver as much petrol as they can sell. The company lifted its restrictions on petrol, kerosene and distillate supplies but a company spokesman said the position with bunker oil was still uncertain. But two other companies, British Petroleum and Mobil are still on the rations they imposed after Arab oil-producing companies announced production cutbacks earlier this year.
MARCH 11
ROCKETING rents helped to push up Fiji’s cost of living by almost 2 ½ per cent last month. And consumers seem likely to face another substantial increase this month, when the index will show the effects of food price rises of up to 30 per cent the Prices and Incomes Board approved last week.
MARCH 12
LANDLORDS who increased rents and pushed up the cost of living last month did so illegally, according to the Government’s prices and incomes regulations. The consumer prices index rose almost 2 ½ per cent last month. The Bureau of Statistics said significant increases in rent and transport were the main causes of the increase.
MARCH 13
THE prices of flour, sharps and atta from Flour Mills of Fiji Ltd rose almost 30 per cent and this will mean an increase of about 4c for a long loaf of bread. The Prices and Incomes Board said the wholesale price of a 140 pound bag of flour would now be $16.70. The previous price was $12.85. A tonne of flour, sharps or atta now costs $262.83 compared to the previous price of $180.
MARCH 14
THE Government has decided to lift restrictions on the supply and consumption of fuel in Fiji. “We now feel that we have enough oil for our normal consumption,” Prime Minister, Sir Kamisese Mara said after a Cabinet meeting in Savusavu. He said if people could save electricity, they would certainly be helping the country.
MARCH 15
HEAVY flooding hit most of the Western Division, closing roads, disrupting telephone communications, isolating homes and inundating thousands of acres of land. The worst-hit area was that surrounding Nadi, where residents reported the most severe flooding in the town’s history. Swirling brown floodwaters which swept the town centre during the night brought most businesses to a standstill for much of the day.
MARCH 16
AT 90, most teachers would have retired from their jobs, but Margaret Jennings from New Zealand is an exception. Most of her life has been dedicated to teaching and until a month ago she was holding classes for Chinese people who need English for their careers. “Even today I am willing to help anyone who wants to learn
English,” she said as she celebrated her birthday with friends.
MARCH 18
THE Government wants Fijian landowners who want to develop their land themselves to do so by forming corporations. The Prime Minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, said this after Cabinet discussed a report by New Zealand consultants about prospects for a big cattleraising scheme on Fijian land in the Ra province.
MARCH 19
FIJI’S three oil companies have again asked the Prices and Incomes Board for an increase in fuel prices – the second in about four months. A spokesman for the companies said last night that the request for a price increase followed an Organisation of Petrol Exporting Countries (OPEC) increase in January.
MARCH 20
THE price of all bread in Fiji will go up by 3c a loaf on Friday. The rise is the result of a sharp increase in the price of Fiji flour last week. The flour price rose because of higher costs of Australian wheat, which Flour Mills of Fiji Ltd imports for processing into flour, sharps and atta. A spokesman for the Prices and Incomes Board said the board chose Friday as the day for the latest increase to allow the bigger bakeries to use old stocks of flour.
MARCH 21
SOME Fiji bakeries may stop deliveries to customers unless the Prices and Incomes Board allows a higher increase for bread than 3c. A delegation representing bakeries throughout Fiji told the PIB in Suva that the 3c increase on a loaf of bread was not enough. The PIB increase follows a Central Bread Manufacturers’ Association application last week after a sharp increase in the cost of local flour from Flour Mills of Fiji Ltd.
MARCH 22
DENGUE fever still rages in the South Pacific, surveys by the World Health Organization show. A United