EVENTS IN FIJI

Hokitika Guardian, 7 October 1930, Page 7

EVENTS IN FIJI

LADY BOWLERS INDIGNANT. ms*? 1 * SUVA, September 20. Fiji has been granted a loan of £500,000 and has spent most of it. The last quota of the loan has just been floated in London at a premium of 10s per cent and at 5 per cent, a rate not too popular among financiers in connection with Dominion or even colonial loans. The amount was £90,000 and the balance still unspent will probably be used to build tlie £30,000 bridge across the Rewa River, a public work which has been demanded lor many years by the people. The traffic across the river is very great for such a community. MISHAP TO MOTOR SHIP. The motor ship Jedmoor, which has been loading sugar in Fiji before, has lost her good luck sign. She piled up on a reef behind Mali Island, opposite Malau, the port of Labasa, the sugar .centre on Vanua Levu, on September 15. She was under the charge of a local certificated pilot. She managed to get off next day under her own power, and Captain Twentyman, marine surveyor, flew by ’plane on Tuesday and made an examination. of tho ship, which came on to Suva last Saturday after having two holes (in the forepeak and under No. i. hold) temporarily fixed up with timbers strengthened by concrete. She has been examined here by divers and repairs, will b® effected and then she will sail for London. The sugar cargo she had loaded is undamaged, LADIES WIN FIRST SKIRMISH. A considerable amount of hostility to thq idea °f women being allowed to play on the Suva bowling green lias been shown by the men members. Not long ago, replying to an invitation to play a match with Suva, the Rewa Clud, which has many lady members, came to Suva with a team which included several lady? players. The men most ungallaiitly: refused to meet the ladies and a good deal of disgust was expressed by l the visitors. The, ladies were annoyed, and, at the suggestion of the wife of Major Willoughby-Tottenham, M.L.C., a meeting of ladies formed a club in Suva. Tlie -next step was..a. rer quest to the Suva Club to be allowed to play oil No.. 2 green, which has been recently formed. This was carried at. a general, meeting and so the ladies have scored the first “set.”

The ladies are showing much enthusiasm, in the game; and they hope that the men will be .sufficiently sporting to provide events for them at the next carnival. If this were done it would remove a grievance which.some visiting New Zealand ladies had this last season that they had no amusement provided for them. UNEMPLOYMENT. Like most other countries; Fiji has her list of unemployed. Every week more men and girls are being discharged , and the Government has arranged for a registry office to be opened, wiifere all “out-of-works” can register, "and employers are asked'to fill up their wants from this list. So far 137 persons have registered, and of these 25 are Europeans. While most' firms are reducing staffs it is refreshing to hear that one firm has been taking on men, and this may cause a more optimistic feeling to prevail. Experience shows that Fiji does not linger long in a depressed mood, and if only eoprn would rise a little in price a different public spirit would appear. GENERAL ITEMS. The three Ashton brothers, sons of the Hon. J. Ashton, are expected to pass through in the Aorangi. They have just finished their successful polo tour in Britain and the United States where their record of wins will prove hard to beat. In America they sold their polo ponies for 78,000 dollars. The store and premises of Michael and Co. at Sigatoka have been destroyed by fire. The property was insured and within 24 hours the representative of the local agents was on the spot, having flown from Suva in the mail ’plane. Mr Templeton Crocker, an American millionaire and owner of the fine auxiliary yatch Zaca, was so impressed with the work being done at the native medical school, lately formed in association with the War Memorial Hospital, that he presented the school with an instrument to test blood pressure. The lads were so grateful that they entertained Mr Crocker to a native yagona ceremony with the usual trimmings.