PACIFIC APPROACHES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 939, 9 August 1957, Page 31

PACIFIC APPROACHES

"T2VERY four weeks the Tofua pulls away from the wharves at Auckland on a voyage to the South Pacific and the islands of Fiji, Tonga, Niue and Samoa. At dawn six days later, a flat smudge of coconut palms begins to grow out of the sea, and then the imposing row of Norfolk pines which flank the sea shore of Tonga’s capital. Through the leaves and branches gleam the white walls of the Queen’s Palace and Royal Chapel... ." That is the way Kenneth R. Bain begins. Pacific Approaches, the series of talks on the Pacific Islands now going the rounds of YA stations (1YA, Sundays, 3YA, Tuesdays), and that’s the way you would begin the grand tour of the islands if you were lucky enough to be making it. At Nuku'alofa you'd find the "steamer day" buzz as mails, meat, butter and beer were welcomed; and perhaps after a few hours you, too, would go back to the ship, as Mr Bain says most travellers do, with fleeting impressions that would soon harden into inflexible conclusions. Pacific Approaches is not concerned with fleeting impressions, hardened or otherwise. With the accent on the people, their life and their outlook, it tries to give a fuller picture of the islands through New Zealand eyes.

od A former Secretary of the Tongan Government and a broadcaster for the BBC, Mr Bain gives three talks on Tonga, including one on Tin Can Island. In the second part of the series the speaker will be Professor K. B. Cumberland, Professor of Geography at Auckland University College, who will discuss Fiji’s importance as a. Pacific crossroads and her population problems. As the island hub of the South-West Pacific, says Professor Cumberland, Fiji has striking similarities with Hawaii. Along with Australia, New Zealand has a great and growing influence in Fijian affairs and contributes increasingly to the European population of Fijiespecially the temporarily-resident part of it. Professor Cumberlarid points out that Fiji shares with most island. te?ritories the problems that arise from the impact of European civilisation. Bu‘ there are also problems more peculiar to Fiji caused by the accompanying influx of Asian peoplés and culture. The growth of the Indian population has been especially rapid; and with the total population expected to pass half a million in 10 years the question arises how long the resources of the islands can support the galloping increase. From this point Professor Cumberland goes on to examine these resources,