Monday, July 22, 1957
Flying saucers seen in Australian sky
Sydney, Sun - On two successive nights, strange illuminated objects have been reported as seen in the skies over Sydney and suburbs and over the Blue Mountains.
The unidentified objects resembled saucers. Radio stations received many calls from people saying they had seen the objects. The police officer at Katoomba said he saw a lighted object in the sky at about 9pm local time, but not clearly enough to identify it. A married couple and their teenage children reported seeing an object flying over their Katoomba home. It was hundreds of times brighter than an ordinary star, but its size and shape were difficult to estimate. It had a vapour trail like a jet plane and seemed to be flashing red, green and white lights. A vigilance body has been formed to watch for it, tonight. Reuter.
Monday July 23, 1973
N-Bomb blast
Wellington - France exploded a small nuclear device in the atmosphere over Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific yesterday. The explosion, believed to be a little over five kilotons in strength, occurred at 6am, Fiji time. The explosion was the first in this year's French test series, aimed at perfecting a trigger for a hydrogen bomb. The device exploded from a balloon hoisted into the sky above the French Polynesian atoll. Crewmen aboard the New Zealand protest frigate HMNZS Otago saw the explosion as their ship cruised 22 miles from Mururoa Atoll. The men heard no blast and felt no movement. A New Zealand Press Association correspondent reporting from Otago, David Barber, said the men doubted for a moment whether the device had detonated.
Otago's captain, Commander Alan Tyrrell, said he saw the flash out of the corner of his eye, but could not see a fireball at first. However, within a minute, a red-orange fireball rose above a layer of cloud.
PM joins in dinner for his old school
A happy trio at a dinner party at the United Club in Suva to launch an appeal by the $170,000 Lambert Hall for Marist Brothers' High School in Bau
Street. The diners are the Prime Minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, who is a former student of the school, Brother Lambert, who taught him, and the Archbishop of Suva, the most Rev. George Pearce.
Industrial land sold for $302,000
Burns Philp (South Sea) Co Ltd paid $302,000 for an industrial site on Kings Road at Nabua, near Suva. The company bought the land, about 7 1/2 acres, from a Suva businessman, Mr Eric Schultz. The general manager of Burns Philp, Mr Philip Best, said he could not yet disclose the company's full plans for the land. But he said Burns Philp would use it to consolidate the company's motor division. The land is freehold.
Children carry torch
Children from Ratu Navula Junior Secondary School carried a torch through Nadi in a traditional opening of the 13th Bula Festival on Saturday. The Governor-General, Ratu Sir George Cakobau received the torch at Prince Charles Park and lit a lamp before giving an address to complete the opening ceremony. Hundreds of people converged on the park after a march of youth led by the Lautoka-based Second Battalion Royal Fiji Military Forces band.
Deputy loses position with council
The Government has removed the Deputy Mayor of Nadi, Cr Colin Weaver from his post on the town council. The Minister for Urban Development, Mr Mohammed Ramzan, took the action under the Local Government Act. It ends a seven-month political struggle to retain Cr Weaver in the post. The Government's reason for revoking Mr Weaver's nomination to the council was his change in residence from Nadi to Vuda.
Acting Secretary appointed
A former secretary in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, Mr Filipe Bole is now acting Secretary for Urban Development, Housing and Social Welfare. He replaces Mr Ray Baker, who is overseas on pre-retirement leave.
Crush yields 73,000 tons
Fiji's four sugar mills had produced more than 73,000 tons of raw sugar so far this season, a Fiji Sugar Corporation spokesman said yesterday. Individual mill tonnages, in round figures were Rarawai 183,600; Labasa 133,300, Lautoka 295,800 and Penang , 56,100.
For Taveuni work
This bargeload of heavy earth-moving equipment is destined for Soqulu, Taveuni where development work will begin soon on the ambitious soqulu Plantation project. The equipment will be used in subdividing the land which was once a copra plantation of about 3000 acres. The project is under the supervision of Mr John McIntire, chairman of McIntire and Quiros Inc, an American planning civil engineering firm.
Soqulu is to be an exclusive resort and recreational development plans include a town centre, which will have a commercial centre, administration blocks, light industrial sights, townhouses and apartment sites, plus four hotels and recreational facilities such as an 18-hole golf course. The developer is seeking to sell lots of not less than one acre set among forest and coconut trees. The project is due to be finished between 1977 and 1980.
Two health centres are opened
The Minister for Health, Mr James Shankar Singh, has opened a new health centre and nursing station in Vanua Levu. The Health Centre at Saqani on Natewa Bay is the 46th in Fiji. The centre cost $22,000 of which half came from a British Government grant. The Fiji Government paid the other half. The centre will serve a population of about 3600 people in an area which has five schools. Opening the centre, the minister said the Government was very conscious of its duty to increase health services in rural areas. This year, the Government was spending about $6 1/4 million on health services so Fiji could be a healthy and not a sickly nation.