NOUMEA (Oceania Flash) — New Caledonia’s domestic airport’s customs officers seized 110 grams of cannabis concealed in yams which belonged to a farmer, the daily newspaper Les Nouvelles Caledoniennes reports.
The farmer, who was not on the Air Calédonie scheduled flight from Maré Island had air-freighted a number of yams in a box.
NUKU’ALOFA (Pacnews) — Visitor arrivals into Tonga in the first quarter of 2002 increased by 16.15 percent on the previous year.
A total of 6,941 visitors arrived in Tonga in the first three months of this year. The highest number of visitors arrived from New Zealand, 2,449; followed by the U.S., 1,285; and Australia, 1,123.
PAPE’ETE (Oceania Flash) — Close to a dozen varieties of plants from the sandalwood family and believed to be so far unknown to science, have been discovered last week on the island of Rapa, 1,200 kilometers southeast of the main island of Tahiti.
According to Tahitipresse, four U.S. scientists, who were on an expedition funded by the magazine National Geographic, made the discovery.
SUVA (Pacnews) — The Fiji government will hold a series of meetings on the island of Rotuma in order to create awareness on proposed changes to laws governing land in this Polynesian community northwest of the Fiji group.
Rotumans are demanding gender equality on land ownership, as well as the demarcation of their land. The Rotuma Lands Commission has been set up to identify the real owners of land on the island.
The process will also allow all Rotumans on the island and those living in Fiji to be registered.
