RADIO IN THE PACIFIC

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22376, 13 April 1938, Page 22 (Supplement)

RADIO IN THE PACIFIC

NEW ZEALAND’S DAILY

CONTACTS

MANY ISLAND GROUPS

The opening of a radio telegraph office at Pukapuka, in the northern group of the Cook Islands, adds another to the surprisingly large number of radio stations in the south-western Pacific which are in daily touch with New Zealand. This immense area of ocean dotted with island groups has required - t a special organisation both lor effective inter-communication and for contact with the larger centres of population, and in this the New Zealand Post Office has done much pioneer work.

Pacific Islands' radio is grouped around five centres. In the Cook Group four low-powered stations on islands to the north, including Penrhyn. 650 miles from Rarotonga, maintain touch with the central station at Rarotonga, and four stations to the south carry out the same duty. One of these subsidiaries, Niue, is in direct contact with New Zealand in the same way as the central station which maintains a daily schedule with ZLW (Wellington).

Communication With Papeete

Two days’ steam north-east of Rarotonga is the Society Group, a French possession having a central radio station at Papeete and five outlying sta-

tions. Papeete maintains communication daily with ZLW Wellington and its French outlet, Saigon, far away to the west. ... The Tongan radio system has its centre in the capital of the Friendly Islands, Nukualofa, which maintains touch with four subsidiaries in various parts of the group and carries out daily schedules with 2ILW, Wellington, and with Suva. ~ ~ . . There is a considerable amount oi radio organisation in the New Zealand administered territory of Western Samoa. Its central station, Apia, which is in touch with New Zealand on frequent daily schedules, also links up with seven subsidiaries in the group extending northwards into the Union Islands. A further recent development has been the provision of ultra-short radio for communication between ships anchored m the roadstead and the Apia Post Office. The superintendent of the Apia station has a staff including a senior telegraphist and five radio operators. Apart from the superintendent and the senior operator the staff has been trained at Apia. The Fiji Islands radio system comprises six subsidiary stations throughout the group, centring on the mam station at Suva, the latter maintaining contact with Australia and Samoa by radio and with New Zealand by cable.

Dominion's Radio Centre

Wellington Radio (ZLW) is the main coast station in New Zealand. Radio operators trained in the New Zealand service are to be found well distributed throughout the western Pacific, and the New Zealand Post Office places its advice and assistance at the disposal of the Cook Wands and Samoan Administrations. Many of the small subsidiary stations .are now manned by natives who, after six to nine months’ training at Apia, acquire sufficient knowledge of radio equipment to remedy the principal faults likely to occur. There is on record a case of one native radio operator in the Samoan Group who arrived at Apia in his boat bringing his radio station under one arm ‘to be fixed up. Very little power is needed to operate a smail radio transmitter. At SieC&atham Islands a wind-driven generator easily maintains the neces sary supply of current. The Cook Islands Administration relies . u P ol JTf g y* jar supplies of dry batteries, but in its most recent addition to the ishrnd radio service, Pukapuka. in the northern portion-of the Cook Group, a winddriven generator is utilised. News Service Every Night A news service is broadcast every night from ZLW on short-wave, an automatic transmitter being Ho oper* atlng at 20 words a minute. Although the Tow-power subsidiary stations may not pick up this bulletin, their parent station keeps a record and on certain days transmits them a BUml 2?fy world’s news. All these radUo system? linking up isolated island groupsaxe rendering invaluable service ■ doctors cannot reach a patient, the radio sends out a th| symptoms are described and fronn the central station comes medical instructions regarding treatment When the natives arei growing fruit for .export, the radio has proved dt great value by giving exact information shipping movements so that the fruit mav be picked at the right moment. Administration also gains in uj? bv ease of radio communication between headquarters and distant points in the groups.