CENTENNIAL FESTIVITIES

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29843, 8 June 1962, Page 11

CENTENNIAL FESTIVITIES

Queen Salote On Tour l N.Z.P.A .-Reuter—Copyright) NUKU’ALOFA, Tonga, June 7. Traditional songs and dances farewelled Queen Salote as she left today to attend centennial celebrations in the outstretched islands of the Tonga group. Celebrations began in Tonga early this week with singing, dancing and parades along streets decorated with great arches of bamboo and native flowers. They mark 10J years of constitutional rule, declared in 1862 by the Tonga group’s first King, George Tupou I. Under his emancipation declaration, all Tongans were declared free men. This morning, Queen Salote left aboard the vessel Aoniu for the Haapai and Vavau groups, about 100 miles and 175 miles respectively, north of Nuku’Alofa. Cook Cannot Taste Salt (N.Z J 3. A.-Reuter—Copyright) DARWIN, June 7. An R.A.A.F. cook, L.A.C. George Parkins, aged 26, who lost his sense of taste for salt after an accident, was awarded £l5OO damages in the Northern Territory Supreme Court today. Parkins told Mr Justice Bridge that since the accident he could not taste salt, and that airmen at the mess where he worked complained that the food he cooked was too salty. This reached such a stage that an offsider had to be employed to put salt in the food and taste it. Because of this he would be forced to leave the R.A.A.F. and give up his trade as a cook.