New Hebrideans to put cause

Press, 19 October 1976, Page 6

New Hebrideans to put cause

Parliamentary reporter Leaders of the selfgovernment movement in the New Hebrides are coming to explain their cause to New Zealanders. A National Party member of the New Hebridean Representative Assembly. Mr Donald Kalpokas. and the editor of “New Hebridean Viewpoints” — the National Party journal — Ms Hilda Lini, will be in Wellington and Auckland from October 21 to 30. Ms Lini’s brother, Walter Lini, leader of the New

Hebridean National Parly, has just presented the United Nations with the New Hebridean demand for independence from the French and British by 1977. Mr Lini told the United Nations Committee of 24 on Decolonisation that the economy of the South Pacific French-British condominium of the New Hebrides “is very much in the hands of the whites.”

; He said: “The National Party’s policy demands a fair distribution of income, especially to the indigenous sector.” Land is the central cause of the New Hebrides problems, the National Party says. Mr Lini advocates negotiations to return ownership of land from foreigners to New Hebrideans.

Mr Lini alleged at the United Nations that failure by the British-French administration to convene the Representative Assembly was a “deliberate political tactic to delay indepedence in the New Hebrides.” Mr Lini called on the I United Nations to send a visiting mission to the condominium, and to support a referendum amongst New Hebrideans on independence. The visit of Ms Lini and Mr Kalpokas is being arranged by the South Pacific Action Network and other voluntary