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THE EMERGENCE OF TRADE UNIONISM IN THE NEW HEBRIDES (Vanuatu)
Kevin Hince
Victoria University of Wellington
IN MAY 1993 the Vanuatu Teachers Union (VTU) made a call for strike action in support of a pay claim. The membership responded but the strike collapsed after twelve days when the union
settled for reinstatement of the striking teachers and a ‘promise’ of an in determinate pay rise during the next year (1994). Throughout the strike government had taken the position that teachers were covered by the
Teaching Service Act and there was no provision for recognising the existence of ‘disputes’ and commence procedures for resolution, the government position was that teachers were simply refusing a directive to
return to work. Teachers were suspended as the strike was declared unlawful. Pcketing of the Ministry of Education and then Parliament took place. After the President had spent three days in gaol, and a court
hearing, the picketing was declared legal, and therefore by implication the issue of a strike and a ‘trade dispute’ was accepted by the court, if not the employer.
Urbanisation in Fiji, 1976-1986
A preliminary analysis
Rajesh Chandra
Department of Geography
The University of the South Pacific
Urbanisation is a fundamental process of change in the third world. According to the latest United Nations global review of urbanisation, 34.3 per cent of the population of
developing countries lived in urban areas in 1990, sharply up from 17 per cent two decades earlier (United Nations 1993:74). Furthermore, developing countries
contained 61 per cent of all urban dwellers of the world, and the majority of the Third World population is expected to be urban by 2015 (United Nations:74-75). The
increasing levels and the rate of urbanisation, which have posed major developments challenges for developing countries, have been the target of public policies.
Who passes the solvency test?
The Papua New Guinea Companies Act 1996
Michael White
Department of Accounting and Financial Management
The University of the South Pacific
The New Papua New Guinea Companies Act, based closely on the New Zealand Companies Act of 1993, contains significant changes to the recquirements of the
1996 Act that if supersedes. Many of these changes dispose of anachronistic requirements and are to be welcomed with acclaim. Nevertheless, certain proposed
changes are highly controversial. One such change, relating to the requirements governing corporate financial distributions, will replace the existing capital maintenance
rule with a solvency test. The 1996 requirement certainly merits review.In certain circumstances it can lead to, and even encourage, financial irresponsibility.
Unfortunately the solvency test as stated in New Zealand’s legislation, on which PNG’s new act is based, may well lead to distribution decisions being challlenged in
the court of law owing to its dependence on the elusive concept of value. Also, weaknesses inherent in the capital maintenance rule are not necessarily eliminated in their entirety under the solvency test.
Survival responses to demographic and ecological pressures
Population density and fishing patterns in Kiribati
Jagjit Singh
The purpose of this study was twofold: first, to explore the broad socioeconomic patterns and second, to examine the significance of fishing activities in small atolls such
as those of the Pacific Island state of Kiribati have pointed to its high population densities, limited land-based resources and reliance on marine resources for cash and subsistence.
This research focus on the relationship between island population densities, fishing for cash and fishing for subsistence. It used multivariate and non-parametric statistical
techniques to test out a hypothesised positive correlation between high population densities and ahigh degree of fishing for cash andd subsistence.
Variables used for each atoll included: population density; fishing area; fishing equipment; types of fishing; agricultural activities; work opportunities; and remittances from elsewhere.
Analysis revealed a significant association between population densities and intensity of fishing activity. It further revealed that population density, commercial fishing,
lagoon fishing, fishing equipment, remittances and ownership of breadfruit trees and babai pits had high loadings on factor 1 ( which itself explained 32 per cent of the total
variation. Low population density and relatively few resources necessitated a greater reliance on copra and subsistence fishing.
Energy efficiency and energy intensity
Fiji 1981-1990
Caroline Currie
The University of the South Pacific
In many developing countries commercial energy consumption has increased relative to GDP growth and development has required major increases in energy use per
countries-particularly those who are heavily dependent on imported petroleum products. For most countries, there is a growing awareness of the need to reduce per
capita energy consumption. This paper examines the particular case of energy consumption of energy in Fiji. It measures the relationship between the consumption
of energy and GDP growth in Fiji for the period 1981-1990.
Relative factor abundance and Australia’s trade in a three-factor framework
Srikanta Chatterjee
Department of Economics Massey University, Paimerston North
IT IS GENERALLY RECOGNISED THAT Australia is relatively richly endowed with certain types of renewable and non-renewable natural resources. Even a certain
types of renewable and non-renewable natural resources. Even a cursory glance at Australia’s merchandise export and import trade would reveal the importance of farm
and fishery products and minerals on the export side, and manufactured products onthe import side. However, direct exports and imports of acountry do not tell the
whole story. Natural resources are also processed into semi-manufactured productured and traded as such. It is nessary, therefore, to take into account both the
immediate and final use of natural resources to capture more accurately the natural resource content of acountry’s export and import vectors. That is one of the major objectives of this study.
Environmental management and the Fiji tourism industry
Sean Weaver
University of Canterbury and Brian King
Victoria University of Technology, Melbourne
The process of reshaping a nation’s economy towards ecological sustainability will, in many cases, require substaintial changes in the way natural resources are valued
nationally. However, such changes are unlikely to come about overnight, and interim measures will need to be implemented to delay the total loss of many valuable
ecosystems: in this context there are already many opportunities within the existing economic planning framework to allow such interim protection of valuable resources.
Reversing tropical deforestation in countries that are subordinated in the gllobal economy, including most Pacific Island nations, will require the immediate
implementation of expedient strategies do not challenge the current economic context of resource valuation, but do provide an immediate means of protecting diminishing forests ecosystem.
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