News Notes 
The Ninth Session of the South Pacific 
Commission was held from April 28 to May 
7 at Commission headquarters in Noumea, 
New Caledonia. Delegates attended from the 
member governments of Australia, France, 
the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United 
Kingdom, and the United States of America. 
The session was under the chairmanship of 
the Senior Commissioner for the Netherlands, 
N. A. J. de Voogd. 
At the Ninth Session it was agreed unani- 
mously to extend the activities of the Com- 
mission to embrace Guam and the Trust 
Territory of the Pacific Islands under United 
States administration. This action follows the 
signing of an agreement by member govern- 
ments at Noumea on November 7, 1951, 
including both territories within the scope of 
the South Pacific Commission. 
Commission projects which the adminis- 
trations of both territories have indicated are 
of special interest in relation to their own 
problems and activities include, in the field 
of public health, those dealing with filariasis 
and elephantiasis, tuberculosis, and child nu- 
trition; in the economic field, the develop- 
ment of cash crops, the control of pests, 
diseases and weeds, the introduction and 
distribution of economic plants, the develop- 
ment of fisheries, and the improvement of 
tropical pasture and stock; and, in the field 
of social development, the vocational training 
of island peoples, the use of visual aids in 
child and adult education, mass literacy, and 
community development. 
During the Ninth Session the Commission 
reviewed arrangements for the holding of the 
Second South Pacific Conference at its head- 
quarters in April of next year. 
Over seventy delegates are expected to at- 
tend next year’s Conference from 18 territo- 
ries, as well as from the Kingdom of Tonga, 
to discuss problems relating to the welfare 
and progress of their peoples. It is anticipated 
that observers from certain missionary bodies 
and scientific organizations active in the 
South Pacific will be present. 
A National Science Foundation grant of 
$19,000 has been received by D. Elmo Hardy, 
Department of Zoology and Entomology, 
University of Hawaii, and entomologist with 
the Hawaii Agricultural Experiment Station. 
The grant will cover three years’ work on the 
first complete classification of the Diptera of 
Hawaii. The resulting volumes will be incor- 
porated in Elwood C. Zimmerman’s series on 
Insects of Hawaii, published by the University 
of Hawaii Press in co-operation with the 
Hawaii Sugar Planters’ Association. Dr. 
Hardy will spend his third year of work in 
Berlin, Paris, and London, as all early speci- 
mens of Diptera from Hawaii were taken to 
Europe. A. With, scientific artist at the Brit- 
ish Museum, will do the illustrations. 
Local scientists enjoyed the privilege of 
conferring with scientist members of the Dan- 
ish Deep-sea Expedition aboard the frigate 
"Galathea,” which stopped in Honolulu 
March 25-28. The leader of the expedition. 
Dr. Anton F. Bruun, addressed an open meet- 
ing of the Society of Sigma Xi on some 
aspects of deep-sea research. 
Book Notice 
Kraemer, J. Hugo. Trees of the Western Pa- 
cific Region. 436 pp., illus. Published by 
author. West Lafayette, Indiana. Distr. by 
Tri-State Offset Co., 817 Main St., Cincin- 
nati 2, Ohio. $5.50. 
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