1st April

We finally had a meeting with Forestry yesterday, Les from the Council Works Dept, and Keithie. It’s no wonder Keithie fights so hard to keep the Gardens, Forestry would have them cut, or just let run down till they were just bush again. A lot of promises, but no action, They are still talking about fencing all the boundary of the Gardens, the cost would be measured in millions of SBD, all 1.8m chainlink mesh and barbed wire.

Forestry wants us out of the Gardens, and the office we use. Ok, it is their building, but as Keithie pointed out when she started pulling reams of paper out of her files, we have a Memorandum of Understanding that SEB use the office and buildings, and will be accommodated in any future plans for the Gardens. As I found out after, Forestry never keep any paper, they always ask for copies of anything, even letters they have sent out. It’s either just slack filing, or no-one wants their name on anything.

Robert the Forestry employee who cut the tree down, is wantok to the Head of Forestry, so there won’t be much done about him.

Les has promised us the back hoe and bob-cat for next week, so we can dig out the swimming hole and rebuild the dam again, and finally finish with it. We spent yesterday afternoon playing in the river, building a diversion dam so we could make sure the bottom layer of tyres was properly bedded into the ground before the next major flood comes along.

I finally got to the “oh for Gods sake” stage yesterday about the lunch issue, and the time spent getting firewood and then lighting it, then cooking rice for lunch. Asked David to get in the truck, went into Honiara and bought a kerosene stove (SBD$138) and 2 litres of kerosene, took it back to the gardens and told the lunch cooking people to use it and forget about spending ¾ of an hour with the fire. It’s being used continuously now, and less time spent waiting for lunch. I probably won’t get reimbursed, well, Tiffany wanted to pay it back, but Keithie wouldn’t be happy with it, so I’ll just call it a donation to stop Adrians blood pressure from going off about the lunch issue.

Adrian and I drove around the boundaries of the gardens today, there are houses being built inside the boundary, on one site, huge house and grounds, they have pulled the Botanic Garden Boundary sign out, and just have it hanging on their fence, from the sight lines, they have about 1 acre inside the boundary. I could write that money has changed hands, but I’m not going to. And I’m sure the honest Chinese businessmen in Honiara wouldn’t stoop to bribing people.

When you get out onto the back ridges that the Gardens back up into, there is a huge area, from the top of the ridge it looks like a true forest. Tall trees, a lot of flowers in the canopy, and bird life all over the area. The Gardens fill a valley between the ridges, from one side to the other, and back about 2 or 3 kms from the office.

Discussed with Adrian, Tiffany and David about taking to the Govt about declaring a National Heritage Area, they are starting to realise it is the only way to save the Gardens. Next will be Keithie to convince.

I’m taking Adrian up to the Kastom Village tomorrow. He’s never been up to it yet, heard all about it, and has formed his own opinions, but I’ll get him there so he has a better understanding. We have to go over the agreement with them there, and get it finalised and in place finally.

I’m not sure when I will get this posted, if you’re reading it, then Telekom Internet has worked for once this week. We’re still waiting for them to come out and fix the connection in the office. Our phone line has been out , well, it works sporadically, like the internet connection, since last Thursday a week ago. I feel like doing like Adrian does, and walk in and start shouting as soon as I’m in the door. I get the impression everyone in town knows him. Or about him.