By Laura Jeffery

THE relief effort in Niuatoputapu stepped up a gear yesterday with the arrival of the New Zealand navy's multi-purpose vessel, HMNZS Canterbury. The helicoptering in of supplies began straight away and continued on Wednesday, though there has been some delay in the bringing ashore of vehicles and heavy clearing equipment due to heavy seas and the difficulty of loading onto the landing craft.

Meanwhile, the clean up by the locals in Niuatoputapu continues, greatly assisted by the efforts of the army who have been doing a great job in dismantling and clearing larger sections of debris, such as rooftops.

Although it will be a long time before life returns to 'normal' as such here, some semblance of normality is emerging at last from the aftermath of the tsunami. Government offices are all up and running again in temporary quarters, and the Tongan Development Bank's branch here has also reopened in temporary quarters at the High School. Mafi Hoa, the bank's manager, even recovered the bank's safe the day after the tsunami from the sea; its contents, largely cash, intact, if rather wet.

Exams

Laveni Fonua, the High School Principal, was yesterday supervising the secondary entrance examinations for the final year primary school pupils.

Like the bank and the government offices, the relief team have based themselves at the High School, which was completed just this year, and is located on high ground away from the sea, so escaped the devastation caused by the tsunami elsewhere on the island.

Telecommunications are being restored to the island with the installation of a U-Call cellular system by the TCC. The landline equipment was too badly damaged by the tsunami to be repairable or replaced in the short term.