The top article in the 30 April 1976 Caymanian Compass was on the rescue of three Caymanians.
The three men, Huxley Goring, 65, his son Carlton Goring, 33, and Willis McLaughlin, 40, had been missing at sea since Wednesday the previous week. They were rescued by a 21-year-old Guatemalan, Barry Lopez, “whose vigilance and persistence results in saving their lives,” the article stated.
The men were greeted with hugs, kisses and prayers by their families at Owen Roberts Airport when they landed, after having flown from Costa Rica.
Telling their story of having run out of gas on 21 April and drifting without food and very little water, the trio said they never lost faith, had felt confident that they would be picked up, and “were more worried about the anxiety of their families than about their own safety.”
Another photo on the home page showed 28 pounds of ganja discovered in seven automobile mufflers that were being shipped from Jamaica.
Another article questioned if scriptures approve the use of ganja, as “accused persons are now claiming that ganja is good for religious purposes and is approved by the scriptures”.
An American clergyman, Reverend Gerald Floyd Miller, was arrested in Grand Cayman on ganja charges. He was then fined $100 and sentenced to one day in prison.
Meanwhile, another minister of religion was in a Jamaica Magistrate’s Court quoting scripture, specifically Psalm 104, verse 4, to say that the drug was approved by “the Almighty”.
The editorial on page 4 discussed ‘government vigilance’ and complimented the government for withholding permission for a Jamaica Defence Force aircraft to land at Owen Roberts Airport. The plane was carrying two CID officers who were coming to Cayman to arrest individuals for alleged offences committed in Kingston. Mention of this appeared in the widely read Thomas Wright’s column in the Daily Gleaner the previous Saturday.
The editorial stated that the episode highlighted that events here are watched by the outside world – but also that Cayman needs to maintain its reputation as a financial centre and the essentiality for our bank secrecy laws to remain ever inviolate.
“The government must maintain its efforts of alertness and continued vigilance in these matters. For at all costs, the reputation of the Cayman Islands as a financial centre and a society with moral rectitude must be enhanced,” the editorial noted.
An advert appeared on page 3 for the Everglo Drive-In. The James Bond film ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’ was playing along with other films. Admission was $1.50 for adults and 50 cents for children.
The Cayman Compass searchable archives, going back to 1965, are now available at here.
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