NOUMÉA, New Caledonia (May 2, 2001 - Oceania Flash/SPC)---New Caledonia is getting used to a new research technique: opinion polls.
The results of the first poll, pertaining to New Caledonians’ "confidence in the future" and their "main sources of concern," were published this week.
Forty-three percent of the French territory's population said they are worried about employment, whereas only 12 percent mentioned "relations between the communities" of New Caledonia (mainly Europeans, indigenous Kanak, Vietnamese and Wallis and Futuna islanders) as a concern.
Fifty percent of the sample said they don’t trust politics and politicians.
The poll was conducted by the daily newspaper Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes, in association with the Louis Harris poll organization, which is well-established in France.
The opinion poll research will be carried out three times a year, the daily announced, with the main objective being to provide a measurement of the...