Fiji Dictionary

Valuable Manuscript in Cold Storage.

WHEN the Rev. William Aitken Heigh way died some five years ago, after more than 20 years’ service as a mission ary in Fiji, he had carried out his life's ambition and had compiled a complete dictionary of the Fijian language.

It was an enormous work, painstak ingly carried out; and Mr. Heighway was so clearly recognised as an authority on the subject of Fijian language, and the value of his work so clearly seen, that the Fijian Government offered to assist financially in the cost of collecting the data and publishing the dictionary. Mr.

Heighway unfortunately died before ar rangements could be made for the pub lication of the book.

Subsequently his widow—now a resi dent of Mosman, Sydney—gathered up the manuscript and all the documents re lating thereto and handed them over to the Methodist authorities in Suva, in the belief that the work of publication would be undertaken without delay. Some years have now elapsed and nothing has been done.

Some of the people most interested are wondering what has happened to this valuable manuscript. It appears as if someone has gone to sleep on the job. It would be a thousand pities if such a valuable work were forgotten.

Mr. Henry Dexter, the well-known Milne Bay (Papua) storekeeper, has just been discharged from Samarai Hospital, with orders to “get out of the tropics within six months.” His business —one of the best “one man shows” in the Islands, is advertised for immediate sale.