About Islands People

Mr. George Boyd left Apia by the Maui Pomare recently on transfer to New Zealand after two years’ service with the Samoan Administration.

Mr. Brian Lane, eldest son of the late Captain R. M. Lane, A.A.M.C., of Mel

bourne, and Mrs. Lane, of Manly, returned. to Sydney on August 12 by the Montoro, after spending three years at Wau, New Guinea.

Dr. Eroni Leauli, a Fijian native medi cal practitioner, arrived in Sydney by the Mariposa on August 12, en route to Tulagi to take up a position with the Solomon Islands Medical Department.

Dr. Loftus Hills, a Melbourne mining geologist who is connected with several of the big Fiji mining syndicates, arrived in Sydney from Suva by the Mariposa on August 12.

Rev. Dr. J. M. Bach, a former mis sionary of the Sacred Heart in the Gilbert Group, returned to Australia, after a visit to Catholic mission stations in Papua, by the Montoro on August 12.

Mr. James O. Smith, Jnr., son of Mr.

J. O. Smith, the well-known planter of Wunawutung, New Guinea, paid a brief visit to his father’s plantation by the Oronsay early in August. A brilliant student at Hawkesbury Agricultural Col lege, New South Wales, he is specialising in tropical agriculture with a view to seeking later a position with the New Guinea Department of Agriculture. His father is very well known in New Britain and has been in Melanesia for over 25 years. He was first a recruiter in the Solomon Islands and later went to New Guinea as overseer for Dindenhafen Estates. After being connected for a time with Vunamarita plantation, Mr. Smith acquired the property at Wunawutung and for many years has been a planter and trader in the delightful north coast district of New Britain.

Mr. J. Wadsworth, director of Apia Observatory, Western Samoa, departed from Pago Pago (American Samoa) by the Monterey for America at the end of July. He is en route to Poland to attend an international meteorological confer ence at Warsaw.

Mr. E. G. Banks, a mining engineer of Melbourne, returned to Australia in August after inspecting the Tavua and Raki Raki goldfields in Fiji.

Mr. D. J. McClelland, a director of Upper Watut Gold Alluvials Ltd., returned to Australia by the Montoro on August 12, after a visit to his company’s proper ties in New Guinea.

Suva remembers Miss Pamela Bourne as a tall, handsome young visitor in 1932, with her mother, Lady Bourne. The pair spent some time in Kadavu, and were en thralled with Fijian life. It is reported that Miss Bourne has published a book in England dealing in racy and original fashion with her stay in Fiji.

Mrs. John Johnston, a member of an old Islands family, died at her home in Apia, Western Samoa, on July 15, from heart disease. She was the eldest daugh ter of the late Captain Schmidt, of the D.H. and P. Co., and was born in Samoa in 1896.

Mr. Edward Skelton Garton, of Rabaul, New Guinea, died at Ravuvu on July 17, at the age of 69. He went to Rabaul in 1918 and was attached to the Treasury Department. Four years later he was appointed educational instructor and remained in that position for three years.

Of recent years he had conducted a seaside resort near Rabaul. Mr. Garton was a member of the Fellowship of Australian Writers and had contributed many poems to Australian journals.

Miss D. Glasson, of the Methodist Mission, returned to Papua by the Macdhui on July 26, after furlough in New South Wales. She is stationed at Salamo as the Chairman’s assistant and bookkeeper.

Mr. G. M. Rodger, who has been a member of the Malayta Co.’s staff for some years, has been engaged by Mr.

Gus Nelsson, of Port Moresby, to take charge of his interests at Woodlark Island. Mr. Rodger will leave Sydney for his new position by the Macdhui on September 5. He has just announced his engagement to Miss Joan Marie Doherty, youngest daugther of Mr. C. L. Doherty, of Ashfield.

Rev. D. L. Francis and Mrs. Francis, who were married recently at Malaita, Solomon Islands, returned to Australia by the Malaita on August 16. Mrs. Francis, who before her marriage was Miss E.

Piggot, of Auckland, met her husband at Malaita, where they were both doing work for the Melanesian Mission. After a short sojourn in Sydney, they will depart for the New Hebrides, where they will make their new home.

Captain G. H. McLaren, who has been many years in Fiji, Solomon Islands and New Guinea as skipper of S.D.A. Mission schooners and who recently retired owing to the continued ill-health of his wife, visited Rabaul in August by the Oronsay.

Possessing a wide knowledge of the territory and its natives, he was excellently fitted to give a very interesting illustrated travel lecture on “Bare Facts About New Guinea” to the 500 tourists aboard the Oronsay. He went to Fiji for the Seventh Day Adventist Mission soon after the war and was later in the Solomons, before being transferred to New Guinea. Since 1929, he was superintendent of S.D.A. work in the Mandated Territory, with headquarters at Matupi, near Rabaul.

Captain McLaren, who is now living permanently in Melbourne, will leave again shortly for New Guinea in connection with a business venture and will be absent for some two months.

Mr. W. Breckwoldt and Mr. W. Schmeding, representing the Hamburg firm of general merchants, Messrs. Wilhelm Breckwoldt and Co., who have opened offices in Suva and Rabaul, recently arrived in Apia, Western Samoa, by the Tisnaren. After transacting business in Samoa they left by the Makoa for Suva, where Mr. Schmeding is the branch manager.

Mr. Albert J. Batchelor, formerly a missionary in Papua, has succeeded Rev. W.

H. McFarlane as travelling secretary in Victoria for the Australian Board of Missions. Mr. McFarlane, who was a popular and respected missionary in Torres Strait for 17 years, has taken up duties as vicar of Scotsdale Church of England, Tasmania.

Rev. Father Haller, Marist Missionary in Western Samoa, returned to Apia by the Makoa in July after a lengthy vacation in Australia. He is stationed at Leauvaa, on Upolu Island.

Miss Olga Koch, of Lautoka, Fiji, was married to Mr. Louis Flemming Leake, of Sydney, on August 14.

Mr. A. J. Smeaton has been elected a director of Sandy Creek Gold Sluicing Ltd., in place of Mr. S. H. Carroll, who has retired from the board.