About Islands People

Mr. B. W. Sherman, formerly A.D.O. at Gasmata, who resigned from the New Guinea public service several months ago, arrived in Sydney in December from Lon don, where he spent several weeks.

Mr. Colin Mac Kay, chairman of direc tors of Watut Gold Alluvials N.L. and Irowat Gold Alluvials N.L., returned to Australia by the Macdhui at the end of November after a visit to the companies’ properties in New Guinea.

Mr. P. J. McDonald, a well-known iden tity of Papua and New Guinea, was mar ried recently to Miss Gertrude Gellweiler at the Residency, Misima Island, Eastern Papua. The bride was formerly matron at Port Moresby Hospital.

Sister Christine Woods, of the Mela nesian Mission’s Hospital on Malaita Island, Solomon Group, reached Sydney on leave by the Southern Cross on December 9.

Mr. Stanley W. Jackson, Fellow of the Institute of Optometrists, will leave Syd ney early in the New Year on a business visit to Papua and the Mandated Terri tory of New Guinea.

Captain R. A. Williams, master of the Melanesian Mission’s schooner Southern Cross, brought his vessel to Sydney early in December to be overhauled. Mr. Wil liams, who was accompanied by his wife and small son, was formerly in the service of Messrs. Burns, Philp and Co., Ltd.

Mr. Frank Hambridge, chairman of directors of Cuthbert’s Misima Gold Mine Ltd., returned to Sydney by the Macdhui on November 29, after a visit to Misima Island, Papua, to inspect the mine. His company had taken over the property on October 18, he said, and had begun treat ment of ore immediately. The battery worked three shifts daily until November 4, when floods caused work to be tem porarily suspended.

Mr. Paul Laine, of the French Colonial Administration, who is on his way to Vila, New Hebrides, where he will serve for three years in an administrative capacity, recently arrived in Victoria by the Ville de Strasbourg. He was accompanied by his wife, daughter and mother.

Rev. Dr. Charles E. Fox, who has served for 34 years with the Melanesian Mission, arrived in Sydney by the motor yacht Southern Cross on December 9. He is stationed at Pawa, Ugi, Solomon Islands, and is the only white member of the native mission order known as The Brothers. Dr. Fox holds the degree of Doctor of Literature from the New Zealand University.

Mrs. A. D. Lelean, of Ba, Fiji, arrived in Australia by the Monterey on Decem ber 2, preceding her husband, who will shortly return from Fiji after 18 years of service. Mr. Lelean will later take up circuit work in Victoria for the Methodist Church.

Mr. O. J. Atkinson, Assistant Resident Magistrate at Abau, Eastern Division, Papua, left Port Moresby on six months' leave by the Montoro in December. He is being relieved by Mr. A. C. Hall.

Rev. A. H. Scriven, of New Zealand, arrived in Sydney from Rabaul by the Macdhui on November 29, after officially inspecting the work of N.Z. Methodist missionaries in the Solomon Islands. He said that Rev. J. F. Goldie, who pioneered the establishment of the mission in the group, is still in charge at Roviana. In spite of his 34 years of strenuous ser vice, he was still in fine health, added Mr. Scriven.

Mrs. B. C. Meek, accompanied by her two children, reached Sydney by the December Monterey. Her husband is in charge of the Methodist Mission’s Agri cultural School at Navuso.

Mr. R. A. Woodward, of Papua, re turned by the Government ketch Vailala to Daru, in the Western Divi sion, where he is Resident Magistrate.

Mr. S. H. Chance, who was relieving at Daru, has now gone to Kikori, Delta Division, as Acting R.M.

Mr. F. Noack, who has been receiving theological instruction at Concordia Col lege, Adelaide, has been accepted as a worker for the Lutheran Church in New Guinea.

Mr. Ralph Farr has been accepted by the Australasian Union Conference of Seventh Day Adventists for medical missionary work in Papua. He will leave for the S.D.A. headquarters at Mirigeda in January and will later open a new station at Orokolo, in the Gulf Division.

Mr. Witt, a representative of the Aus tralian Gold Mining Corporation arrived in Noumea by the Ville de Strasbourg recently to search for gold in the central region of New Caledonia.

Mr. John T. Howse will leave Sydney by the January Malaita for Choiseul Island, Solomons Group, where he has been appointed to mission work for the Seventh Day Adventist Society.

Mr. D. M. Lazarus, of Ontong Java, Solo mon Islands, arrived in Sydney in Decem ber on three months’ furlough. He is the only white planter and trader in that sec tion of the group. The people there —an isolated community of Polynesian stock — are steadily, if not rapidly, decreasing in numbers, said Mr. Lazarus. They do not seem to have the physique to resist ordin ary sicknesses.

Count Henry Theodore von Moltke, who had been in ill-health for some years, died at Norfolk Island, on November 8, at the age of 65. A Dane by birth, he went to the Fiji Islands at the close of last century and became an overseer in the Colonial Sugar Refining Company at Rewa. He purchased the C.S.R. Co’s Lakena plantation, but later relinquished this estate to settle in New Zealand.

Failing health made it necessary for him to seek a warmer climate and about five years ago he took up residence on Norfolk Island, Mr. “Jock” Cromar has gone to live in Australia, says our Solomon Islands cor respondent; and his departure deprives us of one of our most interesting and oldest citizens. Most folk find it hard to believe that “Jock” has really left us, and all wish him every happiness among his old Queensland friends, who knew of the Solomons as “Jock” chiefly remem bered them —the Solomons of kanaka recruiting days.

Miss Nancy Wyborn, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Wyborn, of Rigo, Papua, was married to Mr. Ronald Vivian Old ham, of Steamships Trading Co. Ltd., Port Moresby, on November 18. After the ceremony at Mr. Wyborn’s home the couple left by launch for Port Moresby to join the Macdhui for Australia, where they will spend their honeymoon.

Mr. H. Robert Nesbitt, of Rabaul, New Guinea, was married to Miss Jean King, of Manly, at St. George’s Church, Rabaul, on November 5. They have now gone to Wau, where Mr. Nesbitt has taken charge of Rabaul Recreation Co.’s new picture theatre.

Dr. C. M. Dawson left Apia, Western Samoa, on a brief visit to New Zealand by the Hauraki bn November 24.

Nurse Vera Pearson, of the Methodist Mission, reached Sydney by the Montoro on November 7, after serving for three years at the Salamo Hospital. She has retired from the sisterhood, but will return to Papua as the wife of Rev.

H. Robinson, Methodist missionary at Salamo.

Mr. Charles E. Sparrow, A.M.1.N.A., Technical Instructor at the Methodist Mission Society’s Training Institute at Fergusson Island, Eastern Papua, arrived in Sydney by the Montoro on November 7. He married Miss Gladys Thomas in Sydney on December 4 and with his bride sailed for Salamo, Papua, by the Merkur the following day.