About Islands People

Mr. Newman Pusey has been appointed by Amalgamated Wireless (A’siaj Ltd., as acting offlcer-in-charge of Thursday Island radio station, in place of Mr. A.

C. Baker, who recently died in Towns ville, Queensland.

Mr. V. Edgar, of the District Services Department of the N.G. Administration, recently married Miss Jessica Kirkland, of the Salamaua Hotel. They will make their home at Sandy Creek.

Rev. and Mrs. J. R. Andrews, of the Methodist Missionary Society in Papua, are at present spending furlough in South Australia. Since 1933 they have been liv

ing on the small island of Dobu (about 70 miles from Samarai) where Mrs.

Andrews is the only white woman.

Mrs. Alice Geake, aged 79, and late of Bay of Islands, N.Z., died in Rarotonga on February 15. She was for many years connected with the Sydney Technical In stitute as a teacher and lecturer, and she went to live in Rarotonga in October. It is understood that several local bequests are included in her will, one beneficiary being the Rarotonga Child Welfare Asso ciation.

Mr. Basil G. Challis, of the Department of Agriculture, Rabaul, New Guinea, ar rived in Sydney with his wife by the Macdhui on March 5. Mrs. Challis told how housekeeping in New Guinea can be both interesting and amusing. When she was entertaining at dinner one night, her native brought in tea served in coffee cups because the coffee had “run out.”

Her friends had even worse treatment, for their boy served soup in champagne glasses. It was no good saying the boys might have a garment when it was torn, said Mrs. Challis, because they would promptly put tears in other garments.

Mr. E. J. Riches, a New Zealand officer in the International Labour Office of the League of Nations at Geneva, will shortly arrive in Western Samoa. He has been sent to gather data and statistics regarding the conditions of the plantation (coolie) labour.

Mr. W. T. Hull arrived at Thursday Island recently on transfer from Perth, Western Australia, to be manager of the T.I. branch of the National Bank of Aus tralasia. Mr. A. W. Loutit, who has been bank manager for three years, left Thurs day Island on a tour of the Orient before returning South for further duty.

David Mone, a Tongan teacher, arrived in Sydney by the Aorangi on February 21 to deliver addresses and preach in various Australian centres on behalf of the Methodist Missionary Society. He is at present in South Australia.

Mr. and Mrs. S. West Newman returned to Thursday Island in February after visiting England. Mr. Newman is mana ger of the Port Kennedy Engineering Works.

Dr. C. N. Dawson, who was formerly Chief Medical Officer of Tonga and who now is in private practice in Western Samoa, sailed from Auckland, N.Z., where he spent two months’ vacation, by the February Monterey. At Suva, Fiji, he transferred to a cargo steamer for Apia.

Mr. and Mrs. Charles C. Curtis, the owners of Mahina plantation and ardent supporters of every form of sport, left Tahiti for Europe by the Stella Polaris on February 16. They expect to be ab sent for nearly a year.

Mr. William Dee, of the Department of Public Health in New Guinea, married Miss Annie Gladys Tyler, of Melbourne, at St George’s Church, Rabaul, on February 12. Rev. R. de Voii; of the Melanesian Mission, performed the ceremony.

Mr. Grainger Smith has been appointed as head teacher on Murray Island in Torres Strait. He has already taken up duties on the island, which is about 120 miles from Thursday Island and very close to the Great Barrier Reef.

Mr. Vincent Young, of Pitcairn Island, a direct descendant of Midshipman Ed ward Young of H.M.S. Bounty (who, with Fletcher Christian, led the mutineers), arrived in Wellington, New Zealand, in February. He will undergo theological training at Longburn Missionary College, and will then return to Pitcairn Island.

Mr. and Mrs. J. Widdup, of Bougain ville, New Guinea, arrived in Sydney by the Malaita on February 13. For many years Mr. Widdup has had charge of A.W.A.’s wireless station at Kieta.

Rev. J. W. Burton, General Secretary of the Methodist Missionary Society of Australasia, left Sydney for America, en route to England, by the Mariposa on March 4. He was accompanied by Mrs.

Burton and their daughter Ruth. During Mr. Burton’s absence, Mr. J. W. Kitto, former Deputy Postmaster General for New South Wales, will be Acting General Secretary.

Mr. Neil Campbell Elliott, son of the late Brigadier-General Harold (“Pom pey”) Elliott, sailed from Sydney for Rabaul, New Guinea, by the Montoro on February 26. Mr. Elliott, who was edu cated at Scotch College, Melbourne, has been accepted by the N.G. Administration as a cadet in the District Services De partment. His father was a distinguished soldier, who fought in the Boer and Great Wars, being with the Australian forces at Gallipoli.

Mr. Oscar G. Nordman, who for many years sailed across the Pacific between Sydney and ’Frisco as a member of the stewards’ staff of the Matson liners Sierra, Sonoma and Ventura, is now settled down in Papeete as the proprietor of the Oceanic Market. His specialty is the sale of groceries, dairy products, fresh meat, fruits, etc., to the population of Tahiti. He makes a specialty of pro visioning yachts. Mr. Nordman, who sends through us kindest regards to old Pacific friends, seems to be the right man in the right place.

Rev. Jonathan Meleke Fonua, a young Tongan Methodist missionary, has accept ed the offer of the Board of Missions to an appointment in Papua. He will spend several months in Australia on deputation work before taking up his new position in Melanesia.

Mr. Lester N. Lock, son of Pastor W.

N. Lock, superintendent of the Seventh Day Adventist Mission at Port Moresby, Papua, arrived in Sydney by the Macdhui on March 5. Shortly before he left Papua, he made an adventurous trip in the ketch Diari to Woodlark Island with a cargo of medical and religious books.

Twice the boat touched reefs oft Fergus son Island, and was lucky to escape dis aster. On the return voyage to Pt.

Moresby, he reached the mainland after passing through a severe gale lasting 10

days. Then the engine failed and the Diari had to make for the shelter of Suau Island, South-eastern Papua.

Right Rev. Leonard S. Kempthorne, M.A. (Anglican Bishop in Polynesia) returned to Suva, Fiji, by the Stella Polaris from Western Samoa on February 24, after a visit to England and America.

Mr. C. B. Tarlinton, of Cobargo, N.S.W., left Sydney for New Guinea by the Mon toro on February 26. He has been trans ferred to the branch of the Bank of New South Wales at Salamaua.

Mr. G. Sharood, manager of the Tahiti branch of Messrs. A. B. Donald Ltd., re turned to Papeete by the Makura recently

after three months’ holiday in New Zea land.

Rev. Guy H. Darke, L.Th., Acting Su perintendent of the Anglican Mission on Moa Island, Torres Strait, has announced his engagement to Miss Joan Hennessey, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E. J. Hennes sey, of Thursday Island.

Dr. A. P. Elkin, Professor of Anthro pology at the Sydney University and Di rector of Anthropological Research of the Australian National Research Council, will leave Sydney for Hawaii by the Mariposa on June 24 to attend a con ference on the Education of Pacific Races, to be held in Honolulu between June and August.

Rev. and Mrs. C. W. Light, of the New Guinea Mission, arrived in Sydney after furlough in England by the Orion on February 27. They left for Boianai, Papua, by the March Macdhui.

Mr. and Mrs. W. R. Martin departed from Fiji by the Aorangi on February 13.

Mr. Martin has been in business as a saddler in Suva for many years, but re cently disposed of his firm in order to leave the Colony for reasons of health.

Mr. David Philip Parry, of Suva, Fiji, married Miss Elizabeth Rosa Martin, of Wellington, N.Z., at the Holy Trinity Pro- Cathedral, Suva, on February 13. The Venerable Archdeacon Harris performed the ceremony.

Senator Sir George Pearce, Minister in Charge of Islands Territories, made a special visit to Geelong, Victoria, on March 6 to inspect the instructional work carried out by a party of Nauruan Scouts who have been undergoing voca tional training courses conducted by Mr.

H. E. Hirst, County Scout Commissioner of Victoria. The . Nauruans, who at tracted much attention by their pleasant appearance and good behaviour, will re turn to Nauru on March 20.

Mr. John William Mackay, of the Mar ine Service of Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Limited, died suddenly at Leura, N.S.W., on February 29, at the age of 47. He was one of the wireless pioneers of Australia. Arriving in Syd ney in 1913 as radio officer on the steamer Anchises, he joined A.W.A., which was then laying the foundations of a wireless service for the Australian mercantile marine. He served in various Pacific Islands, and had returned only a month previously from a four years’ sojourn in the Gilbert Islands, where he was radio operator at Butaritari, and later on board On Chong and Co.’s inter-island steamer Macquarie.

Mrs. Jane Gray, a very old resident of Fiji, died at Suva on February 24, at the age of 85. Born in London, she went to Levuka in 1885. Her husband, Mr.

Alex. Gray, an accountant, predeceased her in 1912.

Rev. John Jackson, V.D., of Suva, Fiji, died in the Colonial War Memorial Hos pital on February 21, aged 80. A Scots man, Mr. Jackson went to Fiji from Aus tralia in 1914 as Presbyterian minister of St. Andrew’s Church, serving for three years before returning to Australia. In 1925 he again went to Suva to take up duties with the Presbyterian Church.

Retiring in 1928, he settled at Navua and resided there until a few years ago, when he went to live in Suva, Mr. A. J. Marshall, of Sydney, is at present in the north-east corner of Dutch New Guinea, making arrange ments in advance on behalf of the Ox ford Expedition, which is to carry out exploration work in Dutch New Guinea in 1937. Mr. Marshall left Aitape, in the Mandated Territory some time ago, and, he says, “bartered his way from village to village, obtaining food and carriers where he could.”

Dr. jur Friedrich Wilhelm Mohr, re presentative of the East Asiatic Com pany, of Hamburg and Bremen, died suddenly on board the steamer Stutt gart, en route from Singapore to Europe, on January 31. He was 55 years of age.

For 14 years, he had been with the East Asiatic Co., and represented other Ger man interests in Asia.

Mr. E. Gumbley, a mining engineer who had been in New Guinea since March last year, died in the European Hospital at Wau on February 19. The cause of his death was “Japanese river fever” and pneumonia, contracted while he was prospecting on the Bulolo flats.

For a time Mr. Gumbley was connected with Sandy Creek Gold Sluicing Ltd.

Mr. S. H. Ellis, well-known barrister of Suva, is at present on an extended holiday in Australia with his wife and children. Early in March they spent several weeks at Lapstone, in the Blue Mountains, where they met Mr. Brooke Francis, of Northern Rhodesia, who was formerly a resident of Fiji. Mr. Ellis and his family will return to Suva in April.