About Islands People

Mr. and Mrs. W. R. Thomas, of Rabaul, returned to New Guinea by the Macdhui at the end of May, after leave in Aus tralia. Mr. Thomas is wireless operator at Bita Paka for Amalgamated Wireless (A/sia.) Ltd.

Captain C. O. Anderson, of Steamships Trading Company, Papua, returned to Samarai by the Macdhui from Australia at the end of May.

Mr. and Mrs. R. Walsche, of Kauru Plantation, Domara, Papua, who have been in Australia on holidays since Janu ary, departed for the territory by the Montoro in May.

Mr. T. Flower, of Wau, New Guinea, who sailed from Australia in May for India to supervise con structional works at Quetta. He has been a build ing contractor in Papua and New Guinea for eleven years (see article on page 10).

Miss E. D. Wallace, 8.A., Dip. Ed., who will take charge of the Girls’ School con ducted by the Methodist Mission Society in Western Samoa, sailed from Melbourne by the Monterey on May 23, Mr. F. R. Armstrong, health officer in charge of the Talasea sub-district of New Britain, arrived in New Zealand late In May on a holiday visit. He was accom panied. by Mrs. Armstrong.

Monsignor Francis Xavier Gsell, the well-known missionary of Bathurst Island, off Northern Australia, was invested with the insignia of 0.8. E. on June 8. It was a coincidence that on that day exactly 25 years ago Monsignor Gsell celebrated his first Mass on Bathurst Island, when founding the mission station.

Mr. J. S. Symington, Islands Inspector for Messrs. W. R. Carpenter and Co., Ltd., sailed for Rabaul, New Guinea, by the Macdhui from Sydney on May 28.

Mr. Ellis Davies, chief engineer for Messrs. Chas. Ruwolt Pty. Ltd., steel founders of Richmond, Victoria, will leave for Fiji by the June Mariposa. Most of his time in the Colony will be occupied with an investigation connected with the equipping of Loloma and Emperor gold mines.

Mr. C. R. Gurney, pilot of Guinea Air ways Ltd., recently departed from Lae, where he and his wife have resided for five years, to settle at Wau, New Guinea.

Pilot Gurney has now taken over the ser vice previously operated by Mr. Orme Denny, who is now employed by Quantas Empire Airways Limited in Australia.

M. Lucien Vebert, director-general of the French Society at Santo, New Hebrides, arrived in Sydney with his wife by the Van Rees early in June. They will later go on to France by the Cathay.

Madame Vebert, who has lived with her husband for 10 years in the Condominium, has had a book entitled “Marie Rose Vebert in the New Hebrides” published in France. A second volume, “The Golden Sun,” is now in the hands of her pub lishers.

Mrs. Theo. Greaves, formerly of Fiji and Tahiti, is now settled in London, while her husband, Captain Michael Greaves, is at present in Singapore.

Misses Iris and Joan Christian, formerly of Norfolk Island, are now settled in Sydney. They are the grand-daughters of Mr. Parkin Christian, one of the two remaining Pitcairn Islanders who were transferred from their old island to Nor folk Island in 1856. The other is Mrs.

Selina Buffett, who is affectionately known on N.I. as “Aunt Selina.”

Mr. R. W. Robson, editor and publisher of the “Pacific Islands Monthly,” departed from Sydney for New Zealand on May 27. He left Wellington for Apia, Western Samoa, by the Maui Pomare on June 16.

Mr. Robson will later visit Fiji, spending three weeks in the group.

Mr. and Mrs. Frank Pryke sailed from Sydney for the East by the Nellore on June 13. Mr. Pryke, who is well-known as a pioneer of the goldfields in Papua and New Guinea, has been seriously ill in recent months, and acting on medical advice has taken a sea voyage.

Mr. Allen B. Sinclair, an old resident of Papua, died in Port Moresby Hospital on May 25, from pneumonia. At the time of his death Mr. Sinclair was employed in the Government Service, besides being librarian to the Institute Hall at Port Moresby. Before joining the Public Ser vice, he was engaged in mining on the Woodlark, Lakekamu, and Laloki fields.

For a time he was with the Anglo Per sian Oil Co. in the Gulf Division, and later took up planting at Orokolo. Mr.

Sinclair, who was a Victorian, was 59. He left a widow and two children.

Rev. G. H. Darke, of the Torres Strait Mission, has been appointed Superin tendent of St. Paul’s Mission, Moa Island, to fill the vacancy caused by the- recent death of Rev. J. W. Schomberg.

Mr. Waiter M. Gors, one of Papua’s oldest identities, died in Sydney on April 16, aged 71. The eldest of four notable brothers who had done much in the early days to advance the territory’s prosperity, Mr. Gors was Burns, Philp and Co.’s first manager at Port Moresby, arriving there over 45 years ago. He left Papua in 1902, but returned 20 years afterwards to take up commercial interests again. Four years later he went back to New South Wales to live in retirement.

Major Clive Joske, a well-known Suva resident, arrived in Sydney by the Aorangi on June 12 on business.

Mr. Graham Kerr, managing director of Messrs. Kerr Bros. Ltd., Islands mer chants, returned to Sydney from a busi ness trip to the New Hebrides by the Van Rees on June 9.

Mr. A. R. de Haviland, warrant officer in the New Guinea Police Force, and Mrs. de Haviland, (reached Sydney to spend their leave by the June Van Rees from Rabaul.

Mr. J. W. Rutherford, a mining engineer, returned to Australia from Wau, New Guinea, by the Montoro on June 12, Mr. Wallace H. Smith and Mr. T. R.

Victor, Victorian mining engineers, will sail for Fiji to inspect the Loloma and Emperor goldmines at Tavua by the Mari posa from Sydney on Junfe 24.

Rev. A. T. Thompson, 8.D., Common wealth Secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, left Melbourne by the Wanganella on June 10 for New Zealand en route to Fiji.

Mr. T. V. Fitzgerald, a New Zealand barrister and solicitor, recently arrived in Western Samoa by the Maui Pomare to join the legal firm of Messrs. Klink mueller and Pleasants at Apia.

Messrs. A. Mathes and G. Stoeckicht, members of the Apia Nazi Branch in Western Samoa, left for Berlin by the Tolken on May 16, following an invita tion of the German Nazi Party Recreation Movement. They will attend a congress of the Movement, which is defraying all expenses, and later witness the Olympic Games. •