Captain Viggo Rasmussen Is
p. 41 · Read in the full issue
Popular Appointment
Captain Viggo Rasmussen Is New R.A. at Penrhyn Is.
.From Our Own Correspondent
Rarotonga, Aug. 9.
ANE of the most popular official announcements made for many years is the recent appointment of Captain Viggo Rasmussen to the post of Resident Agent at Penrhyn Island, in the Northern Cooks.
In Captain “Viggo” the Administration has perhaps at last found the almost per fect R.A. He has had 40 years’ exper ience ashore and afloat in the Islands, the last 30 spent in the employ of Messrs.
A. B. Donald & Co. Intimate with every phrase of native life, married to a Penrhyn woman, shrewd, kindly, hospit able and generous to a fault, Viggo Ras mussen stands head and shoulders above the majority of candidates for such posts, where too frequently it would seem that political, commercial or social Influences have more weight than actual qualifica tions.
So much of his time has already been spent in Penrhyn when the Tiare Taporo hibernated there for three months an nually during the hurricane season that it will seem more like “going home” than entering upon a new life. The islanders are to be congratulated in that they are obtaining an R.A. whose knowledge covers so exactly the requirements of the position.
The new R.A. will not take up his official duties until the end of the year. In the meantime it is understood that A. B.
Donald & Co. are procuring another skipper from New Zealand for the Tiare, commanded since 1918 by Captain Ras mussen.
Exports of railway sleepers from Aus tralia to the Pacific Islands during the period from January 1 to June 30, 1936, were:—Fiji, 5,256 (£843), Nauru, 4,194 (£894), and Gilbert and Ellice Group, 300 (£4l).