About Islands People

Mr. M. Laborde, editor of La Franc* Australe at Noumea, arrived in Sydney from New Caledonia by the Pierre Loti on February 8.

Mr. A. McKenzie, education officer in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, has been ap pointed to the position of Director of Education in Western Samoa, in succes sion to Mr. D. A. J. Rutherford.

Mr. Charles Lumley, a well-known pearl-buyer, of the Trobriand Islands, Eastern Papua, has been seriously ill for some time.

Mr. R. D. Blandy, Assistant British Resident Commissioner in the New Heb rides, arrived in Sydney in February by the Pierre Loti on his way to England on seven months’ leave.

Mr. C. B. B. Hill, planter of Labasa, hij! who arrived in Sydney recently on short furlough by the Fiona, returned to Suva by the February Aorangi. It was his first visit to Sydney in 34 years.

I atrol Officer C. J. Adamson, who ac companied Mr. Ivan Champion on his recent long and difficult trek through the mtenor of Western Papua, left Port Moresby in March by the Van Rees for the East and England. He has been granted three months’ special leave and this, added to his furlough alreadv due, will enable him to make an extended visit land h ° me countr y in Devonshire, Eng 1, M /‘ and D. R. McDonald, former y of Suva. Fiji, sailed from Brisbane for Tulagi, 8.5.1., by the Malaita on March 6. Having been Deputy Registrar of the ■"D* Supreme Court for some years, Mr.

McDonald has now been transferred to the Solomon Islands to be Chief Magis trate and Legal Adviser.

Mr. James Norman Hall, the American author now resident in Tahiti, who has won fame with the “Bounty” trilogy written in collaboration with Mr. Charles B Nordhoff, returned to Papeete at the end of February by the Hauraki, after a visit to the United States and Canada He was accompanied by his wife and two children.

Captain J. F. Thompson, master of the Burns, Philp inter-island steamer Mai wara, arrived in Sydney from Rabaul, New Guinea, on long leave by the March Macdhui. He was accompanied by his small son Grant.

Mr. W. E. Hancock, Fiji manager of the Union Steam Ship Co., sailed from Suva early in March for America on furlough. Until he returns at the end of May, Mr. Hancock is being relieved by Mr. D. A. Butler, manager of the Union Co.’s office at Apia, Western Samoa.

Monsieur Doley, councillor to the Court of Appeal in the French colony of Reunion, has been appointed judge of the Mixed Tribunal of the Condominium of the New Hebrides. He is replacing M.

Janvier, who has been seconded to the Magisterial Service in French Indo- China.

Mrs. E. H. Chester, wife of the assistant manager at Lolorua Plantation, Kairuku District, Papua, died suddenly at her home on February 2. She had been in the Territory for a number of years, having arrived as a young girl with her parents, the late well-known Mr. H. H.

Harbord and Mrs. Harbord.

Mrs. V. B. Pennefather, of Tokua Plantation, Kokopo, New Guinea, sailed from Sydney for Rabaul by the Neptuna on February 24, She was accompanied by her mother, Mrs. J. W. Lamb, of Cess nock, N.S.W.

Mr. Ellis H. Davies, chief engineer of Chas. Ruwolt Pty. Ltd., Melbourne, de parted from Sydney for Fiji by the Monterey early in March. He will spend a week or so on the Tavua goldfield inspecting the installation of machinery and plant at the Emperor and Loloma mines, to which he is consulting engineer.

Rev. A. S. Jones, who has charge of the Methodist Mission’s Kabakada Cir cuit in New Britain, married Miss Hazel Carr in Sydney on March 6. With his bride, he returned to Rabaul by the Macdhui on March 17.

Monsieur Sautot, who has been Acting Governor of French Oceania for some time, departed from Papeete en route to Vila by the Ville de Verdun on March 18 to take the post of French Resident Commissioner in the New Hebrides.

Captain F. C. Rennels, of the New Guinea Mission’s schooner Maclaren King, reached Sydney from Samarai, Papua, by the Macdhui in the middle of March.

His wife and child arrived by the same vessel.

Rev. Father Boch, a Marist missionary who has been working at Kieta, Bougain ville, New Guinea, for many years, arrived in Australia by the Van Rees during February.

Miss Ivy Lapthorne, of Cheltenham, Victoria, sailed from Sydney by the Monterey on March 5 for Suva, Fiji.

Formerly a missionary teacher, she has rejoined the staff of the Methodist Mission.

Mr. J. Pollard, who has been prospect ing for gold during recent months in the new area near Wewak, North-east New Guinea, arrived in Sydney by the Macdhui on March 11. He said that there are now more than 200 men opening up the new goldfield.

Miss Norma Winterbottom, who re cently completed a course of nursing at the Australian Board of Mission’s train ing hostel for women at Epping, N.S.W., departed from Sydney on March 6 by the Malaita for the Solomon Islands. She will be attached to the Melanesian Mis sion’s hospital staff at Fauabu, on the island of Malaita.

Dr. C. M. Dawson, who is the only private medical practitioner in Samoa, probably will be appointed eye specialist and consulting surgeon at the Apia Government Hospital. Dr. Dawson en joys the confidence of the European and native population and is a popular and successful surgeon, of great experience.

Miss I. Emert, of Chatswood, N.S.W., sailed from Sydney by the February Aorangi to take up duties as a voluntary teacher at the Methodist Mission’s Ballan tine Memorial School for Girls at Suva, Fiji.

Mr. Norman Draper, formerly mine accountant of Cuthbert’s Misima Gold mine Ltd. at Misima Island, Eastern Papua, has been appointed local secre tary of the company.

Mr. G. A. Loudon, president of the Planters’ Association of Papua, arrived in Sydney from the territory by the Van Rees on February 23, to make repre sentations to the Federal Government on behalf of Papuan rubber-growers.

Mr. Frederick E. Johnson, Treasurer and Collector of Customs in the British Solomon Islands, left Sydney for Tulagi after furlough by the Malaita on March 6.

Mr. A. C. Hancock sailed from Sydney for Lord Howe Island by the Morinda on March 4. He is secretary of the Gower Wilson Memorial Committee and will

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select a site for an operating theatre and surgery which will stand as a memorial to Mr. Gower Wilson. A well-known identity of Lord Howe, Mr. Wilson was lost at sea about four months ago with his son and four companions on a voyage

from Sydney to the island in the launch Viking.

Mr. W. J. Craig, Inspector for Messrs.

Burns, Philp & Co. Ltd., departed from Sydney by the Malaita on March 6 on a three months’ visit of inspection to the Solomon Islands.

Madame Chatenay, accompanied by her daughter and son, reached Sydney by the Pierre Loti from New Caledonia in February to spend three months’ holiday before returning to their home at Noumea.

Dr. Allan Rutter has been designated by the New Zealand Methodist Church as the Mission’s new doctor in the Solo mon Islands field.

Mr. W. H. Carpenter, Islands manager for W. R. Carpenter & Co. Ltd., arrived in Sydney by the Chansrte on March 3, after a business visit to Thursday Island.

Mr. Walter F. Smith, of Bulolo Gold Dredging Ltd., New Guinea, sailed from Salamaua by the Neptuna early in March for China. He will then go on to America to spend furlough in California.

Mr. H. W. Hardy, Registrar of the Central Court at Port Moresby, Papua, is at present spending nine months’ leave in Australia.

Rev. Wallace Deane, M.A., 8.D., was elected president of the New South Wales Methodist Conference held in Sydney in February. He is well known in Islands mission circles, having served in Fiji from 1907 until 1916, during three years of which he was principal of the Teachers’ Training College at Davuilevu.

In collaboration with Rev. J. W. Burton (General Secretary of the Methodist Mis sion), Mr. Deane recently published the book, “A Hundred Years in Fiji.” Other Pacific books written by him include “Fijian Society” and “The Strange Ad ventures of a Whale’s Tooth.” Mr. Deane edited the autobiography of the late Rev.

Benjamin Danks, published in 1933 under the title of “In Wild New Britain.” Mrs.

Deane is the daughter of the late Mr.

Danks, who served primitive New Britain for the Methodist Mission from 1878 until 1886.

Archdeacon and Mrs. R. de Voil, of the Melanesian Mission, departed from Rabaul, New Guinea, at the end of February on their way to England to spend eight months’ vacation. Rev.

James Burge is acting' as Anglican minister at St. George’s Church, Rabaul, during their absence.

Mr. Walter (“Pat”) Blane Burston, who for several years was a well-known and popular resident of Rabaul, New Guinea, where he was a clerk with Messrs. W. R. Carpenter & Co. Ltd., died in Sydney in February, at the age of 33.

Mr. J. C. Barley, Resident Commis sioner of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, arrived in Suva from the Gilberts by H.M.S, Leith in February. He had been summoned to Fiji by the High Com missioner for the Western Pacific (Sir Arthur Richards) to confer with Mr. A.

Gaye, of the British Board of Phosphate Commissioners.

Mr. David Riley, a well-known half caste resident of Levuka, died on Feb ruary 2 at the age of 77. Mr. Riley was an agriculturist, and for many years con ducted a plantation on Naigani Island.

Mr. Ernest Whitehouse, Senior Medi cal Assistant in the service of the Papuan Administration, who recently was sta tioned at Misima Island, is now on long leave in Australia with his wife and daughter. After a visit to South Aus tralia, they were spending holidays in Melbourne in mid-March. Mr. White house was formerly in the Trobriand Islands for 10 years in a magisterial capacity. Mrs. Whitehouse was at one time a missionary sister in the service of the Methodist Church in Papua.