Hotel Rabaul

Taken Over By Mrs. Bignell

THE Hotel Rabaul, which is the leading hotel in the administrative centre of the Mandated Territory of New Guinea, has been leased to Mrs. C. R. Bignell.

Mrs. Bignell this month took over the establishment from the retiring lessee.

Mrs. Bignell is well-known in the Western Pacific. She and her husband, Mr. Charles Bignell, have carried on Fulakora Plantation, Ysabel Island, in the British Solomons, for many years, and on occasions, when Mr.Bignell was absent on business or through illness, Mrs. Bignell managed the plantation suc cessfully alone. She has had a good busi ness training in a hard school, is accus tomed to handling native labour, and she understands tropical conditions. Her social qualities, combined with a bright and cheery personality, should give her a marked advantage in her new enterprise.

Mrs. Bignell will be assisted in the management by her two young and pretty daughters, Margaret and Jean, who have been occupying business positions in Sydney during the past two or three years. The two girls left with their mother for Rabaul by the Montoro on April 7.

Professor Peter H. Buck, Director of the Bernice Bishop Museum, Honolulu, is now engaged on a popular book on the Polynesians, the rights of which he has

already disposed of to an Apierican

publisher. Dr. Buck recently carried out research work in the Gambier Group.