Gifted Cook Islander Is
p. 65 · Read in the full issue
R.A. at Puka Puka
From Our Own Correspondent
Rarotonga, Nov. 20.
furlough for the first time in many years, Mr. and Mrs. Geoffrey Henry, Resident Agent and Government Nurse respectively on lonely Puka Puka Island (some 700 miles N.W, of Rarotonga) are now renewing old friendships and attend ing to family affairs in Aitutaki, where both belong.
Mr. Henry represents a type which is unfortunately all too rare. At 51, he occu-
pies a unique position in local official circles, being the only Cook Islander holding an R.A. and school teacher’s post combined. A pupil of the late Rev. Royle at the boarding school started in Aitutaki towards the close of last century, Mr.
Henry left home to spend two years on board the mission schooner John Wil liams IV.. returning in 1906 to marry his present wife Grace Metua.
Between 1908 and 1924, Mr. Henry made steady progress from one teaching post to another, with occasional periods as Acting R.A. on various islands. In 1927 he was placed in charge of Puka Puka, with its 680 natives and white man, author-recluse Robertriean Frisbie.
The annual appeal by Dr. E. A. Hol land, medical officer at Kavientr, T.N.G., for Christmas gifts for the 500 men, women and children confined in the
Analaua leper Colony, near Kavieng, has
been published in the Australian news papers. A similar appeal, on behalf of hoo on Makoerai Island, Fiji, has been published in N.Z. newspapers.
Mr and Mrs Geoffrey Henry, with their daughter.