Same Day

Married Twice In

Anglo-french Wedding In New Hebrides

Prom a Special Correspondent.

Vila Mav 9

WHPN- in thp iQi-p of/a ' -1 o m th6 f la j te - fter J loo^ l of A P nl hV ,^ 16 4. g D os + s .Cathe .. dra Zw P° r t Vila, New Hebrides, to witness the marriage of Miss Thora New-

man (daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. F Newman, of Tisman, Malekula) to Mon sieur L. Page, they were surprised to see the bridal pair in full wedding array be ing photographed in a garden. Some ex claimed: “How strange to be photograph ed before the wedding!”

They had forgotten that the hand some couple had already been married, according to French law. which insists on the civil ceremony before any other.

That morning, Monsieur Sautot, the French Resident Commissioner, in full uniform and wearing the Regulation Tri couleur Mayoral Sash, had personally

performed the civil ceremony.

The Church ceremony took, place at 5.30 p.m. The little Roman Catholic Cathedral was crowded with guests and spectators. The bride wore a beautiful dress of white satin with a train, and a veil of beautiful lace made by the hands of her mother, and carried a bouquet of frangipanni and maiden hair fern. Made moiselle Marie-Therese de Preville, Mademoiselle Marie-Benediction de Pre ville (French) and Miss Marion Fletcher (British) were bridesmaids. Marie Jo de Gaillande and Rene-Guy de Gaillande were train-bearers. Monsieur Edmond Buteri was best man and Messrs. Henri

Daval and Gaiton Jeanson were grooms men. Some of the lady guests, who re cently were brides, wore their wedding dresses, After the church ceremony, the guests repaired to the Stade Rossi, where they were received by the parents of the bride. Mr. Joy (British Resident Com missioner), after proposing the toast of the King, made a speech in which he congratulated the young couple, and com mented on the fact that the bride was a true British-New Hebridean, being one of the few British girls born in the New Hebrides.

After the cake-cutting and toast drinking, the guests settled down to a merry evening’s dancing and a real New Hebrides frolic.

Th,e happy couple went to Noumea by the S.S. “Ville de Strasbourg” for a short honeymoon.

The bride had been employed in the Registry of the Joint Court, . and the bridegroom is a Surveyor of the Joint Court of the Condominium.

Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Christian, of Pitcairn Island, arrived in New Zea land recently with their son Welme.

They were accompanied by two members of another well-known Pitcairn family, the Youngs.

Mr. J. E. Allen, of the Wellington correspondence department of the New Zealand Education Board, has assumed charge of the recently-opened post primary school at Ifi Ifi, Western Samoa.

He is being assisted by Mr. H. W.

Buddie, also of New Zealand.

Mr. Harry Kohnke, who has spent two years in Papua with the Anglican New Guinea Mission, spent furlough in Renmark, South Australia, in May and early June.

The Wedding

Group

Left to right: Mile. Marie- Benediction de Preville (brides maid), M. Ed mond Buteri (best man), Mile. Marie- Therese de Pre ville (brides maid), the bride and bride groom, M. Henri Daval (grooms man), Miss Marion Fletcher (bridesmaid), & M. Gaiton Jean son (grooms man). Sitting: Marie Jo de Gaillande and Rene - Guy de Gaillande.