About Islands People

Mr. and Mrs. O. G. Higgins spent a fortnight on furlough in Australia in February, and returned to Port Moresby earlv in March. Mr. Higgins is the gen eral manager there of Papuan Oil Developments Ltd. He expressed consid erable surprise on learning that there were in circulation in Australia rumors that the operations of P.O.D. in Papua were decreasing: and that P.O.D. was abandoning the search for oil in Papua.

He said that it was true that the search had been completed in certain sections, but the operations of P.O.D. in Papua were going on without any check or re strictions, and with the same confident hope that oil ultimately would be dis covered.

Rev. C. S. Bull, of the Anglican Church, Lautoka, Fiji, was in Victoria in early March spending furlough, with his wife. He formerly was vicar of a parish in the Ballarat diocese.

Mrs. McLelland, wife of Rev. R. Mc- Lelland, of Mapoon Mission, has been in Thursday Island hospital seriously ill. In early March her condition was much im proved.

Rev. H. M. Bell, of White Sands, Tan na Island, is at present in Melbourne on furlough with his wife and young son.

They are maintained in their work in the Ne.w Hebrides by the John G. Paton Fund, founded in memory of the late Dr. Paton, a pioneer missionary in the Condominium.

Mr. W. C. Foskett, after 39 years in the service of Burns, Philp "8z Co. Ltd., will retire at the end of March. During this long association he has seen the Islands’ Orders Department, with which he has been connected, grow from a staff of one (himself) to the large organisa tion which that section of the B.P.

trade calls for to-day. His many friends and well-wishers throughout the Islands, and in Australia, will be pleas ed to know that he retires in the best of health, and that he looks forward to many future years of leisure.

Mr. E. L. Baker, Senior District Com missioner in Fiji, is now on short leave prior to retirement. Joining the service in 1901 as a clerk in the Colonial Sec retary’s Department, he rose to be Act ing Colonial Secretary and a member of the Legislative Council. During recent years he had been stationed at Rewa.

Mr. G. G. Ord, of Burns, Philp and Co.’s Witu branch, returned to New Guinea by the “Macdhui” on February 25, after spending furlough in Sydney.

Mrs. E. C. Skelly, well known resident of Samarai, where her husband is con nected with Burns, Philp & Co. Ltd., re turned to Papua by the last “Macdhui” after several weeks’ holiday in Austra lia. While in Brisbane Mrs. Skelly re ceived medical treatment,, but now has recovered.

Mr. C. Soderman, captain of the An glican Mission schooner “MacLaren King”, returned to Samarai, Papua, by the February “Macdhui”, after a visit to Sydney, during which he underwent medical treatment.

Mr. A. McCarthy, of Invercargill, New Zealand, who for some years was judge of the High Court in Samoa, has been appointed judge of the Native Land Court in the Cook Islands, with head quarters at Rarotonga. On March 8 he travelled to Gisborne, N.Z., to spend three weeks with the Native Land Court before taking up his new appointment.

A guest of honour at the March gath ering in Sydney of the Pacific Islands Club was Miss Margaret Hetherington Carruthers, of Apia, daughter of Mr. I.

H. Carruthers, a well-known identity in Samoa, and for many years a member of the Legislative Council. A talented singer of Island melodies, she has been heard over the air since her arrival in Sydney. For the past year she has been residing in Apia with her family.

TOP:—Mr. and Mrs. J. Pyke sailed from Sydney by the “Macdhui” on February 25 for Port Moresby, Papua, and later proceeded by air to Wau, T.N.G., where he is connected with Mandated Airlines, Limited. They had been in Sydney on leave.

BELOW:—Mr. and Mrs. L. C. Smith and their son John, returned to Wan, New Guinea, by the February “Bulolo” after short furlough in Sydney.

He is an employee of New Guinea Goldfields, Ltd.