About Islands People

Dr. K. Washington Gray, chief geo logist of Australasian Petroleum Co., has returned to Port Moresby, after a visit to Melbourne, with Mr. Leibensperger, geological adviser to Vacuum Oil Co.

Mr. T. Gough, European constable at Port Moresby, left by the “Bulolo” on April 12 for Brisbane, on special sick leave. Mr. Gough was under medical treatment during the whole of his recent vacation leave ,but was still a sick man when he returned to duty. Many friends wish him a quick recovery.

Miss Florence Aitken, of Invercargill, N.Z., was married in Apia on April 5 to Mr. John Kyle Hamilton, son of the late Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Clark, of Lumsden, N.Z. Both bridegroom and bride are popu lar members of the Samoan Administra tion staff —the former at the Customs House, and latter, as nurse, at Apia Government Hospital.

After two months’ holiday in New

South Wales. Mr.

C. M. Southey, Sec tion Overseer at Ba for the Colonial Sugar Refining Co., returned to Fiji, with his wife, by the “Aorangi” on April 13. Mr. -Southey, who has completed 38 years’ residence in the Ba District, is well - known throughout the Colony of Fiji as a keen sportsman.

A considerable portion of his holi

days was spent on city and suburban bowling greens.

The following have been elected hon orary members of the Pacific Islands Club in Sydney in recognition of their services: the chief tainess, Lefagoalii (Mrs. Alfred Page); the past president, Dr H lan Hogbin; and Noho Toki, the Maori singer. Miss Julie Werry, another New Zealand singer who holds that dis tinction, left by the “Monowai” in May for Canada, where she will fulfil broad

casting engagements.

Prior to their departure for Suva, en route to Australia—where they will make their future home —Mr. and Mrs. G. P.

Pinkerton and family were entertained at a dance and presentation by the staff and employees of the Mount Kasi Mines, Ltd., Vanua Levu, Fiji (says a correspon dent). Mr. Pinkerton, a very capable and well-liked mill superintendent, had been at Mount Kasi for nine years. A silver tea service was presented to Mr. and Mrs. Pinkerton, and everyone wished them bon voyage and good luck. A fea ture of the entertainment was an ex hibition of tap-dancing by Misses Pat and Daphne Denby.

Captain Thomas Richards, who spent many years of his life in charge of trad ing ships in the Central Pacific, died in Auckland recently at the age of 88. He first commenced trading out of Auckland about 1870. He had many vivid memories of the time when no law was observed in the Central Pacific except the law of the big fist and the heavy club, and of the men who flourished under those conditions.

Mr. Ewan Corlette, of the New Hebrides, as a result of his extensive knowledge of the languages and dialects used by the primitive bush tribes of the New Hebrides, is finding his services in de mand by scientists and the Government.

Much of the work relating to languages, in a book by Mr. John Layard, of Cam bridge, and Rev. A. Catell, a well-known philologist, is being done by Mr. Corlette.

Mr. Corlette also, at the request of the French High Commissioner in New Cale donia, is assisting Professor Leenhardt in a work which he is compiling dealing with the languages of the New Hebrides.

Major A. H. Stafford (adjutant to the Fiji Defence Force), Mr. H. H. Vaskess (secretary of High Commission for the Western Pacific) and Lieutenant F. R. J.

Nicholls, were among the officials who accompanied the Governor of Fiji (Sir Harry Luke) to the Pacific Defence Con ference in New Zealand last month.

Mr. Marc T. Greene, a well-known correspondent of a group o! leading American newspapers, passed through Sydney recently on his way to New Zealand and Tahiti. He has been recently in Europe, and he spent the last two months in the Dutch East Indies and the interior of China. He retracted, in no par ticular, the emphatic opinion he expressed to the “P.1.M.” towards the end of 1938, that Japan was in serious difficulties in China —an opinion which recent events seem to bear out. Mr. Greene was in Western Samoa six or seven years ago, and he stirred up a hornet’s nest there by his outspoken criticism of political conditions. Although his opinions are out spoken, and generally stir up a fierce controversy somewhere, he is a genial and well-informed man, and many people in the eastern Pacific will be glad to renew his acquaintance. It is of interest to note that he is a direct descendant of Gen eral Nathaniel Greene, whom some his torians consider to have been the most able commander, next to Washington, in the colonial armies of the American revolutionary war.

Mr. Southey

Mrs. Laura Glendenning Fulton, the wife of Mr. George Fulton, died in Paris on April 17. Mr. Fulton has been a fre quent visitor to the Pacific since 1905, in connection with the activities of Messrs. Levers Pacific Plantations, Ltd.

He retired from the post of managing director in 1935.

Mr. A. A. Bell, who was on the staff of Enterprise of New Guinea, Ltd., who has been a resident of Wau for some time, received an appointment in Malaya and left New Guinea at the end of March.

Dr. George Hoeltker, who has been in charge of a scientific expedition on the north coast of New Guinea (Mandated Territory), completed his work in April, and left for his home near Vienna, in Austria.

Sir Harry Luke, C.M.G., High Commis sioner for the Western Pacific and Gov ernor of Fiji, accompanied by his A.D C , Lieutenant F. R. J. Nichols, left Auck land for Suva by the “Monterey” on May 1» after taking part in the Pacific De fence Conference at Wellington, N.Z., in April.

Mr. Maurice McFadyen, chief steward of the trans-Pacific liner “Niagara”, died late in April, a few hours before the liner arrived at Suva on her last trip from Vancouver. Mr. McFadyen was 47 years of age and had been in indifferent health for some time.