Eager For War Service

AS soon as war was declared, there was a remarkable rallying to the colours by young Australians in Papua, New Guinea, and the adjacent groups. The type of young man who goes out to the Pacific Islands is apparently the type who volunteers for national service in an emergency.

Six young goldminers from New Guinea arrived in Australia on September 19 eager to enlist—they had left New Guinea as soon as war began. One, a gold miner, had paid off 100 native labourers so as to get away promptly. They were disap pointed with the position in Australia— while tens of thousands of young men are eager to offer their services, there is little chance of their getting away soon in an expeditionary force to fight in the real war.

Len Bayliss, a 17-years-old young man from New Guinea, has been making a name for himself in Sydney aviation circles. In the recent championships of the N.S.W. Royal Aero Club, which en tailed aerobatics, formation flying, forced landing, landing to a mark and low flying, he finished third, although he had been flying for only eight months.

Rev. C. S. Bull, who recently returned to Australia after serving with the Ang lican Mission in the Diocese of Polynesia (Fiji), has taken up duties as a minor canon of St. David’s Cathedral, Hobart, Tasmania.

Mrs, Ella L. Freeman, of Rewa, Fiji, died on board the liner “Mariposa” on September 1, when on her way to New Zealand to undergo medical treatment.

Mrs. Freeman’s family is well-known in Fiji—her husband was the late Mr. Os bert Freeman, of Drekenikelo, on the Rewa River, and she herself was the daughter of the late Mr. H. Tucker, of Rewa, and of Mrs. Tucker, of Suva. Mrs.

Freeman left a daughter (Mrs. A. S. Mar tin. of Suva) and four sons— Llewelyn (Tavua), Arthur (Tailevu), Richard (Rewa) and Henry (Sigatoka).