About Islands People
pp. 13-14 · Read in the full issue
M. Jean Hagen, of Noumea, New Cale donia, paid a visit to Sydney early in November to see his father, M. Nicholas (“Tibby”) Hagen, who has been seriously ill at St. Vincent’s Hospital. Madame Hagen came to Australia by ’plane in October. M. Hagen’s condition in mid- November was reported to be “very much improved”.
News has been received from Beru, headquarters of the London Missionary Society in the Gilbert Islands, of the recent sudden death from food poison ing of Mr, W. A. Levett, who had given a number of years of devoted service to the Mission in those islands. The loss of Mr. Levett will be particularly felt by the Mission in these difficult days of adjust ment to war conditions.
Four Samoa-bom lads, P. Brighouse, A. Williams, E. P. Ryall and E. Gibbs, recently left Samoa in a private yacht to enlist in the New Zealand forces for service overseas.
Dr. Edward Jacomb, formerly well known in New Hebrides, got away from his home in Jersey before the Huns reached the Channel Islands. He be came uneasy when the enemy reached Boulogne, and thought he had better “go while the going was good”. But in the subsequent German occupation he lost everything—house, land, furniture, papers, books, etc. He is at present engaged in war work as temporary medical officer at Rumwell Hospital in Essex.
Mr. and Mrs. S. E. Reilly are at pre sent in Australia on leave. He is staff surveyor for the Papuan Government, in the Delta Division.
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Cleveland, of Thursday. Island, were in Sydney and Melbourne recently on holidays. They will return to TI towards the end of Decem ber.
Mr. T. (“Tiny”) Griffin, for some years senior clerk in the Department of Native Affairs at Rabaul, and later in the Dis trict Services branch, who migrated to Morobe in the early gold rush and spent some time in business there, is now en gaged in Army administrative work in Australia, with the rank of Lieutenant.
Mr. Griffin, who used to vie with Mr.
Paatsch and the late D. O. Mill Towns end for the “heavyweight” record of New Guinea, introduced a spectacular display of New Guinea native curios to Mel bourne at its centenary celebrations, but the venture, while capturing a good deal of public interest, was not a commercial success. He subsequently linked up with a timber company in New Caledonia.
Mr. L. St. George Ryder, manager of Morris, Hedstrom, Ltd.’s Levuka branch, arrived in Sydney from Fiji recently on furlough.
It is reported from Tahiti that the American novelist, Mr. Charles B. Nord
hoflf, has turned rancher. He now has a number of cattle grazing over a consid erable portion of the highlands of the Taiarapu Peninsula, where he has in stalled an electric plant that supplies both light and water. Some fifteen Tahitians are employed there under the direction of M. George Sarge, who was formerly well-known in Papeete business circles. Mr. Nordhoff, who has been visit ing relatives in California, is expected back in Tahiti before the end of the
year. i : i'- ;
Mrs. Janet Cowling, of Daru, Western Division, Panua, and Miss Cowling, are at present spending a holiday at Thurs day Island.
Miss Elsie Houng Lee is a young member of the third generation of a Chinese family which has settled in Fiji.
She speaks Eng lish and Chinese fluently, plays piano and violin, and is learning shorthand and typing.
Two prominent residents of Noumea, New Caledonia: Mr. W. Johnston, British Consul, and (right) Mr. B. C. Ballard, Official Representa tive of the Australian Government. Mr. Ballard is well known also in the New Hebrides where he spent a number of years presenting land claims to the Joint Court of the Condominium Government.
Mr. Floyd McCoy a much travelled member of the little community on Pitcairn Island, was in Australia at the end of ° ctober '