About Islands

People

Mr. G. K. Roth has been appointed Assistant Colonial Secretary of Fiji and an administrative officer, Grade I. He succeeds Mr. Trevor Johnson, who has become British Agent and Consul in Tonga. Mr. Roth was in the Fiji service 1928-36; in Zanzibar from 1937 to 1939; and since 1940 he has been an adminis trative officer in Fiji, where he has filled a wide variety of offices, including the chairmanship of the Suva Town Board.

A former Lieutenant-General of Con stabulary and Sheriff in Fiji, Lieutenant- Colonel J. S. Gamble, is dead, at the age of 65. He entered the Colonial Service in British Guiana in 1905, and served in Fiji from 1927 to 1936, when he left the Colony prior to retirement.

Lieut. J. W. Buchanan, and Lieut. R. A.

Hill, both Solomon Islands planters and both First War veterans, received their commissions recently in the Solomon Islands Labour Corps, and have since gone from Sydney to the Solomons.

The Hon. John Trotter, MLC, of Suva, Fiji, has been appointed a director of Burns Philp SS Company, Limited. He joined the firm, in Tonga, in 1919, when he returned from the last war. Mr.

Trotter will retain his position as general manager of the company in Suva.

The Rev. Felix Doering, of Canada, formerly on the staff of the Lutheran Mission, New Guinea, and stationed in Toowoomba (Qld.), has now received per mission to return to his homeland, and expects to leave Australia shortly.

Lieutenant Richard Gore, son of the well-known Judge Gore, of Papua, won warm praise recently from the Americans.

His alertness and initiative probably saved the lives of four survivors of an Ameri can plane which came down in the sea southward of Salamaua, TNG.

Corporal E. Bourke, of the AIF, is a

prisoner of war in Germany. He was for 13 year a member of the district services in New Guinea, and also was in the service of W. R. Carpenter & Co., Rabaul.

The Rev. Eben V. Newman, 8.A., 8.D., BLitt., of the Methodist Overseas Mission, has been appointed Principal of Tubou College, Nukualofa, and he and Mrs. New man expect to leave Sydney for their new home shortly.

Flight-Lieutenant George B. (“Golly”) Meidecke, of the R.A.A.F., has been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. G. J.

Meidecke, of Franz Plantation, Western Samoa.

News of the death of Colonel J. W.

Hutchen, CMG, CBE, in Wellington, NZ. has been received with regret in Western Samoa where he made many friends during his service as secretary of the Administration.

Sergeant Peter Martin, NZEF, son of Mr. and Mrs. S. E. Martin, of Ba, Fiji, is at present in an officers’ training school in Palestine. He has seen service in Greece, Egypt, and Tripoli. Beginning his military career as a private, he has won all his promotions in the field.

Among prominent residents of Fiji who have returned recently to the Colony after absence overseas, are:—Mrs. T. M. Bryce, wife of the manager of the Bank of New South Wales, Suva; Mrs. A. H. Marlow; Mr. and Mrs, A. H. Phillips; Mr. and Mrs.

B. B. Perriman, of W. R. Carpenter & Co., Ltd.; Mr. C. Sunderland; Dr. W. G.

MacNaughton, of the Fiji Medical De partment.

Flight-Lieut. Hector Garrick Pilling, RAF, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross a few days before he was killed in action on the night of May 19, 1942, when returning from a bombing raid on Mannheim, together with every member of his gallant crew. Young Pill ing was born in Suva, Fiji, in 1913, and

was the only son of Sir Henry Guy Pilling and Lady Pilling. He was educated at the Boys’ Grammar School, Suva; Wanganui Collegiate School, NZ; and Brasenose College, Oxford, where he took a double first in Jurisprudence. He was an oars man of some merit, and rowed for his college at Henley Regatta. In 1936, he joined the Colonial Administration Ser vice, and was posted to the Uganda Protectorate as a cadet. He was a grand son of the late Joseph Hector Garrick, of Suva.

Captain and Mrs. Luxmore, of Buka, NG, are now in Queensland and in good health. The Captain, who is doing war work, has had eye trouble, but is on the mend. Deepest sympathy is extended to these two worthy Buka residents in the loss of their son, Henry, who was killed in action. The other son is an RSM, and doing a good job somewhere overseas.

Mr. Richard B. Howard, of Navua, Viti Levu, Fiji, on July 16 last, reached the great age of 95. He is an active corres pondent, and his letters and handwriting might be the product of a man half his age. Mr. Howard is residing in Suva at present.