Old Samarai Resident

Passes On

AFTER practically a lifetime spent in Samarai, Eastern Papua, Mr. Thomas Platt died in Brisbane on September 24, aged 56.

“Tommy” was beloved by all with whom he came in contact. He conducted a shipwright’s business and a dairy at Sariba, just across from Samarai. It is not known whether he was born in Samarai, but it is thought so. As a child he went to school in Cooktown, Queens land; but, apart from that, and four years’ meritorious service as an AIF ser geant in World War I, he was seldom absent from Eastern Papua.

At his funeral the chief mourner was Mrs. Denny Johns, his sister, also of Samarai, and the Papuan Government and Samarai commercial world were re presented by Messrs. C. T. Wurth, A.

McAlpine, S. H. Chance, Ted Mears, Bill Bellingham and Percy Wood.

Brigadier G. Dittmer, DSO, MBE, MC, has been appointed Commandant of the Fiji Military Forces in place of Brigadier J. G. C. Wales, MC, who is past the age limit for service overseas. Brigadier Ditt mer commanded the Maori Battalion in the 2nd NZ Division overseas.