Plantation Manager's

Strange Accident

THE manager of Kokebagu Plantation, Papua, Mr. J. N. Nicholson, is now in Port Moresby Hospital, making a good recovery, after losing part of his leg in an extraordinary accident.

He had been taking a personal part in the establishment of an experimental rice-growing plot, and had been operat ing a cultivator, which had been im ported for the special purpose. Mr.

Nicholson had finished for the day. and had stepped off the machine, apparently on the side where the blades are. A visitor, who was deeply interested in the machine, climbed up on it and somehow started it again; and, before Mr. Nichol son could get out of the way, the revolv ing blades had cut off one of his feet, below the ankle.

The Rev R. Rankin, of the LMS, was able to give him first aid quickly; and then Mr Rankin and Mrs. Nicholson brought him 40 miles into Port Moresby in a motor lorry, which had to be ferried over a river on canoes. They arrived the following morning, with their patient in fairly good shape.

Mr. Harrison W. Smith, an American botanist who has lived in Tahiti since 1921, and whose garden home at Papeari is celebrated for its beauty, was invested in July with the cross of a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. The Governor explained formally that this was in recognition of the fine botanical work done in Tahiti by Mr. Harrison Smith, especially in introducing to the Colony many useful and beautiful plants.