Knighted
p. 11 · Read in the full issue
New Year Honours
In South Pacific
H. H. Ragg of Fiji Knighted
HONOURS, conferred by the King in the New Year. 1947, included the following from the British South Pacific territories:
Knight Bachelor: Mr. H. H. Ragg
of Fiji.
Companion Of The Order Of
St. Michael And St. George: Mr.
R. N. Caldwell, of Fiji.
Officer (Honorary) Of The
Order Of The British Empire:
Ata, Premier of Tonga.
Member Of The Order Of The
BRITISH EMPIRE: Dr. A. S. Frater. of the New Hebrides.
H. H. Ragg
SIR HUGH RAGG was born in Fiji 64 years ago, and has spent all his life in the Colony, where he has achieved great commercial success. The honour given him is well-deserved recognition of in numerable public services extending over many years, which he has given to the Colony. He is one of the best-known and active elected members of the Legisla tive Council.
Sir Hugh was educated at the Marist Brothers School, and then settled down to merchandising. He was for seven years with the old firm of A. M. Brodziak .fe Co.; manager for Brown and Joske at Lautoka; he founded, in Ba, the firm of H. H. Ragg & Co. which was later sold out to Morris Hedstrom Ltd.; and then he became interested in the hotel busi ness. To-day, he is managing director of Northern Hotels Ltd., which owns a string of Fijian hotels—one at Lautoka. one at Ba, one at Tavua, and a new one at Rakiraki (Penang); and there is a re port that still another new one will ap pear soon at the now important airport of Nadi, near Lautoka.
Sir Hugh Ragg was twice married. Lady Ragg, who is a member of a Sydney family, is well known through the help she has given her husband in his suc cessful public life snd esteemed for her own personal qualities.
Mr. R. N, Caldwell
MR. R. N. CALDWELL CMC has been in the service of the Government of Fiji since 1906. He is at present District Commissioner Western, and a member of the Colony’s Executive Council. Mr. Caldwell served in World War I, with the New Zealand Expedition ary Force and the Imperial Army and won the Military Cross. It was Mr. Cald well who, with Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna. suggested, in 1942, the possibility of training Fijians as guerillas to harass the Japanese in case of invasion. From this suggestion came the formation of the Fiji Commando units who later served with distinction in the Solomons.
Dr. A. S. Frater
DR. A. S. Frater, MBE, has been serving as a medical missionary with the Presbyterian Mission in the New Hebrides. He has been Medical Super intendent of the Paton Memorial Hospital, at Vila, since 1935. Besides his notable humanitarian service to both the native and European populations of the New Hebrides, he has served as Medical Ad visor to the British Resident Commis sioner and has been British Port Health Officer, Vila, Condominium Government
Medical Officer and Medical Officer in the New Hebrides Defence Force.
Dr. Frater is to succeed Dr. D. W.
Hoodless as Principal of the Central Medical School, Suva.
Ata
ATA, OBE, is a Tongan noble of high rank. He has been a Minister of the Government of Tonga for many years and has been Premier since the death of Prince Tugi, in 1941. During the war years he established a fine record of devoted service to the Allied cause.
The Colonial Suger Refining Company recently donated £750 towards the cost of Child Welfare services in the Colony of Fiji. Similar donations have been made annually for the past 15 years.
Monsieur Yves Le Trent, a French civil servant from Indo-China, has been ap pointed an inspector of labour attached to the administration in New Caledonia and the New Hebrides.
The French are establishing an institute for scientific research in the Pacific to be known as the Institut Francais d’Oceanie. Noumea will be the head quarters.