Bravery of Nurse

Rewarded OBE Presented to Miss Merle Farland at Lautoka Ceremony

Prom Our Own Correspondent

Suva, May 17.

SISTER Merle Farland, a New Zealander, whose outstanding service in the Solomons during the Japanese occu pation won her the Order of the British Empire, was recently presented with the insignia of the order by the Acting Governor of Fiji (Mr. J. F. Nicoll). The ceremony took place at the Fijian trainees’ quarters at Lautoka Hospital where Sister Farland is now tutor-sister.

Mr. Nicoll was met at the hospital by the District Officer, Western, (Mr. S. G.

Marshall), the District Medical Officer (Dr. R. W. D. Maxwell), and the matron of the hospital (Miss M. Cleaver), and the ceremony was attended by a large gathering of the staff and public.

The Acting Governor’s ADC, Major Sellars read the citation, which was as follows: “In January, 1942, when the Japanese first attacked Rabaul, most of the mis sionaries left the Solomons. Miss Far land was the only woman in the service of the Methodist Mission to remain at her post. She refused to leave on the grounds that a nurse was necessary to attend to the needs of the natives, and that as she had just returned from fur lough she was the right person to stay.

“Her station was at Bilua, in Vella Lavella, but from there she visited New Georgia, Simbo and Choiseul. Her pres ence in these islands, which were at the time in actual Japanese occupation, was of immense value in keeping up'the morale of the natives and in the organising of natives for coast-watching duties, includ ing the co-ordinating and transmission of their reports.

“For a time Miss Farland actually ran a coast-watching station herself. At that time there were 14 Japanese prisoners of war held at the station.”

Miss Farland, who trained at the Auck land Hospital, served at the mission hos pital at Vella Lavella before the Pacific War. She has been at Lautoka for six months.