Crew In Santo
pp. 41-42 · Read in the full issue
“Muliama” Gets Scratch
SANTO, March 1, UNDER old-timer, Captain Bickle, the small Burns Philp Islands’ vessel, the MV “Muliama” arrived in Santo during February and unloaded 60 tons of cargo.
When the “Morinda” left dry dock and resumed her former Sydney-New Hebrides run last June, the “Moolly” (as she is popularly known) was diverted from the New Hebrides and ran from then on direct from Sydney to the Solomon Islands. Her unscheduled visit to the New Hebrides was only made fto re patriate her present crew and to recruit a new one.
Difficulties were encountered in this re spect, however, and she sailed from the Group with a crew scratched up from among the store “boys” of Burns Philp Vila Branch.
From Santo she sailed direct to the Solomons, whence she will return to Sydney.
Noumea’s European birthrate declined from 364 in 1947 to 328 in 1948. Mar riages also declined from 129 to 101, and deaths from 128 to 104.
The Rev. and Mrs. Trevor Shepherd, of the Methodist Mission, Kekesu, Bougainville, entertained recently in honour of the 21st birthday of Mrs. Shepherd’s sister, Miss Valmai Pickford, of New Zealand, who is visiting the Mission. Eleven of the seventeen guests all had birthdays within the same month! Other guests were: Rev. C. Luxton, Pastor and Mrs. Cyril Pascoe and Mr. Pascoe’s brother, Mr. Ernest Pascoe (another New Zealand visitor), Mrs, Paul Mason and her sister, Miss Ette Taylor (visiting from Sydney), Mr. Reg. Pullen, Mr. Stewart Murray, Pastor E. Martin, Mrs. Nari Forster and her son, Michael. Another distinguished guest was the three-weeks-
old Alys Shepherd, newly arrived daughter of Rev. and Mrs. Shepherd. Sls ters Merle Carter and Winifred Poole of the Methodist Mission assisted to enter tain the guests. » „, T *} e ne ™ Resident Commissioner for Western Samoa, Mr. G. R. Powles, was scheduled to reach Apia on RNZN ship “Hawea” on March 2. Before he left New Zealand, the NZ Prime Minister said that Mr, Powles was undertaking a heavy task and that he would push forward the Government’s policy towards its ultimate objective—self-government for the Samoans.
The French South Pacific High Com missioner who recently visited Wallis Island, has been making a tour of the islands to the north of New Caledonia on board the patrol ship “Lotus.” Be sides Balabio and the Belip isles, Pott and Art, immediately to the North, he will see the little-visited Surprise and Huon isles, out in the Coral Sea. These isles, once exploited for guano by a Mel bourne company, are the haunt for turtle and sea birds, but of little use for any thing else. They were once the scene of tragic shipwrecks.