Mangaians Farewell

H. H. Hickling

From Our Own Correspondent MANGAIA, Cl, April.

MR. and MRS H. H. HICKLING, who have been in charge of local schools since 1947, when they returned to this island after a term at Aitutaki (where Mr. Hickling was Resident Agent during the war years), have again left Mangaia, this time for an appointment at Ngatangiia, in Rarotonga.

An unusually large farewell feast was given in their honour by the teachers and pupils of the Tuviriviri School, in the cliff-village, to express the esteem in which both are held in that district.

Mr. Hickling was originally Resident Agent of Mangaia, as well as headmaster of the island’s schools, having taken up that post in 1938. His transfer in 1941 to Aitutaki left the schools without Euro pean supervision for no less than six years; now that he has again been moved by the Education Department, there is little likelihood of the local schools hav ing another white teacher at their head— Mangaia is not a post that appeals, it would appear, to the average NZ educa tor, with the result that the standard of English, etc., on this island is notice ably lower than that of Rarotonga and Aitutaki.

The grandchild of the Rev. and Mrs.

A. D. Lelean was christened recently in Victoria from a christening cup that was used for the christening of John Wesley, an ancestor of the Lelean family. The cup, which has been in the family since 1752, is of gold lustre, with blue outside and symbolic figuring. Mr. Lelean, who formerly served the Church in Fiji, is now minister of the Mount Pleasant Church, in Ballarat (Vic.).