Rawhiti Joins The Navi

In Peru

ris reported that LST Rawhit which was believed to haw been going into the America!

Great Lakes trade, has been take! over by the Peruvian Navy. It i stated that she will be used to tak< supplies from Callao on the Paciff coast, through the Panama Cana and up the Amazon to Peruviai settlements on the eastern slopes o the Andes.

Rawhiti became famous in thi South Pacific from 1948 to the en< of last year when, under the banne of the Roose Shipping Co., of Ne\ Zealand, she performed all kinds o jobs in these ship-hungry waters.

She carried, amongst other things cattle to the Solomons, timbe across the Tasman, empty drums t Fiji. What she meant to Islam communities was indicated by th Rev. J. R. Metcalfe, vetera!

Methodist Missionary in th Solomons, when he submitted i yearly report recently.

He said that the coming of th Rawhiti to BSI influenced thei whole year. The consignment o dairy cattle which the LST brough from NZ was a boon —even thougl they cost £4O per head for trans port—and their progeny would fim their way into every Methodis Mission station in the area. It wa thanks to the Rawhiti that th mission had sufficient kerosene and engine fuel for over a year as well as stoves, baths and othe building materials.

One presumes that now that th LST has departed for other parts these Mission stations will retun to their former state of splendi< isolation.

Rawhiti was built in Pennsylvanii and floated down the Ohio am Mississippi. She took part in th landings at Normandy and Soutl of France, was purchased in Hono lulu after the war and brought 5 cargo of motor vehicles to NZ. Sh made her last trans-Tasman cross ing last September and left fo: San Francisco shortly afterwards

Ajs.

At a graduation ceremony at tin Government Teachers’ Traininj College at Malifa, Apia, W. Samoa on December 12, 35 graduates of th College received their certificates a teachers from the High Commis sioner, Mr. R. G. Powles, after hav ing terminated their three years training course. The principal o the College, Mr. Mollring, stresse( the need for additional teachers ii view of the steadily increasing popu lation. There is also a shortage o senior New Zealand teachers, no only in Samoa, but also in Nev Zealand, and consequently school in Samoa are understaffed.