[?]Olomon Islands Society
p. 117 · Read in the full issue
k GENERAL meeting of the British Solomon Islands Society in Honiara a June 26 marked the beginning of the ;cond year of the Society’s activities.
The retiring President, Dr. W. H. Mc ionald, in a short address, summarised ae Society’s work.
The objects of the Society are to pro iote the study and acquisition of cientific and industrial knowledge relat ig to the Protectorate and other Pacific slands; to encourage the interchange of iformation and ideas regarding science r industry in its area; to collect for reservation publications, books, records nd manuscripts relating to the Solomons; nd to publish records of the transactions f the Society.
Officers elected for the year were; •resident, Mr. D. A. Donald; Vice •residents, Mr. J. A. Johnstone and Mr. t. A. Dethridge; Councillors, Mr. C. H.
Ulan, Mr. R. Pullen, Mr. G. F. Dennis md Mr. J. C. Grover. The Honorary Auditor is Mr. K. Fox.
At the close of the meeting Mr. J. C. trover read a paper written by Sister Veronica on the wrecking of the Avu and Tangarari Missions on the veather coast of Guadalcanal in the Faunary storm, when mission staff and ;onverts were driven by huge waves to ;ake refuge in the hills. She described row old and young alike ran through vaist-deep water as the waves demolished ;he Mission buildings behind them. An idded hazard was the presence of large lumbers of poisonous centipedes all over ;he stile which crossed the refugee’s path :rom the Mission to high ground. These, Jriven from their places by the water, swarmed over the faces and through the aair of the people hurrying to safety, jut no one was bitten. The exodus from the Mission buildings took place at 3 i.m. by the light of two torches and a
few hurricane lanterns.
Among those who have addressed the British Solomon Islands Society during its first 12 months are Mr. Torben Wolff, a member of the Danish Oceanographic Expedition of 1950-1952, on the occation of a visit by H.D.M.S. Galathea; Dr. C. J.
Austin, from the leprosarium at Makogai Fiji; Dr. Raymond Firth, who is spending some months on further anthropological research on the island of Tikopia; and Mr. W. Poggendorff, a rice expert from the NSW Department of Agriculture.
Mr. Sid Pasley, of Rabaul, has resigned from the staff of the Ex propriation Board and he and his wife have gone out to Manus, where he will be in charge of the Fletcher establishment.
When the Japs invaded Rabaul in 1942, there were in the tiny gar rison there about 150 members of the 17th Australian Anti-Tank Battalion. Some were killed in battle; some escaped westward into the New Britain jungles; many were later captured and murdered. It is believed that to-day only 8 of the original 150 are alive. Recently, by sheer accident, three of the eight met at Mascot airfield, Sydney. They were Archie Taylor, BCPA base traffic officer; Mark White, of Fiji, who was passing through; and Alan Fischer, of Sydney. Taylor and White had not seen each other for five years; and, as they talked, Fischer —whom neither had seen since they parted in Rabaul ten years before —came along.