Bulolo Passage

Mercy Plane for Man Refused Bulolo Passage

A SPECIALLY equipped Qantas plane arrived in Brisbane from Port Moresby on July 23 with dan gerously ill Daryl Martin, 23, on board.

He is suffering from a heart con dition and has been in Moresby Hospital for the last two months. In January, 1951, he was working on a rubber plantation close to Mt. Lam ington. After the eruption he drove a tractor into the danger area and rescued natives. It is said that he strained his heart during that time.

When he became ill, he expressed a desire to return to his family in Brisbane. Moresby doctors said that it was too dangerous for him to fly.

They tried to arrange transport for

him on the Bulolo, but passage was refused by the Bulolo’s Master, Cap tain S. Rotherey.

The Captain’s refusal, in the cir cumstances, caused some resentment in Port Moresby.

Martin was accompanied in the Qantas plane by a doctor and a nurse who stood by ready to administer oxygen. The plane made the 1,300 mile journey at under 1,000 feet.

Interviewed in Sydney when the Bulolo returned in mid-July, Captain Rotherey said that the ship’s doctor had examined Martin and pronounced him unfit to travel. He said that he (the Captain) could have been “up for manslaughter or anything” if he

had taken Martin on board and he had died at sea.

Captain Rothery is now making his last run to P-NG. In September he transfers to BP’s Singapore Ser vice.

Nauru Mercy Flight

In mid-July, a Qantas plane flew from Port Moresby to Nauru to take off Mrs. R. A. Scott, wife of the assistant harbourmaster, who was seriously ill with an asthmatic con dition.

Dr. John Gunther, Director of Public Health in P-NG, went on the plane to attend Mrs. Scott on the journey back. A nurse also made the trip.

The plane flew almost at sea level on the way back because height made the patient worse. It had been hoped to take her to Australia but she was too ill to continue the flight and was admitted to Port Moresby hospital.

Qantas sent the plane to Nauru after an appeal from the island’s Ad ministrator.

Judge of the Fiji Appeal Court, which will hold a session this month, is Mr. T. T. Russell, at present of Auckland. He was a Resident Magistrate in Fiji between 1936 and 1940.

Martin, after he arrived in Brisbane, with his mother.

Australian engineers are now building a lighthouse on a halfmile wide rocky outchop, 20 miles east of Thursday Is.

Six American helicopter pilots

were in Sydney en route to Dutch New Guniea in July. Three heli copters will follow them to Sorong, DNG, where they will use them in oil survey work.

New Norwegian Ship in Pacific

The new Norwegian motor vessel Thorsisle (General Steamships Corporation, San Francisco) which is now in regular ser vice between North American ports and Tahiti, Samoa, Fiji, New Caledonia and New Hebrides. It replaced Thor I and carries passengers, freight.