Noumea Theft Drama

Ends With A Suicide

Prom Our Own Correspondent AFTER a Noumea robbery, in which the swag included about 40 watches, the police put a special guard in the Java-bound re patriation ship Skaubryn and found one of the watches on the arm of a young Javanese woman.

The girl said that the watch was a gift from her boy-friend.

The boy-friend said he had bought the watch from an Indo-Chinese.

The Indo-Chinese denied the Javanese charge but a police search brought to light other stolen articles.

Whereupon the Indo-Chinese pounced on a small knife and stabbed himself. He died in hos pital.

This was the third suicide in New Caledonia in the first fortnight of July. The others were a French man and an Italian.

Other fatalities included the mother of six children who was killed at Noumea when her motor scooter collided with a bus; two Javanese killed when a lorry plunged over a cliff and two men drowned when fishing. v The Tongan-language edition of The Royal Visit to Tonga has been published in London and has been shipped to Nukualofa.

t Of the 14,399 students in New Caledonian schools in 1954, 7,686 were native and 6,713 European.

Public schools accounted for 2,604 natives and 4,821 Europeans. Roman Catholic private schools accommo dated 1,892 pupils of European descent, and 3,552 native pupils went to Catholic mission schools.

Another 1,530 native pupils went to Protestant mission schools. The

total number of students was 1.400 < more than in 1953. if Six Tonga Defence Force cadet: officers have returned after training; at Army schools in New Zealand- Four of them have been com missioned by Queen Salote ass second-lieutenants. They are Sione: Ma’asi, ’Aisea Kavapalu, Manase: Foukimoana and Kaivai Heimulu.