Deaths Of Islands People

Mr. R. R. Haviland

The death in Sydney in October if Mr. R. R. Haviland, 26, a pro mising young Native Affairs field ifficer, shocked New Guinea, where ,ie and his family are well known.

Mr. Haviland had been in Sydney in leave since June. He was ad mitted to the Royal North Shore Hospital suffering from pneumonia md died a week later.

He was stationed in Kaiapit, VTorobe District, as a Patrol Officer, lefore going on leave; on his return x> the Territory he was to be posted to New Britain.

He was the son of Mr. and Mrs.

A R. Haviland, well known residents If Lae, where Mr. Haviland was Dis ;rict Officer. A younger brother is i Cadet Patrol Officer, at Nama tenai, New Ireland.

Mr. Norman Lee

I One of New Guinea’s best known •esidents, Mr. Norman Lee, died uddenly in Rabaul following a heart rctack, on October 22. He was only 56. r Mr. Lee was a pre-war resident tf the Territory. He went there first is a plantation manager on Iwi, Jougainville, He enlisted in the AIF it the outbreak of war and went yith the Bth Division to Malaya, iscaping from there just before the faps took Singapore. [He later served in New Guinea Is a Captain in ANGAU.

When the war ended, he went lack to plantation work, but soon Eft it to become manager of the lew Britain Club, and then of the Josmopolitan Hotel. He bought an nterest in the hotel and became nanaging director of the company finch operated it.

He took an active part in the unning of the hotel and was known o hundreds of travellers —that last !up of tea before a dawn take-off fas frequently served by Mr. Lee.

He was interested in sport, and larticularly in horse-racing. He was [ vice-president and a foundation nember of the Rabaul Amateur pirf Club and raced horses in both fSW and New Guinea. A photo [raph of him receiving a trophy at a ecent Rabaul race meeting appeared li the October PIM. \ Mr. Lee is survived by his wife md one daughter, Mrs. R. T. Ralph.

Mr. Percy H. Edmunds

Mr. Percy H. Edmunds, who for ;0 years managed the lonely Easter sland sheep and cattle ranch, died n Tahiti recently.

Born in England, Percy Edmunds fent to South America as a young nan, working on sheep stations first a Argentina and later in Chile.

In 1899, he met Enrique Marlet, fho then had a controlling interest

in the Easter Island station, in Valparaiso.

Marlet was then in the process of disposing of his interest to the Lon don and South American stock and station owning firm of Williamson, Balfour & Co., and was looking for a manager to go out to Easter on the new owners’ behalf. Edmunds took the job—and remained on Easter until 1929, except for occasional trips to Valparaiso.

Since retiring from the island, Mr.

Edmunds had lived in Tahiti.

Miss Maud Forman

The death occurred recently in Perth, Western Australia, of Miss Maud Forman, who was an Anglican mission school teacher at Taupota, on the north-east coast of Papua, in the very early nineteen-twenties.

The late Miss Forman left her mark on the Taupota district. Even today one meets her scholars who all speak excellent English, for, un like most missionaries who teach in the local native dialects, she re solutely refused to teach anything but straight grammatical English.

She was very popular and highly respected by the residents of her time from Samarai to Cape Nelson.

Mrs. Lilyan Harper

The death occurred in Sydney on September 30 of Lilyan Isabel Harper, wife of Mr. John Harper, for many years associated with Burns Philp (New Guinea) Ltd., the BNG Trading Co. Ltd., and dur ing the war, ANG Production Con trol Board.

Mrs. Harper lived in Port Moresby from 1947 to 1949, until Mr. Harper

was transferred to the Sydney office of Burns Philp. A daughter, Eliza beth Louise, is at school in Sydney.

Captain R. R. Kane, Mc

The death occurred in Sydney on November 4, of Captain R. R. Kane, MC and Bar, well known to an older generation of residents in Fiji and the Solomon Islands. He was 81.

After an adventurous youth, Cap tain Kane, who was born in Ire land, is believed to have arrived in Fiji at the end of the last century.

He joined the Colonial Service as a cadet shortly afterwards and for many years, served in the Colony, ultimately becoming a District Com missioner.

In 1915, he went back to the United Kingdom and joined the Ninth Royal Irish Rifles, and served with this regiment throughout the rest of the war.

He returned to Fiji after the war and was later posted to the Solomon Islands, where he was Resident Commissioner from 1920 to 1928.

He then returned to the UK and lived for some time in the Channel Islands, finally going to Sydney in 1950, where he lived until his death.

In Fiji he married a Miss Ethel Thurston, a niece of an eajdy Fiji Governor, and through her he was connected with many of the well known Fiji families.

There were three sons of this marriage—Richard (Paddy), Dennis and Brian. Denis and Brian re turned to the UK with their father and during the Second World War both were killed —Denis in the RAF and Brian in the Royal Horse Artillery. Mr. Paddy Kane re mained in Australia when the rest oi the family went to England; he still lives in Sydney.

Captain Kane is survived also, by his second wife.