Deaths Of Islands People

Mr. David Smith

Formerly of Suva, where he was born and educated, Mr. David W.

Smith died at Vila, New Hebrides, early in March, aged 36. The cause of his death is believed to have been food poisoning, from fish.

He was an engineer on one of BP’s trading vessels in the Condo minium.

Mrs. Amy Lumley

On a holiday visit with relatives in Australia, Mrs. Amy Lumley, one of the pioneers of Eastern Papua (she was familiarly known as the “Queen of the Trobriands”), took ill and died at Waratah, NSW, on March 4. She was 76 years old.

The Trobriands will not seem the same without this doughty old lady who had spent a lifetime among the Papuans at Kiriwina. To the few local Europeans and to visitors alike, she was always “Ma” Lumley, ready to do a good turn and to provide hospitality and accommo dation.

Though she was born in Cook town, Nth. Queensland, Mrs. Lum-

ley spent her early years in Lancashire, England, before going to Papua. First at Woodlark Island and then at Misima, in Milne Bay District, she went to Kiriwina, prin cipal island in the Trobriand Group, with her husband, trader Charles Lumley, World War I brought changes, and Mr. Lumley enlisted in the AIF and went off to the Middle East.

Amy Lumley waited in Australia.

By 1920, they were back among the Trobrianders, trading and copra-buying—they taught the natives to dry copra and induced them to use their talent for carving to start the curio trade that has occupied some of the villages ever since. +3°L n ? arl3 L 3 S years > the Liimleys traded in shell and beche-de-mer and in pearls, for the Trobriand Islanders in the 20’s and 30’s were renowned in the Territory for their

pearl-diving. Five hundred or more mat-sail canoes setting out for the pearling and shell grounds was not an uncommon sight in those days.

In 1949, Charley Lumley died; but Mrs. Lumley decided to continue to run the trading business on her own, with her grown sons. She re mained alert and spirited and took an active interest in the every day life and social welfare of the natives. With her advancing years, the management of the business fell more and more upon her son, Ralph.

When she passed through Port Moresby, on her way down to Syd ney, in January, she told friends that “she would be back”.

Mrs. Lumley is survived by two sons in Papua and three sons and two daughters in Australia.

Mr. Richard Stewart

A former Islands commercial traveller before he became Victorian manager for Keith Harris and Co.

Ltd., Mr. Richard (“Dick”) Stewart died suddenly in Melbourne on March 9. Operating from Brisbane, Q’ld, he made many friends in com mercial and trade circles throughout Papua and New Guinea.

Mr. M. R. Meecham

A well known and respected planter of Western Samoa, Mr. M.

R. Meecham, died in March after a long illness. He was 83.

Mr. Meecham was manager of Palauli plantation, owned by O. F.

Nelson & Co. Ltd. on Savaii Island, for eight years before he retired in 1958. Previously, he managed the Cobcroft plantation, and, earlier, some of the then Crown Estates. He first went to the Islands, after the Boer War, to join the CSR Co. in Fiji.

Miss Elsie Walter

Miss Elsie Walter, proprietress of the Berlin Club at Savalalo, Apia, Western Samoa, died on March 9, at the age of 53. She was a daughter of the late August Walter, formerly of Tonga and Samoa, who owned the Apia butchery and had cocoa plantation interests at Moamoa.

Miss Walter is survived by two sisters and a brother.

Mr. George Christie

Last survivor of three brothers who went to Papua before World War I, Mr. George Christie died in Paddington, Brisbane, on March 16.

He was 80 years of age.

Sons of a Scots family who settled in Cooktown, North Queensland, about 70 years ago, Willie, Sandy storekeeping for a while, then he worked for the oil exploration corn-

panies. In recent years, he lived retirement in Brisbane, and unc went a serious operation a si time ago.

He is survived by a daugh Yolande (Mrs. Stan Dwyer), flew down from Rabaul when he came ill a week before his deatl

Mrs. Dorothy Roberts

Mrs. Dorothy Alice Roberts, \ of Mr. A. A. Roberts, Director Native Affairs in Papua-New Gun died in Victoria on March 19. ! had long been a resident of Territory, but recently had beer ill-health. Her death occurred Royal Melbourne Hospital.

Mr. Stephen Prasad

One of Lautoka’s best knc Indian businessmen, Mr. Stepj Bhagoti Prasad, died in Laut hospital, Fiji, late in March a: a short illness. He was only 37, had run his own Checker Taxi business for some years. He prominent in Fiji soccer foot: affairs, having been manager of Lautoka representative team for past five seasons. He is survi by his wife and one child,

Mr. Harm Nam

A Chinese cook who rose to come a wealthy and respected businessman, Mr. Harm Nam, o in Suva on April 7, aged 70. He w to Fiji 50 years ago in the ser of Sir Henry May, then Gover:' but in 1913 left to found the t of Sun King Tiy, which later came the thriving Wing On Tiy Co. Ltd. He later relinquished managing directorship of the but remained a director. Since : he had conducted Wah Ley Ltd butchery firm of Suva and Sai, bula. Mr. Nam was one of founder members of the Kuo : Tang in Fiji some 40 years ago, was one of the first Chinese in Colony to become a naturall British subject.

Mrs. Amy Lumley.

Mr. George Christie.