Deaths Of Islands People

Hon. Havea Tu'iha'ateiho The death occurred at his home at Vaikeli, Tonga, on February 4, of the Hon. Havea Tu’iha’ateiho, OBE, a Tongan noble and former Deputy Premier.

He retired from public life in 1960 having completed 37 years of dis tinguished public service. The Hon.

Tu’iha'ateiho was educated at Tupou College and Newington College, Syd ney. He first joined the Public Service as a clerk in 1923.

In 1929, he was appointed Gov ernor of Vava’u and in 1932 Gov ernor of Ha’apai. In 1946, he was appointed Acting Minister of Police, and later in the same year Minister of Lands and Works. In 1949 he was appointed Minister of Works, and in 1953 Deputy Premier in addition to his post as Minister of Works.

The Hon. Tu’iha’ateiho also acted as Premier during the absence over seas of the Queen, when the Premier, Prince Tungi, was Prince Regent. The Hon. Tu’iha’ateiho was accorded a State Funeral.

He is survived by his widow, Leafaitulangi.

Mr. Wilfred Smith The death has occurred in New Britain of Wilfred Smith, well-known Cadbury-Fry purchasing agent for New Guinea. He was 48.

Mr. Smith, who had been suffering from a cardiac complaint, died on the way from his home at Paluat to Nonga Hospital.

He left a widow, Mrs. Meg Smith and a six-years-old son, Jeremy.

The funeral was attended by a large number of mourners, among them Mrs. Smith’s brother, Col. R. T.

Eldridge, Army Area Commander, P-NG, who flew from Moresby to be present.

Born at Bradford-on-Avon, Wilt shire, Mr. Smith was at the peak of a highly successful career at the time of his death. Acknowledged to be one of New Guinea’s most informed cocoa experts, he had spent the earlier part of his life studying cocoa and associated conditions in Ghana, where he was attached as an agricultural officer to the British Colonial Service.

Mr. E. H. Mcllwain Mr. Eric Hastings Mcllwain, who died at Suva on February 4 at the age of 64, had lived in Fiji for about 40 years, and had followed a variety of occupations.

In the early 1940’s Mr. Mcllwain

was licensee of the Rewa Hotel, and then he became farm manager of the Witherow estates, which were in the Rewa-Naqali areas.

He held this position till he died, and he was also then chairman of the board of the Rewa Dairy Company.

Dr. C. Keysser The death occurred in December at Neendettelsau, Bayern, Germany, of Dr. C. Keysser, who was distin guished as an early Lutheran mis sionary, explorer, language expert and writer. His interest in New Guinea never waned. His death, at 84, was the result of injuries received when he was struck by a motor cycle.

Mr. C. C. Sachs Mr. Charles Cochrane Sachs, a pioneer settler in the Tailevu area of Fiji, died at his homestead, Naivua, on March 2, at the age of 81.

He was born at Scotland, but when very young he went to Australia, and then to New Zealand. He returned to his homeland to marry and again migrated to New Zealand before settling at Naivua in 1909.

For several years he relied for his living on the Fiji banana trade with Australia, and when this ended he turned to dairy farming. He remained a dairy farmer till his death, and was then milking between 150 and 160 cows a day. He was one of the big gest suppliers to the Rewa Dairy Company.

He is survived by a widow, two sons, two daughters, 11 grand children and eight great grand children.

Ratu Timoci Vosailagi Ratu Timoci Naitaqale Vosailagi, who died at Suva on March 13, was well known in the Nadroga area of Fiji, where he spent much of his adult life as a cane farmer and then as a CSR Company field overseer.

He was 46.

He was a member of a high-rank ing Fijian family.

When he left school in 1934 he took up cane-farming, and remained a cane-farmer till he volunteered for service in the Solomons and on his discharge returned to cane-farming.

Ratu Timoci was in an action with the Fijian Forces at Mawaraka, Bou gainville, in World War 11, when Corporal Sefanaia Sukanaivalu won the Victoria Cross. He was, at that time the corporal’s platoon sergeant.

Ratu Timoci left a widow.