Deaths Of Islands People

Miss May Anderson is May Cecilia Anderson, who it Suva on April 13, at the age , was one of the pioneer nurses ji, and was closely associated he development of the Colony’s ig system. was born at Sigatoka in 1874 :ar of Cession, and just 20 years became a nurse-in-training at Id Suva Hospital, vas in 1901 when nursing train as started for Fijian girls that Anderson was asked what I be done to train them. It was r suggestion that good types of were chosen for training in ifery, to be sent back to their its to give proper treatment to irs and babies. ; first six girls trained did so that the scheme was extended, nurses were accepted in the ;s as guides and philosophers, is Anderson also played an im it part in training Fijian medical its in the days before the al Medical School at Tamavua stablished. 1920 Miss Anderson was led the RRC, a Red Cross ation. her funeral two buses had to be ed to carry the large number of s who wished to attend.

Mr. S. Maharaj . Sadanand Maharaj, MBE, a :r member of the Executive and lative Councils of Fiji, died at on April 8, at the age of 86. the previous 24 years he had living at Wairuku, Rakiraki. . Maharaj served on the Legis and Executive Councils from to 1953. He was a keen scout was a Scout Commissioner in istrict. was awarded the MBE in 1959.

Mr. H. W. (Wes) Scope e death occured in Sydney in of Henry Wesley (Wes) Scope, Regional Electrical Engineer for ul. Mr. Scope was killed in a r accident. dely known throughout the tory, Wes Scope left behind friends who knew him back in idie Creek and Wau goldfields the post-war years he joined c Works Department and was ly instrumental in providing ul with its power supply, using and pieces left over from the lese occupation.

A sportsman, a humorist and a great raconteur, Wes Scope was pro minent in Rabaul RSL Sub-branch and in New Guinea Rugby League quarters having held the position of president in the latter until two years ago.

He is survived by his widow, Philomena, and a step-daughter.

Timothy Loe

The death has occurred in the BSIP of Timothy Loe, believed to be aged about 80, who until he re tired about 1952, was for 40 years the “engineer-in-chief” of small ships of the Methodist Mission.

Timothy came from the volcanic island of Kolombangara; was one of three Solomon Islanders whom the mission took on a trip to Australia in 1916. It was on this trip that Timothy developed his great interest in engines after he had been invited into the cab of a steam locomotive by the engine-driver. Timothy was appointed to assist the European engineer on the mission schooner Tandanya and after some training he was put in charge of the engine.

He was buried at the mission head quarters at Munda recently with full ceremony.

Mr. J. Peacock The death has occurred in Bris bane of Mr. Jack Peacock, 77, who was well known in New Guinea, usually as “The Old Soldier”.

“The Old Soldier” served in the First World War with commissioned rank and was an original Anzac.

After the evacuation finished the Gallipoli campaign he transferred to the Pioneer Battalion and was in front-line service in France when he was badly wounded and taken prisoner of war by the Germans, He was later decorated for bravery.

Prior to the Pacific War he was employed at Wau, New Guinea, by New Guinea Goldfields, Ltd.

Shortly after the v/ar he became a ganger with the Commonwealth De partment of Works and was stationed at Gurakor, on the Wau/Lae road for a number of years. He left this job about five years ago, and lived in retirement in Brisbane.

Captain E. W. Harness Captain E. W. (Teddy) Harness, who died in Auckland on April 20, aged 54, was well known in Fiji, where he was born, and in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. He left Fiji late in 1958 to live at Auckland after serving for TO years as Harbour

Master at Suva.

In 1935, Captain Harness was appointed chief officer of the Nimanoa in the service of the Wes tern Pacific High Commission, and became master of that ship in 1939.

He was in the GEIC when Japan entered the war and with other Euro peans he was made a prisoner at Tarawa. With several companions he escaped in a powered life-boat through Jap infested waters to Non outi, where the Fiji Government ship, Degei, picked them up.

After the Americans had captured Tarawa, Captain Harness returned to Butaritari, where the Americans made good use of his extensive know ledge of local waters.

Captain Harness was involved in a serious motor accident at Auckland some weeks before his death, but im proved sufficiently to leave hospital and return home.

He left a widow, two sons and a daughter.

Mrs. Alice Wilson The death occurred in the French Hospital, Vila, in March, of Mrs.

Alice Wilson, wife of Mr. G. G.

Wilson, manager of Burns Philp in the New Hebrides. She had been ill for some time. The late Mrs.

Wilson was a member of the pioneer McCoy family of Norfolk Island. A very big crowd attended her funeral in Vila.

Mr. P. R. Osborne The death occurred in Brisbane, Qld., on April 8 of Mr. P. R. Os borne, before his retirement a very well-known resident of Papua where he lived for 40 years.

He is survived by two daughters, Mrs. J, Jenks, of New Zealand, and Mrs. L. Beeston, of Brisbane.

The late Captain E. W. Harness, as Captain Brett Milder saw him.