people

Dr. R. L. Kirk, Reader in Zoology at the University of Western Australia, is to be principal investigator for a genetics-anthropological pilot study of the population of Tongariki in the Shepherd Group of the New Hebrides He is expected to arrive early in De cember.

The World Health Organisation has awarded Dr. Kirk a £3,000 grant for the study. Professor J. Guiart, who is already well known in the New Hebrides, will be associated with the survey on the anthropological side. Professor Guiart is the author of a number of studies on the New Hebrideans. * * * Mr. R. Strick has returned to Fiji following the completion of his term as Secretary to the Tongan Govern ment—a post filled by British Colonial Office personnel. * * * A United Kingdom scholarship has been awarded to Ratu Mosese Varasakete, a Fijian civil servant, to enable him to study at the University of Hull for a BA degree in economics.

Ratu Mosese, who is 37, has already passed some units of the degree course in New Zealand. * * * Mr. M. D. Howse, a former school teacher on Pitcairn Island, will re visit Pitcairn and neighbouring Henderson Island early next summer as a member of an anthropological expedition consisting of NZ and \merican scientists. Finance is being provided jointly by New Zealand aniversities and the Hawaiian Society af the United States. Mr. Howse is low teaching at Te Rapa, near Hamil :on, NZ. * * * Mr. Reid Cowell, UK Com nissioner in the South Pacific Com nission, will visit Pitcairn Island in December to study trade, depopula ion and agricultural problems. Ratu David Tonganivalu, executive officer >f the South Pacific Office, spent six veeks at Pitcairn recently preparing or Mr. Cowell’s visit. Mr. Cowell Tsited Tarawa, GEIC, from July 22 o 26. ♦ * * The Japanese Ambassador to Aus ralia, Mr. Saburo Ohta, began an •fficial 10-day visit to Papua-New Juinea on August 15.

Mr. J. M. (Jock) McEwen will be leaving his job of Secretary of New Zealand’s Territories following his re cent appointment to the NZ State Services Commission, which is re sponsible for personnel, management, efficiency and training in the NZ Pub lic Service. Although no announce ment has been made, he will probably be replaced soon as NZ’s Senior Commissioner on the South Pacific Commission. * * * The Roman Catholic Bishop of Port Moresby, Bishop Virgil Copas, will leave Port Moresby for Rome on September 14 to attend a second session of the Ecumenical Council.

Publication of what competent ob servers describe as the best history of Samoa ever written has been delayed by the sudden death, in April, of Mr.

Richard Phillip Gilson, an American research scholar who held the de grees of MA of South California and MSc. of London. “Dick” Gilson, as he was affectionately known in Aus tralia, spent a lot of time in research at the National University in Can berra, and impresed the heads there with his ability and industry. His work on Samoa was within a few pages of completion when he died of a heart attack. It now is being pre pared for posthumous publication. * * * Well-known Fiji lawyer Mr.

Maurice H. Scott, who is Speaker in the Legislative Council and promin ently associated with some of the biggest Australian corporations in Fiji, was married in Suva on August 28 to Mrs. Fenna Gatty. Mrs. Gatty is the

GAMES VISITORS: District Officer Des Clancy, of Sohano, Bougainville, and Mrs.

Clancy, were among the hundreds who made a special trip to Fiji from other islands to see the Games spectacle. They arrived from Sydney in the "Mariposa" and stayed in Suva with Mr. and Mrs.

Paul Conroy. Mr. Conroy was formerly a P-NG patrol officer.

widow of Harold Gatty, a famous airman and founder of Fiji Airways, who died in Suva in 1957.

Mr. Scott’s former marriage was ended by a divorce granted in New Zealand recently. He flew to Hono lulu in mid-August to meet Mrs.

Gatty who was returning from Europe and the United States. Mrs.

Gatty has responded well to expert treatment in San Francisco after having been gravely ill during the past year, * * * Senior Matron J. Jones, one of the last of the pre-war Administration nursing sisters in Papua-New Guinea, was due to leave the Territory at the end of August after 24J years’ service in public health work. Her plans are to live in Australia.

Matron Jones worked first at Bulo lo hospital and later at hospitals in Kavieng, Wau, Wewak, Rabaul, and Madang.

She was the first, and is probably the only woman, to walk the 160 miles from Madang to Mount Hagen.

Matron Jones did this in 1942, during the Japanese invasion, when she ac componiad a party of Madang resi dents through the Ramu Valley to Kundiawa to meet Mr. Mick Leahy.

Led by Mr. Leahy, she continued to an evacuation point at Mt. Hagen with the sick and older men of the party. Members of the party were hen flown to Thursday Island. * * * Another old P-NG hand who will etire soon is Dr. H. N. White 3 -NG’s Assistant Director of Health, vho has been in the Territory since 1938. He will retire on October 12. * * * Professor R. S. Desowitz, Professor )f Parasitology at the Singapore Uni rersity, recently completed a survey n the Maprik area of P-NG’s Sepik District to determine the immunity to nalaria developed by people living n a highly malarious area.

The World Health Organisation aade Professor Desowitz a grant for he survey, which should provide new tiformation about malaria. * * * The appointment of Mr. R. R Iryant as Chief Electoral Officer for 'apua-New Guinea has been con rmed. Mr. Bryant joined the Admin stration in 1954 and has served as fficial secretary to the Administrator, Assistant Clerk of the Legislative .ouncil, Clerk of the Administrator’s ’ouncil and Administrative Officer of tie Department of Trade and In ustry.