Deaths Of Islands People

Mr. Maxwell Eden Babbage The sudden death, due to appendi citis, of Mr. Maxwell Eden Babbage occurred at Soha n o, Bougainville, New Guinea, on September 11. He was one of Bougainville’s best-known planters and was only 55.

He was born in Sydney and edu cated at Sydney Grammar School. He worked for various plantation com panies including Choiseul Planta tions Ltd.—in the BSIP and New Guinea from 1932, and in 1938 took up virgin land at Buka Passage. He purchased “Karoola” Plantation, Sohano, in 1946.

During the war he served behind Japanese lines with the Coastwatchers and afterwards was attached to the U.S. Engineer Intelligence Service and the Merchant Marine.

At various periods after the war he was president of the Bougainville Planters’ Association and a member of the District Advisory Council. His widow (formerly Miss Marian Flem ing), and two daughters survive him.

Mr. T. J. Howley Mr. Thomas Joseph Howley, a well-known figure of Levuka, Fiji, died at Levuka Hospital on August 31. He was 72.

Mr. Howley was a planter and trader at Gau Island for 25 years.

At one time he was on the staff of Morris Hedstrom Ltd., at Levuka.

Rev. R. E. S. Taylor Word was received in September of the death on December 23 last year of the Rev. R. E. S. Taylor, a mis sionary in Papua from 1917 to 1930.

Mr. Taylor died at Gosford Hospital aged 72.

When Mr. Taylor first went to Papua, he was clerical assistant to the chairman of the Methodist Mis sion District on the island of Übuia, He later worked on Woodlark, Fergusson and the Trobriand Islands.

He was responsible for the build ing of the Bromilow Memorial Church at Dobu, where the Rev. W.

E. Bromilow began a Methodist Mis sion in 1891. Mr. Taylor translated a number of hymns into Dobuan.

On retiring from Papua in 1930 for health reasons Mr. Taylor had circuits in NSW at Harden, Welling ton, Port Macquarie, Burwood, Cronulla, Gladesville and Mosman, He is survived by his widow, Ivy, whom he married at Übuia in 1918; by a son, Alfred, a former teacher in Fiji; and by a daughter, Florence, a well-known Sydney singer.

Mr. Rupert John Lotse Mr. Rupert John Lotse, manager for W. R. Carpenter and Co. Ltd., at Tulagi, BSIP, before the war, died at his home at Killara, NSW, on Sep tember 19. He was 59.

After the Pacific war, W. R. Car penter and Co. Ltd. did not re-estab lish itself in the BSIP, and after some time in the Far East and in Australia, Mr. Lotse became manager of what was originally known as the BSIP Government Trade Scheme.

This was virtually the only large trading organisation in the Protec torate for a number of years. (The Trade Scheme later became the BSIP Trading Corporation and a couple of years ago was sold to private enter prise).

Mr. Lotse rejoined W. R. Carpenter & Co. Ltd. at their Sydney office in 1958.

Mr. Lotse is survived by his widow Dorothy, two daughters and a son.

Mao Mao, a Solomon Islander, who was one of three men who brought Christianity to Rennell Island, died at the Central Hospital in Honiara in September. He was about 60.

In 1934, he was one of several boys from Rennell Island sent to mission schools. When they returned to their island in 1938, they started to preach their new religion.

This resulted in an outbreak of mass hysteria owing to the confusion in the minds of the people at hav ing to decide between their old gods and the new faith. However, this died down and Mao and other con verted Christians built churches and became mission teachers.

The first missionaries who went to Rennell and Bellona were killed in 1910.

Ninji Kama

A noted New Guinea leader, Ninji Kama, died at Mount Hagen on September 10. He was 68.

Ninji received a Loyal Service Medal in 1955 for his loyalty to the Administration, and in 1962 he was elected first president of the Mount Hagen Local Government Council.

He was the first Mount Hagen New Guinean to sell land to the Adminis tration in the Mount Hagen township, the first New Guinean to plant coffee, the first to build a permanent resi dence and the first to operate com mercial vehicles.