They Made Their

Islands Better Places

There have been many warm tributes to two Islands residents who died recently after spending their long lifetimes each brightening their own small islands in the South Seas —one on Samarai, Papua, the other on Rotuma, north of the Fiji Group.

MRS. Fanny Louisa Corkin was 75 when she died, and for 56 years she had lived on handkerchief sized Samarai (you can walk around it in 20 minutes). Father Gustave Griffon SM, died at the age of 79, in Suva, but for 40 years he had lived on Rotuma.

Fanny Corkin was, as Milne Bay old hand, John D, Wilkinson, said, “an institution even more than a per son”.

She was one of the famous Inmans. Back in 1892, when Burns Philp started the first regular shipping service between Australia and Samarai, Captain Inman was the master of the Myrtle.

The captain liked the place so much that in 1907 he brought his wife and family—four girls and a boy— to settle there. Of the girls, two, Fanny and Ollie, married—both in Samarai, and their children were born there. Captain Inman died after World War I, and his wife in 1934.

Part of the Scene Fanny was so much a part of the Samarai scene that it has taken some time for her frends to realise she has really gone—just as they couldn’t get used to the idea that she had really retired from work in 1961.

She had bustled about the drapery counter at BP’s for 30 years and then for some years had been with A. H.

Bunting’s.

She called most people by their first names, and at times it was amusing to see some solemn, grey headed visitor referred to as “young so-and-so”. But they would straighten up, more often than not, and look younger. Her energy was remarkable, although she suffered from diabetes for many years.

Maudie, her sister, is still in Samarai. And Fanny herself now lies in the family plot at nearby Rogeia, alongside her father and mother, her sister Nita and brother Jimmy.

Father Griffon was a Frenchman, who made his profession as a Marist in 1907 and was ordained in 1909

—a year before he volunteered for Fiji. He was a mathematician and engineer, and soon he becaame a builder—learning the finer points of the trade from the gifted architect and builder, Father Bourdier.

When Father Griffon arrived at Rotuma, some 240 miles north-west of Fiji, in 1913, the church at the Sumi Mission Station was a small inadequate timber building. His first task, then, was to build a new church, but before this could be done, it was necessary to install a saw-mill and to train the local people as builders, carpenters and joiners. Bearing in

mind the infrequent and irregular visits from overseas ships to the island at this time, and that the road which now runs around the island had not yet been built, the erection of a church in timber and concrete was a remarkable task.

Most of the building materials had to be brought from Fiji and then carried in small punts for nine miles along the coast to the Sumi Catholic Mission. The people of the district were divided into two groups so that on alternate days up to one hundred men worked on the church, while the second group provided the food

and worked in the food plantations.

The church, which was completed in 1923, is not merely a memorial to the combined efforts of the people under the direction of their beloved priest, but is an oustanding example of Rotuman skill and workmanship.

As a reward for their faith and sacrifice, the church was consecrated by the late Bishop Nicolas in 1923 and still has the distinction of being the only Catholic church in the Vicariate of Fiji which is consecrated.

Many other Rotuma buildings followed, the most oustanding of which was a magnificent two-storey school built in concrete and com pleted in 1934.

Father Griffon also installed electric plants and a variety of electrical equipment. He was re sponsible for a new type of building in Rotuma—a building made from a mixture of lime, sand and volcanic clay—which many people have copied and have thus been able to build for themselves and their families cheap and comfortable homes. He was the first person on the island to have a car—a 1928 T model Ford— the parts of which arrived in crates and were assembled by himself and his workmen. As late as 1950, he was proud of the fact that his car was still running, even though, by that time, there was not much of the original car still remaining!

Secondary Education

As a result of his keen interest in education he sent numerous boys and girls to Fiji for secondary studies at a time when secondary education was still in its infancy in the Colony.

His sense of justice and his courage were only matched by his great generosity and hospitality. There must be many people throughout the Pacific and even beyond, who are grateful to him for the warm wel come which he extended to them when they visited this remote island of the South Pacific.

His was a magnanimous soul. He could see beyond the trivial and un important things in life and fix his sights on the greater issues. There was nothing mean, narrow or petty in his character. He was constantly striving not only for the spiritual welfare of his people but for their material welfare as well.

After his death (for his last six years he was cared for by the Sisters of Compassion at their Suva nursing home), a large contingent of Rotumans travelled the 150 miles from Vatukoula to Suva during the night to be present at his funeral and Solemn Requiem Mass.