Deaths Of Islands People

Mr. H. Leonard Murray Mr. H. Leonard Murray, Admin rator of Papua from 1940 until vil administration was suspended in jbruary, 1942, with the military :cupation of Papua, died at his home Sydney on December 10, aged 76.

Mr. Murray was the nephew of Sir übert Murray, Lieutenant-Governor Papua from 1908 until his death February, 1940.

Mr. Murray had arrived in Papua 1909 as assistant private secretary his uncle, who was then Judge urray. In 1913, he became Judge urray’s private secretary, and in >l6 he was made official secretary.

He was appointed a member of the ;gislative and Executive Councils in •25, and he was made a CBE in >36 in recognition of his services. 1940, he was made Resident agistrate. In all that period he was man of great ability, who served a ry hard apprenticeship of steady iremitting work as the right hand Papua’s greatest administrator.

He was popular with everyone, en those who felt, on Sir Hubert’s ath, that Papua needed as a replace ent a man imbued with the ideals commercial development as well with native affairs, for stress on ati v e affairs distinguished Sir Libert’s administration.

The Government was apparently ipressed with this view and there as a long delay before Mr. Murray’s’ •pointment was announced by the overnment the following December.

In the meantime it was decided to Lange the title from Lieutenant-Gov nor to that of Administrator. Thus ;onard Murray was Papua’s first and ily Administrator, for following the ar there was an administrative union th New Guinea.

There was great satisfaction within e Territory at his appointment, and le of the first to congratulate him as the then Government Secretary, r. H. W, Champion, who had been cting Administrator and who many •ople thought might have got the >st.

Mr. Murray married Pauline, the lughter of Judge Herbert, of Papua, le died in 1958. They had one son.

Leonard Murray was a first-class ivigator and for many years he ted as master and navigator of the dministration’s several vessels, often ;gotiating dangerous waters. He was e author of Sailing Directions for ipua. In his youth he was a fine dimmer and missed representing ustralia at the 1912 Olympics

narrowly, when his rival at the Olympic trials at Manly beat him by a foot or two. He was also a cham pion rower.

He is survived by a sister in Mel bourne.

Among the small group of old friends and colleagues from New Guinea at the funeral were Mrs, E. V.

Bignold, Mr. H. W. Champion, Mr.

Claude Champion, Mr. John Ahearn, Mr. and Mrs. Ben Butcher, Mr. R. F.

Bunting, Mr. Lewis Lett, Mr. Les Hilder, Mr. Mac Rich, Mr. A. N.

Minogue, Mr. Tom Lowney and Mr.

E. N. Bastard.

Mr. A. C. Rowland Mr. Alfred Cooper Rowland, one of Tahiti’s oldest residents and a cor respondent for the Pacific Islands Monthly for many years, died in Tahiti in November at the age of 91.

Mr. Rowland, an American, was an erudite man, with a keen interest in the history of French Polynesia.

A native of New Jersey and a Columbia University graduate, he ar rived in Tahiti in 1906 when he was 34. He married a young woman of the Leeward Islands, and became known both as Tauraatua and “Mon sieur Rolline”.

Mr. Rowland was a man of great charity. Before World War I, he made himself responsible for the care of Tahiti’s lepers, giving them medi cines and even preparing their food.

He provided the money to build the first house for lepers at Orofara, the site of Tahiti’s present leprosarium.

In the influenza epidemic that ravaged Tahiti at the end of World War I, he helped to save many lives, when, with a few other volunteers, he set up a first aid post to dispense ad vice, medicine, food and bedding to the sick and their relatives.

Capt. A. J. Tippett

The death has occurred in Nuku alofa, Tonga, of Captain A. J.

Tippett, at the age of 76. Captain Tippett joined the Tonga Government as Harbour Master in 1918, and served continuously in this post until 1950. He was in addition the master of the Tonga Government vessel Hifofua, in charge of wharf building, and a permanent member of the Board of Survey.

On his retirement in 1950 Captain Tippett chose to live in Nukualofa and it was there he spent the remain ing years of his life. For a short period after his retirement he was with the Tonga Copra Board and was

the first captain of the original Aoniu, which he sailed from Fiji to Tonga early in 1950.

He made a great many friends throughout the Islands and on the visiting ships which he so ably piloted into the ports of Nukualofa and Vavau.

Mr. Lionel Haynes The death occurred in Sydney on November 6 of Mr. Lionel Haynes, a resident of Fiji and New Guinea for many years, and a long-time committee member of the Pacific Islands Society.

Mr. Haynes, who was 75, was a geologist with oil companies in New Guinea between 1922 and 1953. He worked in Fiji during and after World War I.

Mr. Haynes, who lived at 2 Reed Street, Cremorne, is survived by his widow, a son and a daughter.

Mrs. Lydia Seal The death occurred in NZ on De cember 18 of Mrs. Lydia Seal, 92.

Mrs. Seal was born on Vanua Levu, Fiji, the third daughter of Mr. Sam Whippy. She married twice, first Mr. Peter Simpson and later Mr.

E. Seal, and there were two children from each of the marriages. Mrs.

Seal and her husband left Fiji in 1924 for NZ, where Mr. Seal died in 1956.

Mr. Peter Meredith Mr. Peter Meredith, a member of one of the oldest families in Western Samoa, died in Apia in December, aged 70. Early in his career he was a merchant seaman, but he left the sea to open a bakery business in Samoa, and soon built a reputation as a most respected businessman. Flags flew at half mast in Apia the day of his funeral. He left a widow, five sons and two daughters.

Mr. H. Leonard Murray, as he was when Administrator of Papua.