Deaths Of Islands People

Mr. J. D. Stevenson Mr. John D. Stevenson, an executive jngineer in the Fiji Public Works De- Dartment, died at Suva on December 19 at the age of 57. He had been stationed at Labasa as District En gineer.

Mr. Stevenson went to Fiji in 1946 from Sydney, where he had held a aosition with the Water Board. He icld posts in various districts before ie was posted to Labasa in 1954.

Mr. J. H. H. Millett Mr. John Horatio Hamlet Millett, Australian-born, but who had a long career in Fiji commerce, died at Auckland on Christmas Eve at the age of 83. He had been in ill-health For some time.

Mr. Millett arrived in Fiji in No vember, 1907, to work for A. M.

Brodziak and Co. Suva immediately attracted him so he decided to stay there, and two years after his arrival he married a Miss Reading, a mem ber of a well known Suva family.

He became a member of the Suva Municipal Council and as chairman of the Works Committee, laid the foundation of development which was to follow later. A shrewd business man, he saw to it that the council used the public money to the best advantage. He tackled drainage and street and footpath construction as priorities and took steps to put in hand permanent works to replace the old system of patching up.

Mr. Millett was also a pioneer of the Suva power system, an under taking which, today, returns a hand some profit each year to the Suva City Council.

Mr. Millett had had a lot of ex perience on Australian goldmining fields, and soon became interested in the possibilities of a gold industry in Fiji when he found gold colours in a creek to the west of Suva Harbour.

In the early days at Vatukoula he pegged out a claim and worked a mine there for some time. He also prospected extensively along the Wai manu River, and for Australian in terests inspected areas at Mt. Kasi and Yanawai.

Later in his life Mr. Millet im ported a herd of 60 Jersey cattle to set up the dairy industry at Navua after the sugar mill there closed.

Butter from that factory won a second prize at a show in Hawaii and was placed third, behind Holland and Britain, at a London exhibition.

He helped to establish the banana export industry which, in its heyday.

was sending 200,000 cases a month to Australia and New Zealand.

Mr. Millet played a prominent part in the foundation of the Defence Club at Suva and the Suva Bowling Club.

To later generations in Fiji, Mr.

Millett was best known as licensee of the Melbourne Hotel, which was built in 1881 by Mr. John Reading, his wife’s father.

Mr. Millett left Fiji several months ago, planning to live in Australia. He visited two of his sons there and then went to New Zealand, where two daughters and another son live. His wife died about 18 months ago.

Mr. M. H. Helsen Mr. Maurice H. Helsen, well known in South Pacific commerce for many years, and a former French Consular Agent in Fiji, died in Fiji on Jan uary 21 aged 54.

Mr. Helsen was born in London of French parentage and joined Burns Philp (SS) Co. Ltd. at Vila in 1937. The next year he went to the company’s Wallis Island branch, and in 1945 he was transferred to Apia. He served in Vavau in 1947.

From 1948 to 1950, Mr. Helsen was at Levuka, and in 1950 he be came manager of the Suva branch. In Suva, Mr, Helsen joined the board of Burns Philp (SS) Co. Ltd., and boards of associate companies.

He left Burns Philp in 1960 to take up coconut planting at Wainunu, Vanua Levu.

Mr. Helsen served one term as president of the Suva Chamber of Commerce, and it was he who sug gested that a Federation of Chambers of Commerce be formed in the Colony. That body is now the re cognised leader of commerce in Fiji.

Mr. Helsen is survived by his widow and three daughters, Mrs, Margaret Scrivener (Sydney), Mrs.

Gaetane Michael (Suva) and Miss Aliane Helsen, who is at school in Auckland.

Sister Marie Leaute Sister Mary Leon Leaute, of the Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary, died in mid-December at Tanagai, on Guadalcanal in the Solomons, at the age of 79.

Born in France, Sister Mary Leon made her religious profession in Sep tember, 1906, and in December of that year arrived in the Solomons and never returned to her homeland.

Fifty-four years were spent in the Protectorate, and three of the war years in New Caledonia. For 33 years she was at Tangarare, and 18 years were spent at Visale. Sister Mary Leon spent her last three years at Tanagai, near Honiara, as she was not in good health. She was buried in the missionary cemetery at Visale.

Mr. Bruce Francis Mr. Bruce Francis, the son of Mr. and Mrs. C, G. Francis, of Rere Plantation, in the Solomons, died sud denly in Sydney on December 20 from a cerebral haemorrhage. He had lived at Rere Point for a number of years and had many friends in the Protectorate.

Mr. E. A. James The death occurred in Brisbane in late December of Mr. E. A. James, widely known P-NG businessman and former MLC. See p. 71 for a tribute.

Miss Ida Emily Leeson The death occurred in Sydney on January 22 of Miss Ida Emily Leeson, who was well known to Pacific scholars as Mitchell Librarian from 1932 to 1944 and later as librarian at the School of Pacific Administration in Sydney. She was 78.