People

pAHITFs Catholic bishop, Most L Rev. Paul Maze, recently ■esided at a ceremony in Tahiti in hich two Tahitian girls took their aal vows as nuns. The two girls, ho will use the names of Sister eronique and Sister Heine, are the rst Tahitians to enter Catholic rders. The Roman Catholic church as been established in Tahiti for lore than 120 years. ♦ * * Dr. Richard Shutler and his wife, ho are seeking and excavating rchaeological sites in the southern lands of the New Hebrides, recently iscovered a large rock shelter used y early inhabitants on Aneityum.

The shelter has 5 ft of solidly acked midden deposits inside it. amples from the deepest level have een sent to the US for radio-carbon ating. This is believed to be the rst time that anything has been sent )r dating from the New Hebrides.

After investigating another rock lelter on Aneityum, the two rchaeologists will work on Tanna, utuna, Aniwa, and Erromanga for ve months.

Mr. Ronald A. Peterson, 34, has taken up the post of Comptroller for the Government of American Samoa.

He is attached to the Administrative Services Department. * * * Mr. Geoffrey Matthews, an Aus tralian crocodile hunter, shot three crocodiles measuring approximately 16, 10 and 8 ft to the north of Port Patteson, in the Banks Group of the New Hebrides, in mid-January. But he had no luck when he searched for the beasts in Big Bay, Espiritu Santo.

Mr. Matthews, who is on a croco dile-hunting expedition in his Thurs day Island lugger Toriana, later sailed for Vanikoro, in the southern Solomons. Mr. Matthews and his wife arrived in the Solomons last October (PIM, Dec., p. 47). * * * Mr. Bruce Palmer, Curator of the Fiji Museum, unearthed ancient bones and pottery in a cave near Walu Bay in February. * * * Suliana Kaloumaira recently be came the first Fijian woman to obtain the degree of Master of Science. She graduated with honours in botany from Auckland University.

Suliana obtained the degree in a year instead of the normal two years.

She intends to return to Fiji to teach chemistry and biology at the Adi Cakobau School for Girls, her old school. * * * One of the most remarkable sights on Niue recently has been watching Percy Walsh, who is in charge of the local sawmill, cycling along the coral roads on a bicycle.

Nothing very remarkable in that, you say. Well, this bicycle has a small wheel in front and a big basket over it the sort of thing that grocery delivery boys once used —which in itself is quite unusual on Niue.

But that’s not all. In the basket, Percy has been carrying two crutches while he pushed the cycle along with one leg. The other leg is encased in plaster because of a severe wound from a portable saw. * * ♦ In Sydney in February from Minj on leave for a few months was long time New Guinea resident Mrs. Lil lian Millar.

Mrs. Jean Maron, and her children, Michele, 7, Alain, 5, and Patrick, two months, left Sydney for Noumea in the Matson liner "Monterey recently. Mr. Maron has been working as an industrial chemist in Melbourne for the last two years and is returning to Noumea to work for a soft drink company.

In this picture he is farewelling his family—he followed later in the "Mariposa .

It was a Fiji honeymoon for Miss Susan Maxwell, who was married in Sydney on January 22 to Mr. Colin MacLeman.

The bride was born in Suva, the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Richard Maxwell, now of Sydney. Her family ties with Fiji go back over four generations, for her great grandfather. Dr. David Blyth, was in medical practice in Levuka and Suva; her grandfather, Gerald Maxwell, held various senior Fiji Government posts; and her father was Deputy Director of Fiji Medical Services until 1956, when he was appointed Director of Health in Western Samoa for three years. The couple will live in Sydney.

Mr. P. R. Noakes, head of tbes Information Department at thee Colonial Office, is to make a tour off the Pacific to get first-hand know ledge of the area and to discuss in formation services. His itinerary is:: Arrive Nadi from London on Feb-' ruary 23; leave next morning for Vilas and Honiara; return to Fiji on Marchri 7; leave for Australia about Marchd 21. ❖ * * The new Commissioner for Indiae in Fiji, Mr. Krishna Nilakantae Sharma, arrived in Suva in February..' He has succeeded Mr. J. K. Ganju.j * * * The Rev. George G. Carter, headt of the Methodist Mission in the BSIP 0 for the past five years (his title is? chairman of the Solomon Islands?

Methodist District), will return toe New Zealand at the end of the yean to become general secretary of thes overseas mission department of thee Methodist Church of NZ. He will I live in Auckland. * * * The Anglican Bishop in Polynesia,,] the Rt. Rev. J. C. Vockler, has? announced that he has decided to gives up cigarette smoking and return to a* pipe and that cigarettes will no longen be offered to guests at Bishop’s?

Pretty West Samoan girl Miss Honey [?] Crawley was visiting Sydney recently[?] from Wellington, NZ, where she is at- [?] tending business college on a Samoan [?] Government scholarship. When she com- [?] pletes her course she plans to return too Apia to fill a post in the Samoan Public [?] Service.— Tele-Photos.

ruse. This follows American and itish reports on the dangers of jarette smoking. * * * A Royal New Zealand Air Force ;rcy flight left Tarawa on January with the GEIC works foreman, r. David Murdoch, and the Whole e Society’s master boatbuilder, Mr. artin Wilder, for urgent surgical atment in Suva.

Mr. Murdoch is the son of Mr. ;orge Murdoch, who was a trader the Central Gilberts when Robert ruis Stevenson lived at Abemama, d who was appointed Resident rmmissioner in the early 1920’5. ♦ * * Former Lae resident Mrs. B. L. lith, who won prizes in the art :tion in the Lae Show in 1962, Id her own art exhibition in a rfers Paradise, Queensland, art llery in January. Under her aiden name of Anna Collins, she owed more than 40 works, includ g many done in New Guinea.

Mr. W. D. Forsyth, Secretary ieneral of the South Pacific Com lission, is expected to arrive in aipan, Mariana Islands, on March for a series of conferences with ligh Commissioner M. Wilfred God ng on progress and problems in he United States Trust Territory of he Pacific Islands.

[?]nior partner in the Auckland law firm [?] Edwards and Aubin is Mr. William [?]wards, formerly of Nukualofa, Tonga, [?]e son of Mr. Edwin Edwards, who is [?]w retired on his plantation at [?]olonga, Tonga, after many years as [?]ipper of Tongan inter-island ships, [?]illiam Edwards was an outstanding [?]dent at the Tonga High School before [?]king his law degree at Auckland Uni [?]ersity. He is a keen sportsman and NZ Universities at Rugby.

Photo: August Hettig.