People

rpHE BSIP Chief Secretary, Mr.

M. D. Irving Gass, will be Act ing High Commissioner for the Western Pacific until the arrival of the new commissioner, Mr. R S.

Foster, in June, The Financial Secretary, Mr. L. M.

Davies, is acting as Chief Secretary, and Mr. T. Russell, Deputy Financial Secretary, is acting as Financial Secretary.

Mr. R. Turpin has been appointed to act as Deputy Financial Secretary, and Mr. M. D, Allen is acting as Senior Assistant Secretary in Mr.

Turpin’s place. * * sf: The first Papuan to study at the Australian School of Pacific Admin istration, Sydney, left Port Moresby recently for Australia. He is l Waituka Maina, 22, of Tureture village, 15 miles west of Daru, in the Western District.

He was chosen from several applicants to do a two-year normal

cadetship course in education at th ASOPA, During the course he wi complete the full requirements of th school and also the New South Wale Department of Education’s teacher! certificate. He will do practical teach ing with other students in NSW. * * * A former acting judge of th Supreme Court of Prague, who one worked as a french polisher in Aus tralia, has been admitted to th< Supreme Court of Papua-New Guine; as a barrister and solicitor.

He is Dr. Jan Janousek, who wa: a member of the Czechoslovakia!

Resistance during World War 11.

In 1949 he was forced to flee thu country for political reasons and cam* to Australia as a migrant. For twe years he worked as a french polisher He went to P-NG in 1951.

Both he and his wife are naturalised Australian citizens. * ❖ * Four students from the New Hebrides started classes at the Idubada Technical School in Port Moresby in March. They are the first New Hebrideans to study technical training in Papua-New Guinea.

Their names are: Fred Kalotapau, Tom Masitai, Tenet Philip and Marae Joseph. All are from Vila. The

tung men will learn to be carpenters id motor mechanics at full-time chnical classes for at least two ;ars. Another New Hebridean from ila, Willie Fred, will arrive at übada in the next few weeks.

The Chief Education Officer of the ew Hebrides approached the Papua ew Guinea Administration last year arrange technical training for New ebrideans because there are no local hools for them to learn trades. * * * That well-known veteran of Papua, [r. Sydney H. Chance, who has been /ing in retirement for a good many jars in Brisbane, has just returned om a trip to the Northern Territory, id some of the other tropical parts : Australia. Most Australians keep vay from the Centre when the sun over Capricorn; but nothing in the tape of climate seems to come niss to these retired jungle-sloggers f the Hubert Murray regime in apua. * * * Mr. Kenneth Newton, a former Hficer of the P-NG Department of griculture, has been appointed as ropical Agriculturist of the South acific Commission in Noumea.

Mr. Brian Newnham has been ppointed Resident Agent at Mani iki, Cook Islands. He replaces Mr. }. H. Hopley, who left the island in larch, for personal and health easons. * * * After almost eight years as Director f Western Samoa’s Department of agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry,

[?]ARRIED IN RABAUL: Miss Cecilia Fong and Mr. Fred Stott were married at St. [?]rancis Xavier Church, Rabaul, recently, [?]ey left next day for a touring honey [?]oon in Queensland. Photo: C. H. Meen.

Mr, B. E. V. Parham retired March, 21 to live in New Zealand.

Mr. Parham joined the Fiji Ag cultural Services in 1933. He : mained in Fiji in various capacit associated with agriculture until goi to Western Samoa in 1956.

Mr. Parham’s successor will be ft C. J. Wright, a New Zealander, w was in Western Samoa some time a on a soil survey. * * * The Cook Islands Resident Co: missioner, Mr. A. O. Dare, return to Rarotonga in March from leave New Zealand. He was accompani by his wife. ❖ * * The Most Rev. Henry de Cocq h been appointed Roman Catho Bishop in the Cook Islands. I Lordship, who was born in Holla in 1906, studied in Rome and work in Holland after his ordination. 1 went to London two years a j where, according to the Cook Islan News, he “learned English in amazingly short time”. ❖ sfc * Australia’s Minister for Territori Mr. C. E. Barnes will open the N( Britain Agricultural and Hortici tural Show at Kokopo on Septemh 14. * ❖ * Having completed his last term the British Colonial Office service Deputy Controller of Customs, ft J. H. R. Gardner left Fiji in Marc on retirement. Ron and Ve Gardner made many friends in F: during their several terms of servi there, and they left with everyom good wishes. Ron, although only A had seen service in other parts of t world, chiefly Nigeria, and was 100 ing forward to a quiet country li in England. He and his wife w greet the 1964 spring from a pleasa cottage in Somerset, near Yeovil.

The American archaeologists L Richard Schutler and his wife, ha finished their work on Aneityui New Hebrides, and have moved Tanna to excavate four sites. A si on the south-west coast of Tann near Bethel village, has already pr vided 8i ft of midden deposits ai many samples of material for radi carbon testing. ❖ ❖ ❖ Mr, Bernard (Bert) Covit, wel known American newspaper corre pondent of Papeete, Tahiti, wi married to Miss Sara Jean Frano Logan, of Surrey, England, on Fel ruary 13. Mr. Covit is the compih

an official English-language guide ok to Tahiti, which was first pub hed in 1951. * * * Mr. F. F. leli, District Officer Rotuma, is retiring after more an 35 years’ service with the Fiji avernment. Mr. leli was born in )tuma and joined the Fiji Educa tn Department in 1928. He served a teacher and in the District iministration before being pointed District Officer, Rotuma, in '53. * * * Mr. John Burgess has been pointed Deputy Comptroller of astoms in Fiji. Mr. Burgess, 45, is born in Kenya and served in e Customs in Kenya and mganyika for nearly 25 years. He as Assistant Deputy Commissioner Customs in Tanganyika when : left there last year. * ♦ * Mr. H. F. B. Snowsill, field perintendent at Fiji’s Rarawai sugar ill, has retired after working in ji for almost 45 years. Mr. lowsill, who was born in Fiji, joined e Colonial Sugar Refining Com my Ltd. in 1919, as clerk and has en with the company ever since.

[?]GLICAN LEADER: The Rev. Fine Hala a, Tongan Vicar of the Anglican Church Tonga, is a well-known figure in Nuku [?]fa, as he is also principal of St. drew's School. His parish covers the [?]ole of Tonga. He is seen here outside the Anglican Church in Nukualofa.

Photo: Hettig.