Deaths Of Islands People

Mr. Jean Francois Toby former Governor of French icsia, Mr. Jean Francois Toby, in his home village of Saint •-Quilbignon, Brittany, early in He was 64. . Toby, who was living in retire was Governor of French icsia from September, 1954, to iry, 1958. During this term Foby visited 109 islands of the tory in an effort to encourage imic and social progress. It was y due to his initiative that the :h Government decided to build ternational airport in Tahiti.

Mrs. V. E. Dawborn s. Veronica Elaine (Vee) )orn, died suddenly at her home inberra on June 20, aged 31. ; was the wife of Lieutenant nander Royston M. Dawborn, , who was based at Lombrum , Manus, from June, 1957, to 1960, as Base Intelligence m. eir elder child, Elissa, 5, was in the naval hospital at t>rum Point. They had one other , Melanie, 3.

Wiliame M. Wainiqolo iliame Makasiale Wainiqolo, a ;d Roko Tui (provincial gover- Lau, died at the CWM Hospital, , on June 22. He was 65. 1940, after working for com ial firms, Wiliame became Buli rict head) Lomaloma. He held :rnment posts for several years •e he became Roko Tui Lomai n 1949. iree years later he returned to lative Lau in a similar capacity, was Roko Tui Lau till he went re-retirement leave in 1960. ; was a member of the Native 1 Trust Board at the time of his i. illiame is survived by his widow, ; Tupou, and five children.

Mr. T. Nevitt r. Thomas Nevitt, a retired P-NG ;er, miner, businessman and MLC, at Brisbane on July 3 at the age 6. is funeral was attended by many ■known members of P-NG’s pre community. r. Nevitt, who was born at nanton, Queensland, went to la in 1910 to start rubber planting ianosia. In the next few years he iged in rubber planting at Sogeri, ng at Misima and sisal hemp ting at Tavai.

He was manager of rubber planta tions at Kanosia from 1917 to 1923, visiting agent for KW Estates Ltd. from 1923 to 1926, and manager of the British New Guinea Development Co. Ltd. from 1926 till he retired and left the Territory in 1951.

Mr. Nevitt was a member of the Production Control Board, ANGAU, from 1943 to 1946, a member of the War Damage Commission, Papua, from 1946 to 1949 and a member of the Papua Legislative Council from 1938 to 1946.

In 1941 he married Vi Ashton, a member of the well-known Ashton family of the Territory. His widow survives him.

Mr. W. P. F. Wight Mr. William Payne Fredrick Wight, a former Tonga planter, died at the Auckland Public Hospital in June at the age of 72.

He had a coconut plantation in Tonga from 1920 to 1960, when he retired to live in New Zealand.

Mr. Wight is survived by seven children, William (Tonga), Mrs.

Kathleen Tuki (Malaya), Mrs.

Colleen Cowley (Tonga), Harry (Hawaii), Mrs. Mary Higby (United States), Charles (Auckland) and Fredrick (Auckland).

Mrs. Amelia Barber Mrs. Amelia Barber, a pioneer settler in the Rewa Valley, Fiji, died at Whangarei, North Auckland, NZ, on June 14 at the age of 86. Her husband, Mr. John Barber, died about six years ago.

She spent about 50 years in Fiji, most of it in different parts of the Rewa Valley.

Mr. Fred Waqa A tragic car accident on Nauru on June 6 caused the untimely death of Fred Waqa, at the age of 27.

Mr. Waqa was an assistant teacher at the Combined Primary School, where he was generally regarded as the leading Nauruan teacher.

He followed a successful Admini stration scholarship course at Wolaroi College, Orange, NSW, by becoming the first Nauruan to gain an Aus tralian trained teacher’s certificate.

He was president of the Nauruan Teachers’ Federation as well as president of the Parents and Citizens Association of the Combined Primary School.

He is survived by a widow and four children.

Mr. A. W. Small News reached PIM in June of the death in Auckland on December 30 last year of Mr. A. W. Small, who served with the Fiji District Admini stration Department for 39 years from July, 1910.

Mr. Small died at St. Andrews Presbyterian Hospital at Glendowie, Auckland, after having been a patient for more than a year. He left a widow Dorothy, a son Tony, and a daughter Phyllis. A younger son David was drowned in Tonga.

Mrs. Ada Wilson Mrs. Ada Wilson, a pioneer of the tourist industry of Lord Howe Island, died on June 26. She was 80.

Born in Sydney, Mrs. Wilson went to Lord Howe Island in 1898 where she married Mr. G. C. Wilson in 1908.

Her husband and their eldest son.

Jack, disappeared in 1936 when sailing a boat for the tourist trade from Sydney to Lord Howe.

She and her husband started the Ocean View guest house in 1913, which is now being run by her eldest surviving son, Allen.

There are five other direct survivors —four daughters and one son.

Captain N. MacDonald

One of the fast-dwindling body of sea captains who got their masters tickets in the days of sail, Captain Norman MacDonald, doyen of Fijis private pilots, died in the Colonial War Memorial Hospital, Suva, on July 19 at the age of 74.

Born at Waipu, North Auckland, Mac, as he was popularly known, was one of the best known skippers in the South Pacific and had a host of stories about adventure at sea in two world wars.

Holder of his master’s ticket at 26 when he was skipper of a sailing ship, he fell in love with Fiji 40 years ago during his visits to the Colony as first officer of the famous Niagara. , , .

In the late twenties, Mac left the sea and became manager of a pine apple venture at Waidau on Ovalau.

But the venture foundered, and in 1932 he went back to sea as a pilot.

His services were always in great demand and he was probably the only man to be harbourmaster at Fiji’s three main ports, Suva, Levuka and Lautoka. .

His services were particularly valued at Lautoka during the war.

Mac’s funeral at Suva, the day after he died, was one of the largest for some time.