Deaths Of Islands People

Rev. J. E. Owen The Rev. J. E. Owen, a missionary in Vila, New Hebrides, from 1955 to 1960, and a member of the New Hebrides Advisory Council during that time, died in Warrnambool, Victoria, on May 3.

Mr. Owen, who was born in Williamstown, Victoria, was a minister in the Presbyterian Church at Gardiner, Melbourne, from 1934 to 1955, He was Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Victoria in 1951-52.

On his return to Australia, Mr.

Owen was posted to Warrnambool.

He leaves a widow and two married daughters.

Mr. R. B. Sharma Mr. Raj Bali Sharma, who died at Nadi recently at the age of 79, went to Fiji under the indenture system in 1909 and remained to become a leader of his community in North-West Viti Levu.

After working in the sugar in dustry. Mr. Sharma became a teacher at the Votualevu Indian School, Nadi, a position to which he was well suited because he could speak Hindustani, Sanskrit, English and Urdu.

Later he turned to farming and preaching, and was active in the work of an Indian association.

He is survived by eight sons.

Mrs. S. Vollmer Mrs. Suliana Vollmer, who died at Levuka, Fiji, on April 30, aged 80, was born at Nomuka, Tonga, but lived most of her life in Fiji.

Formerly Suliana Latu, she married Rudolf Vollmer, of German descent, and son of a Levuka pioneer.

Except for short periods when Mr. Vollmer was a copra plantation manager on other islands, they lived most of their life at Levuka. She was one of Levuka’s leading hostesses.

Mrs. Vollmer, a great-great-great grandmother, left three daughters and four sons. Her husband died about 10 years ago.

Sister Marie Antoine A Roman Catholic missionary, who devoted 64 years of her life to the native people of New Caledonia, died m Noumea in May at the age of 90. She was Sister Marie Antoine, the oldest member of her order, the Societe Missionaire de Marie.

Sister Marie Antoine arrived in

New Caledonia at the age of 26 and spent 22 years at the mission on Ouvea in the Loyalty Group, and 33 years at Touaroua mission in New Caledonia’s Yate district.

Mr. S. K. Kewal Mr. Shri Krishan Kewal, well known Suva bus proprietor, died on May 18, aged 38, after a heart attack.

An enterprising businessman, Mr.

Kewal built Island Buses into a flourishing company which operated in the thickly populated areas of Suva, Nausori and Raralevu. He served several terms as president of the Bus Transport Union.

He is survived by Mrs. Kewal, three sons and two daughters.

Senator Oren Long Senator Oren Ethelbirt Long, a former Governor of Hawaii and senior commissioner for the United States on the South Pacific Com mission in 1963, died at his home in Honolulu on May 6 at the age of 76.

At his funeral, he was referred to in a eulogy as “Hawaii’s first citizen”; and a telegraphic tribute from Pre sident and Mrs. Lyndon Johnson stated that he was a kindly man who devoted his whole life to serving others and who opened the doors of opportunity for thousands of people.

Senator Long was born in Altoona, Kansas. In 1912, after obtaining degrees from Johnson College, Ten nessee, the University of Michigan and University of Columbia, he moved to Hawaii as a high school teacher.

From 1925 to 1934, he was assistant superintendent of Public Instruction, and superintendent from 1934 to 1946.

From 1946 to 1951, he was secre tary to the Territory of Hawaii; for the next two years he was the terri tory’s Governor; from 1956 to 1959, he was a senator for the territory and from 1959 to 1963—Hawaii hav ing become a US State—he was Hawaii’s representative in the US Senate.

Senator Long leaves a widow formerly Geneva Rule, of Knoxville,’

Tennessee.

Captain E. D. Potts Captain Edward Dickinson Potts Harbourmaster at Madang, died in the Madang General Hospital on May 17 after collapsing on board the Aus tralian trade ship Sletholm the previ ous evening. Captain Potts, who was

67, went to Papua-New Guinea 10 years ago.

Born in Liverpool, Captain Potts was a survivor of the war-time con voys to Murmansk in northern Russia.

He leaves a widow, two sons and a daughter.

Mrs. R. L. Acraman Mrs. Rachel Lily Acraman, a descendant of a pioneer European family in Fiji, died in Auckland on May 12, aged 60.

Mrs. Acraman was the daughter of the late John and Ida Driver, of Gaunibuca Estate. One of her ancestors was the American master mariner Captain William Driver, in whose honour the United States flag was called “Old Glory”.

She went to live in Auckland in 1963, after the death of her husband.

She is survived by three sons and three daughters.

Sgt. John Tangisapa

Sergeant John Tangisapa, a well known member of the Solomons Island Police, died in Honiara on April 28. He had been the police officer attached to Government House and driver of the High Com missioner’s car for over 10 years.

He accompanied the High Com missioner on almost all official tours, and made many friends throughout the Western Pacific High Commis sion territories.

Sgt. Tangisapa, who came from Kia, on Ysabel, joined the police force about 1927. During the war, he was a corporal in the Defence Force, working for much of the time with Mr. Geoffrey Kuper at Tataba.

When two Ysabel men of some standing in the community defected to the Japanese, Tangisapa was sent to the Japanese camp at Tulagi to look for them. He paddled a canoe from Ysabel to Gela, went to Tulagi, and made his way into the camp selling vegetables. He found one of the wanted men, and arrested him at night, bringing him out of the camp and later delivering him to Major D. G. Kennedy at Sege, in the Marovo Lagoon, In 1947 Tangisapa rejoined the police force; and in 1954 he was promoted to the rank of sergeant.