People

• Mrs. Lapati Halepaka is the jwly-appointed Women’s Interest fficer in Niue. She will work on a irt-time basis under the Community evelopment Officer in the new ommunity Development Office hich is to be set up soon in the dministration Centre. Mrs. Hale ika’s main function will be to act liaison between women’s organisa ms and the Government. She has d nursing experience and had ken a Home Economics course in iva and is therefore considered an ;al choice for the job. • Mr. Dwight Heine of the arshall Islands has resigned as eaker of the General Assembly of ; Trust Territory of the Pacific ands to take up a new position District Administrator of the arshalls District, • Mr. Harry Bitmead, who has J 26 years in the Public Service in pua—-13 years in the Department Public Health and the last 13 as schoolteacher —retired recently to ;stern Australia. In August, 1942, was one of a small number of stralians captured in Papua fol ding the Japanese landing at Buna. ; captors tied him to a tree for hours after making frequent eats to shoot him. Mr. Bitmead ntually escaped by slipping the •es which bound him. He suf ed great privations in the bush il he was found by the present trict Commissioner, Southern 'hlands, Mr. D. R. Marsh, then uernber of Angau. Mr. Bitmead 1955 published a text book Rules Health, which is being used ex sively in Territory schools. > Former New Guinea old hand : Feldt is taking things slowly in Chelmer, Brisbane home, follow a recent severe bout of illness, ch took him to hospital. Among recent visitors was Mr. Jack Read *abaul, who called while en route lapan by ship. Mr. Feldt is cur tly negotiating for a British re it, in paperback form, of his war -5 story of The Coast Watchers. ► It’s not often that proud parents ie their children after their )urite public servant. Mrs. Ketty i, wife of Councillor Arapana

Purupuru, president of Teop-Tinputz Local Government Council, Bougain ville, recently presented her husband with a baby boy, who has been named Clancy, after popular Aus tralian Deputy District Commissioner Desmond Clancy. • The Western Samoan Society of Accountants which was formed at the end of 1959 recently conducted a graduation ceremony to admit to membership the first five graduates from courses conducted within Samoa. The graduates were Mrs.

Kelemete and Messrs. Daniel Betham, Joseph Hunter, Anetipa Lam Sam, and Vili Simati. • Winner of the 1965 Lux Pacific Island Golf Trophy is Mrs. Mona Bailey, of the Apia Golf Club, with 44 stableford points. She is the first Apia woman to take the prize. 350 entrants took part from 18 island groups this year. Three women tied for second place, one point behind Mrs. Bailey. They were Mrs. D.

Bourke, of Popondetta, Papua, Mrs.

J. Johnson, of Ba, Fiji, and Mrs. V.

Watter, of Port Moresby. Mrs. J.

Hopcraft, of Suva, was third with 42 points. • The Commonwealth Chief Scout, Sir Charles Maclean, visited the British Solomons in November.

It was the first visit of a Chief Scout to the Protectorate. A packed pro gramme of engagements faced Sir Charles, at a ceremoney in Honiara he presented the Medal of Merit to Major Geoffrey Bovey for the work he has done in the Protectorate as Scout Commissioner. • With the arrival of Miss M.

Leavy to join the WHO staff in the Solomon Islands, the total of per manent WHO representatives there is brought to five. Miss Leavy comes from Ireland. • Mr. R. Bingle, of Norfolk Island, is the prime mover behind a project to establish a Norfolk Island Museum to preserve links with the island’s past. Other historically minded residents are pressing on with plans for a local historical society. • American Samoa’s “most popular bachelor”, Mr. Jim Flannery, special assistant to the Governor, lost one of his titles in November when he married Australian Miss Betsy Jenkinson in Pago Pago. Mr.

Flannery has been in Samoa seven years, first as Government Auditor.

• Don Lane, widely known throughout the South Seas as sec retary of the Fiji Visitors Bureau, has been appointed managing direc tor of Stardust Cruise, Lautoka, and has resigned from the Bureau. Acting as secretary is Mr. Herbert Marlow. • The BSIP Chief Secretary, Mr.

L. M. Davies, operated the pile driver which drove the last pile of Honiara’s big new wharf into the seabed at Point Cruz on November 20. The entire £220,000 project is expected to be completed by Christ mas. The wharf is 210 ft long and will enable ships to work two hatches. • Mr. R. S. Leydin, Administrator of Nauru, is to retire in February.

An announcement was made in Canberra in November by the Minister for Territories, Mr. C. E.

Barnes, who paid high tribute to Mr. Leydin’s work in the Islands.

Mr. Leydin was Administrator of Nauru from 1954-8. and was ap pointed again from 1962. In the intervening four years he was Admi nistrator of Norfolk Island.

Mr. Leydin’s retirement is ob viously timed to follow the establish ment and official opening of a Nauru Legislative Council, at the end of January. Many distinguished visitors will be on Nauru for the opening.

Mr. Barnes also paid tribute to Mrs. Leydin, who has been active in community affairs in the Islands.

The new Chief Justice of American Samoa, Mr. H. Edward Hyden, has taken up his post in Pago Pago, Mr. Hyden formerly an attorney with the US Interior Departments Solicitor's Office, replaces retiring Chief Justice Arthur A. Morrow.