People

• Dr. Thor Heyerdahl, the Nor wegian archaeologist, who led the Kon Tiki raft expedition in 1947, visited New Zealand and Fiji re cently in the course of a world tour to inspect museums with holdings of Easter Island artifacts.

Dr. Heyerdahl said in Suva—accord ing to the Fiji Broadcasting Com mission—that discoveries by the Fiji Museum of ancient settlements in the Sigatoka Valley were altering the whole scientific concept of South- West Pacific history. He added that there was evidence to prove that voyagers who came on rafts from South America about 2,000 years ago, eventually reached the fringes of Fiji md New Zealand. These people pre :eded the Polynesians by more than i thousand years.

Dr. Heyerdahl thinks the Poly lesians came from Asia, crossing to 'forth America and then moving ;outhward to Hawaii, while the South Americans entered the Pacific Islands )y way of Easter Island. He has icarly completed 11 years of research >n Easter Island to find evidence to upport his ideas. • Mr. John Geoffrey Cowap has aken up the post of Official Secretary m Norfolk Island. He has succeeded ir. Gordon Williams, who left the sland on January 18 to take up an ppointment as administrative officer f the Mines Branch of Australia’s forthem Territory. • Local controllers for the P-NG 'ivil Defence and Emergency Ser ices have been appointed for Rabaul, Joroka, Wewak, Mt. Hagen and Lae. liey are: Messrs. H. W. West, Dis •ict Commissioner, New Britain Rabaul); M. B. Orken, Eastern High mds District Land Titles Com lissioner (Goroka); B. K. Leen, leputy District Commissioner, outh Sepik Division, Sepik District Vewak); S. M. Foley, Deputy Dis ict Commissioner, Western High mds District (Mt. Hagen); and W. J. uest, who is employed by New uinea Company Ltd., Lae, and is >ntroller for Lae. • Captain W. M. Reade has suc eded Captain E. H. Bullman, who tired recently from the position of neral manager of the Bank Line Australasia) Pty. Ltd. after 40 years’ rvice with that company. • Mr. B. A. Dye arrived in Vila, ew Hebrides, in mid-February from

the United Kingdom to take up the position of Superintendent of the British Residency’s Works Depart men t. He replaces Mr. George O’Brien, who has returned to Aus tralia. • Captain Eileen Steenson, one of the few women pilots in Papua-New Guinea, escaped injury when a Terri tory Airlines’ Cessna she was flying, crashed while landing at Omkalai, Eastern Highlands, on March 8, apparently because of wheel trouble.

The aircraft was carrying general cargo. Captain Steenson, who has been a qualified flying instructor for 16 years, only recently left a full-time teaching job at the Methodist Ladies' College, Kew, Victoria, to take on flying in the Territory. • Papua-New Guinea in March appointed three new District Com missioners following the creation, last October, of three new districts. It was not announced what districts the new men would have. They are Mr. E. G.

Hicks, Mr. K. W. Dyer and Mr.

D. J. Clancy. All are Deputy Dis trict Commissioners and their new appointments are provisional. • Mr. K. P. Glasson has been appointed manager in Papua-New Guinea of the Bank of New South Wales, and also manager of the Port Moresby branch of the bank. He previously served with the bank in Australia and Fiji.

• Mr. Morris Leslie Hegan has been appointed Secretary of the Cook Islands Premier’s Department for four years from January 5. Under the Cook Islands Constitution, the occupant of this position is the prin cipal administrative officer of the Cook Islands Government, head of the public service, secretary to Cabinet and Clerk of the Executive Council. • An Australian scientist, Mr.

Michael Tyler, has found 10 species of frogs previously unrecorded in the New Britain area. Mr. Tyler is from the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Ade laide, and is honorary Curator of Reptiles and Amphibians at the South Australian Museum. • In Sydney on their honeymoon recently were Mr. and Mrs. Fred Chow, of Rabaul, New Guinea. Mrs.

Chow was formerly Miss Margaret Hamilton, a Rabaul pre-school teacher. The couple were married in Kavieng, where Mr. Chow’s mother lives. • The Very Rev. H. W. Figgess, Dean of Holy Trinity Cathedral and Rector of Suva, has resigned. The Dean arrived in Fiji in 1948 as Rector of Holy Trinity Parish in Suva. He was appointed Vicar-General in 1960 and Dean in 1963. His resignation is effective from the end of this year. • Mr. J. V, Verran, of the Ministry of Aviation in Britain, has been appointed Controller of Trans port and Civil Aviation in Fiji. Mr.

Verran, who is 50, was bom in New Zealand. He had a distinguished record in the RAF during the war serving as a squadron leader on bomber operations and was awarded the DFC and bar. He joined the

NEWS MAN: The information services of the Western Pacific High Commission area have had a new look since the recent arrival in Honiara of Mr. David Tudor-Pole, above, as Chief Information Officer. The services will be further extended under Mr. Tudor-Pole.

Mr. Hegan

Ministry of Aviation in London in 1947. His experience since then in cludes five years in Cyprus as Chief Operations Officer and two years with the International Civil Aviation Organisation as adviser to the Somali Republic. • Inoke Tabualevu, a Rugby ffayer, cricketer, tennis, basketball md squash player has been chosen Fiji’s sportsman of the year. Ana a leading woman athlete, las been selected Sportswoman of the fear. The two were chosen by a :ommittee selected by the Fiji Amateur Sports Association. • Mr. William Edward Rimmell, ►f Pennsylvania, has been appointed Superintendent of the Publications )ffice, Saipan, in the United States 'rust Territory of the Pacific Islands. • Mr. David Saunders, Senior in the Department of Archi ;cture, Melbourne University, visited forfolk Island in March to inspect le island’s convict-built structures nd explore the possibility of bring ig a group of some 20 students to le island later in the year to do neasured drawings” of the old build igs as part of their training. • Mr. W. G. (Tui) Johnson, chair an and managing director of W. R. arpenter and Co. (Fiji) Ltd., married [iss Joan Money, of Sydney and abaul, at an early morning ceremony Nadi Airport on March 8. The can of Suva, the Very Rev. H. W. ggess, flew from Suva to officiate, r. Johnson’s first wife died about r o years ago. • An American entomologist, Dr.

L. Gressitt, arrived in Papua-New Limea in March for four months’ search into insects at Wau. Dr. ressitt is chairman of the En mology Department of the Bishop useum, Honolulu, and holder of 2 L. A. Bishop Distinguished Chair

of Zoology. He has been in the Territory several times before.

Dr. Gressitt is working in close co operation with the Senior Govern ment Entomologist, Dr. J. J. H.

Szent-Ivany. For more than 10 years they have been working on a book listing all references to insects in the Territory. About 5,000 references will be included in the book which is expected to be published at the end of the year. • The New Zealand Ombudsman, Sir Guy Powles, visited Apia in early March while on his way to New Zealand from Canada. Sir Guy has been lecturing on the functions of an Ombudsman at the invitation of the Canadian Government. Before his appointment as Ombudsman, Sir Guy was High Commissioner of Western Samoa from 1949 to 1960, then High Commissioner for New Zealand in India from 1960 to 1962. • Mr. John Grover addressed a meeting in Honiara on March 7, aimed at reviving the British Solo mons Islands Society which was formed originally in 1951. A postal ballot is to be conducted among former members of the society and those potentially interested. Mr. W.

I. Laing has been appointed interim secretary-treasurer. • Dr. John R. McCreary, Associate Professor in the Depart ment of Social Science at the Vic toria University, Wellington, has been appointed Executive Officer for Social Development in the South Pacific Commission. Dr. McCreary, who is married with three children, was born in 1920. A graduate of the University of New Zealand, he began his career as a school teacher.

Dr. McCreary took over his new post in Noumea in March from Dr.

Richard Seddon, who had been the SPC’s top man in Social Develop ment since 1957. Dr. Seddon is mov ing to an academic job in the Uni versity of Canterbury at Christchurch, NZ.

The SPC at its 28th session in Noumea last October passed a resolution recording its “high appreciation” of Dr. Seddon’s “dis tinguished services to the Commission and the territories” and regretting that he would not remain in his position until the next session. • A former Governor of Fiji, Sir Ronald Garvey, who has been Lieut.-Governor of the Isle of Man since he left Fiji in 1958, is to retire to England soon, according to one of our Manxmen friends in the Islands, Mr. Doug. Askew, of

Samarai. Mr. Askew tells us that Sir Ronald plans to grow asparagus in England on his retirement. • Mr. P. J. Keenan, an advocate from Dundee. Scotland, arrived in the BSIP recently to become Crown Counsel. His duties will include drafting ordinances for the BSIP Legislative Council. • Dr. Guy Loison, the dynamic and plain-spoken Executive Officer for Health in the South Pacific Com mission, visited Wellington in March for discussions on health matters.

Interviewed by the Wellington Dominion, Dr. Loison, a Frenchman, said characteristically that after tuberculosis and malaria, tourism was one of the biggest health problems in the South Pacific today.

“Tourism breeds urbanisation, and urbanisation breeds alcoholism, prostitution and a mental health problem,” he said. Dr. Loison added that this year the SPC would be forced to seriously tackle mental health problems in the Islands arising from increased urbanisation. • Dr. Victor A. M. Beerman, representative in Sydney of the UNICEF Technical Assistance Board, was to begin a 10-day visit to Papua-New Guinea on March 24 to obtain information on current and possible future international aid programmes. Port Moresby, Rabaul, Lae, Bulolo and Goroka were on his itinerary.

Sir Ronald Garvey

POLICE CHIEF: Inspector J. C. Wood mansey has recently taken up his new appointment of Director of Police on Nauru. Inspector Woodmansey is well known in Papua-New Guinea where he was a senior inspector with the Royal Papua-New Guinea Constabulary from 1948 to 1958.