Deaths Of Islands People

Mr. Brian Johnson One of Australia’s greatest Rugby Union footballers, Brian Johnson, who retired from the game at 25 to run a coffee plantation at Goroka in the New Guinea highlands, died at Chuave, about 30 miles from Goroka, in July.

Mr. Johnson, who was 36, had entered the trucking field as a second business in recent months. It was while on a haulage job that he took ill and died.

Brian Johnson was educated at St.

Mary’s Cathedral School in Sydney where he played Rugby League, but it was to Rugby Union that he turned his sights when he left school.

He joined the Gordon club, quickly made first grade, and it was not long before he was playing representative football.

He represented Australia for the first time in 1952 against the first Fijian side to visit Australia. Later in the same season, he made the first of two trips to New Zealand with a Wallaby combination. He went with the Wallabies to South Africa the following year, where South Africa’s “Mr. Rugby”, Dr. Danie Craven, named him one of the two best Rugby Union lock forwards of all time.

Johnson toured New Zealand again in 1955, then went to Goroka as a coffee planter.

In Goroka, he resumed playing Rugby League, and led New Guinea on a number of occasions against Papua. He also led a combined Papua-New Guinea team against Cairns.

Brian Johnson left a lot of friends in the Territory. He was one of the reasons why many young native people are fanatics for Rugby. They all want to be Brian Johnsons. —Jim Huxley.

Dr. H. A. Tucker Dr. Harold A. Tucker, 50, Medical Services Director in American Samoa for the past year, died of a cerebral haemorrhage on July 23. He left a widow, Amelia, and four children: Valerie, 15; Pamela, 12; Beverly, 11; and Rex, 5.

Mrs. M. F. Southey Mrs. Myra Frontein Southey, a member of an old Fiji family, died at Hamilton in New Zealand on August 17, aged 84.

She was born at Levuka and married Mr. C. W. Southey, of the CSR Co. Ltd., Rarawai, where she spent her married life.

Mr. A. G. Giovanelli Mr. Arthur Gioseppe Giovanelli, licensee of the Hot Springs Hotel, Savusavu, Fiji, died on August 17, aged 61. He had been in indifferent health for some time.

Mr. Giovanelli went to Fiji in 1957 from Queensland to work for Burns Philp, and he later moved over to Cathay Hotels (Fiji) Ltd. as manager of the Grand Pacific Hotel.

In November, 1961, he took over the Hot Springs Hotel. Mr. Giovanelli took a keen interest in local affairs, and was active in the promotion of the tourist industry.

He is survived by a daughter in Australia.

Mr. Gordon McGeady Mr. Gordon McGeady, a member of an old Fiji family, died in New Zealand recently.

He was a launch and punt-owner for many years, supplying the build ing trade and local bodies with coral sand and coral blocks for building and road-making.

Mr. H. E. Berwick Mr. Harry Eyre Berwick, a des cendant of the high chiefs of Bau, Fiji, died at Levuka on August 24, aged 72.

His grandfather, an American, who had fought on the side of Ratu Cakobau before Cession, was given the liberty of choosing a wife from the royal court.

Mr. Harry Berwick was an • uncle of Ravuama Vunivalu, a prominent Fijian political figure and civil servant, who died in London in 1963.

He leaves a son, Samuel.

Mrs. Mary N. Lloyd

Mrs, Mary Nelmes Lloyd, of Norfolk Island, died in Norfolk Island Hospital on July 30. She had been ill for some time.

Her son Tom is editor and pub lisher of the Norfolk Islander.

Mrs. Catherine Cowie Mrs. Catherine Elizabeth Cowie, a former resident of Rotuma, Fiji, died in Devonport, New Zealand, on June 30. She was 93.

Mrs. Cowie spent her youth in Tonga, Fiji and Rotuma. She was first married to Mr. Henry E. Leefe, Resident Commissioner on Rotuma.

After Mr. Leefe’s death, she re turned with their infant son to New Zealand where she married the late Mr. Arthur Preston Cowie, youngest son of the late Bishop Cowie of Auckland.

Several stories on the Pacific written by Mrs. Cowie have appeared in PIM.

She leaves a sister, Mrs. Barring ton-Snow, and a brother, Mr. J. D.

Whitcombe—both of New Zealand.

Mr. E. M. Bastard Mr. Edwin Montague Bastard, a former Resident Magistrate in Papua, died at Wahroonga, NSW, on August 2. Aged 80, Mr. Bastard had been ill in hospital for some months.

He was an Englishman and first went to Papua in 1912 as a clerk for Burns Philp at Samarai. In 1913 he entered the Papuan Public Service as a clerk in the Magistrate’s Office in Port Moresby. He transferred to the “outside” service as a patrol officer about a year later.

In 1915 he was appointed Assistant Resident Magistrate for the East Central Division of Papua, with head quarters at Abau.

After World War I, Mr. Bastard was lent to the New Guinea Admini stration to instruct the “outside” officers in Papuan patrolling methods.

He resumed service in Papua a

Brian Johnson

year or two later; retired from the Public Service in 1932; and moved to Australia.

“Monty” Bastard was a well-known old-timer, who took an interest in New Guinea affairs up to his death and who had many friends.

He is survived by his wife.

Margaret.

Mrs. Margaret Jennings

Mrs. Margaret Jennings, head of the Jennings family which has owned Swains Island, American Samoa, for more than a century, died in the Hospital of American Samoa, Pago Pago, on August 2, She was 62.

Mrs. Jennings suffered a stroke on July 31 and was brought to Pago Pago the following day by the Coast Guard cutter Cape Providence.

Mrs. Jennings was born on November 21, 1903, in the Tokelau Islands. She was the widow of the late Alexander Eli Jennings, a des cendant of Eli Jennings, a whaler from New York, who sailed to Swains Island from Apia in 1856 with his Samoan wife.

Most of the 130 people now living on Swains Island are Tokelauans.

Mrs. Jennings is survived by four children—Eliza, of Guam; Wallace and Lily, of California; and David, of Pago Pago. Wallace and David run the family copra business on the island.