People

MR. J. G. SOUNESS, who has been general manager of the Bank of New Zealand since 1962, and with the bank for 49 years, will retire on January 31. The new general manager will be Mr. J. F. Earnshaw, the assistant general manager. Mr.

B. H. Smith will become deputy general manager. • Mr. G, D. Clarkson, QC, of Perth, has been appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of Papua- New Guinea. Mr. Clarkson who is 50, served in the AIF from 1941 to 1945 in New Guinea and elsewhere.

During this time he attained the rank of major and was mentioned in despatches. He practised as a solicitor in Kalgoorlie until 1948 when he moved to Perth. In 1963 he began to practise as a barrister and was appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 1965.

Mr. Clarkson is married with three children. • Mr. R. H. T. Beaumont, Fiji’s Commissioner of Police since 1956, will leave Fiji on pre-retirement leave in February. He will be succeeded by Mr. R. T. M. Henry, Com missioner of Police in Sarawak.

Mr. Henry, 39, was educated in Scotland and at Manchester Uni versity, joined the British Army in 1945, and served in Palestine as a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers.

He joined the Malayan Police as a cadet in 1948 and rose to the rank of assistant superintendent. In 1956 he transferred to the Sarawak Police as a deputy superintendent and was subsequently promoted superinten dent, senior superintendent and finally commissioner. © American Samoa’s “handyman”, Mr. James C. Flannery, left the territory with his wife Betsy in October to return to the United States. Mr. Flannery, who was origin ally the territory’s auditor, arrived in Pago Pago some eight years ago.

He was later Director of Administra tive Services and Special Assistant to the Governor. Mr. Flannery was Acting Governor when the hurricane struck Samoa in January. © The British Resident Com missioner in the New Hebrides, Mr.

C. H. Allan, and the French Resident Commissioner, Mr. J. Mouradian, flew to Santo to inaugurate the first meeting of the new Santo Advisory Town Council on October 6.

Co-presidents of the new council are the British and French District Agents. There are three official members, seven elected members and three nominated members. Official members are the Condominium District Medical Officer, Dr. Le Hanaff, the District Engineer, Mr.

Pommadere, and the Collector of Customs, Mr. Michel. The elected and nominated members include representatives of the British, French, Chinese, Tahitian and New Hebridean communities.

The council will advise the District Agents on matters of interest to the town, © An exhibition of about 80 paintings and sketches by a 26-year old Tongan, William Pomale, was opened in the New Zealand Display Centre, Wellington, in early Novem ber. The artist, who was sent to New Zealand 3i years ago by the Tongan Government to study plumbing and roofing, has been sketching since he was six years old, and is almost entirely self-taught.

He is due to return to Tonga next May. The Tongan Government is interested in acquiring some of his work for a proposed art gallery and museum. • Mr. Denys Hibbert has arrived in Honiara to take up the post of Chief Education Officer in the BSIP.

He replaces Major Geoffrey Bovey who returned to England in October after 10 years’ service. Mr. Hibbert has spent most of his career in the Sudan, He was later headmaster of Portsmouth Grammar School for 10 years, and recently served as adviser on education to the ruler of Abu Dhabi, in the Trucial Oman (Persian Gulf). • Dr. Elizabeth Knowles, who has been in charge of the family planning clinic at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Fiji for several years, has been appointed Medical Secretary to the Medical Committee of the International Planned Parent hood Federation. She will take up her new appointment in London in January, © Mr. P. L. Molineaux, Chief Justice of Western Samoa since 1962, has been appointed a Stipendiary Magistrate in Christchurch, New Zealand. © Mr. Tom Richards, who has been appointed manager of the Nauru Co-operative, has an Islands back ground. He lived in Tahiti in the thirties for two years, and with his wife, “Darby”, he spent four years in the Cooks after World War 11.

with A. B. Donalds. They made another visit to the Cooks, for six months, in 1961. They are close friends of Mr. W. N. Allison, Nauru’s Director of Education, and Mrs. Allison. The Richards have operated general stores in Australia, including Thursday Island, and in recent years have been managing motels in New South Wales and Queensland. They plan to arrive in Nauru in the Triaster in December. • Dr. K. R. McKinnon, 35, is Papua-New Guinea’s new Director of Education. He succeeds Mr. L. W.

Johnson, who was recently appointed P-NG Assistant Administrator (Services). Dr. McKinnon went to the territory in 1954, and since 1962 has been Superintendent of Schools.

He gained his doctorate in Education at Harvard University last year.

Meanwhile Mr. R. C, Ralph, 58, has retired as P-NG’s Chief of Primary Education after 18 years with the department, and he and his wife will live in Sydney. They have a son and a daughter schoolteaching in the territory. • Visiting Sydney from Melbourne in November were Mr, and Mrs. lan Grabowsky. Mr. Grabowsky is a pioneer New Guinea pilot and in recent years has been collecting material for a history of Papua-New Guinea aviation, under the sponsor ship of the Australian Department of Civil Aviation. The big task is almost completed, but there are no plans to publish the material. • Another New Guinea old hand, Goya Henry, came out of Manly District Hospital, Sydney, in Nov ember after a long spell there, but is still restricted to crutches.

Mr. Molineaux, Chief Justice of Western Samoa, who has been appointed to a new post in New Zealand.