People

[R. R. S. Swift in December was L appointed Deputy Secretary of Australian Department of Terri ies, Canberra, a senior post which [ been vacant for some time, dr. Swift, 44, is well-known in islands as First Assistant Secretary the department, and Senior Aus ian Commissioner on the SPC. He ired the South Pacific Conference Lae in 1965, dr. Swift was with ANGAU in JG during the war, and from 1946 1952 a member of the New inea Production Control Board in t Moresby and Rabaul. dr. Swift will relinquish his duties h the SPC. Tipped to succeed him commissioner is Mr. John Ballard, the Department of Territories.

I Governor H. Rex Lee has been arded the Distinguished Service ard by the US Department of the srior for service to American noa. Part of the citation for the ard —the highest given by the de tment—reads: “In less than five rs, Mr. Lee has raised American noa from one of the most de ssed and disparaged communities ler the American flag to a level human decency which reflects dit upon the United States.” i Mr. George O. Gray, Ameri i Consul at Suva from 1961 to >5, has accepted a position as isultant with the International anomic Policy Association in ishington, DC. Mr. Gray retired m the foreign service in Sep iber, 1965. • Mr. M. J. Challons, Secretary the Tongan Government, returned Nukualofa in December after nding his overseas leave in Europe, file in England he visited the ices of Thomas de la Rue and who are producing the new ngan decimal currency notes. • Dr. J. A. L. Matheson, vice mcellor of Monash University, :toria, has been appointed chair n of the council of the P-NG In ute of Higher Technical Educa te following the death of Sir rbert Watkin.

O A Tucson, Arizona, banker. •. Mundy Johnston, will succeed •. James Flannery as assistant to ; Governor, H. Rex Lee, of nerican Samoa. Mr. and Mrs.

Johnston are expected at Pago Pago about January 15.

As assistant to the Governor, Mr.

Johnston will be in charge of all economic development in American Samoa. • The new Education Officer for Pitcairn Island for the next two years will be Mr. A, A. Reeves, at present assistant master of Arthur Street School, Dunedin, NZ. Experienced in scouting, social work, yachting, carpentry and choral work, Mr.

Reeves is expected to leave for the island in February with Mrs. Reeves and their 14-year-old son. • Mr. A. Sanft has been appointed manager of Tonga’s Government radio station, ZCO Nukualofa, for the next three years. He succeeds Mr. Roland Lavin. A New Zealand radio announcer, Mr. Sanft has worked in Wellington and Dunedin.

He was to leave Rotorua in De cember for Tonga with his wife and 13-year-old son, Elliott. • Associate Professor John R.

McCleary will retire as Executive Officer for Social Development to the South Pacific Commission in March this year. The commission has asked for new nominations for the post by January 30. • Mr. W. C. Dickinson, manag ing director of Ferrier and Dickin son Pty. Ltd., Sydney, marine engine specialists, has retired from that post but is being retained as technical and sales consultant. • American Samoa’s Territorial Secretary, Mr. Owen E. Aspinall, and Miss Taotafu Lutu, were married on December 24 at the Christian

Congregational Church, Pago Pago.

Miss Lutu has been secretary to Mr.

Aspinall since 1963. Daughter of High Chief and Mrs. S. A. Lutu, she took a business refresher at the Honolulu East-West Center in 1964. • The Rev. H. F. Peak, well known Presbyterian minister in Vila for several years, left the New Hebrides to return to Australia in early December. Another well-known figure in Vila to “go finish” about the same time was Mr. A. (Freddy) Fowler, Senior Education Officer in the British Service, who has returned to England. • Mr. Ted Costolloe, who has been with Burns Philp (SS) Co, Ltd.

Married in Sydney recently, and to live in Madang, NG, are Mr. James Soo, of Madang, and Miss Ruby Shek, of Hong Kong.— Photo: C. H. Meen.

Married at the Lutheran Church Mt Hagen, NG, recently, were Mr. Victor Bailey and Miss Nancy Kivori. Mr. Bailey comes from Bathurst, NSW, and his bride from Papua Also in the picture are bestman, Mr. Malcolm Morton, bridesmaid, Miss Robin Vincent and flower girl Christine O'Sullivan. — Photo: P. Watts.

in the Samoas for the past couple of years, moved to a new job with BP’s in Vila in December. He was reliev ing manager in Pago Pago for four months before his transfer, and was in Apia before that. 9 A 58-year-old grandmother and widow of a prominent Melbourne surgeon has left the comfort of her fashionable Toorak home to work for a year at an Anglican Mission station in one of New Guinea’s primitive Highland areas.

She is Mrs. Gladys Dahlenburg, whose home is in exclusive Boandyne Court, Toorak, Melbourne. She has just begun work at Simbai, which lies at 5,600 ft between the Schrader

and Bismarck Ranges in the Madang district.

The mission made its first baptisms among the primitive pygmy people there only last July. • Mr. Reid Cowell, in charge of the South Pacific Office, Suva, left Fiji about mid-December for leave on the Isle of Man before going to his new post as assistant to the Registrar of the Australian National University, Canberra. Mr. Cowell went to Fiji in 1942, and later served in other parts of the Pacific. • Mr. Olaf Ruhen, Sydney author (Minera Reef, Harpoon In My Hand, etc.) in January will begin a series

of visits to Fiji, New Hebrides, Nl Caledonia, the Solomons and Pap;i New Guinea on a special writi; project for an American organisatii • The Resident Commissioner the GEIC, Mr. V. J, Andersen, v return to the colony in April afl spending four months leave with wife and their two children in Nl Zealand. • Mr. R. L. Wales, super tendent of Canadian immigration Hong Kong, is due to visit the GE in January to examine the possiU ities of Gilbertese and Ellice Islandd with technical skills migrating Canada. • The former headmistress of t Adi Cakobau School in Fiji, Ml F. L. Charlton, has arrived Tarawa, GEIC, to take up appointment at the Elaine Bernac* School for Girls. Miss Charlton, c of the best-known educationists the South Pacific, retired from t Adi Cakobau school recently. • Mr. R. N. Hamilton, the fii Australian Commissioner in Fiji, w Mrs. Hamilton and family, left B on December 5 to return to At tralia. Mr, Hamilton is to take a new post in the Department External Affairs. Mr, Hamilt: arrived in Fiji early in 1964.

Mr. R. N. Birch, counsellor the Australian Embassy in Washin ton, has been appointed to succe Mr, Hamilton. He had previous served in New Delhi, Hong Koi Rangoon, Sukarnapura and Athei He is 39 and was educated at ti Armidale School of New Englaj University College. He is marrii and has two daughters. • Mr. F. M. Hewitt has joim the board of Commonwealth-Ne Guinea Timbers Ltd., Bulolo, place of Mr. J. W. Austin, who h resigned fof health reasons, to A. E. Gazzard has been elect] chairman of the board.