Deaths Of Islands People

Pastor G. Stewart Pastor George Graham Stewart, ne of the first Seventh-day Adventist ussionaries in Tonga, died in Syd ey on July 5, aged 91.

He was born in Victoria in 1875, nd went to Tonga with his wife, velyn, in 1911 as superintendent f the SDA church.

While in Tonga he adopted an ight-year-old Nukualofa boy, John 'amea, and took him to New Zea ind and then Australia. Kamea is ow a teacher in Fiji.

Pastor Stewart left Tonga in 1914 nd spent his life working for his in New Zealand and Australia, le retired in 1959.

He was the brother of Pastor „. G. Stewart, who is well known i the South Pacific for his pioneering ork for the Adventists.

The late Pastor Stewart is survived y his wife and six of his eight lildren.

Professor A. J. Marshall Professor Alan John (“Jock”) larshall, an Australian naturalist ho extensively explored and wrote vo books about the New Hebrides nd New Guinea, died in hospital in lelbourne in late July. He was 56.

Professor Marshall was world mowned as an authority on bird life nd as an advocate of the conserva on of wildlife, particularly in Aus alia.

Born in Sydney in 1911, he lost his ft arm at 16 when a shotgun ex loded accidentally, but managed to 0 very well without it.

After studying at Sydney Uni ersity, he gained a place in an Oxford University expedition to the few Hebrides, which spent 12 lonths in 1933-34 studying the ondominium’s birds, animals, rep les and people. Marshall then wrote he Black Musketeers, one of the few jcent books on the territory.

In 1936, Professor Marshall 'alked over extensive areas of north ast New Guinea, and crossed into >utch New Guinea. This gave him laterial for another book, The Men nd Birds of Paradise.

Other pre-war activities included trip to the Arctic with an Aus ian scientific expedition, study at ►xford, and further study at Sydney fniversity, where he gained a degree 1 zoology and physiology.

Rejected by the Australian Army t the outbreak of World War 11, rofessor Marshall joined the Army Education Service and subsequently

became Australia’s only one-armed infantryman.

After the war, he went to England and the United States to study and work at Oxford and London Univer sities, Yale, and the University of California.

He returned to Australia in 1959 to become foundation professor of zoology and comparative physiology at Monash University, Melbourne.

In 1962, in collaboration with the artist Russell Drysdale, Professor Marshall wrote Journey Among Men, about the Australian outback {PIM, Dec., 1962, p. 93). It is probably his best-known book, Ratu Timoci Vosailagi Ratu Timoci Vosailagi, the Na Ka Levu, Tui Nadroga (The Great, and King of Nadroga), died on July 14, at the Government Station, Lawaqa, Sigatoka, Fiji, aged 83. He had been ill for about a year.

He became a farmer in his own province of Nadroga, and tilled his lands for more than 50 years. Cane was his chief crop.

Occasionally he served in an active capacity in the Fijian Administration.

Ratu Timoci, who was awarded the MBE for outstanding public ser vice, was an influential member of the Council of Chiefs.

One of his sons, Ratu Imanueli Louvatu Vosailagi, graduated as a dentist at Otago University, NZ, and became Government Dental Surgeon in Fiji.

Another son, Ratu Aisea Wakani molikula, is a director of South Pacific Sugar Mills Ltd., one is a farmer, and a fourth is a Govern ment official.

Ratu Timoci also leaves a widow, and a daughter.

Mr. W. J. Clapham Mr. W. J. Clapham who served two terms in Fiji for the Bank of New Zealand, died at Whangarei, North Auckland, on July 8, aged 68.

He entered the bank’s service in 1914, and was posted to Suva as accountant in 1932, staying there for eight years.

His second posting to Fiji was in 1955, when he went to Lautoka as branch manager. He left Lautoka in 1959 to retire.

Ratu P. E. Seniloli Ratu Popi Epeli Seniloli, great grandson of Ratu Cakobau who ceded Fiji to Great Britain, died at Suva on July 1, aged 55. He was para mount chief of Naitasiri Province and

held the title of qaranivalu (leader or great chief of the people of Naita siri).

Ratu Popi was a teacher for some years before joining the Fijian Pro vincial Administration.

In World War II he was a recruit ing officer in Naitasiri before being commissioned in the Ist Battalion, Fiji Labour Corps.

When he rejoined the Fijian Ad ministration he worked with the late Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna in the difficult task of amalgamating provinces and tribes under the one roko (adminis trative head).

He left a widow.

Mr. Frank Ryan Mr. Frank Ryan, who died in Suva on July 6, aged 68, was one of Fiji’s best-known and best-liked “characters”.

A journalist by profession, he seemed to know everybody in Suva; everybody seemed to know him.

Frank was born in New Zealand and started his journalistic career there with the Timaru Herald , and later with the Auckland Sun.

When the Auckland Sun ceased publication in the early 1930’5, Frank went to Suva to work for The Fiji Times, then known as The Fiji Times and Herald. He married Miss Molly Barker (now Mrs. R. Cell), who was the daughter of Sir Alport Barker, then owner of The Fiji Times.

Although a good general reporter, his first loves were Rugby football (he was a South Canterbury represent ative in NZ) and music, and he wrote with authority on these subjects. He also knew much about boxing.

Frank gave up journalism late in the 1930’s to become secretary of the Fiji Tourist Bureau. Later he was secretary of the Fiji Golf Club and Defence Club. In World War II he played a prominent part in the civil defence organisation in Fiji, and for his services he was awarded the MBE.

In 1951, Frank returned to New Zealand to work for the Dominion in Wellington, but he soon found that, after 20 years in the tropics, the NZ winters were too severe for him.

So he went back to Fiji and took up part-time duties with The Fiji Times. He also engaged in feature writing for overseas publications, in cluding PIM, drawing on his vast knowledge of the colony to get his message across.

Frank Ryan could have achieved much more if it had not been for what The Fiji Times, in a warm editorial tribute following his death, described as “personal failings which made him in some ways his own enemy.” (Over)

But that was the life he made, and it is a significant comment on the man that he had no other enemies.

In the heat of a Fiji summer even ing Frank would go for a stroll along the main streets of Suva, often tak ing time off to rest on a seat under a huge ivi tree in the Triangle.

There he would chat happily to Fijian or Indian friends, and nod to passing motorists.

Another favourite haunt was the “big bowl”, a yaqona bowl in a junk yard near the main gates of Suva wharf, open to all and sundry.

Round this bowl Frank kept in touch with what was happening “on the beach”, and was often in a posi tion to forecast weeks beforehand matters which were “deadly secret”.

Frank was the original “Man on the Beach” in The Fiji Times, the forerunner of the paper’s present column, “Flotsam and Jetsam, with the Beachcombers”.

Right up till his death, pungent items from his pen appeared in the column, and to the trained eye it was fairly easy to pick out those he wrote, for he had his own style and his own way of getting his point across.

Frank’s memory will live on for many years.—HNß.

Mr. M. M. Narsey Mr. Maganlal Motiram Narsey, a prominent Suva businessman, died at Suva on June 15, aged 51, after a long illness.

He was managing director of Narseys Ltd., Narhari Electrical Co., Narhari Footwear Distributing Co. and Hazrat Trading Co.

Mr. Narsey was a member of the Suva Rotary Club and had served on the board of the Fiji Visitors Bureau. He was once president of the Suva Indian Chamber of Com merce, and was a member of the Labour Advisory Board.

He leaves a widow, three sons and two daughters.

Mr. M. S. Buksh Mr. Mirza Salim Buksh, a former Fiji MLC and civil servant, died at Lautoka on July 27, aged 83. He was born in Madras and went to Fiji in 1910 as a clerk and interpreter.

He served in many parts of Fiji in the Supreme Court and as a revenue officer, clerk of the court, and repatriation officer.

He retired in 1939, but was re employed by the Government during the war. He was a nominated MLC from 1947 to 1949.

Mr. Buksh left a widow, three sons and three daughters.

Prince Eric Salmon The death occurred at his home at Paea, Tahiti, on July 17 of Prince Eric Taaroa Temanaha Salmon, a direct descendant of the royal Pomare family of Tahiti and of King Tamatoa, of Raiatea. He was 56.

The late prince left a widow. Mat a Tauatito, and two children, Princ Tua Teoariiterai and Princess Moe< wife of a French industrialist, M: Francis Bardon de Perpessac, of Pari: Mr. Robert Johnson Mr. Robert (Bob) Johnson, popular photographer and artist o Rarotonga for the past six years, die suddenly at his home at Tupapa o July 15. He was 50.

Mr. Johnson’s work appeared man times in PIM, the Cook Islands Nen and Cook Islands Review, and moi of it will be seen in the Natiom Geographic Magazine.

In early July, he made a cine fill of the visit of the Duke and Duches of Kent to Rarotonga for the Coo Islands Government.

Mr. Johnson was born in Shanghi of British parents and was educate at Shanghai University. He learne to speak French and Chinese fluently He joined the Indian Army as private, became a member of Ir telligence, and rose to the rank c lieutenant-colonel during World Wa 11.

After 15 years’ service, he wa demobilised in London and emigrate to Canada.

When the Korean War broke ou] he was pressured into joining th Canadian Army as a captain in In telligence because of his knowledg of Chinese.

During his civilian career, Mi Johnson was at various times ii Canada and the US working as ; builder and contractor, a large-seal pheasant farmer, a magazine editoi and an advertising manager.

He went to Rarotonga six year ago and became a professional photo grapher. As a sideline he painte< portraits and, for relaxation, he col lected shells, went skin-diving an< played chess.

Mr. Johnson left a widow, Margot and a son by a previous marriage.

Mr. William C. Groves Mr. William C. Groves, a forme: Director of Education in Papua-Nev Guinea, and Nauru, died in Londoi on July 11. He was 68.

Mr. Groves, who had been on i visit to Europe with his wife since March, collapsed at the end of June and was in hospital for two week: before he died.

Born in Ballarat, Victoria, he en listed in the Australian Infantry Forces in World War I when he was 16 and became the youngest sergeant ever to serve in those forces. He saw action in France, was taken prisonei

Villecourt, and was only 21 when got back to Australia.

Mr. Groves then joined the Vic ian Education Department and ob ned a Bachelor of Arts degree in jart-time course at Melbourne Uni 'sity.

He was seconded for educational rk in New Guinea in 1922-26, er which he was a lecturer on the ff of the Melbourne Teachers’ liege; and lecturer on Pacific fairs at the Melbourne University tension Board, In 1931, after a course in social tropology at Sydney University, returned to New Guinea to carry special anthropological work Jer a Research Fellowship of the stralian National Research Coun and remained there until 1934. was back in the territory on an icr fellowship in 1936. [n 1937, Mr. Groves was ap nted Director of Education at uru; and at the end of a two-year m, he carried out a survey of ication for the British Govern nt in the Solomon Islands.

During the war, he served with the my Education Unit in New Guinea, 1 immediately afterwards was ap nted Director of Education in the ritory. He held that post until his irement in 1958.

From then on he was engaged in earch for the Australian National

University and in lecturing for the Victorian Education Department.

The P-NG Administrator, Mr.

David Hay, said in July that Mr.

Groves contributed much to the territory. He was a member of the P-NG Legislative Council from its inception in 1951 to his retirement.

Mr. Groves assisted in the forma tion of the South Pacific Commission and later became a member of the Commission’s Research Council. An enthusiastic worker for scouts he helped re-establish the movement in the territory after World War 11.

When Mr. Groves first went to the territory in the 1920’s he taught at schools in Kokopo and Malaguna, New Britain. Later he did research in anthropology in New Ireland and Finschhafen.

Mr, Groves left a widow, two daughters and a son. The son is Dr. Murray Groves, at present Pro fessor of Sociology at the University of Singapore, who is well known in New Guinea for his anthropological studies.

Vice-Admiral C. A. Lockwood Vice-Admiral Charles A, Lockwood, who commanded his first submarine at the age of 24 and who directed US submarine operations in the Pacific in World War 11, died in Cali fornia in June aged 77,