People

• Mr. lan Nicholson, Australian consul in Noumea for the past three years, returned to Canberra in December after completing his term of office in New Caledonia. The new consul is Mr. A. C. Wilson, a 30-year-old bachelor and Bachelor of Arts, who has been with the Australian Department of External Affairs for the past five years. After graduating from University College, Newcastle, Mr. Wilson was a teacher with the Ministry of Education in France for three years from 1958 to 1961. He was a member of Aus tralia’s mission to the United Nations in New York from 1963 to 1966. • Mr. Joseph W. Goss, 42, of Terre Haute, Indiana, arrived in American Samoa at the end of November to replace Mr. Virgil Rod as associate justice of the High Court of American Samoa. Mr. Goss held a similar post in the High Court of the US Trust Territory at Majuro, Marshall Islands. • Mr. K. G. Crellin has been appointed managing director of the Papua and New Guinea Develop ment Bank. Mr. Crellin will take up the appointment on February 1, following the resignation of the bank’s first managing director, Mr.

L. K. Cameron, on medical advice.

Mr. Crellin is a senior executive of the Australia and New Zealand Bank Ltd. where he has worked since 1937. He is at present manager of the Moonee Ponds (Victoria) branch of the bank. • December was a red-letter month for a Fiji-Indian woman, Mrs.

Kamalesvaran, now of Sydney. Early in the month one of her brothers, Mr. M. Tikaram, became the first locally born man to sit as a judge in the Supreme Court of Fiji. And a few days later, she was present for the premiere in Sydney of the Aus tralian film Journey out of Darkness • Mrs. Jorgen Petersen, Danish wife of a UN pottery expert

currently helping New Guineans

to develop a pottery industry,

made this attractive picture for Jim Anderson's camera after a swim recently on the beach at

Pig Island, off Madang.

in which her Ceylonese husband, who acts under the name of Kamahl, has one of the starring roles.

Mr. Tikaram, who became Fiji’s first locally born senior magistrate in 1963, has now been appointed an acting puisne judge. He qualified in law at Auckland University and Victoria University, Wellington. He was in private practice in Suva before entering the Fiji judicial department in 1959. • A Western Samoan woman, Dr.

Fanaafi Larkin, has become the first Samoan Director of Education in her country. She was previously As sistant Director. Dr. Larkin went to New Zealand as a scholarship student in 1946, and after graduating as a teacher, she taught for two years in Samoa. She then returned to New Zealand and obtained her BA and MA degrees at Victoria University, Wellington. The following year she went to London University and obtained her Ph.D. in two years.

After four years as lecturer in education at Victoria University, she returned to Western Samoa in 1965 to become principal of the Teachers’

Training College. She became As sistant Director of Education in 1966. • Mr. S. P. E. Tagelagi, Niue born, has been appointed Niue Treasurer and Comptroller of Customs. Mr. Tagelagi was educated on Niue, and in New Zealand under a NZ scolarship award, and in 1963 he became the first Niuean to com plete his accountancy professional examination. Mr. Tagelagi represented Niue at the sixth South Pacific Con ference in Lae in July, 1965. • There have been some changes and confirmations in the list of P-NG District Commissioners. Mr.

S. M. Foley and Mr. O. J. Mathieson have been confirmed as DC’s of Chimbu and Eastern Highlands dis tricts, respectively; Mr. J. E. Wake ford has been appointed DC of the West Sepik; the former W'est Sepik DC, Mr. D. J. Clancy, has been ap pointed to the Southern Highlands to replace Mr. D. Marsh, who goes on leave; and Mr. D. N. Ashton, formerly of Lae, becomes District Commissioner Bougainville. • Mr. Bill Smale, production manager of the Hastings container division of UEB Packaging Ltd. in New Zealand, has been appointed manager of Kiwi United (South Pacific) Ltd., Suva. He succeeds Mr.

Laurence. “Scotty” Thomson, who died suddenly in September.

Mr. Smale has been production manager at the Hastings plant for the past seven years. He migrated to New Zealand from England in 1953, shortly after his commission with the Fleet Air Arm ended.

He is married with five children. • Dr. James De La Cruz, a graduate of the Fiji School of Medicine, has been appointed acting District Medical Officer, Daru, in the Western District of Papua. He replaces Dr. Ilimo Batton, who has been transferred to Tari. Dr. De La Cruz was born in Lae, and graduated from Suva in 1960. • Nauru’s new Director of Police, Mr. David Mathers, is a friendly, efficient Scotsman. He flew to Nauru from Sydney on a charter flight on January 1 to take up his new post.

His wife Joan and some of the children (they have five) will follow later. Mr. Mathers has been living in Sydney recently, employed by the Australian Broadcasting Commission, but most of his working career has been with police forces in world trouble spots. He was in the British Army from 1941 to 1947. He was with the police in Palestine from 1947 to 1948, in Malaya from 1948 to 1951, in Hong Kong from 1952 to 1955, and in Aden from 1955 to 1963. When he left Aden for Aus tralia he held the rank of super intendent. For the last 18 months in Sydney Mr. Mathers has also been a group scoutmaster in Turramurra, a north shore suburb, and will be interested in Nauru’s scouting acti vities.

Mr. Bill Smale