People

• The Right Rev. Pio Taofinu’u, SM, has been appointed Bishop of Apia, Western Samoa. He is the first local-born Catholic priest to be made a bishop in the Pacific.

Born at Falealupo, Western Samoa, in 1923, Father Pio Taofinu’u studied for the priesthood at the Major Seminary at Lano, Wallis Island, and at Mount St. Mary’s, Greenmeadows, New Zealand.

He was ordained a priest in Apia, Western Samoa, in December, 1954, md joined the Society of Mary in 1962.

After serving as a curate in several jarishes in the diocese, he was ap aointed administrator of the cathedral it Apia in 1963 and vicar capitular >n the transfer of Archbishop Pearce 0 Suva in 1967. • Mr. M. M. Townsend arrived in /ila on February 8 to take up his ippointment as Assistant Resident rommissioner (PIM, Oct., p. 121). • Mr. Roger Wilson has resigned is chief of broadcasting in the P-NG Jepartment of Information and Ex ension Services at Port Moresby. He -ft the territory in February to join tadio Australia, the overseas service f the ABC in Melbourne.

Mr. Wilson went to P-NG in 1958 nd established the first two Adminis ration radio stations run by DIES— Ladio Rabaul and Radio Wewak. He ras one of the original staff members f the department. • Mr. Alan B. Williams, a JNESCO teaching expert, arrived in ort Moresby on January 31 to take p a two-year assignment as a science ducation and curriculum expert. Mr. /illiams will work with the Depart ment of Education. He will assist ith the development of the use of :ience materials and with the de elopment of science curricula. • Dr. John Hirshman has arrived 1 Suva, Fiji, to take up his appoint ment as WHO representative for the 3uth Pacific. He replaces Dr. Alan enington. The office of the WHO :presentative in Suva covers Fiji, onga, Samoa, the Solomons, New ebrides, Gilbert and Ellice Islands, apua-New Guinea, New Caledonia, rench Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna, auru, Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau lands, plus Australia and New Zea nd. • Tonga’s Minister of Finance, e Hon. Mahe Tupouniua, is in

Auckland for an operation. Accom panied by his wife and two children, he will be absent from Tonga for about three months. The Hon. Dr.

Langi Kavaliku, Minister without Portfolio, is Acting Minister of Finance in his absence.

Dr. Kavaliku has also been absent from Tonga recently. He flew to Lon don on a trip financed by a London publishing firm to buy material and equipment for the teaching and learn ing of English as a second language at the primary school level for Tonga’s Education Department. Tonga had a British Colonial Development and Welfare grant of £7,000 sterling to spend before the end of Britain’s financial year, March 31. • The engagement of Mr. Gordon Eric Lawson to Miss Janet Ann O’Reilly was announced in Brisbane on January 13. Mr. Lawson is the third son of Mr, Eric Lawson and Mrs. Gabrielle Lawson, of Honiara, BSIP. He works for a firm of account ants in Brisbane and hopes to be qualified this year. Janet O’Reilly, is the only daughter of Mr. and Mrs.

Charles O’Reilly, of Toowong, Bris bane. She is attending Queensland University for her fourth year of study in Social Science. The couple plan to marry in January, 1969. • Mr, John Philp, editor of the American Samoan section of the Samoa Times, has resigned from his position to return to his home in Australia with his wife Anna. • Mr. Peter S. Maher arrived in Suva in January with his wife, Sydel Mornel, to take up his new position as Deputy Principal Officer at the American Consulate.

Mr. Maher is a career foreign service officer and has previously served as third secretary at the American Embassy, Ankara, Turkey, and as vice-consul at the American Consulate-General, Asmara, Ethiopia. • Mr. D. J. Robinson, of Welling ton, has been appointed to succeeed Mr. F. R. J. Davies as the New Zealand Education Department’s officer for Island’s education. Mr.

Davies retired recently after 40 years with the department. • Mr. Djermakoye, Assistant Sec retary-General of the United Nations, visited Tahiti privately in early Feb ruary, He met members of the majority parties of the local Terri torial Assembly. Unconfirmed reports say they asked him about means of approaching the United Nations on the question of internal self-govern ment for French Polynesia.

• Among Islands visitors to Sydney in February were the Rev. and Mrs. Rex Matthews, of the Nauruan Protestant Church. • Sir Francis Chichester, whose epic solo voyage round the world last year in his yacht Gipsy Moth IV made world headlines, visited Suva on February 26 aboard the cargo liner Port Nelson. He was on his way to New Zealand and Australia with Lady Chichester to check his business interests in those countries. •Well-known and affable Fijian Bill Raikuna rejoined the Fiji Visitors Bureau on March 1 as head of the Bureau’s Nadi Airport operations.

Bill recently completed two years as a special promotions officer for Air New Zealand in Fiji, travelling to Australia several times. • A Japanese anthropologist, Miss Sachiko Hatanaka, completed her first two months in February of a five-year period which she plans to bye wdh the primitive Sisimin people of New Guinea’s West Sepik Dis trict. Miss Hakanaka is doing re search for a PhD thesis from the University of Tokyo. Villagers have given her land for a house and food garden and a government patrol has built her a house from local materials. • Sub-inspectors Alexander Fyfe and Glen Sutton have won Royal Papua and New Guinea Constabulary Valour Medals for rescuing seven women in rough seas during a raging storm in Kerema Bay last December.

Reu-Huri, a Kerema warder, who also helped in the rescue, won the Police Commissioner’s Certificate of Com mendation for bravery. • The Republic of Nauru’s new Secretary for Health and Education is Mr. John Ayers, 39, formerly a senior master at Maribyrnong High School, Melbourne. Mr. Ayers, who expects to arrive on Nauru in March with his wife and five children, has a BSc from Melbourne University.

Sport is one of his relaxations; and he has been an official starter for the Victorian Amateur Athletics Association. In his new post, Mr Ayers will be responsible for the administrative side of health and education on Nauru, and will work closely with the directors of both Health and Education.

Mr. H, J. Goodwin, who last year went to Nauru as Director of Educa tion on secondment from the New South Wales Department of Educa tion, has resigned from his post. He returned to Sydney in early Feb ruary,