People

a The Very Reverend Father fichael Coppenrath has been ppointed Coadjutor Archbishop of apeete, Tahiti, with the right of suc ;ssion, and Apostolic Administrator f the same archdiocese. Archbishop aul Maze will retain the title of the ■chdiocese.

Archbishop Coppenrath is the first ically-born Archbishop in the mth Pacific Islands. He was born Tahiti in 1924 and ordained to e priesthood in 1954. His paternal andfather was Dutch and his other French. As a young man he as sent to France for studies, where 5 went to the Paris Seminary of sy-Les-Moulineaux and later the niversity of Poitiers. Here he >tained a licentiate in Letters and Civil Law.

In 1954 the Archbishop of Tahiti nt him to Rome, where he obtained e Doctorate in Canon Law from e Gregorian University. Back in ihiti in 1959, he worked in parishes, Light in the Catholic Schools and is in charge of the Youth Move snt and of the Catholic Press. In 66 he became Vicar General of 2 Archdiocese of Tahiti. • Mr. Michael J. Challons will ive his post as Secretary-to-Govern ;nt, Tonga, in April to become Pro imme Administration Officer with ; South Pacific Commission. This a new senior post following the re ganisation of the secretariat. He 11 work directly under the Secre y-General.

Assistant Secretary-to-Government,

r. Tnoke Fotu Faletau, will become ting Secretary until another ex triate officer assumes the post. So ', no candidates have been pro sed.

Mr. Challons arrived in Tonga in tober, 1963. Previously he had ved with the Western Pacific High mmission office in the Solomon mds.

Vfr. Faletau, who began his gov iment service in 1958 as a junior rk in the Treasury Department, I been Assistant Secretary since 55.

Mr. Jack Riechelmann, public in itiation officer, will serve as Act- Assistant Secretary. • While on leave in Australia last ir, Mr. Ronald Harry Gibbs, an distant District Officer at Esa’ala the Milne Bay District of P-NG,

went to the aid of a policeman who was being attacked by a gang of youths in Penrith, NSW.

Last month Mr. Gibbs was pre sented by the P-NG Commissioner of Police, Mr. R. R. Cole, with a certificate of appreciation commend ing his action.

He is the first field officer to re ceive this award. • Mr. Donald R. Tindal has been appointed Attorney-General of the US Trust Territory.

He succeeds Dr. Robert K. Shoe craft, who became the Chief Justice of the territory on February 1. • District Commissioner Mr. L.

J. O’Malley, will retire from P-NG’s Public Service in April after 34 years in the territory.

Mr. O’Malley went to the terri tory in 1934 as a Patrol Officer with the Papuan Administration. He is at present District Commissioner for the Manus District.

As a junior officer he took part in the historic Strickland-Purari patrol, led by Mr. Ivan Champion.

Mr. O’Malley served in Kerema, in the Gulf District; Rigo, and Goilala in the Central District; Misima, Samarai and Baniara, in the Milne Bay District; and at Kairuku and Abau in the Central District.

He was appointed District Com missioner in 1957 while stationed at Kikori, in the Gulf District.

He served with ANGAU during the Pacific war and on discharge had reached the rank of major.

Mr. O’Malley was stationed in Kikori from 1951 to 1958 prior to his posting to Lorengau, Manus. • Three young geologists from the British Solomon Islands toured P-NG and Australia during March under United Nations Fellowships. They are Mr. William Saemanea, Govern ment assistant geologist; Mr. Nelson Legua, Government geological as sistant; Mr. Samuel Iko, Government geological assistant. • A former medical assistant with P-NG’s Department of Public Health has now rejoined the Depart ment—but this time as a fully qualified doctor. He is Dr. A. D.

Parkinson, who served as a medical assistant at Maprik in the East Sepik District about 10 years ago.

In 1962 he was granted a scholar ship by the Administration to study medicine at a university in Australia.

In 1965 he qualified as a doctor and took his MB and BS from the University of Adelaide. He spent the last two years at the Royal Hobart Hospital.

• Venerable mariner Captain Andy Thomson took a round trip on the Islands trader Akatere recently from Rarotonga to Auckland, NZ, to, in his own words, “get a bit of a break”.

Captain Thomson, who turned 81 early this year, is very active although he is supposed to be living quietly in retirement in Rarotonga. Daily routine includes feeding several pigs, 100 chickens and ducks, minding a large vegetable garden and doing physical exercises—including press ups.

He is one of the last of the “old time” skippers of the South Seas and is perhaps best-known as former master of the traders Tagua and Tiare Taporo, which plied between the Cook and Society Islands before World War 11. • Mr. H. L. Williams, at present District Commissioner of the Northern District of P-NG, is to become District Commissioner of the New Ireland District. He will replace Mr. H. P Seale.

Mr. Williams, who has served in the Eastern Highlands, Morobe and Madang Districts, will be replaced in the Northern District by Mr. D. R.

Marsh, who returns from leave in mid- April.

Mr. Marsh, previously stationed at Mendi in the Southern Highlands, has served in the Western and Central Highlands. • The District Commissioner for the Southern Highlands of P-NG, Mr.

D. J. Clancy, represented the Terri tory at a conference for District Commissioners in the British Solomon Islands in March. • The Rt. Rev. A. T. Hill, who retired as Bishop of Melanesia last June (P/M, June, 1967, p. 75), left Sydney on March 25 for Rabaul. He plans to do honorary work for the Anglican Mission, near Kandrian, in West New Britain. Much of it will be with the Melanesian Brotherhood.

In Sydney he told PIM that since leaving Honiara last July he had visited Suva and Auckland, sailed to Vancouver from Sydney on the now defunct Lakemba, travelled across Canada and spent several weeks in England and Scotland before return ing to Sydney in early March on the P and O liner Oriana. • Mr. S. J, Taylor, Suva city engineer for five years, will return to Sydney in May to take up a new post with the NSW National Parks and Wildlife service. Mr. Taylor and his wife, Wendy, have been prominent tennis players in the colony, Mr.

Taylor having represented Fiji at the Noumea games.