Deaths Of Islands People

Judge Ralph I. Gore

Another of the famous Australian Did Timers”, who gave Papua and few Guinea distinction and a flavour i the quarter-century between the /orld Wars, has passed on. Judge alph Thomas Gore, CBE, who had sen living in Southport, Queensland, nee his retirement in 1962, died in risbane on August 1, aged 79.

He was born in NSW, educated in risbane ,and joined the Crown Law ffice in Port Moresby in 1924, when ir Hubert Murray was trying—with i infinitesimal budget and a tre lendous belief in humankind—to lake an orderly State out of Papua’s ilf million primitive Melanesians, e was identified with the Murray while New Guinea ill was a “Mandated Territory”, id in no way associated with Papua.

No man in Papua was better lown or more highly respected an Ralph Gore—not even Murray mself. He became Judge Gore in >2B, and was chief of Papua’s legal stem right up until the Japanese vasion in 1942; and after the war ? returned to the Bench of what is iw the Territory of P-NG.

A biographer wrote of him in >65; “A kindly tolerant man, rich wisdom and learning, who like any other Australians devoted his ; e to the service of a people whose istiny is inextricably involved with ir own.”

Judge Gore became an Associate the Chief Justice of Australia in >l5. He was called to the Queens nd Bar in 1916; and was engaged private practice until he went to ipua in 1924. In 1916, he married iss Mabel Shand, daughter of the dl-known Warner Shand, and she ared his public life in Papua and tired with him to Southport in 1962. le Judge was awarded the CBE in >53; and his many friends insisted at he had truly earned a higher stinction to crown his long, useful reer.

Judge Gore wrote his autobio aphy after he retired. Justice zrsus Sorcery was published in *65. In it there are many indications his deep and sympathetic under anding of the New Guinea mind id outlook.

Mr. C. E. Best Mr. Clyde Edwin Best, one of the st-known identities in Fiji shipping *cles, has died in Suva, aged 79.

Mr. Best, who was bom in Aus dia, went to Fiji in 1909 and

joined Henry Marks and Co. He worked for Morris Hedstrom Ltd. at Lautoka before becoming a Customs and shipping agent, and was then with the Union Steam Ship Company until 1942, part of the time as the Lautoka manager.

Following his retirement from USS he joined Williams and Gosling Ltd., where he remained until forced to leave through ill health.

Mr. Best was a keen sportsman, excellent rifle shot and strong supporter of the Lautoka and Suva Bowling Clubs, He was a life member of the Lautoka Club.

Ex-members of the old Fiji Defence Forces knew him as Captain Best—he was commissioned in 1922.

Mr. Best leaves a widow, Viti, twin daughters, Mrs. Mattie Edmunds, of Broadbeach, Queensland, and Mrs.

Podge Wardrop, of Lautoka, and a son, Philip, of Suva.

Mr. Robert Narruhn Mr, Robert Narruhn, a long time trader in the Pacific Islands and the grandson of one of the first Euro peans to settle in the Line Islands, died recently in Suva. He was 78.

Born on Ponape, Caroline Islands, he spent several years on Jaluit and Likiep in the Marshalls. When the Japanese forced many Europeans to leave the Marshalls during World War I, he moved to Butaritari.

In 1922, Mr, Narruhn joined Bums Philp (South Sea) at Tarawa, later transferring to a BP store at

Butaritari. He also did 12 months work aboard the BP trader Mauno.

Shortly after 1941, he left Butaritari to avoid the Japanese invasion, and in 1943 he was in Suva, working for BP. He left BP in 1961 after nearly 40 years’ service with the company.

Mr, Narruhn stayed on in Fiji and tok a temporary job for a short time at Suva’s Club Hotel.

His brother Fred, who was decora ted by American forces for gallantry against the Japanese on Makin Atoll, Gilberts, in 1943, lives in San Francisco. Three of his four daughters live in Suva, and one in the US. A son, Fred, lives in the Marshalls, and two other sons live in the US.

Mr. Narruhn’s grandfather came from Germany, and his father moved to the Marshalls from the Line Islands in the late 1800’s and married one of the De Brunn family.

Mr. Emile Ohlen Mr. Emile Ohlen, who served in the New Hebrides contingent of the French Pacific Battalion in World War I, and later spent about 27 years in the New Hebrides as a marine engineer and plantation manager, has died in Sydney, He was 76.

Born in New Caledonia, he served as an engineer on Messageries Mari times ships before 1914. After war service he moved to Vila as chief engineer aboard the Victory, the touring vessel of the French Resident Commissioner.

From 1925 to 1928 he operated an engineering workshop in Vila, but in January, 1928, the workshop was burnt down in a fire which broke out in the nearby French store of

Cfnh.

After that Mr. Ohlen worked on plantations, and for several years .managed a plantation at Port Havannah and another plantation at Tagabe.

He left the New Hebrides after World War II and settled in Sydney, but he always remained interested in condominium events.

Mr. John Mansakau Mr. John Mansakau, a chief of Tongoa Island and the son of “Sandy” Mansakau, a former British police sergeant in the New Hebrides, died recently in Vila after a long illness.

Chief Graham Kalsakau, of Vila, and Islanders from Tongoa, Paama and Emae attended his funeral at Vila.

Judge Gore (right) with Mr. Ivan Champion.