People

Rarotonga won’t seem quite the same without Chief Judge H. J.

Morgan, OBE, who retired to New Zealand in December. He had spent over 32 years in the Cook Islands and was regarded as something of an institution.

He closely identified himself with the Cooks and took a practical part in the social and cultural life of the people. He held office, at one time or another, in most of the service organisations in Rarotonga.

His active interest in the pre servation of Cook Islands Maori culture was a vital factor in the establishment of the Cook Islands Library and Museum in 1963, He remained president of the Library and Museum Society until his retirement. A considerable amount of his own money plus his valuable collection of books and marine shells, went into the establishment of the project.

He was patron of almost every sporting body in Rarotonga and was the donor of a miscellaneous assort ment of cups, shields and other trophies.

Over 200 people attended the fare well function at the Hotel Rarotonga on December 10. Parting gifts pre sented to Judge Morgan included a carved figure of a Polynesian god (presented by Premier Albert Henry on behalf of the government); a gold watch from the Library and Museum Society; and a pearl-shell ornament on behalf of local school teachers and their pupils. • Mr. Peter Brooks, formerly on the staff of Fairfield College, Hamil ton, New Zealand, was due to arrive in the New Hebrides at the beginning of this year to become headmaster of the Onesua High School. He was to be accompanied by his wife and family. • Solomon Toma, of Walaha, Aoba, New Hebrides, at present studying Education at the Institute of Education, Dundee, Scotland, has written home to say that he is happy, strong and well, and that he is en joying the course. Only one com plaint: it’s so cold, says Solomon, that he wears two layers of clothing and sleeps under four blankets with two hot water bottles.

• A school teacher from Milne Bay, P-NG, believes he is the first New Guinean to climb Ayers Rock, Central Australia. He is Mr. Israel Sabbath who returned to the ter ritory in December after teaching woodwork and metal work for almost five months at the James Ruse Agri cultural College in Parramatta, Syd ney. His trip was sponsored by the Parramatta Rotary Club.

Mr. Sabbath said that he and a group of students from the school visited Central Australia during the second term holidays. While in Aus tralia, Mr. Sabbath was guest speaker at a number of Sydney Rotary Clubs. • Mrs. I. M. Bowden, who was born in Lautoka, Fiji, in 1875 celebrated her 93rd birthday in Auckland, NZ, in November. She was guest of honour at a “Fiji after noon” given by Air New Zealand.

Mrs. Bowden spent her first 16 years in Fiji and was educated at local primary and convent schools. She still has vivid memories of early Fiji. She can remember shaking hands with the last of the cannibal kings, King Cakobau; and recalls a German woman’s attempt to kidnap her in a schooner. In 1885 a hurricane demolished her father’s warehouses and the family sub sequently moved to New Zealand. • Saiad Anwar Shah, managing director of Amalgalmated Transport Co. Ltd. in Suva, returned to Fiji in December after a three-month tour of South-East Asia. • Mr. Ulrich G. Pawlitzki arrived in Apia from West Germany in late November on a four month appoint ment as civil engineer (hydro-power projects) in Western Samoa under the United Nations Development Programme. He is carrying out an engineering study on the technical feasibility of the proposed Afulilo Falls hydro-power project. • Sir John Field, KBE, CMG, staff liaison officer for HM Over seas Civil Service, spent 13 days in Tarawa in December, visiting government departments. • Mr, K. R. S. Miller has been appointed Nauru’s Secretary for In dustry and Island Development. Mr.

Miller, with his wife Judith and four of their five children, is already a resident of Nauru, having been Senior Administrative Officer both under the former Administration and the Re public. For a time following In

dependence Day this year, Mr. Miller acted as Principal Executive Officer pending the arrival of Mr. Q. V. L.

Weston as Chief Secretary.

The new Secretary will be re sponsible for liason with the Nauruan Phosphate Corporation when it takes over control of the phosphate in dustry, and for the development of new industries.

Mr. Miller is well known and re spected in Naqru. With Mr. Ivan Dedogi, he has been engaged recently on a complete overhaul of the Nauruan Public Service, and early in October, they both flew to Fiji to examine the public service there for comparable problems and pro cedures. • One of the keenest fishermen off Betio Islet, Tarawa, at the weekends is Captain Willie Schultz, a top boy in the GEICs big marine department. Willie likes taking his family reef fishing of a Sunday and usually the happy result is that his favourite dish, raw fish in oils, is available during the rest of the week.

Now in his forties, Willie is one of the handful of Pacific Islanders with Master Mariner Certificates— he has behind him many years service on inter-island vessels in the GEIC, and one time worked his way around the world in ships. • Peter Barker, the affable 26-year old manager of Tarawa’s Otintai Hotel, is similar to Rudy Ritcher, manager of Pago Pago’s Intercon tinental Hotel in one way—they both delight in taking guests out for sailing trips. Peter likes sailing, Gilbertese style, and regularly “cons” guests into trying out a Gilbertese “flying” canoe he has hidden near the hotel. Guests can expect at least a drenching, with perhaps an en forced swim thrown in, but they will get one of the fastest —and most thrilling—sails in the Pacific Islands. • One of the GEICs inter-island masters, Captain Tom Murdoch, ex pects to put in a few weeks in Sydney later this year to study for advanced navigational certificates. Tom, the regular master of the 71-ton Temauri, has two favourites on his regular stops in the Gilberts —Abemama and Kuria. Kuria was where Tom was born 30-odd years ago and Abemama is one of the best spots for catching the colony’s giant clam shells. On a recent Abemama stop Tom and his crew found some massive clams, several of which were too heavy to bring to the surface of the lagoon.

Miss Fiji 1968 steadies her new headpiece after the crowning ceremony per formed by the Minister for Communications, Works and Tourism, Mr. Charles Stinson, at Nadi on December 7. The tall beauty is Miss Agnes Thomas, ledger machinist from Lautoka. She will represent Fiji at the Pacific Quest held in con junction with Melbourne's Moomba Festival this March.

Many old Fiji families were represented at the November wedding of Faye Kennedy and David Broome at Mosman, NSW. The newlyweds are shown with the bride's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Freeman Kennedy, who are former residents of Suva. The Kennedy family settled in Fiji pre-Cession and had large land holdings including part of the present Nadi international airport.

A group of en-Fiji-ites at a recent Islanders' Association of Sydney social night, left to right: Messrs. J. Minslow, J. Merle and B. Mason (standing); M.sdames Minslow, Merle and Mason (sitting).

George Vae'au clocked up another West Samoa "first" when he became the only Samoan fully-qualified commercial pilot in November.

He will stay another year in New Zealand to study aviation administration before returning to Apia.

High Talking Chief Pita Alilima created a lot of interest in Bangkok, Thailand, recently when he appeared in Samoan dress. He was attending a special seminar

in agricultural development planning.

Top: Captain Tom Boraga, shown here wearing his Long Service Medal which he received in 1959, has retired after spending 44 years in the Papua-New Guinea coastal trade.

Top Right; After 32 years of Administration field service District Commissioner J. J. Murphy will retire to Australia in March. He went to New Guinea in 1936 as a Patrol Officer and became a DC in 1957.

He has spent most of the years since in the still largely undeveloped Western and Gulf Districts. Mr. Murphy is author of "The Book of Pidgin English".

Miss A. S. Chandulal, from Lautoka, Fiji, graduated from the New Zealand Post-Graduate Nurses' School, Wellington, NZ, recently. She is seen here after receiving her diploma.

Another NG retirement is that of Mr. L. F.

Butler, Senior Public Service Inspector, after 39 years as a public servant, 17 of them in the territory. He and his family will live in Sydney.

When the Queen of Tonga's brother, the Hon. 'Ahome'e, recently wed Miss Lavinia Veiongo, sister of the Hon. Kalanieuvalu Fitofili, in Nukualofa, it was with full Tongan ceremonial. The bride and groom are shown here in traditional Tongan wedding dress.

Photo: Hettig.

A party of banana growers from Tonga, Fiji and Western Samoa toured three countries under the sponsor ship of the Pacific Islands Producers' Assn., in October-November. The photo here shows them ready to leave Suva for Western Samoa. SEE

Story Opposite.

BELOW, a recent aerial photograph of some of the swamp timber to be felled in the $4 million project announced for McFarlane Harbour, Marshall Lagoon, Papua, in October (PIM, Nov., p. 121). Partners in the project are ANG Holdings, Jardine Matheson & Co. (Aust.) Pty. Ltd. and several Australian finance houses.

The aim is to export logs and sawn timber to Australia and Japan; and wood chips to Japan.