Nutshell

In A Nutshell

• The first Shortland Islander to become a priest in the Roman Catholic Church was ordained at a ceremony held at Nila on December 17. He was the Reverend Laurence Isa, of Aleang, Shortlands, a son of a church catechist. Isa will work under Bishop E. J. Crawford, of the Diocese of Gizo. • An emergency call was made by the 6,400 ton phosphate ship, Tri- Ellis, at Honiara on December 16, to transfer a crewmember to Central Hospital. The ship was sailing from Geelong, Victoria, to Nauru and Ocean Island. The crewmember was later operated on for ruptured appendix. • The new Honiara cathedral of the Diocese of Melanesia was used for the first time on December 15, when about 1,500 people attended the blessing by the Bishop of Melanesia. Consecration of the cathedral will be in June, on the Sunday closest to St. Barnabas’ Day —for whom the new cathedral will be named. • Sir Robert Foster, High Com missioner of the Western Pacific

High Commission, and Lady Foster left the Solomons on December 20, after a busy round of farewell ceremonies and visits. They flew to Fiji where Sir Robert takes up his position as the new Governor replac ing Sir Derek Jake way. • Basic salaries, local allowances and conditions of services will be among the subjects contained in a report which will be presented in 1969 by the BSIP Public Service Commissioner, Mr. J. R. C. Pin combe. As well as a British Solomons report, he will also cover the New Hebrides and the GEIC in two further reports. • Election of officers at the annual general meeting of the BSIP branch of the British Red Cross Society included Mr. Solomon Dakei as president the first Solomon Islander to be elected. Mr. Dakei has been a member of the Red Cross since its inauguration in 1952.

Another Solomon Islander, Mr.

Stephen Pita, has joined the branch to train as Field Officer. • Right Rev. Monsignor Raymond Etteldorf has been appointed Apostolic Delegate to New Zealand and the Pacific and has been made titular Archbishop of Tandari. His seat is in Wellington.

The Sydney office, which has con trolled these areas since 1914, will still control NG and BSIP affairs.

The Wellington office will control Catholic operations in the Cooks, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Fiji and Tonga. • Tonga announced in December that the Bank of Hawaii and the Tongan Government were near agree ment on the establishment of a Bank of Nukualofa. The bank would not be a branch of the Bank of Hawaii but a Tongan bank with participation capital and the management by the Bank of Hawaii. ® BOAC Associated Companies Limited is to make an investment in New Hebrides Airways. A 25.01 per cent, shareholding is being acquired from Qantas and represents half of the Australian airline’s re cently acquired interest. • King Taufa’ahau and Queen Mata’aho, of Tonga, arrived in London from the US in December on the second leg of their world tour. It was expected that while in London the King would have talks with the British Government which would lead to full independence for Tonga. The party will return via the East, stopping over for five days in Rome.