People

• Former secretary-general of the South Pacific Commission, and re cently Australian Ambassador to Lebanon at Beirut, Mr. W. D. Forsyth, is now back with the Department of External Affairs, Canberra, on leave.

On the way back to Australia Mr. and Mrs. Forsyth visited France to see their daughter Katherine (Mrs.

Emilio Ortiz—they married in Nou mea) and their two grandchildren; and they renewed friendships in Tahiti and Noumea. • On hand at the opening of North Tabiteuea’s airstrip, the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, in March, besides the GEIC’s Resident Commissioner Val Andersen and most locals was Father L. Rinn, with 20 years in the Gilberts for the Catholic mission. A familiar sight on the atoll’s dusty roads riding his motor-cycle, Father Rinn reports that the show was “quite a party”.

He said: “It is not surprising that one man asking for a soft drink got a full glass of gin.” ® Dr. J. H. de La Trobe, chair man of the Hamburg Sud group of West Germany, which operates the Columbus Line, headed a six-man team to Australia in March. Columbus makes occasional calls at Tarawa, Gilbert and Ellice Islands, on trans pacific crossings of their freighters and the company has undertaken to employ trained GEIC seamen on its ships. • Mr. Erik Murer, for over two years managing director of Marine Chartering Pty. south of the Equator, has accepted a new job as deputy resident director for the Norwegian- America Line in New York. To New York with him will go his attractive wife, Inger, and children Niels, 15, Ellen, 10 and Erik, three, • Miss Jane M. Merrill, of San Francisco, has been appointed pas senger manager, based in Saipan, Mariana Islands, for Micronesia Interocean Line Inc. MILI has ambitious plans to take a big hand in tourism in the US Trust Territory and hopes to carry visitors on its seven inter-island passenger-cargo vessels. • Mr. Richard Welland, an Ame rican artist and resident of Raro tonga since 1962, opened recently an artists’ studio at Muri, Rarotonga.

In an “A” frame building, the studio

boasts many of Richard’s oil colour portraits of Cook Islanders, partic ularly children. • Two changes have been made in Fiji’s police set-up. Senior Super intendent W. W. T. Caldwell has been appointed to the supernumary post of Officer-in-Charge of the CID. The former Officer-in-Charge of the CID, Senior Superintendent T. Hamilton, has been given the task of co ordinating and organising all forms of police training. • Back in Sydney after 20 years in England is Bob Clark, son of the late Mr. and Mrs. R. L. (Nobby) Clark, of Rabaul, New Guinea. With his English wife Sheelagh and three children, he is visiting his brother John and sister Margot, both of whom now live in Sydney.

While passing through Durban, in South Africa, the Clarks called on the Yen. and Mrs. Harold Lawrence, well remembered in New Guinea before World War 11, where Mr.

Lawrence was vicar of Rabaul • Mr. Norman Mullins, a New Guinea public servant since 1946 who has worked in many parts of the territory, was recently transferred to Rabaul from Goroko. In Rabaul, Norm will be regional labour officer for the NG Islands. He and his at tractive wife, Therese, have seven children and one of them—Helen,

19—was a candidate for the 1968 Miss Red Cross Quest. • Bavarian-born Karl Kirsch, 62, a male nurse who has worked in the Finschhafen area of NG since 1932, has announced he will retire in 1971 “if a replacement can’t be found”.

From 1959 Karl and his wife have run the Lutheran Mission Wage zaring Hospital. • Father Bernard Franke, who has taken only two leaves in 41 years of missionary work in New Guinea, began his third leave on March 17 when he left Rabaul for several months stay in Europe. The 65-year old German-born priest arrived in Rabaul in 1928 and has worked in the NG Islands, mostly Rabaul, ever since. • Mr. Gordon M. McLaren, the NZ Government’s energetic Trade Commissioner for the Pacific, took his first look-see at New Guinea markets in March. With a direct NZ NG shipping service operating since last year, NZ has made big gains in sales to NG—mainly at the expense of Australian exporters. Based in Auckland, Mr. McLaren has made previous visits to Tahiti, Fiji and Western Samoa. He will be back in NG later this year with hopes of taking a look at trade prospects on Bougainville. • Major Bruce Bown, Royal En gineers, builder of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands’ two lagoon-mud air strips at Abemama and North Tabi teuea, was to return to Tarawa from Tabiteuea in March with his construc tion team. The tip is he’ll quickly find more work upgrading Tarawa’s Bonriki airstrip before the team heads off for other outer atoll construction jobs. • Mr. Robin McKay, former owner of one of Bougainville’s top copra plantations, Aropa, made a week-long visit to NG in late March to look at current developments and to talk to an old friend, Mr. “Kip”

McKillop, of A r a w a Plantation, Bougainville. These days Mr. McKay lives in Sydney, watching his several real estate interests. • A Happy scene at a party at the Polynesian Association's annex in Sydney. Standing in the centre are Mr. and Mrs. Roy Collins, who have since left Sydney on

a long holiday in England. Mrs.

Collins was formerly Mary Tania

Young of Suva, Fiji. The girls

with them are performing a song of farewell.

Mr. Warwick Pilcher has been appointed Air-India's first sales manager for Fiji and Pacific Islands. His territory extends from Fiji and New Caledonia east through the Pacific to Western Samoa. Mr. Pilcher, his wife and two young children are living in Suva.

The Western Samoan Prime Minister, Fiame Mata'afa, had informal talks with New Zealand Government Ministers and officials when he was on holiday in New Zealand recently. Fiame Mata'afa is pictured here with the NZ Prime Minister, Mr. K. J. Holyoake, at NZ's Parliament House.

This coral-encrusted cannon was first sighted on a reef near Serua Island in 1949 by Ro Lagivala Tubuanakoro (pictured), but he kept quiet about it until recently because he wasn't sure what to do with his prize. In late February the cannon was salvaged and speculation began about a wreck in the vicinity.

Dr. Henry Carlo, a New Hebridean medical officer trained at the Fiji School of Medicine and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, is now in New Zealand to take up a Twomey Scholarship at the University of Otago Medical School. The scholarship is provided by the Lepers' Trust Board.

The Cook Islands Minister of Police, Apenera Short, and his wife, pictured at Rarotonga air port, after Mr. Short had returned from the Pacific Islands Producers' Conference in Apia.

Photo; Van Eijk and Meers.

Mr. and Mrs. Cledwyn Hughes, of Sydney, with daughter Helen at a recent party at the Polynesian Association's annex in Sydney. Mrs. Hughes comes from Niue.

Members of a mission from the World Bank, Mr. O. Kamanu, of Nigeria, and the mission chief, Mr. Chu-Chin Yang, of Taiwan, talk with the Australian Minister for External Territories, Mr. C. E.

Barnes, at a social function in Canberra. The five-man mission visited Papua-New Guinea for three weeks in March/April.

Buried in leis at Rarotonga airport is Dr. Ro[?] Crocombe, of Port Moresby. He is listening to Cook Islands Premier, Mr. Albert Henry, make[?] point. Paying close attention is the Rev. B. G.

Thorogood, of the Cook Islands Christia[?] Churches. Dr. Crocombe later went on to Tahiti[?] Photo: Van Eijk and Meers.

Buka, Bougainville is getting a resort hotel, "Buka Luma", due to open in August. Here are two of the hotel's directors, Mr. Stuart Dodds (left) and Mr. Jack Kirkward.

They're standing near the hotel's site.

Photo: A. G. Shearer.

At the New Zealand Post-Graduate School for Nurses, Wellington, Miss Melaia Ahokovi, of Tonga, points at her home on a globe.

She has been nursing in Australia for the past seven years. With her are Miss E. B. Salmon, principal of the post-graduate school (right); Miss Alitake Vaisua (next to Miss Salmon), head nurse of the Tarawa Hospital, Gilbert and Ellice islands; and Miss Emmy Mani (far left), of Suva, nursing sister. The three girls are doing a nine-month post-graduate course.

At Honiara, in the British Solomons, Sir Michael Gass (right), is sworn in as the High Commissioner of the Western Pacific. He replaces Sir Robert Foster, now Governor of Fiji. At left stands the Chief Justice of the Western Pacific High Court, Jocelyn Bodilly.

These four Cook Island university graduates were photogarphed in New Zealand recently. They are, from left: Mr. George Ellis, BCA (Bachelor of Commerce and Administration), of the Cook Islands Treasury; Mr. Papamama Pokino, BE (Civil), an engineer for the NZ Ministry of Works; Mr. Sadaraka Sadaraka, MA, DipPA, of the Premier's Office, Cook Islands Government; and Mr.

Geoffrey Henry, BA, a past member of the Cook Islands Legisla tive Assembly, now studying Law in NZ.