Deaths Of Islands People

Captain J. P. Mullins Although he was born in New Zealand and died there in March, the body of Captain James Patrick Mullins, master mariner and marine surveyor, was flown to Suva for burial at the Suva Extension Cemetery.

For the 76-year-old captain’s :olourful life was inextricably bound jp with Fiji’s history and develop ment.

Bora in Wairoa, Hawke’s Bay, Captain Mullins served his ap )renticeship at sea in square-rigged lailing ships and later in steamships.

He joined the British Colonial service in 1921 and served as master n government ships in the Gilbert md Ellice Islands and in Fiji. He vas master of the Governor’s ship 7 ioneer and before World War II le went to Hong Kong to command JMS Viti on her delivery voyage to 7 iji.

He remained as her commander luring the war.

Captain Mullins married Miss Annette Mary Stork, daughter of Ay. Carl Stork, in 1944. Mrs. Mullins redeceased him.

Fiji people will remember him for variety of different reasons— erhaps as commodore of the Royal luva Yacht Club, or chairman of he Ramavua Hospital Board of Visitors, chairman of the Warship’s Entertainment Committee or as a nember of the Labour Advisory loard.

He became principal of the Rehabilitation Nautical School at uva from 1946-57 and trained many lasters and other ship’s officers srving in Fiji waters and other 'acific territories.

During World War I he served i sea transport and in World War 1 was lieutenant commander in ommand of ships on anti-submarine nd escort duties in Fiji and West ra Pacific waters.

He was awarded the 0.8. E. in the 955 Birthday Honours for his laritime and other services in Fiji, Captain Mullins found the time ) write various booklets on naviga on for Islands people—and he col aborated with the late Professor J. C. Henderson in the book “Dis overy of the Fiji Islands”.

Mr. R. H. Ram Narayan One of the pioneers of primary :hool teaching in Fiji, Mr. R. H. am Narayan, died at the CWM lospital in Suva in March, aged 66. le had been in retirement since 1962.

Mr. Narayan contributed much to Fiji’s teaching profession, having first joined it when he was only 17. He was one of the first Fiji students to go to India, where he studied at the University of Allahabad and gained his Diploma in Agriculture. When he returned to Fiji he became a foundation member of the Fiji Teachers’ Union and he several times served as headmaster in government schools in Ba, Nadi and Suva.

While taking a trip round the world during his pre-retirement leave, Mr.

Narayan made contact with relatives in India and he later sent money for the construction of a school in a village in Surahai, Azamghar, where his father lived before going to Fiji under the indenture system.

After retiring from teaching, Mr.

Narayan joined the Methodist Mission and became an active preacher at Dudley and Dilkusha. At the time of his death he was working with the Rev. T. Plaizier on the transla tion of the Bible into Fiji-Hindustani.

Mr. Herbert Brearley Lord Howe Island lost its animal doctor and a very useful engineer cum-electrical expert when long-time resident Mr. Herbert Brearley died early this year aged 83.

Yorkshire-born, Mr. Brearley put in several years managing Bums Philp copra and cattle plantations in the New Hebrides and Solomons before he finally settled on Lord Howe in 1947. He had married Miss Jean Innes, from a Howe pioneer family, in 1933, and before World War II the couple had briefly run the Wallmere guesthouse.

He is survived by his wife.

Mrs. Ada Moore Mrs. Ada Moore, a member of one of Fiji’s most historic families, died in Suva on March 3, aged 85.

Mrs. Moore, formerly Miss Ada Eyre, was the last surviving member of the family of the late Mr. Charles Ormond Eyre, who went to Fiji as private secretary to the colony’s first Governor, Sir Arthur Gordon. In 1906, she married John Ducka Moore, grandson of the late Rev.

William Moore, who for a time re lieved the Rev. John Baker. Mr.

Moore died in 1952.

During World War I, Mrs. Moore, who was a resident of Suva for 30 years before her death, became well known for her work in the Red Cross Society. She is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Lita Wendt, of Suva, a son, Mr. J. A. Moore, of Lami, and five grandchildren.

Mr. Bhaskaranand Basavanand Mr. Bhaskaranand Basavanand, whose father, the late Pandit Badri Maharaj, was the first Indian mem ber of Fiji’s Legislative Council, died suddenly at his home in Suva in March, Mr. Basavanand, 68, was born at Wairoku, Rakiraki, where he attended the Wairoku Indian School before go ing to New Zealand to study for eight years at the New Plymouth High School. When he returned to Fiji, he joined the Civil Service and for many years he served as a sub accountant in various parts of the country. When he retired from the service four years ago, he was an assistant assessor in the Department of Inland Revenue.

He was well-known in cricketing circles, having been associated with the Indian Reform League Cricket Club and later the Samabula Cricket Club, of which he was patron at the time of his death.

Mr. Basavanand leaves a widow and three daughters.

Mr. R. F. Bunting Tributes to Mr. Robert Frederick Bunting who died in Lae, New Guinea, on March 8 appear on p. 132.

Outside the territory he was best known for his activities on behalf of the Returned Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen’s Imperial League of Aus tralia. He was elected State President of Papua-New Guinea in 1954 and retained this position until the end of his life. He became deputy national president of the Federal body in 1967 and was ceaselessly active in RSL affairs. He was awarded the OBE and, later, the CBE for his work on behalf of the league.

He is survived by his wife, Gwen dolyn, and a son and a daughter. A second daughter was killed in a motor tragedy a few years ago.

Mr. George Greathead Tributes to Mr. George Greathead, who died in Goroka, New Guinea, on March 26, at the age of 60, also appear on p. 132. Mr. Greathead was born in Bundaberg, Qld. He is survived by his wife, Ellen, three sons and three daughters.

Mr. H. L. Lucena The death has occurred in Wollongong, NSW, of H. L. (“Luce”) Lucena, who from 1929 spent many years in Fiji with the Public Works Department. He was associated with the survey and initial engineering work on the Prince’s Highway from Suva to Lautoka. He married Miss Naomi Cook in Suva in 1930. He spent the latter part of his life in the Wollongong area.

Two New Guinea pioneers died in March —Mr. Robert Frederick Bunting in Lae on March 12, and Mr. George Greathead in Goroka on March 26. On this page two other noted Territorians, Mr. Tom Grahamslaw and Mr. lan Downs, write personal tributes.

Tributes to

Bob Bunting and

George Greathead

Bob was born in Samarai in 1908 of parents who already had a long established place in Papua. His mother, who died in Lae only a few years ago, had been a teacher at the Anglican Mission, Dogura, Papua, when she met and married Arthur Bunting in the early part of this century, shortly after his arrival in Samarai as an accountant for Burns Philp and Co. Ltd. A few years after their marriage he left BP’s to found his own business, A. H. Bunting Ltd.

Bob spent his early childhood in Samarai but later went to the Church of England Grammar School in Mel bourne. When his education was completed he returned to Samarai to start work in the family business.

But he had a restless nature and when the Edie Creek gold rush started he lost no time in joining the other prospectors.

He had no great luck and after a few years of the hardships of life on the goldfields he seemed content enough to settle down to an office job in A. H. Bunting Ltd., which at that time was confined to Papua but had extensive trading, planting and fishing interests there.

When World War II broke out he was one of the first to enlist, paying his own fare to Australia to do so.

He joined the ill-fated Bth Division 2/AIF and took part in the defence of Singapore, which led to four years as a POW in Changi. He returned to the territory in 1946 to take over control of the family business, his father having died some years pre viously.

As with many businesses in the territory. Bunting’s expanded quickly in the post-war years and branches were opened at Lae, Rabaul and Goroka.

Bob also became interested in many smaller businesses and infant industries thus encouraging others to invest and providing the territory with much-needed new development.

In more recent years he invested in properties in Australia, and active trading of the original Bunting com pany in the territory ceased.

There was a natural affinity be tween the Bunting family and the native people. Bob’s parents were liked and trusted by the Papuans and one of my most vivid recollec tions of pre-war Samarai was the number of elderly native ex employees who went regularly to Bunting’s store for their free issue of tobacco and rations. Bob grew up in this atmosphere of trust and friendship and in his later years main tained and expanded the family tradition of fostering good race relations.

A. H. Bunting Ltd. interests ex panded more in the New Guinea territory than in Papua after the war and in order to concentrate on the NG side the family store and hold ings in the Samarai area were sold to Steamships Trading Co. Ltd. in 1960. At this time the rumour spread among the native people that Bunting’s was in financial difficulties, which was not the case, of course, but a delegation of villagers pro ceeded to Samarai by canoe, with a sizeable sum of money contributed by their people and which they offered to the District Commissioner as a gift for the Bunting family.

Bob Bunting’s hand was always in his pocket helping people with financial troubles, particularly if they were old Territorians; and, in spite of his business commitments, he played a prominent part as a citizen of the Territory of Papua-New Guinea. He was a fine man and a good friend to many people, both European and native. —Tom Graham slaw.

George Greathead

The death of George Greathead at Goroka on March 26, sadly closed an illustrious career of 36 years in New Guinea, during which this courteous, compassionate and able man served his country and his com munity with loyalty and devotion.

George Greathead joined the New Guinea Administration as a cadet patrol officer in June, 1933. Only two years later, he was selected to take part in the critical pacification of the Chimbu Valley, following the killing by Upper Chimbu people of two missionaries Father Charles Morschheuser and Brother Eugene.

A year later, after the maiming of Assistant District Officer Nurton on the Madang Rai Coast, George Greathead established a new patrol post at Saidor, and by energetic patrolling and exceptional under standing of the native situation he was able to fully restore peaceful acceptance of law.

In 1938 he returned to the High lands to take over what was then

known as a base camp at Mt. Hagen, from the late Murray Edwards. Mt.

Hagen was base for the exploratory patrols then being conducted towards the Dutch New Guinea border and the Sepik basin under the direction of James Lindsay Taylor.

George Greathead’s work at Mt.

Hagen was so effective that the Administration was influenced into the establishment of a permanent centre and he remained after the Hagen-Sepik patrols had been with drawn. The house that George Greathead built still remains as part of the dwelling which stands on the rise just above the site of the war memorial at Mt. Hagen, and the plan of the oldest section of the township follows exactly the broad paths, permanent water channels and flower borders that were designed and laid out by George Greathead before the Pacific War. It was fitting that he should be appointed to return to Mt. Hagen after the war and that he should later become District Com missioner of the Central Highlands, extending from Kainantu to Wabag, in succession to J. L. Taylor.

In 1952, George Greathead re signed from the Administration to take up coffee farming and devote himself wholly to the development of the land of which he was so fond.

In association with the Australian firm of Cottees he pioneered the cultivation of passionfruit as an alternate crop for the Highland’s people and he remained as the local director for Cottees in the New Guinea Highlands until his death.

During World War II he served with distinction in special units under the direction of the Allied Intelligence Bureau and with the Australian New Guinea Administration Unit, with which he reached the rank of major and was mentioned in dispatches.

Until his health became a handicap in recent years, George Greathead was always in the forefront of com munity affairs. He was a founder of the Highlands Farmers and Settlers’

Association, a member of the Eastern Highlands District Advisory Council, a member of the board directing the Territory’s Museum and a zealous lay reader for his church. His Administration career was dis tinguished by wise judgment, fore sight, firm dealing and compassion.

Those who knew him will always recall his unfailing courtesy, his humility, his kindness to those in trouble and his devotion to his wonderful family of whom he was justly proud. Above all, he was a man who found his own serenity in devotion to the common good. —lan Downs.