People
pp. 21-22 · Read in the full issue
• Mr. Royce Arthur Webb, of Papua-New Guinea’s Department of District Administration, is to become Australian liaison officer in Djaya pura, West Irian.
Mr. Webb, 48, has been with the department since 1947 and has seen field service at Lae, Finchhafen, Madang, Saidor, Goroka, Rabaul.
Talasea and Wewak. For the past two years he has been based in Port Moresby and has reached the rank of District Inspector. At present he is Acting Assistant Director, Man agement Services.
During his field service years, Mr.
Webb carried out many long patrols, particularly in the Saidor district, lasting up to 90 days. And in 1954 he organised the evacuation and re settlement of villagers during the volcanic eruption on Long Island.
Mr. Webb has never been to West Irian and speaks no Indonesian, although he had a long association with people from Djayapura before the Dutch handed West Irian to In donesia. He is married with two sons. • Revisiting the Solomon Islands recently after an absence of 24 years, was former District Officer Nick Waddell—now Sir Alexander Waddell.
Sir Alexander, one of the British Phosphate Commissioners, was in the protectorate for discussions with the High Commissioner, and took the opportunity to visit many old friends and see “old haunts”.
Before the war, Sir Alexander served as a District Officer in vari ous parts of the Protectorate, and during the war he was a coast watcher.
Sir Alexander said during his visit that the Solomon Islanders seemed a lot happier than they had when he served in the BSIP. He felt that improved health was in a large measure responsible for this. • Professor W. D. Knil, a pro fessor of education administration with the University of Alberta, Canada, recently spent two weeks in Papua-New Guinea inspecting schools.
He is at present spending a year at tached to the University of Sydney.
Professor Knil said that the pro blems in the territory’s schools were similar to those experienced in schools for Indian children in Canada ex-
ccpt in one respect—in Northern Canada there arc sufficient schools for all children, whereas in the ter ritory there arc not. • An investigator with the Fiji Government's Bureau of Statistics, Mr, Michael Mathura Prasad, is at tending a 10-month course in stat istical education at the International Statistical Institute in Calcutta, India.
He left Fiji in May on a training grant offered by the Government of Fiji. • Mr. K. C. Ramrakha, the loquacious national general secretary of Fiji’s National Federation Party, is to tour America for 45 days, under an international visitor grant. In early June—when his departure date and itinerary was still to be decided —Mr. Ramrakha indicated that he was eager to study the American at titude towards colonialism.
Mr. Ramrakha will also study the American legal system and the trade union movement in the professions.
He said, too, that he hoped to gain insight into America’s colour pro blem. During his tour, he intends to visit relatives of his wife, Usha, in Vancouver and to see his sister, Mrs. Indrani Bans, who lives in California. • Miss Hetty Bea has been appointed women’s village develop ment officer with the Roviana Local Council in the British Solomons Islands Protectorate. Miss Bea is a trained nurse and her new job will take her to villages to talk to women
Mr. R. A. Webb.
and advise them on their problems.
This is the first appointment made by a local council in the Solomons to deal specifically with the problems of village women. • The Governor of Vavau, Tonga, the Hon. Ma’afu Tupou, left Tonga in late May for a three-week visit to England as a guest of the British Government. He was due to return to Tonga on June 19. • Mr. R. N. Birch, Australian Trade Commissioner in Fiji, was in Vila, New Hebrides, in May for talks with the Resident Commis sioners and Residency Officers. While in Vila he visited educational insti tutions and the radio station at Mala poa. Later he moved on to Honiara in the British Solomon Islands for discussions at the High Commission. • Mr. H. V. Tait, flying a single engine Victa aircraft, arrived in Nor folk Island from New Zealand in mid-May on a round-the-world trip.
He left Norfolk two days after his arrival for New Caledonia. • Four Samoans were among the 98 students who graduated from Church College, Hawaii, in May.
They are; Petala Manure Lakatani, of Tutuila, American Samoa; La’au S. Liufau, of Tutuila; Uimaitua Poloai, of Pago Pago, American Samoa; and Pisona T. Tevaga, of Apia, Western Samoa. • On May 4, seven Divine Word Missionaries celebrated the silver jubilee of their ordination to the priesthood in the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, Madang. The main celebrant at the mass was the Very Rev. John Musinsky, SVD, superior general of the congregation who was a classmate of the other six NG missionaries.
The men are Rev. John Dunn, SVD, Nondugl; Rev. Henry Hoff, chief pilot of Divine Word Airways, Madang; Rev. Joseph Krimm, SVD, of Mt. Hagen; Rev. Francis Mihalic, SVD, Wewak; Rev. John OToole, SVD, Dreikikir and Rev. Francis Swift, SVD, of Boiken.
Of the original class of 25 ordained near Chicago in 1944 all are alive except Rev. William Backus, who was lost at sea in a plane accident off Lae in 1951. • Mr. Peter Coleman, Pago Pago born Governor of American Samoa from 1956 to 1960, has been ap pointed Deputy High Commissioner of the US Trust Territory. The 49year-old lawyer had been District Administrator of the Mariana Islands since August, 1965.