Deaths Of Islands People

Mr. A. D. Patel Mr. Ambalal Dahyabhai Patel, the “stirrer” in Fiji politics in the 1960’5, was a man who always had the respect of his political opponents.

“A.D.” as he was popularly known, died on October 1, after a brief illness, aged 64 ( PIM, Oct., p. 28).

A few thoughts on the Fiji scene in the decade about to close bring one to the almost inevitable con clusion that it was because of the activities of Mr. Patel and his followers that the colony is now but a step away from full internal self government.

The National Federation Party, which he led, and which grew from troubles in the canefields in 1960-61, consistently pressed for political re form. It did not get what it sought, but it at least gave the powers-that-bc a push along the road it wanted to travel.

Mr. Patel was an able lawyer, yet in the political arena showed little of the surgical precision of a lawyer in dissecting a proposition.

But he was a compelling speaker, and when he spoke from the heart he could reach oratorical heights. Thrice he forced inquiries into canefields disputes.

These were the Shepherd inquiry, which followed a strike by cane farmers in 1943, the Eve Com mission of 1961, and again this year, when Lord Denning arbitrated on a dispute. (Lord Denning’s decision is expected in December).

It was while appearing for cane growers before Lord Denning that Mr. Patel became ill. He withdrew because of this, and it was that illness which led to his death.

During World War 11, Mr. Patel got “offside” with the authorities, and he was interned from 1942 to 1944 under the defence regulations.

That indignity did not stop Mr.

Patel from bouncing back and be coming a member of the Legislative Council in 1944, and serving till 1950. He was again elected to Legco in 1963, serving to his death. From 1963 he was a member of the Execu tive Council and Member for Social Services.

In 1966 after the constitutional talks in London there was a general election in Fiji, and he became Leader of the Opposition in the next council.

In 1967 he led his party from the council over the one-man, one-vote issue. The party boycotted all sub sequent sittings of the council, and forced by-elections for all seats they held. They won them all, and Mr.

Patel came back as Opposition Leader.

In the last 12 months or so, while still maintaining attacks on the Alliance Party-led Government, he seemed to mellow.

He will be remembered as a turbulent figure in Fiji politics; it will be up to the historians to assess the value of what he did.

Tearapo Teauna

A Tahitian schoolteacher who devoted a large part of his life to the study of Polynesian legends and who wrote numerous manuscripts about them, died in Tahiti recently at the age of 67. He was Tearapo Teauna, known as Pouira.

Pouira used to conduct a regular session on Polynesian legends over the local radio station. It had a large and eager audience.

In accordance with his own wish, Pouira’s manuscripts were buried with him. This was described by the Papeete weekly magazine Tahiti Regards as “an anti-cultural act, if ever there was one”, although there was ample precedent for it in Tahitian history.

Reverend Ben Chenoweth The Rev. Ben Chenoweth, who served with the Methodist Church at Namatanai and Kavieng, New Ire land, New Guinea, for 32 years, died recently in South Australia, aged 75.

Mr. Chenoweth, bom in South Australia, worked at Namatanai from 1923 to 1929, when he moved to Kavieng, on the northern tip of the island. When the Pacific War reached NG in 1942 he moved to South Aus tralia for five years, returning to NG in 1947.

He left NG in 1960 and put in three years’ church work in South Australia before retiring in 1963.

Mr. Carl Domnick Mr, Carl Domnick, magistrate who served with the US Marine Corps in World War II as a scout, gathering military information in the US Trust Territory and evacuating Marshallese Islanders from Japanese-held islands, died recently on Majuro, Marshalls.

A former member of the Marshall Islands District Legislature, he was magistrate of Majuro, the Marshalls district centre, when he died. His son, Charles, is a Representative Member of the Saipan-based Con gress of Micronesia.

Mrs. Alec Wickham Mrs. Alec Wickham, widow of one of the two Wickham brothers credited with introducing the overarm “crawl” method of swimming to the world in the 1900’s, died recently in the Solomons. Believed to be over 90-years-old, Mrs. Wickham was well known on Roviana, Western Solomons. Her husband died two years ago in Honiara, aged about 79. and his brother, Harry, died in October, 1962, aged 80.

Lilian Mary Quintal Lilian Mary Quintal, daughter of Fairfax Moresby and Sarah Quintal, died on Norfolk Is. in October. Born on the island, she was 73.

Mr. Tommy Kabu Mr. Tommy Kabu, Papuan cargo cult leader of the ’so’s whose followers in the Purari River region believed he was married to the daughter of the King of England, died recently in Papua, aged about 50, He had suffered from TB for some years.

Mr. Kabu joined the Australian Navy in World War II and saw Queensland. Impressed by Australia's economic progress, he returned to Purari after the war, determined to lift economic standards in this poor and depressed region.

He formed a cult, called the “New Men”, and his followers rejec ted traditional customs. Christianity was embraced and a self-styled police force started.

But lack of skill, inexperience and bad luck doomed the project’s main aim of bringing affluence to the Purari people and the movement died about 1955.

Mr. Kabu ran unsuccessfully for NG’s House of Assembly last year, although he was almost an invalid and unable to campaign.

Toalepaialii Pose

Toalepaialii T. Pose, a senior Western Samoan judge and deputy president of Samoa’s Land and Titles Court, died in October, aged 60.

Before he was appointed to the bench, in 1956, Toalepaialii worked in hospital service, traded on his own and worked for the American forces at Satapuala during World War 11.

He was a member of the Fono, the Samoan parliament before in dependence in 1962, a deacon of the Congregational Christian Church and a member of the Council of Elders.

Also president of the Aana battalion of the Bov’s Brigade, he had been voted national president of the