Deaths Of Islands People

Mr. W. A. Johnston Mr. W. (Willy) A. Johnston, >BE, former British consul in New aledonia, died in Sydney on May 3, here he had been in hospital since ist November.

Mr. Johnston had been honorary ritish consul in Noumea for 34 ears, after succeeding his father, homas Johnston, in 1934. Aged 72, filly was the last survivor of grand ither Johnston’s five children—in uding Norman, Dorothy (Mrs.

Ibie Hagen), Lee and Carl.

Grandfather Thomas Johnston ent to New Caledonia from Sydney l 1883, as a young man of 23. e settled with his bride, formerly liss Ida Jobson, and represented ich overseas interests as Lloyds, Queensland Insurance, Shell and &Q. In 1924 he received his charter » consul.

Grandfather Johnston died at the ;e of 72. His sons Lee and Willy >ok over his commercial interests, leanwhile another son, Norman, had mnded a trading company, operat ig through a store in the centre of iwn. In 1932 he was joined by his rother Carl, who helped him build i an import and retailing business.

Carl Johnston died 20 years ago id is survived in Noumea by his ustralian wife, Elsie, and two chil ren, Betty and Ken. Ken manages ic family cattle and pig property i the west coast at Mueo. Norman survived in Noumea by his French ife and two sons who carry on the ading business—Tom and Louis, he third son is well-known Sydney rganist and choirmaster Norman )hnston.

The third brother, Lee, died in without leaving any children.

The only daughter of settler

Thomas Johnston was Dorothy (Mrs.

Albie Hagen), whose sons Tom, Nicky and Pierre Hagen, continue in Noumea, with Roy in Sydney.

Finally, the fourth son Willy is now survived by his Australian wife Bonnie (Sydney), three daughters Annabel (Mrs. H. David Anderson, whose husband is official Australian observer at the Paris talks on Vietnam), Mary Ann (Mrs. Nev Marshall, UK), Simone (Mrs. E.

Poznanski, Darwin) and two sons Robert and Trevor, both in Noumea.

Pioneer Johnston is thus survived by nine grandchildren in New Cale donia. Their own children now pro vide a fourth generation of Johnstons in that French territory.

The passing of Willy Johnston has brought the end of two generations of British consuls in Noumea. Since his retirement in 1968, in fact, this office has been assumed by the Aus tralian consul.

Many grateful Caledonians and Britishers, however, remember the 34 years’ service of this quiet, unassum ing man. To the French, he always represented the perfect English gentle man and diplomat. Of the crucial part he played in the dark days of 1940, when the Paris government sur rendered to Germany and New Cale donia was almost delivered to Japan, the details may never be known.

Willy Johnston became a vital link between Americans and British when the Caledonians defied their French Governor and rallied to keep fighting the war, but Johnston burnt all the cables and secret files once the war was over.

But those who were there have remembered his courageous and un assuming devotion in a time of peril.

Willy Johnston was cremated at a private ceremony in Sydney, and his ashes will probably be sent back to Noumea, to be placed in the family vault at the 4th kilometre cemetery. —Gerald Rousseau.

Mrs. Augusta Kuper

Kafagamurironga

The death has occurred at Santa Ana Island, in the eastern district of the Solomon Islands, of Mrs. Augusta Kuper Kafagamurironga, known locally as “mother”. She was descend ed from the former paramount chief and her father, Page Page, was the first Santa Ana chief to accept British rule.

Page Page flew a Union Jack presented by the British Naval Com mander at a ceremony at Gupuna

village in about 1897. Mrs. Kuper, who was over 80 at her death, pre served traditions as the local chief, and also encouraged the people to maintain their culture and traditional dances when the Anglican Mission moved into the area.

Mrs. Kuper, survived by a daughter and three sons, was the wife of the late Mr. Henry Kuper, an officer in the German Navy in World War I.

Although he kept his German nationality he helped many Allied airmen shot down in World War 11.

One of Mrs. Kuper’s sons, Geoff, was one of the first Fiji-trained Solo mon Islands medical officers. He’s now retired.

Dr. J. W. Burton Dr. John Wear Burton, who as a Methodist missionary in Fiji before World War I was a strong opponent of the indentured Indian labour system, died in Sydney in May, aged 95.

As the first ordained minister to work among Indians in Fiji—at Nausori—Dr. Burton widely in fluenced public opinion in India, Australia and Fiji concerning the 10-year contracts Indians had to sign. He pressed for better conditions for the labourers and championed the Indians in their attempts to get a better deal.

The indenture system ceased six years after he left Fiji.

Patriarch of Methodist Mission activities in Fiji, Western Samoa, Tonga, New Guinea and Northern Australia for over 30 years, he was also a vital force in mission thinking on Islands affairs. He attracted a charisma of new ideas in the Methodist Church during his 20 years as general secretary of the Methodist Overseas Missions, from 1925 to 1945, and during his two years as president general of the church, from 1945 to 1947.

In 1948, aged 73, he was chosen one of Australia’s two commissioners on the South Pacific Commission, and he served for the SPC’s first term, until 1951.

Yorkshire-born, Dr. Burton grew up in New Zealand. His articles and pamphlets on the Islands were in numerable, and he wrote several books on Islands affairs’ most of which are now collectors’ items (Fiji Today, Call of the Pacific, 100 Years in Fiji, Brown and White in the South Pacific, and later, Modern Missions in the South Pacific).

His daughter, Mrs. Ivor Newman, lives at Wahroonga, Sydney, and his son, Dr. J. W. Burton, Jr., lectures at London University.

(More obituaries, p. 132)

Mr. Harold Jones Norfolk Island farmer, Harold Jones, died in the Norfolk Island Hospital on April 17, aged 81. Mr.

Jones had lived on Norfolk for the past 22 years, after having come from New Zealand. He had been con nected with Ball Bay Whaling Company and R. Hopkins Ltd. and farmed until ill health forced his retirement. He leaves a brother, Ferdie.

Mr. J. A. Dekker Mr. John Andrew Dekker, chief of the division of Services, in the P-NG Department of Information and Services, died on May 4 in New Zealand, while on leave with his wife.

Mr. Dekker, 51, joined the Admin istration in 1966. His two sons, Allan and David, are both under graduates at the University of Papua and New Guinea.

Death of R. H. Wahlen

(from p. 32) His new company was financed from Hamburg again and became known as the HSAG company.

He now became the most im portant and influential merchant, trader, plantation and ship owner in New Guinea and ranked next to the

German Administrator or Governor.

Again he lived in style at Gunun tambu—a fine bungalow facing the Blanche Bay and standing on the cliff top. Wahlen went to Germany on an extended trip during 1914 and while overseas World War I began and he entered the Germany Army, He did not see New Guinea again.

All his property was taken over by the Australian Government and the estimated value went against war reparations in due course. This, of course, happened to all German property at that period.

Wahlen was a tall athletic man who always kept himself in good form. He avoided beer as it caused fatness and so he drank whisky and soda often as well as good German wines—and, of course, a modicum of champagne when occasion called for it.

He kept his energy until quite recent years and began his day with a plunge into his swimming pool at his Hamburg home. Old natives in the Western Islands have told me how he enjoyed such sport as diving onto a basking hawks bill turtle and holding him fast until secured and hauled aboard. And a hawks bill turtle is lively and strong gentleman in his own watery element.

He was Swedish Consul while in Rabaul and earned a title of Herr Consul Wahlen which stuck to him for the rest of his life.

As President of the South Sea Club in Hamburg—where old “colonial” i Germans from all their former colonies met regularly to dine and wine and to talk of former days— he was always “Consul Wahlen“.

He was a natural leader and well respected in his New Guinea days and by his former island friends for as long as they lasted. He was one of the very last of the German pioneers who did such good work “in the earlies”.

He was a big man in his day and cut a wide swath and did all he attempted to do well and truly, and became a legend in his own lifetime —more as king of the Western Islands than as the head of the big HSAG Company.

He recently wrote, “I had many wonderful years in my beloved South Seas, but the best of them all were the happy days I spent at the Wahlen burg in distant Maron—and now I feel 1 have had a very long day.”

Well he has gone—and perhaps he fares the best—but his name, and the memory of what he did in Ger man New Guinea days will be long remembered. Some time ago he wrote that: “Perhaps it is time that I joined my wife and my son in the beautiful grounds of Ohlsdorf Cemetery—they have been waiting for me many years.”

Vale Rudi Wahlen—Man of the Islands!