Nutshell

First Papuan Bishop

appointed by Pope

Father Louis Vangeke of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, has been appointed Titular Bishop of Culusi, and Auxiliary Bishop to the Most Rev. Virgil Copas, Archbishop of Port Moresby. He is the first Papuan-born Roman Catholic bishop.

Father Louis Vangeke was born in 1904 in the village of Ogofina.

After completing hi s secondary education he did his studies in philosophy and theology with the Jesuit Fathers in Madagascar from 1928 to 1937, when he was ordained to the priesthood at Ambatoroka.

Returning to Papua, fluent in English, French, Latin and four local languages, he worked in the sionary districts of Fane and Kurd in Papua. In 1940 he joined the religious congregation of the Mis sionaries of the Sacred Heart.

Recently he was transferred, on loan, from the Diocese of Bereina to the Archdiocese of Port Moresby in order to work at Badili and he is now residing at Koki.

Father Vangeke was also the first Papuan-born Catholic priest to be appointed. • The P-NG Administration has begun a review of the territory’s tax structure and “taxable capacity”, to formulate long-term policies. A com mittee is being chaired by the economic adviser, Mr. A. W.

McCasker, who has invited interested parties to make submissions. • Two members of the Tonga Copra Board, Mr. S. T. Nakao, manager, and Mr. R. A. Johansson, accountant, resigned on September 29. At the same meeting the board approved the appointment of Mr.

B. S. Jeuda, the resident management consultant, as acting manager to the Tonga Construction Company, and Mr. H. V. Barnard, the government development officer, to assist with the accounts in the construction company and copra board. Mr. Jeuda’s ap pointment is a temporary one. • President Hammer Deßoburt received the new Australian represen tative in Nauru, Mr. R. K. Gate, on September 7. The previous Saturday he held a farewell reception for the departing Australian representative and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. J. C. B.

Jackson. Mr. Jackson became first

permanent Australian representative in Nauru in 1968. He now resumes duty with the Department of External Affairs in Canberra, after leave in Canada and the UK. • Mr. Lepani Watson has been appointed Assistant Ministerial Mem ber for Business Services in Papua- New Guinea. He was formerly As sistant Ministerial Member for Co operatives. • Mr. K. A. Ross arrived in Western Samoa in September as Animal Production and Health Officer at the South Pacific Regional College of Tropical Agriculture. Dr.

Ross, an Englishman, is employed by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation and is responsible for the teaching of animal science and husbandry courses and for organising veterinary services. • A hovercraft service between Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, may be started by an Australian-backed company registered in Suva in October. A director of the company, Hovermarine Transport (Pacific) Ltd., Captain John Arlaud, said in Melbourne the company was general agent and distributor for Hover marine Transport Ltd. of Southamp ton, England. His proposed hover craft for the service would seat 65 passengers and make the journey in about four hours; studies would first have to be carried out to see how the hovercraft would stand up to coral. • The Greek liner, Australis, caught fire about 3.30 a.m. on October 22, between Auckland and Suva, while on the way from Sydney to Southampton. The galley was

gutted and more than 40 cabins were damaged. Some of the 2,130 pas sengers lost their possessions. When the liner reached Suva, the Chandris Line, owners of the Australis, offered to fly passengers to their destinations.

Many took advantage of the offer. • Papua-New Guinea’s Police Department is concerned over the increasing number of housebreaking, officebreaking and illegal use of motor vehicles offences being com mitted in the Port Moresby area.

During a recent weekend, entrance was gained to 15 houses and offices while two reports of motor vehicles being illegally used were received. • Pitcairn Island has a new Governor following independence for Fiji, when over-riding administration of the island’s affairs moved from Suva to Auckland. The new Gov ernor is Sir Arthur Galsworthy, the British High Commissioner in New Zealand. In the past Pitcairn has shared its Governor with Fiji. Mr.

Fred Warner, a former Registrar of Co-operatives in Fiji, who has been responsible for Pitcairn affairs in Suva at the South Pacific Office, will move to Auckland for six months to advise Sir Arthur. • Pitcairn will issue a new set of stamps in March next year on the theme, “Polynesian Pitcairn”. They are: five cents, rock carvings at Rope; 10 cents, assorted Polynesian stone artifacts; 15 cents, Polynesian stone fish hook; 20 cents, Polynesian stone deity. In September Pitcairn issued a special set of stamps depicting fish of the surrounding waters. • The Fijian Rugby team touring England, had won three of their six

Independence honey

moon ... Dr, Joseph Williams, Director of Medical Services and a member of Legis lative Assembly in the Cook Islands, took his bride, Jill, to Fiji for a honey moon and to help celebrate Fiji's inde pendence. The couple were married in Auckland on October 6. Dr. Williams headed the Cook Is lands delegation to the South Pacific Conference in Suva.

Photo: Bal Ram.

matches by October 24. They lost two and drew one. Their wins were against Devon and Cornwall, 17-3; North-West Counties, 11-6; and Barbarians, 29-9. They lost 13-25 to Gloucester and Somerset and 6-14 to North-Eastern Counties. They played a 16-all draw with Midland Counties. • An extensive visit which the Administrator of P-NG, Mr. L. W.

Johnson, with a party of senior government officers, was to make to West Irian in November was post poned in late October at Indonesia’s request. A party of Australian press men had planned to accompany the Administrator. • The population of American Samoa jumped 38.5 per cent, from 1960 to 1970 and on April 1 this year was 27,769. According to figures released in Washington by the Census Bureau, the population has increased by 7,718 in 10 years. Guam, accord ing to the same report, has a popula tion of 86,926, with a gain of 29.7 per cent, over the 1960 figure. • President Nixon has signed into law a bill authorising the spending of SUS4.S million for research into the control and eradication of the crown of thorns starfish, menacing coral reefs of the Pacific. The Sec retary of Interior and the Smithsonian will now work in co-operation with Hawaii, the Pacific Trust Territory, Guam and American Samoa, to find out what caused the starfish popula tion explosion. • Western Samoa’s Prime Minister, Tupua Tamasese Lealofi, on returning from his first official visit to NZ, said that he found New Zealand leaders “not unsympathetic” on emigration. He told the NZ Government that Western Samoa was facing an over-population problem, and it was imperative that more Samoans should be allowed into NZ. • French Minister for Overseas Territories, Mr. Henri Rey, stopped briefly in New Caledonia in late Sep tember, after his eventful tour of French Polynesia and several days in the Wallis and Futuna Islands.

The Minister’s four days in the latter group included a session with the Territorial Assembly. Official recep tions were held during a three day visit to the New Hebrides. Mr.

Rey spent only one complete day in New Caledonia, and made only one official statement and that was at Balade, in the remote north of the island. About 100 persons

attended a ceremony there on Sep tember 24, marking the 117th anni versary of France taking possession of New Caledonia, at this very point, in 1853. The Minister in his statement emphasised to the gather ing the attachment of New Cale donia to France. Mr. Rey did not hold a meeting with New Caledonia’s Territorial Assembly, nor a news conference. • Papua-New Guinea’s Adminis trator, Mr. L. W. Johnson, expects a second access road for the High lands from Madang through Bundi, to be constructed by 1975-76. He told the Highland Farmers and Settlers’ Association at Minj re cently that World Bank finance would be needed for the building of the roads, including those on the Hagen-Mendi, Hagen-Kudjip and Kudjip-Kundiawa works programme. • In spite of an active family planning scheme, Tonga’s birth rate last year was 3.51 per cent., the highest for five years. Figures reby the government show Tonga’s estimated population in 1969 as 83,630. Births totalled 2,844 and deaths 236; only eight infants under one-year-old died. • Air Tahiti and Air Moorea, the French Polynesian internal air lines, have resumed their air taxi service between Tahiti and its sister island. After the two companies an

nounced dramatically recently that they were to go into liquidation be cause the French Government would not grant them foreign exchange to import two Britten-Norman aircraft from the UK which were deemed essential for the service ( PIM , Sept, p. 23), the government relented and the planes are now in service. • The Captain Cook Bi-Centenary Mass at Sydney’s Randwick Race course, on the evening of December 1 will be one of the highlights of the Australian visit by Pope Paul VI.

The Pope will celebrate the Mass in English with the heads of the four Episcopal Conferences of Oceania—Cardinal Norman Gilroy (Australia); Cardinal Peter McKeefrey (New Zealand); Archbishop George Pearce, SM, of Suva (the Pacific Islands); and Bishop Leo Arkfeld, SVD, of Wewak (Papua-New Guinea and the British Solomon Islands).

The Pope arrives in Sydney from Manila on November 30, after visiting Pago Pago and Apia. He will celebrate Mass in Apia. • A group of Japan Airlines representatives met in Saipan, US Trust Territory, recently, to make preliminary plans for inauguration of Japan Airlines services between Japan and Saipan. Japan Airlines have been authorised to land at Saipan from December 31 this year, but there has been no actual indica tion yet when the services will begin.