Deaths of Islands people

Tui Chanel Tui Chanel, district commissioner of the Boy Scouts in American Samoa and a local businessman, died at the Lyndon B. Johnson Tropical Medical Center, American Samoa, on December 16. He was 55.

Mr. Chanel, in addition to scout ing, operated the Chanel Photo Studio in Fagatogo and was also a long-time local employee of Air New Zealand.

Mr. Ruben Kun The death occurred suddenly on December 17 of Mr. Ruben Kun, the Postmaster of Nauru.

Mr. Kun entered Nauru’s Public

Service in 1930 in the office of the Superintendent of Native Affairs.

The next year he was transferred to the Accounts Branch, where he re mained until his death.

He is survived by a wife and five children.

Mr. Sam Samuela Mr. Sam Samuela, a Member of the Cook Islands Legislative Assembly and a leading politician for many years, died recently, survived by a wife, 11 children and several grand children.

The Cook Islands News said of him on November 2: “Another stalwart in the struggle of the Cook

Islands people to stand on their own feet is gone. ‘Old Sam’ was a fighter.

He argued, he struggled for what he believed was right for his people. ‘“Old Sam’ joined forces with the Premier, Hon. A. R. Henry, in the early thirties and together with many other Cook Islands leaders, worked for a system under which the lives of the people could be improved.”

Canon Peter Rautamara Canon Peter Rautamara, the first Papuan to become an Anglican priest, died in January at Dogura, Papua, aged about 92.

Canon Rautamara was the last known Papuan who could remember the arrival of the first Anglican mis sionaries—the Rev. Albert MacLaren and the Rev. Copland King. He was a small boy in a village near Dogura when they landed in August, 1891.

They must have a deep impression on the young lad. At any rate, by 1914 Peter Rautamara was a deacon and three years later he became the first Papuan Anglican priest.

Canon Rautamara spent almost all his ministry, and later his lively retirement, in and around Dogura.

And there he was buried, after a service conducted by Assistant Bishop Henry Kendall, in the cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul.

Dr. Joseph Nonemacker The death occurred in Yap, Mic ronesia, on December 24, of Dr.

Joseph Nonemacker, 65, the first Peace Corps volunteer dentist as signed to the trust territory. Dr.

Nonemacker went to Yap only last October under a new programme making it possible for highly skilled individuals to volunteer for work without the larger group training normally associated with the corps.