People

• Mr. Fred Betham’s appointment as secretary-general of the South Pacific Commission has been hailed with enthusiasm by the Western Samoa Government and Press.

“Bravo” cried one newspaper in an editorial. So far as the Samoan masses are concerned, however, they see the SPC as something of a mystery and his appointment in the nature of a political eclipse. Hence, Mr. Betham must be worried in case his image of an astute politician and a competent Minister of Finance fails to survive his sojourn in Noumea or wherever else the SPC may move its HQ. One thing he is certain of is tiiat, he says, he will make no sweep ing changes in his new office at the outset. His administrative policies will be conservative and follow closely the guidelines already estab lished by his predecessor, Mr. Afoa fouvale Misimoa, at least until he sees the need for change. “I will have a flexible outlook and attitude,” he said. • Well known in the Solomons as managing director of Lever’s Pacific Plantations Pty. Ltd., from which he retired in 1960, Mr. James Sparkes is well on the way with his second busi ness career which he began three years ago when he joined the T. B.

Hampton group of companies in Australia. Now he has been made their shipping manager. Mr. Sparkes has worked in plantations in the Solomons and the Belgian Congo. • Wearer for the past three years of three United Nations hats in Sydney, Dr. Donald C. Dunham left Sydney for home in the United States on October 29 to wait for his next posting. Three days before leaving, he welcomed his successor, 50-year old Dr. Frank A. Bauman, another American, as representative in Aus tralia for the United Nations De velopment Programme, UNICEF and the UN’s High Commission for Refugees. Dr. Bauman, a BA from Stamford University and law graduate from Yale Law School in Connecti cut, who’s also studied international law at London University, is no stranger to the Pacific Islands which will form much of his sphere of operations. During World War II he served as a Japanese interpreter with the Ist Marine Division in the

Peliliu campaign in the Western Carolines and later was at the Guam submarine base. After the war he studied and helped to prepare a re port for US President Truman on the economic effects of the atom bombing of Hiroshima. One of his pet activities is the strengthening of friendship ties with the Japanese. • John Fatu, of Maufanga, Tonga, has had a sub-species of abalone named after him. Interested in the various species of shells found in

Tongan waters, he sent some of the abalone to the Smithsonian Institute in the United States. He has now been told by Dr. Harald A. Rehder, of the US National Museum that the sub-species of abalone, which comes from the Haapai Group has been named Haliotis Sepiculata Fatui Rehder, 1971. • Mr. W. R. (Bill) Hosking, deputy director of the Cook Islands Agriculture Department, has retired after 40 years in the government service. He joined as a district fruit inspector in 1930 and his accumu lated knowledge of the industry, par ticularly regarding citrus fruits, places him in the top rank of fruit experts in the South Pacific. He was recently nominated chairman of the newly formed Cook Islands Primary Pro ducers Marketing Board. • Ex-Royal Navyman Mr. D. H.

Gibson has been appointed Fisheries Development Officer to the GEIC.

Aged 28, and married with one daughter, Mr. Gibson qualified as a naval radar simulator and at the time of his appointment to the colony was a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve. • Tonga’s Prime Minister and King Taufa’ahau’s brother, Prince Tu’ipelehake, and wife Princess Melenaite became grandparents in September. Their second daughter.

Princess ’Elisiva Fusipala, wife of Hahano Vaha’i, gave birth to a son in the Kapiolani Hospital in Hono lulu. The new prince was named by the king Fatafehi Nikotimasi Laufili tonga Kakau Vaha’i. • Pope Paul has appointed Bishop Martin J. Neylon as the new Vicar Apostolic of the Caroline and Mar shall Islands from September 20.

Bishop Neylon succeeds Bishop Vincent I. Kenally, who was Vicar Apostolic for 14 years. • Dr. William Vitarelli, 60, popu lar long-time officer of the Trust Territory Government, Saipan (he’s been in the TT since 1950) is to become Director of Research at the University of Guam in November.

And in October another well-known TT officer, Bill McGrath, an Aus tralian who has been there since 1966, left Saipan for a new job in Honolulu, where he becomes direc tor of land management for C.

Brewer and Co. The McGraths are also well-known in PNG, where Bill and wife Eleanor were with the Ad ministration for many years.

Tarzan's mate Jane? No, it's Fiji's Miss Hibiscus, Verna Thomas, posing in a frangipani tree.