Islands People

Deaths of Islands People

PNG loses some prominent citizens

Mr Paul Mason J Paul Edward Mason, New Guinea • planter who became famous as a wartime coastwatcher on Bougainville, died in hospital in Brisbane on December 31, after a short illness.

He had been admitted to hospital from Inus Plantation, Bougainville.

He was 71.

I Paul Mason first went to the islands at the age of 14, and at 15 had taken his first job as plantation and trade store manager in the Shortlands BSIP. In 1920 he returned to Sydney and bought an orchard at Penrith, but in 1923 he was persuaded to re turn to the Shortlands, and to begin a long association with Associated Plantations under Captain “Squeaker”

Hamilton. He broke it briefly to run his own trading vessel, the Neui and work with Levers Plantations, finally Returning to Inus Plantation as man ager and as inspector for other plant ations in the company. After World War II he was back again at Inus and served a term representing Bou gainville in the PNG Legislative Council, but it was his wartime ex ploits that brought him into promi nence.

K He was one of a small group of planters who remained behind to gather intelligence for the coastwatch ing organisation controlled from Aus tralia. One of his fellow coastwatch ers. John Stokie, now of Sydney, wrote this tribute to Paul Mason in

January:

■ “I’ve lost a friend of nearly 50 years. Paul was a very great man, modest and one of the most determined men I ever met. I remember how dejected he was when in 1939 he went to Australia to enlist, but they laughed at him. Fortunately for Australia he was made a coast watcher by Eric Feldt. He was very interested in wireless and was able, at one stage during the war, to have the only transmitter working on Bougain ville.

“He was made a naval petty officer as some protection in case of capture by the Japanese as a spy, and while holding this rank he was decorated with the American DSC, an honour of which he was parti

cularly proud. Later, after being com missioned, he was awarded a British

Dsc.

“Every American air force pilot I met in the South Pacific shared my opinion that Paul Mason was on his own as a coastwatcher. In July, 1943, he was taken out of Bougainville, but was back again in February, 1944 only to come out again soon after wards with a serious chest complaint which nearly killed him. When he left, the Japanese spread the word that they had killed him and had scattered his body in small pieces all over the island. But Paul fought his way back to health, returned for another go a few months later, and his return had tremendous impact be cause “Masta Mason” had re turned from the dead!

“With the Japanese now on the re ceiving end Paul had no problems organising what I believe to have been the most efficient guerilla force oper ating in New Guinea. The Japanese casualties were terrific.

“Paul had been a member, back in 1928, of the famous ‘Breathless Army’ formed by residents of the British Solomons to arrest the mur derers of District Officer Bell and his assistant on Malaita.”

Paul Mason leaves a wife, Noelle, and a son and daughter.

See “Up Front with the Editor,” p iii

Mr Don Barrett The sudden death of Mr Don Barrett at Nonga Base Hospital, Rabaul, PNG, in January after an operation for peritonitis, following an appendicectomy, came as a shock to a large number of people through out the South Pacific. He was 55, and had had a colourful career as New Guinea planter, politician, army

officer and active sportsman and sport ing official. On his death he was chairman of the Melanesian Tourist Federation, and had other wide interests.

He was an organiser of the South Pacific Games in Port Moresby in 1969, and was actively involved with all the games series. He was one of the founders of the Planters Associa tion of New Guinea and an organiser of ex servicemen’s clubs.

For some time, with the rank of major, he was on full-time military duty in PNG with the Pacific Islands Regiment, and later became a re cruiting officer. He was an elected member of the PNG Legislative Council from 1949-57 and again from 1960-64, when he was elected to the council’s successor, the House of Assembly. He was a forthright speaker, and a man who could speak elo quently on the wider issues yet press for the needs of his own electors.

The PNG Administrator, Mr L. W.

Johnson, said on Mr Barrett’s death: “He was a man of wide ranging interests, of great enthusiasm and drive. He expended his energy un stintingly, some would say extra vagantly, for the benefit of PNG.”

PNG Chief Minister, Mr Michael Somare said Mr Barrett’s work in sport, tourism and many other areas had been “invaluable to the country”.

Mr Barrett was born in Adelaide, son of a celebrated Pacific writer, the late Charles Barrett. He served in World War II with the Australian Ist Armoured Division and the 2NG Inf Bn, and remained in New Guinea after the war.

He is survived by his wife, Norma, of Rabaul, and a daughter in Aus tralia from a previous marriage.

See “Up Front with the Editor”, P iii (Over)

Paul Mason, from Olive Kroening's paint ing which is now hanging in the Aus tralian War Memorial in Canberra.

Don Barrett

Mr R. H. Hicks I “A helluva good policeman and a good soldier.” That was Ronald Herbert Hicks according to Papua New Guinea’s former police commis sioner, Chris Normoyle.

I Mr Hicks, 68, who died on Decem ber 29 after a short illness, served in Papua New Guinea from before the Pacific War until his retirement as superintendent of the New Guinea Mainland police in 1962. He spent his retirement with his wife Norma at Chittaway Point, Gosford and Sydney.

Mrs L. Wilson H A Samarai (PNG) resident for many years, Mrs Louisa Wilson, wife of Mr Edward (Spud) Wilson, died in Brisbane.

Born in Queensland, the second daughter of Mrs A Evennett and the late Mr Ernest Evennett, who kept the Mornuna plantation in Papua opposite Samarai, she went to Samarai as a girl and later married Mr Wilson, who was then managing director of Whitton Brothers, the Samarai island traders. ¥ When Mr Wilson retired 5i years ago they went to live at Buderim Mountain, Queensland. She is survived by her husband.

Her mother, who is 92, lives at Buderim.

Mr F. Nuuan

Yap’s former Congress of Micro nesia senator, Mr Francis Nuuan, died in Guam Hospital, a short time after being struck by a car while walking in Barrigada, Guam.

Educated at the Pacific Island Cen tral School, Guam College and the University of Hawaii, Mr Nuuan be came principal of Gaaneley School >n Yap District in 1955. He was supervisor of teacher education for four years, a political and economic adviser in Yap and served as a treasurer for Yap District Legislature before he was elected to the Congress.