People

• Mr L. W. Johnson, Papua New Guinea’s Administrator, has offered to remain at his post until indepen dence provided he isn’t in the way and can perform a useful function.

I Commenting on his position recently he said he doesn’t want to remain as a “decaying and useless relic of the ■ colonial past”. • Two independent MHA’s in Papua New Guinea have joined the Peoples’ Progress Party because their people believed they could do more I for them with party backing. One of the MHAs is Minister for Informa tion, Mr Paulus Arek, and the other is Mr Stephen Tago. Both were school teachers before being elected to the House of Assembly. • George Pilioko, nephew of Aloi Pilioko, a well-known Polynesian artist, has gone to France and Switzer land to take up a scholarship in museography. The scholarship course of one year was offered by Professor Gabus, of Neuhatel, a member of UNESCO and ICOM, who has helped to create various museums in Africa, South America and the Middle East to preserve local arts and traditions.

Mr Pilioko was born on Wallis Island in 1949. After completing his military training as a French citizen, he went to the New Hebrides to visit his

in Port Vila. He built up an interest in Oceanic art and is now about to carry that interest a stage further through his scholarship. • Andy Thompson, American turned Cook Islander, recently cele brated his 86th birthday. He first arrived in Rarotonga in 1908 in a trading schooner, and returned in 1912 to make the islands his home.

He spent his life as a mariner, serving in ships trading to the US, and New Zealand, as well as to other South Pacific groups. He retired in 1964. • Mr John Hilary Smith, Finan cial Secretary in the BSIP, has been appointed Governor of the GEIC in succession to Sir John Field. Aged 45, married with three children, Mr Smith worked in the Colonial service in Nigeria from 1951 to 1970 when he was appointed to the Solomons.

He will arrive in Tarawa in July. • Chief Nikolao Pula has been appointed American Samoa’s Director of Education. He has been with the department for 40 years, latterly as deputy director. He succeeds Mr Milton de Mello, who went to Pago Pago from Hawaii three years ago and will now go on to Washington DC for a year of advanced study. • Chris Laidlaw, ex-NZ All Blacks’ half-back, who is on the staff of the NZ High Commission in Fiji, will coach the Suva Rugby Union’s rep team this season. • Raymond Burr, television’s Iron side, plans to retire in 1975 and live on his island of Naitauba in Fiji.

But before that he will make another television serial and will film it in Fiji. After retiring, he hopes to begin another job—launching a daily news paper. • Dr Charles E. Fox, at 94 the oldest and most celebrated working missionary in the Islands, has finally retired. A career with the Anglican Church which started on Norfolk Is land in 1902 ended on March 14 when, with 500 people to see him off, he flew from Honiara to retirement in New Zealand. He will live at a small private hospital at Waipukurau, Hawkes Bay. Dr Fox arrived in the Solomons in 1908 and has served as a District Priest on San Cristoval, headmaster of All Hallow School, Ugi, as a member of the Melanesian Brotherhood for 11 years, as Principal of the Catechists’ Training College at Kohimarama, Guadalcanal and as chaplain at Taroaniara, including St Clair’s Hospital. He refused to leave the Solomons when the Pacific war broke out and he served throughout behind the Japanese lines as a coast watcher.

• From agriculture to works— that transition has been made by Mr Berenado Vunibobo, who was Secre tary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forests in Fiji. He has succeeded Mr Jim Barron as Secretary of Com munications, Works and Tourism.

Mr Barron is on pre-retirement leave after 23 years in Fiji. Mr Winston Thompson, Director of Agriculture, has been appointed to succeed Mr Vunibobo. • Dr Alfonso Faustino, the first Micronesian physician to receive an MD degree from a US university, recently finished his internship at Providence Hospital, Portland, Oregon. • Dr Ulai T. Otobed, the first and only Micronesian woman doctor, has returned to Koror after two years at the National Women’s Hospital, Auckland, training in obstetrics and gynaecology. She graduated from the Fiji School of Medicine in 1965. In 1968 she spent six months in New Zealand training in obstetrics. Dr Otobed was born at Amelik, Babel thuap. © With the backing of the PNG Development Bank, Mr Igo Tutara of Hanuabada has become the first uncle. There he learned to speak English, and taught in French schools

Here's one of PIM's correspondents, Felise Va'a, of Western Samoa, and his wife of a few weeks, formerly Makerita Samu, second daughter of the Rev and Mrs Samu Lafoai, of Apia. They were married in American Samoa on February 26 and honeymooned in Fiji. Felise, son of Mr and Mrs Leulu Va'a, of Saleufi, Apia, is chief reporter on the Samoa Times, and Makerita is a secretary with Polynesian Airlines.

Last month PIM had a picture of Pope Paul with a newly-elevated cardinal, Cardinal Pio, Bishop of Apia. Now we have the Pope with a much-married man, Wamp Wan, paramount chief of the Mogei tribe in the New Guinea Highlands, who has three wives. But that didn't shake His Holiness. He gave the chief— Vatican-calling on his way home from London—his blessing and included his wives and children in it.

local man to run a car-hire busine: Operating at Badili, Mr Tutara h seven cars and is assisted by 1 daughter, Mea, and a nephew, L Tau. • Tufuga Samuelu Atoa has be appointed Director of Education f Latter-day Saints schools in Weste Samoa. His appointment will effective from June. A former cha man of the Public Service Comm sion, he is president of the Rota Club of Apia and of the Weste Samoa Amateur Sports Federatic Mr Atoa. resigned from the Pub Service in 1971 to become Busin* Manager for LDS schools. • A 14-year-old blind New Brit: lad, Paul Sangios, has passed an A tralian Music Board examination w high marks. Paul plays the pia and is regarded by his examiners showing considerable talent. He tends St Edmund’s School for ' Blind at Wahroonga, Sydney, wh he is sponsored by the Rabaul Lie Club. He has done well in gene

school subjects, including toui

typing and Braille and will remi at the school until he gets his leav' certificate. • Professor Y. P. Ghai, an exg on constitutional law and a law in Kenya, is in Papua New Guin He has been engaged as a specis consultant by the Constitutioc Planning Committee.

Mr Mekere Morauta, has been a[?] pointed Deputy Secretary in the Depart ment of Finance in Papua New Guinea He obtained a Bachelor of Economic degree from the University of PNG 1970, the first indigenous graduate economics from that university. Before joining the Finance Department he h[?] appointments in the Labour Department and the Administrator's Department.