People

• Mr Albert Poroi, former senator for French Polynesia in the French Senate and ex-Mayor of Papeete, has been honoured by the French Govern ment with the Order of Merit. He was decorated as a Commander of the order by Governor Pierre Angeli in the hospital at Mamao where he is recovering from a serious operation.

It is not his first decoration. He is an Officer of the Legion of Honour and was awarded the Medaille de la Resistance for his work in rallying French Polynesia to the side of the Free French during World War 11. • Papua New Guinea’s Director of Agriculture, Mr W. Conroy, is changing his role to diplomacy and trade as the Director of the Depart ment of Foreign Relations and Trade. This is a new department. But diplomacy is almost a second nature for him as he has been involved in many international negotiations on behalf of PNG. Mr N. J. Thomson, present Director of Trade and Industry, will retain his status of director and will work with Mr Conroy in the new department. Mr John Poe, Minister for Trade and Industry, will become Minister for Foreign Relations and Trade.

• Mr D. C. C. Luddington, Sec retary for Home Affairs, Hong Kong, has been appointed to succeed Sir Michael Gass as High Commissioner for the Western Pacific. He will take up his new post on a date yet to be announced. • Mr Len Moran, 73, co-founder with his mother of the Polynesian Association of Sydney, is learning to walk with two false legs. He had one leg amputated in November, 1971, and the second in 1972. When PIM spoke to him early in April he was waiting for an ambulance to take him to hospital to be fitted with false legs. He had earlier learned to walk with one false leg, and soon after his discharge from hospital after the second leg was taken off he started to practise walking with a plastic leg.

He was unworried by his ill-fortune.

His only concern was to find a home unit at floor level to replace his house with steps and stairs in the suburb of Paddington. • Bishop Zurewe Kamon Zurenuo was recently consecrated Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of New Guinea—the first local man to be elevated to that office. His conse crator was Dr John Kuder, his pre decessor. Dr and Mrs Kuder, who have been Lutheran missionaries in New Guinea since 1934, will soon leave the territory. • Mrs Andree Millar, Curator of Gardens at the University of Papua and New Guinea, will have $l,OOO to spend on orchid research. The American Orchid Society recently made a grant of that amount. Mrs Millar has gained world-wide re cognition for her work with the orchids of PNG. • Bishop John Rodgers, formerly Bishop of Tonga, has bee,n named by the Pope as Bishop of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. He succeeds Bishop Henry de Cocq, who resigned in 1971, since when Bishop Rodgers has been acting as Apostolic Admini strator of the diocese. He was Vicar Apostolic and later Bishop of Tonga from 1953 until he resigned in 1972 to make way for a Tongan-born prelate, Bishop Finau. • Mr D. C. Vernon, assistant general manager of Bougainville Copper Pty Ltd, for employee and community relations, became the company’s general manager at the beginning of April. He has been as sociated with the Bougainville pro ject from the start of the feasibility studies and became assistant general manager of production in 1970 after

spending four years as project man ager in Melbourne. He is married and has three daughters. • Mr J. C. Kenworthy, who has been appointed Chief Police Officer in the GEIC, was expected to arrive in the colony in April. He was previously Deputy Commissioner of Police in the BSIP, and before that served in Malaya, Cyprus and

Tanganyika. Mr Kenworthy replaces

Mr J. F. Semple. • Ratu Pe.naia Ganilau has been elected unopposed to the Fiji House of Representatives to fill a seat left vacant by the elevation of Ratu Sir George Cakobau to vice-regal status of Governor-General. Ratu Penaia had been leader of Government Business in the Senate. • David Mataele, a 45-year-old Tongan, who lost both his arms in an accident in a wool-scouring plant in New Zealand in February, has the blessing of NZ’s Prime Minister Norman Kirk to stay in NZ as long as he wishes, even though he is an illegal immigrant. On top of that his family will be accepted for per manent entry to NZ. Mr Kirk, in a

Mr D. C. Vernon

Mrs Fatal Slender, Tonga born and living in Sydney has been appointed represen tative for the Tonga Visitors Bureau. She will be working with Hutchinson Public Relations who represent the bureau in Australia. She will make regular calls on carriers, wholesalers and retailers, and will be available through Hutchinson Public Relations to give background information on Tonga. Mrs Slender, who is married to an Australian, hopes eventually to be able to arrange per formances by Tongan dancing groups and displays of some of the handicrafts for which Tonga is best known.

telegram to David in Middlemore Hospital, Auckland, said, “Your determination to triumph over adversity and your courage are greatly admired”. David did not let the accident get him down. Now the pride and joy of the nurses, he was out of bed four days after his accident and within a month had learned to wash, shave and do other odd jobs with the toes of his left foot. He works an electric typewriter, using a stick clenched between his teeth. • Pastor Fred Kalomoana, of the New Hebrides Presbyterian Mission, is leaving for Noumea, where he will take charge of the New Caledonian Mission, replacing Pastor Jack Louhman. • Tiofilusi Ngalumoetutulu Fatui langi Kalanivalu Fotofili is the name of the latest royal baby to be born in Tonga. He is the first-born son of Princess Siu’ilikutapu Kalanivalu Fotofili, wife of the Hon Kalanivalu Fotofili, of Fongoloa. Princess Siu’ili kutapu who is the daughter of Prince Tuipelehake, was one of the central figures in a story which went around the world in 1969. While in New Zealand in 1969 she married a Tongan commoner, student Siosiua Liava’a. Her marriage was annulled by King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV in a proclamation on December 1, 1969, which declared that it was “unlawful for any member of Our Royal Family to marry any person without Our Royal Consent”. Her marriage to the Tongan noble, Major Kalanivalu Fotofili, followed on October 22, 1970. • Baron Vaea, who has just com pleted a stint as Tonga’s High Com missioner in London, breaks new ground as minister of a new ministry in the kingdom, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Commerce. The creation of a new ministry reflects Tonga’s determination to diversify its economy and tackle a growing unemployment problem by the intro duction of manufacturing industries. • Mr John Trevor Archdall Pearce, Registrar of the PNG Institute of Technology since April, 1969, retired at the end of April and will live in Buderim, Queensland. Born in Aust ralia and educated at the Kings School in Parramatta, New South Wales and Oxford University, Mr Pearce spent most of his working life in the British Colonial service. He has served in Kenya, Abyssinia, Ceylon, India, Burma, Tanganyika, Basutoland and Swaziland. • Mr loane Kaua, member for the Ellice Island of Vaitupu on the

GEIC Legislative Council, has resigned his seat. He has been in illhealth for some time. A by-election to fill the vacancy will be held on May 2. • Mr D. S. Grove retired January’s end after 27 years in the Papua New Guinea Public Service.

He served as a patrol officer, in the Department of Native Affairs and finally, for 10 years, m the Lands Surveys and Mines Department of which he was director for more than nine years. • The Rev Roy Chalkley, port chaplain in Suva for the last three years, will go to England in May for

leave and then to a new posting by the Missions to Seamen. He will be succeeded by the Rev Drake Brock man, vicar of Woodside, in Hamp shire. Mr Brockman is taking up his first P ost wi,h the missi ° ns ' Suva , born Mr Rodney C ole is now managing director of the p NG Develo me s nt ank . He was promoted f deputy managing director. Mr c , joi £ e / the Fi fi Civil Service in 1951 J and event ually became Secre tary ' for Finance SUCC eeds Mr Keith Crellin who was also board chairman. Sir John Anderson, a member of the board for several years, has been appointed chairman.