Deaths

of Islands People

Mr A. Meyer Mr August (Gus) Meyer, 61, son-in-law of the late O. F. Nelson, of Western Samoa, died recently in Auckland, where he had lived since 1952. In 1940, because he was a German national, he was interned at Somes Island, NZ. However, in 1942, he was able to return to Western Samoa, where he joined O. F. Nelson and Co Ltd as manager of the Apia branch store. In NZ, he was a departmental manager, and later a director of Cooks. He leaves a widow and two daughters.

Mrs. L. A. Bamola Mrs Leela Ambikanand Bamola, a pioneer woman teacher in Fiji, died recent ly, aged 55. After higher education in India she taught in Fiji primary schools for 35 years. She was active in Indian women’s organisations. She is survived by her hus band, Mr A. Bamola, a retired education officer, a daughter and a son.

Mr W. G. Mitchell Mr William George Mitchell, who spent almost 50 years in Papua New Guinea and Norfolk Island, died on May 26 at Nowra, NSW, aged 97. He was born at Creswich, Victoria, and went to Port Moresby in 1920 to work for a mining company. He was a Burns Philp manager from 1927 to 1942 in PNG and at Norfolk Island from 1947 to 1957. Between 1942 and 1947 he was on Commonwealth war work. Mr Mitchell was married twice in 1906 and 1932. He had two sons and three

daughters.

Iroij Albert Loeak Iroij Albert Loeak, a high chief of Ailinglaplap Atoll, Marshall Islands, died recently in hospital in Honolulu, aged 62.

He was a member of the House of Iroij when the Marshall Islands Congress had an upper and lower house in 1949. When the charter of the district legislature was amended to make it one body, he was elected to that house.

Maka Maui Kea Maka Maui Kea who died in Auckland in May was a descendant of three ariki of Atiu in the Cook Islands. His wife, Pare, was captain of a Cook Islands netball team, which was in Auckland at the time.

He worked for the Treasury Department in The Cooks and is survived by his wife and three children.

Mr J.F. Semple Mr J.F. Semple, former Chief Police Officer and Commissioner of Police in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands from 1968 to 1973, died recently in the UK, aged 50. He was in the Solomon Islands as a police of ficer from 1952 to 1958, then in Tanganyika (now Tanzania), where he served till 1965. He was in the Aden State Police before his appointment to the

Geic.

Mrs Salaevalu Fiame Only sister of the late Fiame Mata’afa, first Prime Minister of Western Samoa, 59-year-old Salaevalu Fiame died in Apia Hospital in May, almost a year since her brother’s death.

An outstanding sportswoman in her younger days, Sala, as she was widely knoftm, led many women’s activities and, at the time of her death, was vice-president of the National Council of Women. She leaves an only daughter, Faamusami

Ulberg.

The funeral service was at the Congregational Christian Church at Lepea before burial in the family cemetery at Lepea.

Mr Henri Jacquier A special issue of the Bulletin de la Societe des Etudes Oceaniennes, of Tahiti, was published recently in honour of the late Mr Henri Jacquier, one of French Polynesia’s best known post-war citizens.

Mr Jacquier died at the age of 68. He had been president of the Societe des Etudes Oceaniennes for 25 years. The society is the oldest learned institution in the South Pacific.

A pharmacist by profession, Mr Jac quier first went to Tahiti with the French Navy in 1931. He was pharmacist at the Papeete Hospital from 1933 to 1937 after which he went into private business near the Papeete waterfront.

He played a prominent role in the development of tourism in Tahiti after World War 11, and was elected president

of the Syndicate d’lnitiative, amourist

body, in 1954.

Many scholars who visited Tahiti in the postwar years found Mr Jacquier a helpful friend. Among these was Thor Heyerdahl who invited Mr Jacquier to accompany him on his expedition to Rapa in 1956. Mr Jacquier was also a keen deep-sea fisher man.

Besides contributing many articles to the Bulletin de la Societe des Etudes Oceaniennes, Mr Jacquier was the author of a novel, Piraterie dans le Pacifique. The novel, which was published in 1973, is bas ed on a true story of the turn of the cen tury. Jules Verne also based a novel on it.

An English translation of the Jacquier novel is to be published in New York this year.