People

Mr G. Wyn Jones, 50, Secretary to the Chief Minister in the Solomon Islands, has been appointed Governor of Monserrat in the Carribbean. It had been announced earlier in Honiara that his post was to be localised and that he would leave the Solomons about the end of November. Mr Jones joined the civil service in the Solomons 15 years ago, after 11 years in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony. He became secretary to the Chief Minister in 1974.

MrD. K. Hunn has been appointed New Zealand’s first resident High Commissioner to Tonga. Previously the NZ High Commissioner to Tonga was stationed in Apia, where he was also High Commissioner to Western Samoa. Mr Hunn is no stranger to the South Pacific. In 1970 he went to Suva as Deputy High Commissioner to Fiji, with the responsibility of setting up the NZ High Commission. New Zealand’s acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sir Keith Holyoake, said Tonga was a long-standing friend of New Zealand, and the habit of close consultation between the two countries on matters of mutual interest had developed. It was important that both countries have the means of getting in touch quickly and conveniently when the need arose.

Mr Syd Snowsill, a prominent figure in the Fiji sugar industry, and also active in several sporting spheres, will leave Fiji in January to settle in Australia. Mr Snowsill was the first project manager of the Seaqaqa sugar cane development scheme in Vanua Levu. Before that he held a number of senior positions with the CSR Co Ltd and later with the Fiji Sugar Corporation in several parts of the country. Mr Snowsill represented Fiji at cricket and bowls, and was a Fiji rugby selector for several years. He was vice-captain of the Fiji cricket team which toured NSW in 1961, and captain of the team which went to NZ in 1962. He was in the Fiji bowls team in several international tournaments.

Mr D. G. Harper, 46, will succeed Mr Paul Cotton as New Zealand High Commissioner in Western Samoa in February. Mr Harper has served in a number of overseas posts and is at

present in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Cotton, when he returns to New Zealand will rejoin the staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Air Niugini acquired a new pilot in December when Minson Peni return ed home from Australia to join his nation’s flag-carrier. Minson had spent about 15 months as a flying in structor with Nationwide Aviation Space Academy Pty Ltd, at Cessnock, New South Wales, teaching Australians to fly and bring ing a good number of them to the point of going .solo. His return brought to about a dozen the number of PNG nationals now serving as pilots with Air Niugini.

Paora Tiki, a young Cook Islands Boy Scout, may have a career in avia tion ahead of him. He recently won a two weeks’ flying scholarship at the Walsh Memorial Flying School, Matamata, in New Zealand. The scholarship, awarded under the allspices of the Cook Islands District Scout Association, was provided by Air New Zealand, Cook Islands Airways and Captain Ewen Smith.

The many entrants were narrowed down to a short list of seven. The seven were given a tour of the airport, and then a flight over Rarotonga, which was the first for many of them, and then they were interviewed by the selection committee.

Tonga and the New Hebrides got new judges in October and November.

Judge Henry Hubert Hill, MC, became the puisne judge in Tonga, after three years as Deputy Judge on the London western circuit and three years before that as an additional stipendiary magistrate. He was called to the bar in 1960 as a member of the Middle Temple.

Sir Louis Georges Souyave, a judge of the British High Court of the New Hebrides and co-president of the Con dominium Joint Court, was Chief Justice of the Seychelles, where he was born. He read for the bar at Gray’s Inn, London, and was called in 1949. He practised as a lawyer in the Seychelles till 1956, when he became Assistant Attorney-General. He was appointed a puisne judge of the Seychelles Supreme Court in 1964 and Chief Justice in 1970.

Papua New Guinea’s Minister for Primary Industry, Mr Boyamo Sali, visited the Philippines, the United Kingdom and Italy in November.

In the Philippines he looked at

fishing, forestry and agricultural es tablishments; in the UK he spoke with Commonwealth Development Cor poration officials, in particular attempting to persuade the CDC to set up an office in PNG instead of Fiji where it already has an office; and in Rome he attended the conference of the Food and Agriculture Organisa tion.

The Papua New Guinea Minister for Education, Mr Kobale Kale, headed a five-man delegation at the general conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in Nairobi, Kenya, in October- November. It was the first time PNG had attended a UNESCO conference as a full member. The PNG Govern ment signed the UNESCO Constitu tion on September 21, 1976.

Japan’s new Ambassador to Nauru, Mr Yoshio Okawara, presented his credentials to President Hammer Deßoburt, on October 22.

President Deßoburt hosted a State luncheon in honour of the ambassador, who later also hosted a reception. Both functions were at the Menen Hotel. Mr Okawara is also Japanese Ambassador to Australia.

Mrs ’Ungatea Fonua in October became the first woman in Tonga ever to preach a sermon at a Free Wesleyan Church service. Her ser mon, delivered in her home village of 'Utulau, followed a change in church policy made at its annual conference earlier in the year giving equal rights for women to preach at church ser vices. Mrs Fonua is the widow of a Wesleyan minister, the Rev Samiu Fonua.

Mr Gustav Frederick Dertag (Fred) Betham, 61, has been appointed Western Samoa’s first High Commis sioner to New Zealand. The man who made the appointment, Prime Minister Tupuola Efi, was quick to head off possible criticism, by saying that although Mr Betham was an uncle of his by his marriage, he was the man most qualified for the post, and no man could claim to be leader of a country if he was afraid to make decisions for fear of criticism. Mr Betham was Western Samoa’s Minister of Finance from 1961 to 1970, and from 1972t0 1976 he was Secretary-General of the South Pacific Commission.

Mr Elisala Pita, of Tuvalu, is now one of the most highly qualified fisheries officers in the Pacific. He recently attended a one-year post graduate diploma fisheries manage ment course at Grimsby College of Technology, UK Department of Maritime Studies and Fisheries. His study covered fish stock, fishing vessel design and power, fishing methods and gears, marine studies and legisla tion, fish processing technology and commercial and management prin ciples related to tropical and temperate areas. He was one of eight

A sideways glance from 20-year-old Angelyana Tukana, Air Niugini's Hostess of the Year, who was elected by her sister hostesses at the airline's annual ball in Port Moresby in November.

Photo: Veronica Williams.