People

Dr Sione Tapa, Minister of Health in Tonga, was elected presi dent of the 30th World Health As sembly at the May three-week ses sion in Geneva. Dr Tapa was born at Nukualofa in 1923, and is a gra duate of the Fiji School of Medicine, Otago University (NZ) and the Royal Institute of Public Health and Hygiene (London). Tonga joined the World Health Organisation in 1975, but has taken part in WHO activities since 1956. Since then Tonga has undertaken a number of WHO projects, several of them sponsored by Dr Tapa.

Tom Neale, 75, the Hermit of Suwarrow atoll in the Cook Islands was taken to Rarotonga in May for treatment in hospital. A cruise yacht which called at Suwarrow found him ill and radioed for assistance.

The Manuvai called at the island to pick him up. Mr Neale was suffering from a bowel complaint. Whether he will return to the island is doubtful.

Acting High Commissioner of the US Pacific Trust Territory, Mr J.

Boyd MacKenzie, spoke with more authority than most when he opened the seventh annual Pacific Basin Regional Airport Conference on Saipan.

Tn the early days of the Trustee ship,” MacKenzie recalled, ”a trip around the districts by air was a true adventure.” He should know. In the early days he survived two crashes one off Guam, and the other near Palau District.

Mr Bartholomew (Bara) Buchanan, 42, is the first Solomon Islander appointed to manage the SI Tourist Authority. Mr Buchanan, before going into the commercial field a few years ago, spent about 20 years in the civil service, working in the Public Works Department, dis trict administration and as Deputy Registrar of Land and Titles. He was chairman of two advisory boards on wages, a member of the Copra and Industrial and Agricultural Loans Boards and Electricity Authority. He is a mem

ber of the Ports Authority and chairman of the Civil Aviation Licensing Board. Mr Buchanan has more than a passing interest in politics, having stood, unsuc cessfully, for election to the Legisla tive Assembly. He has built up ex perience of the tourist industry, but before moving into his new post next January, he will study tourism in other parts of the Pacific.

Mr Rodney Gates has been sec onded from the NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs as deputy director of the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Co-operation. He was previously deputy head of the minis try’s Pacific Division in Wellington.

He had also served with the NZ High Commission in London and with the NZ mission to the United Nations. Mr Gates succeeds Mr Rodney Irwin, who had just com pleted three years’ secondment from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs.

Traffic in George Street, Sydney, figuratively almost came to a halt as bags of copra were thrown about when Papuan John Parker paid a visit to the “big smoke” and met up with a few former Burns Philp masters, who knew Port Moresby as well as any Australian port when the “old firm” ran a fleet of ships. John was assistant to the top stevedore in Port Moresby, but when anyone was in trouble, the cry, from the chief of ficer, captain, third officer, in fact anyone, was, “Get John, he’ll sort it out”. And he did. Over lunch and numerous cups of coffee he and four of his friends, former BP masters Duncan Barr, “Snow” Ealey, Frank and Geoff Sadler, talked of happen ings on the Port Moresby waterfront 20 years ago, of personalities and the “good old days”.

Mr Susumu Yamane, the 57years-old general manager of the South Pacific Fishing Co, Palekula, Santo, has left the New Hebrides after about 20 years, and has been succeeded by Mr Fisfi Ishikawa. In his 20 years he saw his company’s production rise gradually to a stage where it was earning substantial revenue for the New Hebrides. The company in 1972-73, for example, paid more than $250,000 in export duties. Mr Yamana was active in social affairs in Santo. He was a member of the Santo Golf Club and the Santo Rotary Club.

Carmen Milne Bigler has achiev ed a couple of firsts in the US Trust Territory. Her recent appointment as Marshall Islands Director of Public Affairs was the first of a woman to that post. Earlier she was the first woman elected to the Con gress of Micronesia. Mrs Bigler re places Mr Tony deßrum as Director of Public Affairs. Mrs Bigler, 37, re ceived her BA at the University of Hawaii in 1967, majoring in anthropology. Mr deßrum has been appointed Marshalls Director of Resources and Development.

Miss Heni Pelam, 28, of Lembin wen, Malekula, in the New

Hebrides, suffered partial paralysis

after being struck by lightning while in a canoe about 100 metres from the shore. Heni was with three others. The lightning strike knocked her unconscious from the canoe and tore her clothing from her. Her companions were also briefly knocked unconscious. Miss Pelam was taken to hospital, and although affected by the paralysis was soon on the road to recovery.

Larry Danielson, Australian-born entertainer who has worked in Papua New Guinea for the past nine years, was in Sydney in April mak ing a cassette recording. He told PIM in an interview that one of his proudest achievements in his time in PNG was his Niugini Song, which he wrote on the basis of a remark made by Prime Minister Michael Somare in 1975 Independence Day speech. Mr Somare’s remark? “If you see a stranger pulling his canoe out of the water, go and help him and you’ve made yourself a friend ...”

Mr J. F. Judge is to return to the South Pacific as British Attorney- General in the New Hebrides. He was in Fiji in the second half of the 1950 s and early 19605, first as a magistrate and then as a crown counsel. He acted as Solicitor- General for a period and also serv ed on the Legislative Council. Mr Judge was in Nyasaland from 1961 to 1966, and from 1966 till 1973 was in the Department of Law in Northern Ireland when he became Director of Public Prosecutions. Mr Judge succeeds Mr Paul Treadwell, who is now in private practice in New Zealand.

A clue to the reasons for the re cent resignation of Peter Tali Cole man as acting High Commissioner of the US Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, is given in a May press release by Washington and Pacific Associates, which has offices in Washington and Honolulu.

WAPA, a governmental and pub lic affairs consulting group with of fices in Honolulu. Guam, Saipan and Washington, DC, announced that Mr Coleman has been named as president of the group. Says Mr Col eman: “I am accepting the position because it offers me the best oppor tunity to make maximum use of 30 years’ background in government and now apply that experience in further service to the peoples of the Pacific in the criticial period ahead.”

WAPA says Mr Coleman’s main concern will be to foster com munication among Pacific govern ments and the private sector and with the US Government through the WAPA office in Washington.

Mrs Carmen Bigler

Mr Coleman