People

When Tonga’s Parliament convenes again in June, its members will include the first woman commoner to hold office since King George Tupou 1 introduced a British type parliamentary system in 1875. The history-maker is Papiloa Foliaki, wife of the kingdom’s Director of Health and great-granddaughter of P.S. Bloomfield, who settled in Tonga as a trader in the 1840 s and became the first American Consul there. Backed by a dedicated and enthusiastic committee, Papiloa mounted a multi-faceted, much-discussed campaign which reached into every comer of her 11candidate electorate largest and most widespread of the three districts, embracing the main island of Tongatapu, plus the islands of’Eua, Niuafouou

and Niuatoputapu.

The sheer ka-pow of her

campaign, and the explicitness

of her platform aroused unpre cedented interest among Ton

ga’s traditionally somewhat

apathetic voters and sent re cord numbers of them to the polling booths on April 14, to romp Papiloa into office only 470 votes behind the No 1 sitting member for Tongatapu, and 2 662 ahead of the third seat winner, ex-Deputy Com missioner of Inland Revenue,

Lupeti Finau.

Papiloa has committed her self to seeking old age benefits for all over 65, as a follow-on to the recent introduction of PAYE taxation; universal instead of selective expense coverage for patients requiring overseas medical referrals; wider dissemination of govern ment information and involve ment of relevant non-govemment people in decision-making affecting development programmes and allocation of overseas aid funds, and wider scope for local private enterprise businesses, with less govern ment control and more con-

structive encouragement for

entrepreneurial initiative.

In addition to being a triple certificated nursing sister and mother oTfive children aged 11 to one year, Mrs Foliaki is also the single-handed creator of Nukualofa’s efficient and thriving Hala Tukutonga sub urban bus service and founder of a scholarship trust which guarantees the cost of school fees and textbooks for gifted children of needy families. She is also concerned to extend the work being done by the Ton gan Red Cross on behalf of handicapped children and is

currently undertaking a per

sonal village-by-village survey to pinpoint the unknown num ber of mentally and physically handicapped adults in her elec torate, with the aim of establishing another trust to provide residential treatment and rehabilitation facilities in association with Vaiola Hospi tal. And she has publicly guaranteed the whole of her parliamentary salary to the fur therance of this project. In another “first”, she has set up a Member’s Office in Nukualofa to which, two days a week, her constituents can

bring their problems, their

complaints, their requests for information and their own ideas about Tonga’s present and future needs.

A former staff-sergeant with 17 years experience in the se curity service of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has

been appointed security direc

tor of Tonga’s controversial new Bank of the South Pa cific.

The man, Ed Hameluck, was offered the job by the bank’s governor, John Meier, a former

aide of the late American billionaire recluse, Howard

Hughes.

Meier came to Canada from the US in 1972. He is wanted in the US on income tax

charges involving millions of

dollars.

Hameluck resigned from a SC24 000 job with Vancouver province’s Co-ordinated Law Enforcement Unit to take up the new post. He said he would “make a little more” than his former salary in the Tonga

job.

According to Hameluck, his first job as security director will be to ensure that security at

Tonga’s international airport

meets North American stan dards.

Among BoSP plans in Tonga is a project for extension of the

airport.

Hameluck said he will be based in Vancouver and will travel between there and

Tonga.

Kelepi Liongitau, 41. from

Kolomotu’a, Tonga, made his tory of a sort recently when he became the first Tongan to undergo brain surgery in his own country. In the past Ton gans suffering from such com plaints had to go overseas for surgery. Treatment for Kelepi in Tonga was made possible through the presence of a New Zealand Army medical team, which included a neuro surgeon, Major Graham Mar tin, an Australian.

The Rev Father George Gallet, SM, has been appointed honorary consul for France in Tonga. Father Gallet, a Frenchman, was bom in 1909 and went to Tonga in 1937. The appointment was

proposed by the French

Government and was ap

proved by King Taufa’ahau

Tupou. Tonga and France have maintained cordial re lations since they signed a Treaty of Friendship in 1855.

Father Gallet is a popular fig ure in Tonga and has given faithful service to all Christian communities.

Mr Edward J. Daly, an American business tycoon, has offered to pay for five four-

year scholarships for five West ern Samoa students at the University of California. Mr Daly, chairman of the board and president of World Air ways Inc, made the offer at a dinner at the Prime Minister’s residence. The scholarships will be in the names of the Prime Minister, Tupuola Efi, Cardinal Pio, and the car dinal’s private secretary, Father Adams. Mr Daly was in Apia for the dedication of the Fetu-o-le-Moana building (a meeting, accommodation and office complex) at Mulivaito, to which he had given a sub stantial sum of money, and to see what could be done to reno vate and maintain St Joseph’s retreat house at Vaoala.

Papiloa Foliaki

Angelyn Tukana, 21-year-old Buka islander (pictured) spends most of her working life above the clouds. She’s a hostess with Air Niugini and figured in the January PIM as holder of the Miss Papua New Guinea title.

She’ll be really flying high in June on her way to Manila to compete in the Miss Asia Quest.

Then it’s on to Mexico for the Miss Universe Quest and, after that, London for the Miss World crown. Angelyn was voted Air Niugini’s Air Hostess of the Year 1976.