Deaths

of Islands People

The Death Of

A Legend

Taripwakato is dead. He was much better known in Tahiti and New Caledonia than in the New Hebrides, but he was in fact a Tongoa man, one of the great custom figures of the Shepherd Is lands.

He visited New Caledonia several times, his expenses paid by those he went there to treat. In Tahiti, he was well known in herbal medicine cir cles. On his own island of Tongoa, he was respected and even feared. He had received from his ancestors in Matangi, his native village, the wisdom of the ancients. This retired member of the British police force knew both how to treat the sick with herbs and to tell the stories of the past.

We had the great pleasure of having him at the microphone on Radio Vila.

We were discussing the legend of Kuwae, which had just been recounted over the radio.

Taripwakoto was not very talkative. We were speaking French and he was a little in timidated. Then he was asked to reply to a question which he found too important, one not to be replied to in public.

Chief Tipoloamata had re lated the legend of Kuwae, but had stopped short at the point of the eruption of the volcano.

So we did not hear the ac count of the resettlement of shattered Kuwae, which was to create the islands of Tongoa, Tongariki, Emae and Falea.

So I asked Taripwakoto what happened afterwards.

Who was Matanauretong?

Who was Tarifegit?

Taripwakoto knew the answers, but said nothing. As he left the studio, he took me aside and said: “Some other time you come and see me, and I will tell you. But some other time ..."

The legend of Matan auretong is widely spoken of throughout the Shepherd Is lands. It should be recalled that after the eruption of the great Kuwae volcano, the is

land was resettled, and eachr village and clan claims re sponsibility for the re settlement.

The Tongariki people told I me recently that the; Matanauretong legend was; theirs. Taripwakoto, who re cited legends so well, could i have given me his version of the resettlement of his island.

Now he is gone. He is a spirit,, transformed into a Na Etamat.

He is dead and his sons know nothing. With the death of Taripwakoto, oral tradition has lost a legend. (Obituary tribute by P.G., in Nabanga, Vila, New Hebrides.) T. H. G. Elkington Thomas Harold George

(Tommy) Elkington, an old

identity in the Solomon Islands, has died in Brisbane, aged 70. He was born at Samarai, where his father. Old Tom, ran the Cosmopolitan Hotel. The family moved to Tulagi in 1917 taking over a new hotel, and lived there till 1931, when Old Tom died and the hotel was sold to “Butcher Johnno”.

Tommy Elkington was ed

ucated in Brisbane. After his father’s death, he went into business with Ernie Palmer, as recruiter and trader. In 1941, Tommy joined the 2nd AIF in Sydney, training as a com mando. In 1942 and 1943 he served in “Z” Special Unit in NW Australia. From there he went to the AIF in New Guinea, serving under Phil Palmer in HMS Paluma. Even though he was an AIF sergeant, he was later given command of

this ship.

In 1945, he married. He re turned to the Solomons with the first civilians in the Southern Cross in 1946, spent two years on Tulagi, working for Carpenters, and then did a spell at Yandina. He joined R.C. Symes and then worked in the group in the Ambon.

He leaves a widow, a son and

two daughters.

Mr H. R. Cooper Mr Harold Roy Cooper, Direc tor of Nelson & Robertson Pty Ltd, Island Merchants until his retirement in May 1970, has died. Mr Cooper joined what

was originally the partnership

of Nelson & Robertson at 16 years of age and his association with the company was a very active one.