Deaths

of Islands People

/Lary Columba

ister Mary Columba, SM,

dio taught many Samoan

;aders and businessmen to ead and write, has died in American Samoa, aged 73. She /ent to Samoa in 1939 where he became known as an expert sacher of infants. She was also n artist and left many paint rigs as a memorial to her tai nts. The Prime Minister of

Vestern Samoa, Tupuola Efi.

nd the Governor of American lamoa, Mr Peter Coleman, ttended her funeral.

Mlikesa Balekiwai

Tlikesa Balekiwai, father-in aw of the Governor-General T Fiji, Ratu Sir George has died aged 75. He rad been living in retirement at lau. He was a well-known portsman in his younger days.

Je leaves a widow, six daught ers and two sons.

: Rank Mahony

Dr Frank Mahony, a familiar igure for six years at South Pa :ific Conferences as SPC Director of Social Programmes md later Director of Adminis ration in a reorganised sec retariat, died at La Jolla,

Zalifornia, early in September

ifter a heart attack. He was 53. \n anthropologist with a repu ation enhanced by valuable vork for the Third World in Micronesia, Africa and with the South Pacific Commission, Dr Mahony joined the com mission early in 1972 from the University of Hawaii. When he left the commission last January, he planned to take a long vacation and then seek to renew his university career at the University of Hawaii. For most of the 19505, he worked

as an applied anthropologist in

the Truk and Ponape districts of the US Trust Territory and then, for four years, was with the United States Agency for National Development in the

Somali Republic. He spent four years at Stanford Univer

sity, USA, completing his

studies for his PhD in anthro pology and followed this with four years in Honolulu before going to SPC headquarters at Noumea.

Inoke Cati

Inoke Cati, 50, master of the Fiji ship Moea, 31.7 m. was incinerated when the ship caught fire at Savusavu wharf.

He was trapped in his cabin and was unable to free himself.

The Moea was towed into the harbour after the fire broke out and later drifted ashore at Samo. about 800 m from Savusavu town.

F. E. M. Warner

Frederick Ernest Moore Warner, ISO, MBE, has died in Auckland.

Born in England, he began work as a clerk in Malaya.

Later, after a period in New Zealand as a farm worker, he was employed by an islands trading company, his work taking him around the Pacific, particularly to the Cook Islands and Samoa.

In 1944 he joined the British overseas colonial service and was invited by the Fiji Govern ment to establish a co

operative marketing system.

He headed the Fiji Co operative Department for nine years and when he left its ser vice in 1965 there were 377 co operatives and 11 500 members. He was awarded the Imperial Service Order for meritorious and long service.

After his retirement in 1968 Mr Warner agreed to oversee the transfer of Pitcairn Island administration from Suva to Auckland. He was Assistant Commissioner for Pitcairn from 1968 until 1973 when he became Commissioner, an

appointment he relinquished

in 1974.

Alan Gibson

Mr Alan Gibson who worked for Burns, Philp (SS) Co Ltd in Fiji, American Samoa and Western Samoa for about 12 years, has died in Sydney. He

was prominent in sporting

activities in Apia.