People

mong the most honoured of ic honoured guests at the idependence celebrations of riribati in July was Professor [airy Maude, 73, who for the :casion returned to the juntry for the first time in x>ut 30 years. Professor laude was first in the Gilbert id Ellice Islands in 1929, as a idet in the British colonial rvice. He remained there for lout a decade in various ipacities, and returned as resi ;nt commissioner in 1946-48. e told the weekly A toll Pion r that his first impression of lange was the greenness of arawa, which he attributed to e casuarina trees introduced / the US Marines. He also iticed that there were fewer aditional houses, and a lot ore used drink cans about the ace. However, the cleanliness * the villages and the increase the number of motorbikes so caught his eye. As the man ho started the first co-op at ukantewa, Beru, in 1931, he as pleased to note that the

i-ops were flourishing con

ms on many of the islands, ■ofessor Maude made a pres itation to the Kiribati ar rives of his old savings bank >ok, bearing the number 1. As e man who got the savings ink system started in the col ty, he was asked to open the st account as a sign of his ast in the system. But perhaps ; is best remembered for his

ark in reorganising the

entry’s constitution, legal

•de and governmental system, the process he was successful

having almost 140 repressive

ws repealed. Professor

aude and his wife showed >w they felt about the visit rien they told the Atoll Pion r how happy they were to be ome’.

A big surprise of the visit for rofessor Maude was when on

ic first day of independence

e was awarded the Kiribati idependence Medal, ‘in rec gnition of your dedicated and leritorious service to our

luntry’.

Jean-Baptiste Conri of New Caledonia has received the first award of the Australian Brav ery Medal for an act of bravery outside Australia. Mr Conri, of Hienghene, was awarded the medal for helping to rescue Australian school pupils from a bus which ran off a road in darkness and heavy rain and plunged into a river in the early morning of May 11 1978 (PIM

July 1978). Twenty-three pu

pils and adults, most of them

from Bomaderry High School

on the New South Wales south coast, were on the bus. Two of the pupils and a woman from New Caledonia were killed.

After 24 years continuous ser vice with the South Pacific Commission, the last 17 as manager of the publication bu reau, Sydney, Charles Birch meier retired in June. He is suc ceeded by Kevin Eari, who has worked in the graphic arts and publishing field for 25 years, the last five of them as printing and publications officer at the Alexander Mackie College of Advanced Education, Sydney.

American Samoa’s ‘Golden Boy’ George Tanoa, the new

light middleweight king of the

South Seas, has put his country back into the sports spotlight by stopping William White of

Western Samoa in the 14th round of their title fight in

Apia. According to White’s

camp he will be challenging George to a return bout in December.

Papua New Guinea’s secretary for foreign affairs and trade, Tony Siaguru, has just com pleted a course at the John F.

Kennedy School of Govern ment at Harvard University.

He was sponsored by the US Government under its edu cational exchange programme.

The course dealt with basic mathematical and statistical theory, and aimed to give par

ticipants an understanding of

quantitative analysis.

Gurudayal Sharma, founder and editor of Suva’s Hindi language paper Shanti Dut has retired. Mr Sharma joined the staff of the Fiji Times and Herald Ltd in 1934, and brought out the first edition of Shanti Dut in 1935. Mr Sharma is respected not only as a journalist and editor, but as a community worker concerned with helping the poor and the aged. He plans to retire to

enjoy his family, which in cludes nine grandchildren. His son Vimal has followed in father’s footsteps and now works with an Australian news paper.

Francisco Uludong, Saipan re porter for Guam’s Pacific Daily News, has been awarded

a Dag Hammarskjold Fellow

ship to cover for the United Nations the September- December 1979 session of the UN General Assembly in New York. Mr Uludong, one of four

journalists from throughout

the world granted the fellow ship this year, is the first Micronesian to be so honoured.

Tevita Fa, 32, has been appointed secretary and chief investigator in the office of

Fiji’s Ombudsman, Judge Moti

Tikaram. Formerly senior legal

officer at the office of the direc tor of public prosecutions, Mr Fa in his new job will be mainly concerned with receiv

ing and investigating com

plaints against government

departments.

Papua New Guinea Defence Force pilot Lieut David Inau is

teaching Royal Australian Air

Force trainee pilots to fly at the RAAF base at Point Cook near Melbourne. Lieut Inau be lieves he is the first PNG national to become a military

Left: Prof H. E. Maude, casual as usual. Above: Veteran editor G. D. Sharma. Right: Lieut-Col J. F. B. Lytus, of the Papua New Guinea Defence Force, with an inscribed plaque presented to him by Australia’s Chief of Defence Staff in Canberra to mark the fact that he is the 6000th serviceman to train in Australia under the Defence Force Programme between Aus tralia and other countries. Coun tries taking part also include Fiji, Solomon Islands and Tonga.