People

Warrant Officer Ross Phillips, an Australian army explosives expert spent July-October helping the government of Kiribati to dispose of poten

tially dangerous bombs and

ammunition that have littered the area since World War 11.

The help was provided as part of Australia’s defence co operation programme with squthwest Pacific countries following a request from Kiribati.

Researchers Dr Grant McCall, Dr Alexander Mamak and Mr Robert Franco of the University of New South Wales, Australia, are investigating Pacific

Islander migration and adap

tation. Funded by the Aus tralian Research Grants Committee, their study

involves interviewing

Samoans, Tongans and Fijians

living in Sydney, Auckland,

Honolulu and San Francisco.

One focus of the project is to determine the factors in the host community which have the greatest impact on the Islander communities.

Mr R. H. Harding has been appointed a director of

Bougainville Copper Ltd,

Papua New Guinea’s major

mining operation. He replaces

Mr B. B. Fairfax-Ross, who has retired.

R. G. Irwin has been appointed Australian High Commissioner to Solomon Islands, succeeding A. J. Melhuish, who has held the post for the past two years.

After 35 years in broadcasting, R. Geoffrey Haggett, overseas programmes manager with Radio New Zealand, is retiring.

Following service with the BBC forces programmes in India, Mr Haggett joined New Zealand Broadcasting in 1947.

Among his many duties in the Pacific was a three-year stint in Tonga from 1960 advising on

the establishment of the Tonga

Broadcasting Commission.

Director of the South Pacific Festival of Arts, Mali Voi, has made a four-week swing through the Pacific to brief member countries of the South Pacific Festival of Arts on plans and preparations for the festival which is to be held in

Port Moresby in June-July

1980. He also visited non member countries to find out how many people and items they would be sending to the festival. Mr Voi visited Guam,

Saipan, Ponape, Majuro,

Palau, Nauru, Kiribati, Tuvalu and Solomon Islands.

Papua New Guinea’s former high commissioner to Aus tralia, Vincent Eri, has been

appointed acting secretary of

the PNG transport and civil

aviation department.

Toafi Atoa Manuula has been appointed official represen tative of the Samoan Visitors Bureau in Australia. She runs Pacific Area Promotions, which seeks to develop tourism in the Pacific. Toafi is a daugh ter of a High Chief and holds the Taupou title of Manuula.

She was born in Apia and educated in New Zealand and Australia where she attended the University of NSW. She has worked in the travel indus try in Sydney for several years, mainly in public relations. She has also assisted the ceremonial

hospitality section of the prime minister’s department in Can berra. She will run the Samoan Visitors Bureau through her or ganisation, Pacific Area Pro motions.

Dr Dirk A. Ballendorf. former

president of the Community

College of Micronesia on Ponape, has been appointed director of the University of Guam’s Micronesian Area Re search Center (MARC).

According to Micronesian News Service, the main pur pose of MARC is to provide opportunities and facilities for

the acquisition, organisation

and dissemination of pertinent information concerning Guam and Micronesia as a whole in order to stimulate research activities. MARC was established in 1967.

A Papua New Guinea

language specialist, Thomas

Tumun, is doing advanced re search at the University of Queensland. Mr Tumun, from

Kup, Kerowgi District, Simbu

Province, is studying his own

language group, mid-Wahgi,

and will write a research thesis as part of a course leading to an MA degree in anthro

pology.

The agricultural editor of the

British Broadcasting Corpor

ation, Tony Parkin, has left Fiji after a seven-week visit. Mr Parkin had been attached to the ministry of agriculture and fisheries information unit, and advised on agricultural broad casting. He also held training sessions with the department’s rural broadcasters. His visit fol lowed a recommendation by Fiji’s Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara who, during a visit to Britain, had been par ticularly impressed with a BBC

programme produced by Mr

Parkin.

Tom Ritako, Papua New

Guinea’s newly appointed

charge d’affaires to the Philip pines, has taken up his post. Mr Ritako previously held the job of first assistant secretary (Citi zenship and Migration Div ision). Dominic Diya, PNG’s ambassador to Indonesia, will remain accredited as ambassa dor to the Philippines.

Belgium’s ambassador to Niue, Marcel Swinnen and his wife flew from their base in|

Wellington to Alofi in July oJ

a goodwill visit. Thanking his!

Niuean hosts for their ‘fantas-j

tic’ hospitality, Mr SwinneiJ

told the paper Tohi Tala Niuei before his departure that one or his reasons for coming to the] country was to find out more] about suggestions he had heard

of possible uranium deposits!

on the island.

Stuart Nanton of St Vincent in the Caribbean, where he was!

the top-ranking player for sevi

eral years, has been appointed head tennis professional at the Maeva Beach Hotel, Tahiti.

John Wilson left Funafuti at the end of August after two!

years as attorney-general fori

Tuvalu. He first came to the!

Pacific in 1976 and spent a yean in Solomon Islands before] going to Tuvalu. His appoint-] ment covered the crucial time]

of independence, and he]

played a major part in drawing]

up legislation for independent]

Tuvalu. A similar role awaits him when he takes up his new]

appointment as attorney!

general of Montserrat, one of the few remaining British col-J onies in the Caribbean. John was accompanied by his wife Anita, who has built up the]

now thriving public library in]

Funafuti and spent much time!

classifying and documenting]

the Tuvalu Archives material] which was dispersed from the] Central Pacific Archives ini 1978. John Wilson will be suc-J ceeded as Attorney General byi

Richard Wood, previously act-j

ing attorney-general in the!

Seychelles.

Geoff Haggett ... retiring

Toafi Atoa Manuula ... just starting