Deaths

Islands People

I. K. B. Borron

es Sawers Kidston Brad : Borron, born in Suva in , at his house there after a illness. Together with his Zena, who died two years he was well known for his

anthropy and generosity,

home, Borron House, used le Allied Command Head rters in World War 11, was ated by Jimmy Braddon to Fiji National Trust. He irited the Mago Island te, which is now managed ais son James. A true Kai he will be remembered by

ly friends.

Ine Tui Kleis

)rmer Speaker of Tuvalu’s

ise of Assembly, on his le island of Nui, aged 48. cated at the old Elisefou

School on Vaitapu, and in Western Samoa, New Zealand and Italy, Sione Tui Kleis did a short stint in the former Gil bert and Ellice Islands Colony civil service before being ordained a Catholic priest in 1961. In 1964 he left the clergy to return to government ser vice. After working as a broad caster with Radio Tarawa, he was elected to the GEIC Legis lative Assembly, and later selected as minister for com merce and natural resources before the Gilberts and Tuvalu separated in 1975. He was fluent in Tuvaluan, Gilbertese, Samoan, French, Italian and

English.

John Sachs

At his home in Suva, of a mas sive heart attack, on September 23. John Sachs, 45, was on the staff of The Fiji Times for 20 years, lately as commercial printing manager. He was born at Nausori, one of an old European family in Fiji, his grandfather being one of the original settlers at Tailevu.

John Sachs 'was involved in

many community activities in cluding YMCA and Harry Charman’s sports club, and was president of the Fiji Master Printers’ Association. Former executive director of The Fiji Times, Mr L. G. Usher, in a tribute, described Mr Sachs as ‘having absolute integrity, in both his working and private life, and he could be depended upon completely’. He leaves a wife, Dorothy, and four chil dren.

Roger Heard

Suddenly in Sydney in August,

aged 82. He designed the pile

light at the entrance to Suva harbour, having gone to Fiji in 1920 to join the Public Works Department. He returned to Australia in 1924. He married Florence Beddows, second daughter of William Beddows, who operated the Vunivasa copra estate on Taveuni.

M. J. Raniga

At Ba, Fiji, aged 64. Coming to Fiji from India in 1939, Mr Raniga worked as a goldsmith in Ba and Suva before return ing to Ba in 1953 to found Popular Novelties Ltd, spring board for Maganlal Jiwa and Sons, the town’s biggest indus trial concern. Founded as a dis tribution company, Popular Novelties later began manufac turing its distribution lines,

beginning with curry powder

and moving on to confec tionery. Retired, Mr Raniga spent his last few years concen trating on a private charitable trust set up in the family name.

He is survived by his wife, four sons, two daughters and 16

grandchildren.

Rev Minoru Louis

On Guam, aged 42. Originally from Ponape, at the time of his death, he was assistant pastor of the Faith Presbyterian Reformed Church on Guam.

He was also director of Faith Hospitality House, a ministry for Micronesian students on Guam, and a representative of the United Bible Society to Guam and Micronesia.

Kunju

A Girmitya, Kunju, at Savusavu, Vanua Levu, Fiji, aged 87. Kunju survived the

Girmit Centenary (of the first arrival of indentured Indian labourers in Fiji) by only three months.

R Lawrence Isa

he first Shortlands man to be ordained a Catholic priest, Father Lawrence Isa, at Gizo, Solomon Islands. Father Isa had been working with the Gil bertese settlement around Gizo. He was ordained in 1968.

E. J. Robson

Eric John Robson, in Lae, Papua New Guinea, aged 65.

Bom in New South Wales, Australia, Eric Robson first went to Rabaul, New Britain, in 1938 as a police officer, later transferring to the medical ser vice.

In World War 11, he was attached to the Allied Intelligence Bureau, and be came one of the elite band of coastwatchers, operating along the Morobe coastal as well as inland areas behind Japanese lines.

After the war he was posted to Mumeng, in Morobe, where he remained until his death.

The building of Mumeng’s

hospital and primary school

was largely due to his efforts.

Among his other activities were the running of a roadside res taurant at Mumeng, and a spell with the Commonwealth Department of Works.

He was awarded the Independence Medal (PNG) and received it at Mumeng on the country’s second Indepen dence Day in 1976, along with his better-known fellow resi dent, the late Mick Leahy (PIM April p 7, May p6B). By this time Eric Robson had become a PNG citizen

A. P. Elkin

Emeritus Professor A. P. Elkin,

Anglican minister, anthropol

ogist, and author, in Sydney, Australia, aged 88. Professor Elkin was a former editor of Oceania, a journal mainly con cerned with the study of the indigenous peoples of Aus tralia, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Island countries.

His field work took him to many remote places in these areas.