Deaths
p. 73 · Read in the full issue
of Islands People
Ratu Alipate Dovi
Verata Logavatu
After being struck by a lorry at the Nausori end of the bridge at Laqere, 10 km from Suva, aged 61. Ratu Dovi was the son of Ratu Emori Logatavu, a high chief in the Confederation of Burebasaga, and Adi Banuve, the grand-daughter of Ratu Seru Cakobau in Kubuna Confederation. He was a high chief in both confederacies and a member of the Great Council of Chiefs. Ratu Dovi was also the uncle of Adi Lady Lala Mara, wife of Fiji’s Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara. Ratu Dovi was a staunch supporter of the Methodist Church in Suva and Rewa, and was deeply involved in social and community work.
Te Tama Loteba
The Kiribati newspaper, Atoll Pioneer, reports the death at Strasbourg, France, of Fr Bran stett, missionary of the Sacred Heart Fathers. Fr Branstett, known as Te Tama Oteba dur ing his long mission in Kiribati, arrived in the country in 1938, only a year after ordination. He served on various islands in the group including Tabiteuea, Nonouti, Abemama, Abaiang and Tarawa. During his time at Nonouti, he helped in building a maneaba called ‘The Ark’, which was claimed to be the
largest such building ever
erected in Kiribati. Fr Bran stett finally left Kiribati in 1973 on grounds of health.
A. W. Reed
Alexander Wyclif Reed, for many years chairman and managing director of the New
Zealand-based publishing
company A. H. & A. W. Reed, at the age of 71. A. W. Reed wrote many books on the legends and folklore of the Pa cific, in which he travelled
widely over a long period.
These included works on Fiji, Polynesia, the Maori people of New Zealand and the Aus tralian Aborigines. Mr Reed’s tally of books on educational and related subjects, as well as a number of children’s books, ran into the hundreds.
Chriss Golding
At Hornsby, NSW, Australia, of a heart disorder. Chriss Golding was well known to older residents of Norfolk Island as the wife of Alf Gold ing, who served as one of the island’s police officers for a number of years up to 1958.
Frederick Adams
In an Auckland hospital, aged 56. One of the large family of the late Ephraim Adams and his wife Amy (nee Christian), Frederick Adams was educated at the Norfolk Island Central School, leaving Norfolk at the age of 22 to live in New Zealand. He returned to Nor folk for about two years 14 years ago, but has since lived in New Zealand.
Eric Olsen
Well-known for many years on Norfolk Island, Eric Olsen has died in an Auckland hospital.
Eric was much liked on the island around the Pacific Hire Cars depot and also for his work in showing films around the hotels in those days.
Meli Masitabua
A former Fiji rugby represen tative, after a drinking party at Nasinu, near Suva, aged 31. A pathologist at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital, Suva, who conducted the post mortem examination, said: ‘He literally drank himself to death’.