Deaths

of Islands People

Ratu Livai Tabucala,

Mbe

In Savusavu Hospital recently, aged 77. Among his many com munity interests he was chair man of the Savusavu hospital Board of Visitors, and was active in fund-raising for the new mortuary unit at the hospi tal.

Bruce Allan

At Vaimea, Western Samoa, recently. A New Zealand volunteer working as an instructor in carpentry at the Young Men’s Christian Associ ation, Mr Allan was killed when the motor cycle he was riding was struck by a taxi which had got out of control.

James L. Lewis

In New York USA on March 2, aged 71, from a heart attack.

James Lewis, who came from Danville, Pennsylvania, was a US citizen who became head of the Asia and Pacific Section of the United Nations Trustee ship Department, and had been living in retirement in New York. He had been a UN official since 1948.

He became widely known to administering officials and the

newly-emerging politicians of

Micronesia, Nauru, Papua New Guinea and Western Samoa during moves towards independence which were studied by UN.

Mr Lewis was the senior official in UN Trusteeship Council missions which moni tored the Australian adminis trations of Papua New Guinea and Nauru immediately before independence was granted. He also served as an official in UN teams which supervised elec tions and referendums in West Irian and on parts of the African continent. During World War II he served with the US Navy’s Pacific fleet.

A memorial service was held in the UN chapel in New York.

Cecil Joseph

Shorthouse

At Redcliffe, Queensland, February 1, 1980. Cec was a pre-war and post-war Terri torian, and a long-time em

ployee of Steamships, Papua

New Guinea. His funeral was attended by old PNG identities such as George Gough (ex superintendent Bomana Gaol), Jack Woods and Joe Roach of

Steamships Trading Company,

Mike Duffy, formerly of the Department of District Admin istration, Roy Barwick ex- Department of Native Labour, and Fred Allen, ex-STC.

Sarju Prasad

Saiju Prasad, who has died in Fiji, was more than 100 years old and came there under the original indentured labor sys tem which established the

Indo-Fijian community. He

served two terms as an inden tured worker after being re cruited in Africa and then settled in Vanua Levu. He spent most of his life in Vanua Levu and Taveuni and was active in Indian affairs in these islands. He leaves eight sons, four daughters and 150 grand children.

Gwen Read

At Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, on January 31. Gwen Read Mrs W. J. Read was one of the band of Australian women who sacrificed a normal life style to live in remote parts of Papua New Guinea with their husbands during the adminis trative contact periods of the

late 1930 s and immediately

after World War 11.

Incensed once by an Aus tralian politician who claimed Australians had it easy in PNG she planned a menu of bully