People

Four hundred children in American Samoa take part in the summer programme of in struction in tapa-making run by Mrs Mary Pritchard.

The programmes also involve handicapped children, she ex plained to Fiji Times writer Angela Leong, during a recent visit to Fiji with the American Samoa Arts Council Choir and theatre group. To prove her point, she displayed a fine tapa design done by a 13-year-old deaf mute, Veni Ho Ching. ‘Children who make tapa get money from it and we encour age them to continue, as they could possibly make a living from it,’ she said.

During her visit Mrs Pritchard met with Fijian masi makers at the Fiji Museum to exchange ideas and techniques.

Mrs Pritchard was born in Pago Pago of a Samoan mother and an American father.

She said; ‘As a child, there weren’t many children I could play with. I used to follow my mother’s relatives to the village and watch them make tapa.’

In the end, she had spent so much time watching the work that when, at 23, she took to making tapa herself ‘1 was already familiar with all terms associated with tapa-making, and didn’t need to be taught’.

Her summer programmes for children are affiliated with the department of education and sponsored by the government.

Filipe Nagera Bole has pres ented his credentials to Presi dent Jimmy Carter as Fiji’s third ambassador to the United States.

Colin Samuelu, a 17-year-old Western Samoan studying at Southampton, England, has won a student technical award for his development of a wind driven generator which can use a light breeze to recharge a car battery. The project was

undertaken as part of his A level design and technology studies at Itchen College.

Mary Anne Belinda is the name chosen by a Solomon Islands woman, Francisca Anele, for her baby born on the banks of a flooded river in September.

There’s a story attached to the name, and it began when a mini-bus which was attempting to get Mrs Anele to hospital was stopped by the flooded Sasa’a River in Western Guadalcanal in the Solomons. Friends eventually carried her across the river but by then the birth of her baby had begun. Bill Runciman, a doctor from Adelaide in South Australia, was on holidays at the nearby Tambea Tourist Resort, and he was brought to the riverside where he assisted at the birth.

Because the baby was a girl the grateful mother couldn’t call it Bill, but she settled for Mary Anne Belinda the name of Dr Runciman’s wife. Dr Runciman, who is from the child care unit at Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide, said the birth had been ‘normal and uncomplicated under some what unusual circumstances’.

Mr Justice Buri Kidu, the first Papua New Guinean to hold the office of his country’s chief justice, has been knighted. The award of Knight Bachelor was announced in September by PNG Governor-General Sir Tore Lokoloko. The newly

knighted Sir Buri Kidu, 35, is a law graduate of the University of Queensland, and has been chief justice since mid-August.

His wife Carol comes from Queensland he met her while doing his law studies and they have four children. Sir Buri was secretary of the de partment of the prime minister before being given his new appointment and earlier was secretary for justice.

Dr Macu Salato, former secretary-general of the South Pacific Commission, left Fiji in September for an academic year at the University of Hawaii’s Pacific Island Study Program as scholar in resi dence. He is expected to have a light teaching schedule during his stay, but to serve as a resource person for professors and students, and to be avail able for visiting lecturer en gagements at neighbouring in stitutions in Hawaii.

It is also expected that Dr Salato will do extensive re search and writing in order to take advantage of his decade of experience as first, a member of the Fiji delegation to the South Pacific Conference, and later as secretary-general of the South Pacific Commission.

Dr Salato is accompanied by his wife.

Aminand Sundar recently re turned to Fiji after doing course work for a doctorate in edu cation at Teachers’ College,

Columbia University, New York.

Mr Sundar, whose area of study was in curriculum and teaching, was in the US under Fulbright Fellowship Program.

The Malaysian Foreign Minis ter Tengku Rithauddeen visited Apia in September. A spokes man for the Western Samoan prime minister’s department said that the country desper ately needs expert manpower in agricultural and other fields, and it was hoped Malaysia may be able to help in these respects.

Roger P. Vallo, president of the GTE Communications Net work Systems, and Frank Y. C.

Yung, chairman of the Tele communications Authority of Singapore, will address the opening plenary session of the Third Pacific Telecommuni-

The Commander of the Royal Fiji Military Forces (RFMF), Co lonel lan Thorpe, visited the Joint Services Staff College in Canberra during a one-week study tour of Australian military training establishments. As well as visiting establishments where officers and men of the RFMF are now studying, he inspected other centres for fu ture training projects. His visit, ending on September 28, took him to bases in New South Wales, Victoria and the Aust ralian Capital Territory. Picture shows Colonel Thorpe, left, with Lieutenant-Colonel Ratu Epeli Nailatikau, centre, and the col lege commandant, Brigadier J.R. Salmon.

cations Conference (PTC ’81) to held at the Ilikai Hotel, Honolulu, on January 12-14.

Among panels to be held at the conference is one of tele communications in the People’s Republic of China and another on the telecommunication needs of Pacific Island countries.

Liva Tukutama, planning officer in the Niue Planning Office, left for the United Kingdom in September for a year’s study at Oxford University. His target?

A certificate in diplomacy. He already holds a diploma in education from the University of the South Pacific.

Richard Stratton, British high commissioner to New Zealand, has been appointed governor of Pitcairn Islands. Retiring Pitcairn Governor Sir Harold Smedley said in a cable of farewell, reported in Pitcairn Miscellany: ‘I have enjoyed my association with Pitcairn and shall carry with me always fond memories of my visit to the Island. Lady Smedley joins me in extending to the Island Magistrate, the Council and everyone on the Island warm good wishes for the future.’

Donald Walker, a senior inspec tor with the Australian Public Service Board, is on a six-month assignment in Tonga at the request of the Tongan Govern ment, he is conducting a review of Tonga’s salary and allowance structures for all levels of the civil service and will make appropriate recommendations to the government.

Former Ponape State Attorney John A. Brackett joined the Federated States of Micronesia Government in August as pub lic defender. In this position Mr Brackett will be responsible for legal representation of persons in criminal cases, and in specified civil matters. His office is attached to the execu tive branch only for adminis trative and logistic support, and is responsible to its clients. The

37-year-old Mr Brackett served as Ponape state attorney from 1978.

One former school teacher is president of the Republic of Vanuatu, and another will stand in for him when he is out of the country.

The duo are President Ati George Sokomanu and Rep resentative Assembly Speaker Maxime Carlot (PIM Oct p 5).

President Sokomanu (for merly Ati George Kalkoa), 43, is a native of Mele village, Efate. He went to school at

Iririki District School on Efate, and later attended the Lelean Memorial School and Nasinu Training College in Fiji. He also took short courses in public administration in the United Kingdom.

After a number of years as a school teacher, he joined the British National Service in the New Hebrides with which he served for 20 years. From 1968 to 1975 he was a member of the New Hebrides Advisory Coun cil. In the latter year he was elected to the first Representa tive Assembly, and became minister of public adminis tration in 1978.

In the last pre-independence government which emerged from the November 1979 elec tions he was deputy chief minis ter and minister for home affairs.

Maxime Carlot is also Efate born, first seeing the light at Erakor village in 1941.

He taught in French language schools in the New Hebrides from 1963 to 1966, during which period he at tended courses in Paris.

Appointed an assistant

French district agent in 1963, in 1966 he was transferred to Lamap, south-west Malakula, where he worked until 1969.

On his return to Port-Vila, he was employed at the French Residency, and 1976-77 saw him working in the civil status office of the condominium ap paratus.

He also served as mayor of Erakor.

He was chairman of the assembly in the period of the Kalsakau government (the equivalent of his present post), and when the Government of National Unity was formed at the end of 1978 became minis ter of the interior.

In the 1979 general elections he stood successfully as an independent candidate for Port- Vila. In the last pre independence government he worked with Father Gerard Leymang and Vincent Boulekone as a member of the

Independent Opposition.

• President Sokomanu chose this name because it is a traditional custom title in his family. Meaning something like ‘conqueror of thousands’, it was the name of a warrior chief ancestor of his who won a big battle against a rival chief from North Efate named Tokaimakau. He is the fourth successive member of his fam ily to take the title (in each case it was taken from the bearer’s father}. Conditions of assump tion of the title are that the bearer must already have achieved public prominence in his own right, and must have a

deep understanding of custom

ary law.

A UK visitor to Fiji in September was the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Right Honourable George Thomas who was a guest of the Fiji Parliament. Using a satel lite communications link pro vided by the University of the South Pacific (see Tropicalities, this issue) he spoke with Islands leaders and officials in a num ber of Pacific countries. They spoke face-to-face using a tele vision link provided at the satellite terminals. Two of the contacts made by Mr Thomas during the satellite talks were with the Speaker of the Kiribati

parliament, Rota Onorio, and the Speaker of the Tuvalu parliament, Elia Tavita. The British High Commission in Fiji described the talks between the parliamentary Speakers as ‘good-humoured and lively’ on the subject of how the Westminster parliamentary system was being adapted to Pacific Island communities.

Fred Rohlfing, director of the American Samoa Govern ment’s Honolulu-based liaison office ‘Amerika Samoa Office - Hawaii’, or ‘ASO-H’, has resigned.

Mr Rohlfing, who is a veteran of 16 years’ service in the Hawaii State Legislature, and was for a time an alternative US representative to the South Pacific Commission, has run the ‘ASO-H’ office since its inception in late 1978.

Announcing his resignation, he said that ‘ASO-H’ had done the best it could with limited personnel (one fulltime, two part-time) to meet Governor Peter Tali Coleman’s desire to assist Samoans living in Hawaii. ‘Our “Operation Out reach” is just beginning and if “ASO-H” receives greater financial support in the future much can be accomplished . . .’, he said.

Of his small staff, Mr Rohlfing said; ‘l’m particularly proud of the dedicated, efficient and selfless work of Assistant Director Viefu Epenesa and our Executive Secretary Patty Bond. They have put in long hours on holidays and weekends on last-minute projects and have frequently handled difficult and touchy problems with diplomacy and grace.’

President Sokomanu

Adi Litia Tavanavanua, mother of Fiji Deputy Prime Minister Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau, re cently celebrated her 80th birthday.