Deaths

of Islands People

Jdrew Motiali

Uviritu

Suva, in August, aged 46. te of Fiji’s most noted law ’s, his work and community vice were honoured by ny of his legal colleagues en they attended his funeral

Nasinu Cemetary, Suva.

Vlcolm Urqhart

Mcpherson

Melbourne on June 6. Mai epherson lived most of his in Nauru and Ocean Island naba) where his parents I gone in 1908 in connection

h the phosphate industry,

was a warm-hearted man, i in great affection by the nese and Islanders who ked with him. He was a re ie trouble-shooter, with a )rd of ‘delivering the goods’ keeping the wheels of astry turning. He will be y missed at the Nauru sphate Commission head ;e in Melbourne where he worked since his ement in 1973. A tine all

round sportsman, he had a golf handicap of three. His ashes were scattered on the water at Nauru, as were those of his parents and his son, Malcolm, in the past. Susan Macpher son Morrow.

Luciano Kopei

Reputedly the oldest man in the Tarapaina area, East Are Are, Malaita, Solomon Islands, at the claimed age of 120. He

helped the Catholic priests

bring the Christian faith to Tarapaina and establish a mission in 1909, but remained a non-Christian and headhunter until he was bap tised by a French priest in 1921.

He worked with and was a firm supporter of Mr Bell from 1918-27. Mr Bell was murdered at Sinarangu, in East Kwaio.

After the funeral of Kopei, attended by about 500 people, more than 3000 yams and panas and 16 pigs were eaten at a feast.

Helen White

(Sinclair)

Widow of Jim White, at Whan garei, New Zealand, in April, aged 95. Bom in Savusavu, Fiji, Helen Sinclair was well-known and well-liked by all who knew her in the 95 years she spent around and about the Fiji islands.

Benjamin Leonard

Ram Dass

At Lautoka, Fiji, in August, aged 73. A foundation member of the Fiji Teachers’ Union and its first treasurer, Mr Dass taught at various government and committee-run schools in a career that spanned the years 1925-1976. He was a keen sportsman in his day, playing soccer, cricket and tennis.

Major Isireli

Korovulavula

In Suva, Fiji, aged 66. One of

Fiji’s most distinguished

soldiers, he was awarded the Military Cross for bravery (in efforts to save the life of US pilot Lieut Charles Cross dur ing the Solomon Islands cam paign) in World War 11.

Promoted to lieutenant in the field, he attained the rank of major during later service in the Malayan Campaign in the 19505. After his return from Malaya, he became a superin

tendent of prisons, a position he held on his retirement in the late 19605.

Tatsuo H. Adachi

On Guam in June, from the re sults of an accident in Palau. At the time of his death he worked as a data specialist with the government of Palau. For more than 20 years he was re sponsible for the myriad stat istics which made up the statistical appendices to the annual report of the US State Department to the UN Trusteeship Council. He was well known throughout Micronesia where he was affec tionately called a ‘one-man census bureau’. He was a meticulous man whose atten tion to detail often exasperated his colleagues, but to his credit and renown the final result of the first official census in 1973 was less than 1% off his earlier

projection. Considering the

dispersed population of

Micronesia, Tatsuo Adachi’s calculations were even better than the most stringent mar gins of error that may be al lowed in an official population count, —from the Micronesian News Service.

Percy Cochrane

In Sydney, Australia, in October, aged 73. Percy Cochrane was one of the pion eers of educational and exten sion broadcasting in Papua New Guinea. He had a long career as a radio dramatist, first with the Australian Broadcast ing Commission and later with the Australian Administration of PNG. Born in Perth, West ern Australia, he worked first as a school teacher, and in 1936

began writing dramatisations and school texts which were used by the ABC in its youth education service. He was a squadron-leader with the Royal Australian Air Force during World War 11, and was based in England where he organised amenities services for RAAF personnel in the European war zone. He studied in London with the British Broadcasting Corporation after the war, and soon afterwards became officer in charge of broadcasting for the PNG Administration.

Initially the broadcasting ser vices which he organised were carried out in conjunction with the ABC, which had a service based in PNG, but during Mr Cochrane’s time the PNG Ad ministration established its own broadcasting service using English, Pidgin, Motu and re gional dialects.

Mr Cochrane retired in 1967, but continued to work in Syd ney as a specialist freelance writer for the ABC. His works dealt with ethnic music and ceremonies in PNG, and with the changing pattern of life there as PNG moved towards independence.

Esava Kobiti

Last surviving member of the Fiji Rugby team of 1924 which played the initial series against Tonga, Esava Kobiti has died.

He was in his 80s. Esava also played for Fiji in 1926 in the return series against Tonga. He later put his knowledge of the game to good use as a member of the management committee of the Fiji Rugby Union. He worked for the Government Printer in Suva before his retirement some years ago.