People

The Vanuatu Government has appointed Australian business man Warwick Purser as its first director of tourism.

According to a Radio Austra lia report, Mr Purser is optimis tic about Vanuatu’s tourist po tential. The radio quoted him as saying that the industry had suffered an 80% drop because of news stories in Australia about last year’s secessionist attempt on the island of Espiritu Santo.

He believes that the introduc tion of direct Sydney-Port Vila flights in September will help tourism regain its place as one of the nation’s top three earners of foreign exchange. He hopes that as many as 40 000 tourists will holiday in the country next year.

Mr Purser told journalist Kristin Williamson in an inter view published in the Austra lian weekly The National Times in August: ‘Only the islands of Tanna, Efate and Santo will be developed. The Dthers will be left as they are antil the people approach us.’

Williamson wrote that Mr Purser is ‘vague’ about the percentage of tourist develop nent land the people of Vanuatu will own, but he told ler: ‘We want to avoid what has lappened in Fiji, where only 16% of the tourist dollar goes to he indigenous population .. . )ur policy will be one of trotection and support for the seal culture. If, in 10 years, the /hole thing is a mess, I will ccept the responsibility.’

Part of the Purser policy is to •efine the people involved in purism’ in tourist academies 'hich will be set up by the overnment to help local people ;arn the hotel trade and to 'ork as tour guides. He also lans to bring a party of Austra an media people to the country n a free trip ‘so they can see ow ridiculous it is to think iis place is dangerous’.

Williamson, just returned from week’s holiday in Vanuatu, rote: ‘Just a few weeks ago an

Australian radio personality rang up to check on the fre quency of riots in the capital.

Distraught businessmen con tinue to write to hotels trying to cancel cheques their wives have sent, saying “I didn’t know the crazy woman booked us a hol iday in a war zone”.’) Before his present appoint ment, Warwick Purser ran the Tandjung Sari hotel at Sanur in Bali, and a travel company catted Tourpack in Melbourne.

He says he has given up both of these interests. ‘A controversial figure and not without reason Maurice Lenormand nevertheless stands out as the most remarkable political figure in the history of New Caledonia.’

With these words the Noumea weekly Corail con-

cludes a three-page article on Maurice Lenormand, founding father (along with Catholic and Protestant church leaders) of the territory’s oldest political party, Union Caledonienne. Oc casion of the article was the 30th anniversary of Lenor mand’s first election as a New Caledonian deputy to the National Assembly on July 1, 1951.

He was returned as deputy in every subsequent election until, in 1962, he was disqualified from holding his seat as a result of a court case in which he was found guilty of complicity in the explosion of a small bomb outside his party headquarters.

It was alleged the explosion was arranged to whip up support for the Union Caledonienne at a demonstration planned by the party. As well as losing his parliamentary seat, Lenormand was given a one-year suspended prison sentence and fined.

The exact circumstances sur

rounding the 1962 bomb inci dent remain a matter of contro versy in New Caledonia to this day.

Paul Noirot-Cosson will be the next high commissioner in French Polynesia. He replaces Paul Cousseran, who has been appointed prefect for Southern Corsica.

Mr Noirot-Cosson, 57, pre viously held the post of prefect in France’s Atlantic-Pyrenees department.

John Brady has arrived in Tonga to take up his new posting as New Zealand high commissioner to the kingdom.

Mr Brady joined the ministry of foreign affairs in 1959 after completing BA and LLB de grees at Victoria University.

His previous overseas postings were in Washington, Suva, and Peking.

Before coming to Tonga, he was head of the defence and Asian divisions of the ministry

in Wellington.

Penny

Hodgkinson in Nukualofa.

Two Dutch priests working in the Cook Islands, Father Frederick de Leeuw of Mitiaro and Father Charles Van Niel of Mangaia, have been made knights of the Order of Orange- Nassau by decree of the Queen of the Netherlands.

Both men have been working in the Cooks for 41 years.

The Order of Orange- Nassau, instituted by Queen Wilhelmina in 1892, forms part of the Dutch royal honours list announced each year on the Queen’s birthday.

The Foundation for the Peoples of the South Pacific has fare welled its former Papua New Guinea Country Director Dr Laurie Sherman who has re turned to Washington with her husband, former US Ambassa dor to PNG, Harvey J. Feldman (PIM Aug p37). Her successor is Lana Sheppard, whose hus band is with the New Zealand high commission in Port Moresby. Mrs Sheppard has development experience in a number of Middle Eastern countries. In 1977-78 she was director of the US Peace Corps in Manama, Bahrain.

In another staff movememt, FSP has recruited Kathy Nast

as country-director-designate

for Kiribati. The foundation is negotiating with the US Agency for International Devel opment office in Suva, Fiji, for start-up funds for the Kiribati programme.

Ms Nast’s overseas experi ence includes Turkey, Spain and Solomon Islands, where she spent a year with an FSP partner programme, the Isabel Development Company.

The foundation is also fare wetting Will Dunn, the adviser trainer and co-director of Vanuatu’s Nasonal Komuniti Developmen Trust. Mr Dunn’s successor-designate is Dr Larry Traub, who resigned a post at Friends World College, Long Island, where he has for seven years been co-ordinator of the North American Centre.

P. J. Ackland-Snow has been appointed managing partner of the accounting/auditing firm of Peat, Marwick, Mitchell. Mr

Ackland-Snow’s regional re sponsibilities cover New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Papua New Guinea and the islands of the South Pacific.

The Rev Elden Buck and his wife Alice are leaving Micronesia after 23 years’ ser vice.

Since 1968 Mr Buck has been Kwajalein’s Protestant pastor. Mrs Buck for the past 15 years has worked as co ordinator for the Marshallese Bible Translation Committee, maintaining an office in Ebeye.

The couple worked on Ebeye as missionaries for almost five years before moving to Kwajalein.

Mr Buck began serving as a missionary in Kosrae, where

Maurice Lenormand

P. J. Ackland-Snow

Alice had lived some years of her childhood with her parents, Dr and Mrs Harold Hanlin.

The Bucks will be living in Honolulu, where Mr Buck will be interim pastor at the Korean Christian Church. For her part Mrs Buck will spend the next 12 months checking galley proofs from the Bible Society printers in Hong Kong of the first complete translation of the Bible into Marshallese.

According to mid-July reports, Karam Ramrakha. a contro versial opposition member of Fiji’s parliament, was expected to leave Fiji to live in Australia and practise there as a lawyer.

It was understood that Mr Ramrakha has Australian resi dential status and would leave for Sydney on a migrant’s visa.

According to friends, he plans to keep his Suva law practice open and return to Fiji from time to time.

It is understood he plans to continue writing a political column for a Lami newspaper and also for a monthly business magazine published in Suva.

Mr Ramrakha qualified as a lawyer in New South Wales and is licensed to practise there. He has a number of relatives living in Australia, including another lawyer brother, and Fiji’s for mer Director of Medical Ser vices, Dr Shiu Ramrakha.

His residence in Australia would not mean automatic loss of his seat in the House of Representatives, where he sits as the Indian communal mem ber for Nausori and Levuka.

He can keep it until the life of the present parliament expires late next year. But he would lose it if he took Australian citizenship, or if he missed three consecutive meetings of the House without having leave of absence from the Speaker.

Mr Ramrakha’s decision to emigrate to Australia means that Fiji’s politics will lose one of its most colourful, energetic and controversial figures.

He was a dominant figure in the National Federation Party for many years and at one stage was the party’s national sec retary. When the party split in 1977 because of the leadership battle between Jai Ram Reddy and Siddiq Koya, Mr Ramrakha took a role which left him

stranded in the middle of the chasm between the two sides, with no ground to stand on.

He became completely iso lated from the rest of the NFP and there were calls from some of his own constituents for his resignation as their parliamen tary representive.

Since the split of 1977 he has kept away from NFP meetings and affairs, although he con tinued to sit in parliament in the front bench of the opposition as one of its senior members.

However, he has taken little or no part in parliamentary de bates and has been absent for much of the time of each meeting. Robert Keith-Reid in Suva.

The Catholic Church of Papua New Guinea has decided to ask Pope John Paul II to visit PNG in September next year to mark the church’s 100 years of ser vice in the country.

At a recent meeting in Goroka the Catholic bishops of PNG and Solomon Islands set up a committee to arrange for the commemoration of the ar rival of the first Catholic missionaries in 1882. It was at this meeting that the decision to invite the Pope was taken.

The bishops had previously asked Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan to extend the invitation during his recent visit to Europe. But the Pope was in hospital following the attempt on his life and Sir Julius was unable to see him.

Barbara Y. Higa has been presented with an Honor Award for Commendable Service by the Acting Deputy High Com missioner of the US Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands Daniel J. High.

The citation said the award was being given ‘in recognition of over 13 years of commend able service to the Trust Terri tory government and in particu lar for ... her service as sec retary to the commissioner of administration and director of personnel’.

Ram Khrishna has been ap pointed Fiji’s director of meteorology, the first local per son to hold the post.

Mr Khrishna takes over from Jim Waygood who has been

director of meteorology for sev eral years under the New Zea land aid programme.

Evelyn Scott, an Aboriginal/ Pacific Islander from Cairns, Queensland, represented Aus tralia at the Seminar of South Pacific Women in Papeete, Tahiti, from July 21-24 (see Postmark Papeete, piB).

Mrs Scott, a widow with five children, has had 20 years of experience in Aboriginal and Islander organisations in Aus tralia. She was a founding member of the Federated Coun cil of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, a former vice president of the Queensland Aboriginal Legal Service, a former field officer with the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, based in Townsville, and is at present the North-East Regional Manager of Aborigi nal Hostels Ltd.

She was a member of the Australian delegation to the UN World Conference to mark the mid-point of the UN Dec ade for Women held in Copenhagen in July 1980.

Her attendance at the Papeete seminar was funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs.

Dr Charles J. Ross-Smith, since 1976 World Health Organis ation programme co-ordinator for the South Pacific, based in Suva, has been appointed direc tor, disease prevention and con trol, at WHO’s regional office in Manila.

Dr Ross-Smith, an Austra lian, will be succeeded in the Suva post by Dr Leonce R. L.

Verstuyft, of Belgium. Dr Verstuyft was WHO pro gramme co-ordinator for Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore from 1972 until his appointment to the Suva post.

WHO has also announced appointment of a number of country liaison officers to Pacific Island nations. They are: Dr Michael Chia (Solomon Islands), Dr Mario Gonzales (Vanuatu), Dr Clarkson T.

Palmer (Tonga), Dr Tin Maung Maung (Western Samoa).

Allan Jessop has been ap pointed manager, motor div ision, for Burns Philp (South Sea) Ltd. He replaces John

Yeal who has returned to Eng land.

Before his new appointment, Mr Jessop had for eight years been operational manager for the motor division in Fiji.

Union Maritime Services Ltd, the ship agency and stevedoring arm of Union Ship ping Group, has announced that lan Campbell has been promoted to port manager, Suva. In this post Mr Campbell will be responsible for the day to-day operations of the com pany in Suva. He had pre viously held the post of freight sales manager in the company’s Suva branch. lan H. Williams, who has been the company’s accountant, Fiji, for some years, has been promoted to Pacific region ac countant. He will be responsible for the company’s total account ing operations throughout Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.

Bill Moyle has been appointed managing director of the Melbourne-based merchant banking * group, Chase-NBA Group Ltd.

From 1971-74 Mr Moyle worked as the founding man ager of the Papua New Guinea Investment Corporation, a type of unit trust operation which buys significant shareholdings in major PNG businesses and sells its own shares to people who must be citizens of PNG.

Mr Moyle is well known on the PNG financial scene and was credited by the government as being a major figure in enabling Papua New Guineans to buy into companies that were previously foreign monopolies.

Allan Jessop