suspect

Tropicalities

Sea Wind

arrested

‘Twenty-four months after he escaped from a federal peniten tiary near Seattle, Buck Duane Walker was captured this morn ing in Arizona and arrested on a charge of murder in connection with the disappearance of a San Diego couple at Palmyra Island in 1974.’ (PIM Sep p 23).

So write reporters Jim McCoy and Stirling Morita in The Honolulu Star-Bulletin of August 12.

Walker, 44, was picked up at a motel near Yuma, Arizona, by police. He also was being held in Yuma County Gaol on a charge of escape from McNeil Island federal penitentiary in Washington state in July 1979, according to Larry Hattersley, an inspector with the US Mar shal’s Office in Honolulu.

Walker was serving time for the theft of the San Diego couple’s yacht.

Walker and his former girl friend, Stephanie Stearns, were indicted in February on the murder charge. The indictment came after FBI officials re covered a skull and other re mains in January that were identified as being those of Eleanor Lavern ‘Muff Graham.

Mrs Graham and her hus band, Malcolm, disappeared seven years ago while on a voyage in the South Pacific in their yacht Sea Wind . . .

Walker’s arrest came just hours before a ruling by Federal Judge Walker M Heen, denying a defence request to move Stearns’ murder trial from Honolulu to a Mainland court.

In making his decision, Heen said he was ‘not convinced’ there was a reasonable likeli hood that Stearns could not receive a fair trial in this district.

Judge Heen said there is no question that the publicity sur rounding the case has been

‘massive’ and, he said, now that Walker has been arrested the publicity will ‘probably get more pervasive’.

But, the judge said, the defence did not show that adequate pre-trial questioning of potential jurors could not eliminate those who had pre judged the case.

Vanuatu tackles

Tower of Babel

Vanuatu is beginning to grapple with the tangled linguistic situ ation left over from the days of the Anglo-French condominium of the New Hebrides.

An August conference in Port-Vila on organisation of languages ended up making the

following recommendations:

• The teaching language in primary school classes 1 to 4 should be the language spoken by the children, whether it is a local dialect or Bislama.

Bislama should not be taught to the children as a special sub ject. • The teaching language for classes 5 - and 6 should be Bislama, and English or French should be taught as special subjects. • If there is to be a final examination for primary school

pupils, it should be set in Bislama, and skills in English or French should be assessed by tests set in those languages. • At high school, the teach ing languages should be English and French, and pupils would continue the study of local dialects and Bislama as specific subjects. • In technical schools, the teaching language for classes 7 and 8 should be Bislama, and English or French should be taught as special subjects. • If the Education Ministry decided to extend the duration of primary school education because of the introduction of supplementary languages, the conference would support such a change.

The conference said that in order to improve teachers’ skills in local languages, the govern ment should encourage the study of linguistics, and intro duce a linguistics studies pro gramme into teacher training courses.

The use of Bislama in public speaking was the subject of lengthy discussion. Both Radio Vanuatu and the Representa tive Assembly came in for criticism. The conference stated: ‘Vanuatu is a republic and the deputies represent the people, who have a right to demand that they can under stand what is being said in their name. The Bislama spoken on Radio Vanuatu is quite often incomprehensible because of the large number of English words employed.’

The final point on the agenda more particularly concerned the study of languages and research into them. The confer ence took the view that the government should encourage the study of Vanuatu’s local languages. This should include the presentation of these languages in written form to permit the recording of oral traditions and custom stories.

Grammars and dictionaries of these languages should be pre pared and published. Priority should be given to languages that are dying out because of a decline in the numbers of people who speak them.

The conference also rec ommended the preparation of a single-language Bislama dic tionary, and the training of Bislama translators for parlia ment, the radio and the press.

Film tells PNG

WWII story

A documentary film aiming to show what happened to the people of Papua New Guinea when part of World War II was fought on their land is nearing completion in Canberra, Aus tralia.

The documentary 'Angels of War is a project of Dr Hank Nelson, a fellow in the Depart ment of Pacific and Southeast Asian History in the Australian National University’s Research School of Pacific Studies; Andrew Pike, a research fellow in the same department; and.

Professor Gavan Daws, head of the department.

Four public relations officers from Pacific Island countries recently held an exhibition of their national crafts at the Aus tralian International Training In stitute in Sydney. It was a special project as part of a three-month training course at the institute. Top: Mrs Cacau Cockburn, Fiji, shows a Melanesian traditional carving.

Above: The four organisers of the exhibition (from left) Mrs Alangit Balane, Papua New Guinea; Romano Nongebatu, Solomon Islands; Mrs Kopu Brown, Cook Islands; Mrs Cockburn.-John Tanner pic tures for AIS.

Also helping with the project are Stewart Young, a documen tary film editor, and John Waiko, from the Northern Province of Papua New Guinea and a PhD scholar in the department.

In the film people talk of their experiences as soldiers, labourers, refugees and ob servers. Interview and location material was shot in colour in Port Moresby, Buna, Popond etta, Angoram, Wewak and Rabaul. Footage shot by official wartime cameramen and still photographs have been cut into the colour sequences.

Santo’s two

July 30s

July 30 1980 and July 30 1981 were days of sharp contrast on the Vanuatu island of Santo.

On that day last year, Santo had not yet emerged from the throes of the secessionist revolt on the island. There was no celebration of the independence which had come to Vanuatu on that day.

This year Santo’s main town

of Luganville was crowded with thousands of people from around the island, and from Tutuba, Malo and Acre and other neighbouring islands who had come to celebrate the first independence anniversary.

Festivities lasted for seven days.

Fine weather and a colourful parade of floats prepared by Scouts, Brownies, sports clubs and the Vanuatu Mobile Force moved through the streets. The Chinese community put on a fireworks display. Sports events for men, women and children formed part of the celebrations.

Much effort was put into preparing the festivities by a 37-member committee headed by Northern District Com missioner Job Dalesa, and Kalmer Vocor, MP for the town of Luganville.

Choirs, stringbands, tugs-of war, coconut grating and sack racing were all enjoyed by those who took part.

A public kakai was prepared by the committee, and food was sold from stalls organised by the various communities.

Soccer enthusiasts witnessed

the final of the Independence Cup between Concorde and Port Olry which ended in a 2-2 draw. A replay was planned for the following weekend.

Custom dancers came from the communities of Banks, Santo, Tafea, Fiji, and Kiribati.

Taiwanese put on a karate exhibition.

Radio Vanuatu was on hand for a live coverage of the celebrations.

In the capital, Port-Vila, cel ebrations lasted for four days.

Prime Minister Father Walter Lini addressed a crowd of about 3000 people at Inde pendence Park, saying; ‘Much has been achieved during our first year, not as much as we would have liked, but let us take courage and inspiration from what has been possible through the efforts of government and people working together. ‘Let us look to the future, encouraged by our successes of the past and inspired by the vision of the society that, through working together, the people of Vanuatu shall achieve.

‘God bless all the people of Vanuatu, and long live our republic!’

As a governmental gesture of national reconciliation, a num ber of people serving gaol sen tences connected with last year’s rebellion on Santo were either released or had their prison terms reduced.

Recalling grand

old ‘Whizzbang’

Alan Gill, religious affairs cor respondent for The Sydney Morning Herald , wrote a mem orable tribute to the Arch deacon Emeritus of Polynesia, the Venerable Charles Whonsbon-Aston, who died in July (PIM Aug p 73). Extracts from Gill’s obituary, published in the SMH on July 8, follow; No one ever called the arch deacon by his real name, which, in view of its length, was just as well.

It was ‘Whonzie’, ‘Wish bone’, or, more usually, ‘Whizzbang’, a nickname that found its way into ecclesiastical

correspondence and even the official funeral panegyric.

It was said to have been coined by a Fijian, who could not pronounce ‘Whonsbon’.

The name fitted the person ality of Whizzbang, who. blended mischief, old-world courtesy, eccentricity and deep personal faith in a way often found in Anglicans of the cath olic tradition . . .

Whizzbang served curacies at two Sydney churches before becoming a missionary, in Papua, in 1931. The transition was interesting.

At one of his first services there were 750 communicants.

Three hundred people were confirmed, 251 were baptised, and a legless man hobbled 14 kilometres on coconut husks.

On transfer to Fiji, one of his first appointments was to the island of Levuka, which was at the time plagued with centi pedes and cockroaches.

Toads were imported to cure the tiresome pests, but the cure turned out to be worse than the ailment. After toads had caused a night of particular havoc in

his church, he nailed a notice to the door which read: If the Lord had knowed, that the odious toad.

Would make such a mess of His Holy abode, Would He have made ’em?

I met Whizzbang for the first time nine years ago. We had dinner at his house in Suva, being waited upon by an extra ordinary manservant called Solo.

The hours raced by as my host, who was in good form, recalled the faded glories of the Empire. There were tales about eccentric planters, colonial pub lic servants, bishops and the mishaps of visiting royalty.

In speaking and writing, Whizzbang gave the appear ance of being hopelessly muddled.

He was a compulsive story teller, and, when making a speech would totally lose his train of thought, as each new anecdote came to mind.

In the 19505, during a fund raising visit to New Zealand, he addressed a businessmen’s luncheon, guests at which in-

eluded several members of the New Zealand Government.

Before the talk began, a reporter from the national broadcasting service had set up his microphone.

Whizzbang told those present that Polynesia was the biggest Anglican diocese in the world.

He explained its scattered nature as ‘ 11'/» million square miles of mostly wind and water,’

Charles Whonsbon-Aston: ‘Whizzbang’ in the files

and, forgetting about the re porter’s microphone, added in a loud whisper ... ‘rather like a politician’.

The remark earned him in stant notoriety, eclipsed a few years later when a Sydney newspaper ran a story linking him with the famous ‘ghost’ ship, the Joyita.

The Joyita , a former US Coast Guard vessel once owned by the actress Mary Pickford, was converted for cruising among the Fijian and Samoan islands. It disappeared in mys terious circumstances during a copra buying expedition, and was later found burnt out and part-submerged, about 200 kilo metres north of Vanua Levu.

The crew and passengers, among them an Australian businessman thought to be carrying a large sum in cash, had vanished without trace and no clue to the mystery was ever found.

Eventually the ill-fated ship was bought by Lord Maugham (alias Robin Maugham, nephew of Somerset Maugham), who asked Whizzbang if he would hold a service of exorcism on board.

Whizbang, who was worried that a second sinking might bring doubt upon the efficacy of his ministration, agreed, subject to numerous conditions, one of which was that the ship was fully repaired and competently crewed beforehand.

However, before either party had formally pledged its side of the bargain. The Sun-Herald newspaper (in collaboration with Lord Maugham) ‘spilt’ the story in a manner which angered the priest’s superiors and even reached the ears of the

Archbishop of Canterbury.

The service of exorcism was delayed while the matter was investigated by church auth orities. In the meantime, the ship disintegrated.

On the religious front, Whizzbang was well-informed on a little-known missionary pact, the Comity of Mission, under which the entire Pacific Islands region was carved up among the various competing denominations and societies as legitimate ‘spheres of influence’.

This curious gentlemen’s agreement survives to this day, and is the subject of strife because of gatecrashing by newcomers Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons and others who refuse to keep it.

Many of Whizzbang’s better stories concerned the London Missionary Society, which pion eered missionary work in Polynesia, Melanesia, even our own Torres Strait Islands, and whose leaders, many of whom ended their days in cooking pots, were Sunday-school heroes to earlier generations of Australians.

The LMS had strait-laced attitudes towards sex and nu dity, casting island women into ‘Mother Hubbard’ garments, in which they were enveloped from head to toe.

Whizzbang had a theory that the LMS originated, not in the respectable way outlined in tracts and volumes now gather ing dust on library shelves, but as the brainchild of a merchant called Hardcastle, who saw commercial possibilities in exchange for copra, which was shipped home to England and sold for a fine profit . . .

In December, 1978, when Whizzbang was 80, a function

was held in Sydney to mark the 50th anniversary of his ordi nation.

The Anglican Bishop in Polynesia, Bishop Jabez Bryce, was among those present.

The bishop, the first indigen ous Polynesian to hold this office, had been a member of Whizzbang’s scout troop. He said he was received into the church, and owed his own vocation to the ministry, be cause of the faith and example of Whizzbang.

He said his friend embodied the commandment given in the service of ordination: ‘Be thou a faithful dispenser of His holy word.’

Another Anglican clergy man, converted in similar fashion, alluded to Whizzbang’s OBE ‘in his case Old Beloved Effervescent’.

That sea snake

00k...

Sydney, Australia, business woman Joan Barrie’s main stock-in-trade is ballet shoes, tights, tutus and the like.

But she has suddenly found a flourishing market with scuba divers who practise their sport in a variety of Pacific Island and other locations.

A skintight, wrist-to-ankle swimming costume is what the scuba people are buying.

Key to their interest is the irregular stripes in various colours which are handscreen printed on the lycra material.

Says Ms Barrie: ‘They are buying them because the stripes make them look like sea snakes, and frighten off dangerous fish.’

Noumea meeting

on arts festival '

The South Pacific Commission in August played host in Noumea to participants in the South Pacific Arts Festival Council meeting. A year after the Third South Pacific Festival of Arts held in Port Moresby in July 1980, delegates from 12 countries evaluated its achieve ments.

The council attempted to find ways of better harmonising the activities of the different cul tural organisations in the re gion. UNESCO, in addition to contributing to the cost of the meeting, was represented by its Assistant Director-General for Culture and Communication, Mr Makagiansar, who was pres ent as an observer. The Arts Festival Council considered the expediency of adopting a consti tution to provide clear guide lines on such matters as mem bership and functions.

Guam’s swinging

July

Guam really turned it on in July: a round of festivities of one kind or another was spon sored by the Guam Visitors Bureau and the Commissioners Council of Guam under the general heading ‘The Spirit of America Reigns Throughout July’.

The official three-weeks affair began on July 4 with the parade of marching units. During the month, the Paseo carnival ground was steaming with ac tivities ranging from rides for the children and youth, food, carnival games, games of chances, nightly entertainment, village talent competition, sports activities, a fishing derby, raffles and the biggest parade of floats, with over 60 entries.

A new attraction for this year’s celebrations allowed the hidden village talents a chance to come out and entertain the public. In the Village Compe tition, 17 villages vied for the Ist prize of SUSSOO. Merizo won first place, 2nd Inarajan, 3rd Yona, 4th Agat, sth Dededo, 6th Ordot/Chalan Pago, 7th Mangilao, Bth Tamuning, 9th Yigo and 10th Barrigada. Float entry winners went to Talofofo, grand prize

‘Scares hell out of the sharks but the trouble is I can’t get rid of the sea snakes!’

$1 000, Merizo, Ist place $5OO, Guam Girl Scouts, Youth Ist place $3OO, and Latte Heights Ladies’ Association, Ist place organisation, trophy.

Home truths

for Marshalls

Harold Picton-Smith, the for mer Fiji solicitor-general who spent several months earlier this year as legislative counsellor to the Nilijela (Parliament) of the Marshall Islands (PIM Aug p 37) had a few choice words to say about government in the Ml as he took his leave to return to Fiji.

As reported ‘for the public interest’ in the Marshall Islands Journal , he wrote: 1 am setting out various points which have occurred to me and which could be con sidered in the interest of good government or the public benefit. 1. Overseas travel: In view of the economic situation it ap pears to me that too many officers are proceeding to meet ings overseas. There can be no doubt that these meetings etc, are valuable and necessary but efforts could be taken to reduce the size of delegations. What would be advisable is to regard the sending of one officer fully briefed as the maximum except in rare cases. There are two main reasons for this sugges tion, namely to save money and also to ensure that there is always someone available in each office to carry on the day to-day functions. 2. Police: The Majuro police station is an absolute disgrace and an insult to the flag which flies before it. The state of the building cannot but have its effect upon the members of the force. The bearing of members needs to be smartened up. On Constitution day the parade was led by the police who shambled rather than marched, failing to keep in step and to keep their dressing. It strikes me that the force could do with some formal training and 1 would recommend that mem bers should be given this by instructors from another Pacific country which has the necess ary experience, Fiji for in stance. 3 Enforcement of the law;

Many laws exist but are not enforced. As a result of this most members of the public are technically guilty of offences.

An example of this is the provision that no vehicle may be used unless it has a licence plate which is supposed to be issued by the police on registration of the vehicle. There are several other examples of where the law is only observed in the breach. 4. Government vehicles: Considerable abuse of the privi lege of operating Government cars lakes place. Despite the regulations on the subject Gov ernment cars are being used for shopping or for picnics. There seems to be little or no attempt to enforce the law resulting in a big loss to the economy . . .

WWII diary

comes home

The National Library of Aus tralia has made one of its most interesting recent acquisitions with the purchase of the unpub lished diary of the famous Australian World War II corre spondent, author George Johnston.

Johnston, who was born in Melbourne in 1912 and died in 1970, kept the diary when he was based in Port Moresby in 1942, the vital year of the Japanese invasion of Papua New Guinea.

He refers to air raids, the evacuation of women and chil dren in decrepit, overcrowded aircraft, orders that the ill manned Port Moresby garrison was to hold back the Japanese for 36 hours, and the panic that led to a reversion to cannibalism in the islands.

The diary records the dis covery of dismembered and partially eaten bodies of Austra lian soldiers beside the Kokoda Trail, the rape of village women by the Japanese and the looting of dead bodies by both Austra lians and Japanese.

Among other aspects, it pro vides a rare, though brief, description of Port Moresby in the middle of the war as a city of blazing lights, with crowded streets, traffic as far as the eye could see and a bustling, ship filled harbour.

Johnston condemns General MacArthur on several oc casions in the diary for belit-

tling the efforts of Australian troops. He accuses MacArthur of altering war correspondents’ reports to boost his own public image. American war reporting on the South Pacific is also criticised for its bias against the Australians, and at one stage Johnston declares that the war time censorship had reached Gestapo proportions.

The diary was bought from a Sydney dealer who obtained it in the United States. It is not known at present how the diary came to be in America or who sold it to the agents’ representa tive there, but the library re gards its acquisition highly.

The Principal Australian Reference Librarian, John Thompson, said: Tt is a dra matic diary immensely read able, exciting and very import ant as a record, particularly for revealing information that Johnston said in one of his books was hidden at the time under the veil of “security”.

Islands gifts

on display

Among gifts to the Prince and Princess of Wales on the oc casion of their July wedding which have been on display at an exhibition in London are a number from Pacific Island countries.

They include an eiderdown (made by the Queen), a pair of saddles, and a rush suitcase from Tonga; two cowrie shells in a glass case, a pearl brooch, cuff-links and commemorative coins from Fiji; a pig’s tusk from Vanuatu; a wood carving from Solomon Islands; a pair of gold commemorative coins from Western Samoa; and two fans, two necklaces and a hand bag from Tuvalu.

More than 1000 gifts were displayed at the exhibition, which was to stay open until October 4.

National park

for Albert Henry

One of the most beautiful spots on the lagoon shoreline in Aitutaki, Cook Islands, is to be made a public national park bearing the name of the late premier of the Cooks, Albert Tapa Royle Henry.

The land is being offered by the family of Mr Henry and the Ngati Kamire family of Aitutaki.

Mr Henry was one of the traditional leaders of Aitutaki.

John Thompson, principal Aus tralian Reference Librarian at the National Library of Australia, examines the newly-acquired George H. Johnston war diary. -Loui Seseija picture.