Deaths
pp. 65-66 · Read in the full issue
of Islands People
’Esei Lavulo In Sydney, Australia, in September, aged 60. ’Esei Lavulo was well-known in Tonga’s Haapai group, and in the Tongatapu area, as a man who dedicated his life to work for the mission. He served the Church of Tonga in his home land over three decades.
Moving to Australia after his retirement in 1978 to join mem bers of his family, he was soon actively organising a branch of the Church of Tonga in Sydney.
The President of the Church of Tonga, the Rev Selu Mafi, flew from Tonga to conduct the funeral service. He was joined in this function by the Rev Savinata Mahe, Pacific Islands Minister attached to Sydney’s Wesley Central Mission. Mr Mahe described ’Esei Lavulo as ‘a pioneer hero of the Church of Tonga’. Four other ministers took part in the service.
More than 500 Tongans at tended the service, and the local Tongan choir sang hymns as they farewelled their much ad
mired countryman.
Wyvern
Kite.
Canon John Bodger At Maikera Bay, Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea, on November 26, 1981, aged 80.
The oldest Anglican mission ary in PNG, Canon Bodger, an Englishman, arrived in the country in 1929.
The Times of Papua New Guinea in an obituary in its November 27-December 3 issue said: Canon Bodger patrolled areas which had never before encountered a European, and was involved in the building of
the Gothic cathedral at Dogura, the Anglicans’ major mission station.
He stayed during the war, and was present at an ordination of a Papua New Guinean as Japanese planes flew overhead.
He was a great raconteur, with a deep, firm voice to the end, despite the cancer of the neck and the diabetes from which he suffered.
In 1950, he had to leave the country because of a heart condition, and became organis ing secretary of the New Guinea Mission in Britain now the PNG Church Partner ship. He returned in 1971 and set up the Anglican parish at Alotau.
He spoke perfect Wedau, and was frequently to be heard on Radio Milne Bay.
Before the war. Adminis trator Hubert Murray chose
Father Bodger as one of the two representatives of the Christian missions to sit on the legislative council.
Recently, he moved to his last home, at Maikera Bay, as a guest of the Arada clan, gener ations of whom he had worked with for most of half a century.
Two weeks ago, he called for Archbishop David Hand who has himself worked in PNG for 35 years to visit him for the last time, and anoint him with holy oils. Their parting words were ‘The Lord be with you' in Wedau.
Dr Solo Tongia In Port Moresby General Hos pital of heart failure on November 22, 1981, aged 36.
Hailing from Kalo -village.
Central Province, Dr Tongia was the first Papua New Guinean to enter private medi cal practice.
In 1969 he graduated from the Papuan Medical College, now the Medical Faculty of the University of PNG.
After two years as resident doctor at the Taurama Hos pital. he attended the Royal Australian College of Gynae cology in Perth, Western Aus tralia. where he graduated with a diploma in 1972.
Dr Tongia entered private practice with Dr Jim Jacobi in 1975, and after about 18 months established his own practice at Taurama.
Dr Tongia's promotion of sport, especially rugby league, made him a popular figure.
Boroko Rotary Club has launched a K 30 000 project to build a large building for the Cheshire Homes in Port Moresby as a memorial to Dr Tongia, a former president of the club.
Captain George Henry Harrison In Hamilton, New Zealand, in November 1981 of a heart attack, aged 68.
Captain Harrison was master of the Tongan vessel Hifofua from 1962-65.
From 1965-67 he skippered the John Williams based in Tarawa. From 1967-70 he worked as a freelance in Suva, replacing masters on leave, and also working as a compass adjuster.
He had his first heart attack on the night he and his wife
moved into a new home in Hamilton, having shifted from Raglan. A second attack fol lowed shortly afterwards. His widow, Mrs S. Harrison, writes; To my sorrow, he died soon after in hospital from a third attack...’
Thomas Desmond Collins In Honolulu. Hawaii, on November 22, 1981, aged 51.
The Honolulu Advertiser said in a tribute on November 26: k A 1948 graduate of Punahou, where he earned let ters in four sports, he received degrees from Dartmouth Col lege and from the Boalt Hall
Law School at the University of California at Berkeley. ‘He served with the Navy in the judge advocate general’s office in Washington, DC, be fore going into private practice in San Jose, Calif. ‘Retiring in 1975, he sailed the Pacific in a 42-foot ketch he built himself before returning to Hawaii to live in 1976... ‘An educational trust is being established and contributions may be sent to Fred Trotter, Suite 5, 828 Fort St, Honolulu.’
Writing to PIM and enclos ing a cutting of the above tribute. Ken Taylor of Honolulu says of Thomas D. Collins; ‘The South Pacific has lost one ol its finest cruising skippers.
Yachtsman Thomas D. Collins