DEATHS of Islands People

Sevese Morea At Vabukori, near Port Moresby, in August, of a heart attack, aged 38.

A former Speaker of Papua New Guinea’s National Parlia ment, Mr Morea lost his seat in the country’s June national elec tions. On the day before his death he had lodged a court appeal against his defeat.

Despite the high position he held in the protocol of his coun try and despite the public service which won him the award of Companion of St. Michael and St. George, Sevese Morea was perhaps best known to the people of PNG as a radio broadcaster.

He was one of the most success ful and widely known of the Papua New Guinean broadcas ters who were trained by the Australian Broadcasting Com mission in pre-independence

Png.

He trained in Port Moresby with the ABC and later in Aust ralia, returning to Port Moresby to a wide variety of on-air duties.

He was a quiz-master, a news reader, general announcer, inter viewer and breakfast session an chor man on successive occa

sions over a period of more than 10 years. He was also one of the first Papua New Guineans to conduct public affairs inter views. He took over a number of PNG broadcasting functions which previously had been car ried out only by Australians.

He later went into business in Port Moresby, but continued to do part-time broadcasting work.

He made two attempts before independence to enter parlia ment, but was narrowly defeated on each occasion. At one stage he was a United Party supporter when the party was the biggest single group in parliament, but it was not until 1977, in the first elections after independence, that he went into parliament on a Papua Besena ticket.

He was elected Speaker of Parliament early in 1980, and had given distinguished service to the position until he lost his seat in this year’s general election.

In a series of tributes to the part Sevese Morea played in PNG affairs, political leaders said he was one of the most able and important members of the post-independence parliament.

Sevese Morea was given a state funeral at Vabukori on the outskirts of Port Moresby on August 25. A PNG flag draped his coffin and PNG Defence Force buglers sounded the Last Post. Vabukori was his home area, and the entire village at tended the funeral. The total number of people at the funeral exceeded 5000.

Tarcissius Bobola, a PNG journalist who described the fun eral, said “The funeral was abundant in ritual, but its soul was in the hearts of the little people whose interests Sevese Morea always watched.”

The Prime Minister, Mr So mare, who was a mourner at the funeral, said PNG had suffered a great loss which was made the deeper because of the premature nature of Mr Morea’s death.

Alice Allen Innes At Castle Hill, Sydney, in April, aged 90.

Alice Innes was a woman of a great diversity of interests and experience. She never stayed within the mainstream, but con stantly wandered off to explore its tributaries.

Bom in Hobart, her adolescent years were spent in Townsville.

A keen student of drama and ballet, she won a gold medal in the North Queensland Eistedd fod. Another winner was a fel low pupil, and her long-time friend, the famous Australian singer Gladys Moncrieff.

On leaving school she went to Fiji, joining the staff of the Colo nial Hospital, Suva, in 1914.

Suva was the naval base of the Pacific during World War I.

Alice once nursed the famous German “Sea-Wolf”, Count Felix Von Luckner at the hospital.

Visiting Wakaya Island in 1917 she met Allen Innes. They were married in Sydney the fol lowing year. With the pneumon ic influenza epidemic raging at the time, Alice volunteered for nursing service, and was ap pointed matron-in-charge of the Emergency Hospital, Granville, covering Sydney’s western dis tricts. Teams of Boys Scouts were organised to collect the ill and dying from the outer areas, and transport them to the hospital on bicycle carts.

Alice returned to the islands

with her husband, a Bums Philp manager, in 1920, living on Ros sel Island, Misima Island, Samarai, Port Moresby and Rabaul finally settling in Salamaua until her retirement to Australia in 1937.

A widely travelled woman and a professional writer, Alice’s writing career spanned a period of 60 years. Heather Barnard.

Sogo Sebea

At Kila Kila, Port Moresby, in September, aged about 52.

A former Deputy Lord Mayor of Port Moresby, and Papua New Guinea Trade Commissioner in Sydney, Mr Sebea had been ill for about three months.

PNG’s Governor-General Sir Tore Lokoloko led more than 600 mourners who attended Mr Sebea’s funeral on September 10.

Dirk (Dick) M. Kamerling In Sydney of heart attack, aged 74.

A well-known Pacific trader for more than 30 years, Dick

Kamerling founded the Demka company which introduced brand-name products such as Kawasaki, Daihatsu, Makita and Willem II to many Pacific countries.

He will be remembered for his selling methods, travelling through the islands with his many suitcases and typewriter, as well as for his sincere ap proach to business dealings with importers throughout the region.

David L. Griffiths In London in August, after a brief illness.

A former colonial civil servant and District Officer, Mr Griffiths served in Fiji during the 1950 s and worked in various districts, including Navua, Vunidawa, Nausori and Suva.

He was also a magistrate and worked during his time in Fiji with the Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, the Deputy Prime Minister Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau, Sir Josua Rabukawaqa and Major Jesoni Takala, among others.