DEATHS of Islands People

John French Teariki In Papeete, Tahiti, on October 5, aged 69, as the result of an accident.

The remarkable sister-and brother team Ida and John (Tony) Teariki for years worked together in their fields and on their farms, and fought all their lives together the same uphill battle against nuclear testing and the colonial yoke. Now they have followed each other in death within a matter of a little more than six months.

But while Ida, 67, passed away peacefully in March (PIM May p 73), her slightly older brother died following a horrible accident. Working on his farm at Taravao, on the isthmus between Big and Little Tahiti, on October 3, John Teariki was hitching a harrow to his tractor as he had done so many times before when the latter started acciden tally. Before his son could stop the machine, poor Teariki was so badly mangled, and bleeding so profusely, that it was a wonder to the doctors at the Papeete hospit al to which he was taken, that he managed to stave off death for 48 hours.

Teariki (whose father had been given this name/title by a Rarotongan ariki) began his political career back in 1950, when he joined the pro

independence RPDT party of Puvanaa a Oopa. Elected to the Territorial Assembly for the first time in 1953, he was regularly re-elected, remaining a member until the time of his death.

For many years he served as Speaker.

Between 1961 and 1967 he represented the colony in the National Assembly in Paris. But he seldom attended its sittings, realising that his solitary voice was constantly being drowned out in the 500-member assembly.

Within his own party, Pupu here aia (The Patriots), founded after General de Gaulle had banned the RPDT party in 1963, Teariki remained undisputed leader until the end of his life. He was commonly called the metua (father), just as Pouvanaa had been. The term of honor settled even more firmly on the person of Teariki after Pouvanaa’s death in 1977.

As the country’s most promi nent political leader, Teariki was given what amounted to a state funeral. Since he was a staunch Protestant, the funeral began with a religious service in the historic and recently restored Pa ofai temple in Papeete.

The funeral was attended by political friends and foes alike, while over 2000 sad-faced Poly nesians waited outside in the

streets. As a quite remarkable sign of mourning, all stores re mained closed.

The coffin, draped with the Tahitian flag, was escorted to Uranie cemetery on Papeete’s western outskirts, and lowered into the red earth. It then took the accompanying notables, includ ing the French high commission er and the Catholic Bishop Michel Coppenrath, more than two hours to deliver their orations.

They all very properly extolled Teariki’s idealism, compassion, rectitude, and integrity, his business acumen, and his ag ricultural exploits. But all failed completely to say a word about his life-long struggle for the free dom of his people.

No one can argue that it is not justified, at the edge of a freshly dug grave, to avoid personal con troversy and polemics. But not to mention with one breath what constituted Teariki’s most cher ished beliefs and activity seemed, at least to us, like prais ing General de Gaulle, in similar circumstances, solely for being a kind father and a fine writer.

Teariki’s closest comrade-in arms, Milou Ebb, who may well succeed him as party leader (the other equally strong contender is Papeete’s Mayor Jean Juventin), quickly put the record straight.

At a meeting called especially for this purpose, Milou Ebb de livered Teariki’s political testa ment. It was built on the follow ing two clear-cut lines: a re sounding “no” to any further nuclear tests, and the establish ment of a sovereign Polynesian state, with loose Commonwealth ties with France. — Marie- Therese and Bengt Danielsson.

Bertie Heath In Brisbane on September 8, aged 90.

A pioneer aviator who flew in Papua New Guinea for many years, Mr Heath had his final wish granted on October 12 when his ashes were scattered over Lae airport.

Mr Heath, who was bom in Gladstone, South Australia, served in France and the Middle East during World War 1. He returned to Australia in 1921 and was issued with a commercial pilot’s licence the following year.

He went to PNG in 1931 to fly for Guinea Airways Ltd. and spent the next 11 years flying Junkers aircraft between Lae, Bulolo and Wau.

This era is known as the “hero ic age of flying” in PNG because of the huge tonnages carried by air over often uncharted land.

In January 1942, when flying between Lae and Bulolo, un known to him his aircraft was followed by three Japanese fight er planes.

The Zeros followed him to his destination then swept in to de stroy his plane after he had land ed. Heath, then 50, decided to hang up his flying goggles.

Mr Heath served with the Roy ual Australian Air Force in Aust ralia for the remainder of the war.

In 1959 he returned to Lae where he worked until retirement in 1980.

Peter W. Bosgard In Sydney, on October 10, aged 79.

Older ex-Port Moresby resi dents and army friends will re member Peter Bosgard as PX9, one of the early volunteers in the Papua contingent of the 2nd AIF.

Like those from the then separate territory of New Guinea who had the NX prefix to their army num bers, the Papua volunteers were disappointed that they were not permitted to remain as a unit, but on transfer to Australia they were broken up and posted individual ly to regular Australian battal ions, in Peter’s case, the 2/15th.

At the time of joining up, he was with Lands Department, Port Moresby.

He was taken prisoner in 1941 during the desert campaign and was in a POW camp near the Italian-Austrian border until Italy surrendered in 1943. When the Italian prison guards disappeared overnight he joined a group that walked out to some short-lived freedom amongst the generally friendly civilian population. The Germans finally caught up with them and put an end to the escapade and Peter Bosgard spent the rest of the war in a POW camp in Austria.

After retirement from Papua he lived until recently at Avoca Beach, NSW. His wife Helen died three years ago. — Judy Tudor.