people

Maureen Wright the young Australian soprano making her name at the Sydney Opera House and other venues, will give concerts in Suva and other Fiji centres during July of this year.

The concerts are organised by the Fiji Arts Council and sponsored by Air Pacific to help raise funds for the Fiji contin gent to the 4th South Pacific Festival of the Arts to be held in Noumea in December.

The idea for the tour came from Victor Carell, who directed the first arts festival in Fiji in 1972. Miss Wright has starred in a number of Mr Carell’s productions at the Opera House over the last three years.

On the tour Miss Wright will be accompanied by Joy Parry, well-known New Zealand organist and choral conductor.

Sir Julius Chan, leader of the People’s Progress Party (PPP) in Papua New Guinea, together with party secretary, Sam Pinael, have been in West New Britain province meeting party leaders and reviewing candi dates for this year’s election.

This was his first visit to the province since 1980 when, as prime minister, he opened the oil palm factory at Kumbango.

Sir Richard Stratton, knighted earlier this year, is to retire soon. Sir Richard is British High Commissioner to New Zealand, with a concurrent high commis sioner appointment to Western Samoa. He also serves as Gov ernor of Pitcairn Island.

Jeremy Hearder, until recently Australia’s High Commissioner to Zimbabwe, is to take over this month as high commission er to Fiji. He succeeds Colin McDonald, who returns to Canberra after serving in Fiji since 1982.

Peter Thomson, formerly in Fiji’s Tokyo embassy, has been appointed Fiji’s consul-general in Sydney.

Mr Thomson is the son of lan Thomson, who until recently was the independent chairman of the Fiji Sugar Board and Advisory Council.

Mr Thomson succeeds Douglas Walkden Brown in the Sydney post.

France’s new ambassador to Vanuatu is Philippe Baude. Mr Baude, 54, has previously served in Vietnam, Sweden, Bangladesh, Finland, Jordan, Thailand and Turkey.

He succeeds Jean-Marc Menguy.

The United Nations’ Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) has appointed Paula Sotutu of Fiji as head of the new ESCAP Pacific Operations Centre in Port-Vila. Mr Sotutu formerly headed ESCAP’s Nauru office, which has been merged with its former Suva office to form the new regional headquarters in Port-Vila.

Two speakers well-known in the Pacific took part in a confer ence on educational radio held by the Public Broadcasting Association of Australia in May.

They were Keith Jackson, a former radio administrator and broadcaster in Papua New Guinea who now lectures on the information media at Aus tralia’s International Training Institute, Sydney, and Dr James Lange, head of com munications, University of Guam.

Mr Jackson addressed the theme “What is educational radio?” and Dr Lange spoke on problems faced by educational broadcasters when assessing

the use of satellites.

W. G.

Coppell.

The cover of the 1983 annual report of the Papua New Guinea Banking Corporation is a graphic representation of the traditional and modern in PNG society.

It depicts the corporation’s manager/staff, Aho Baliki. clad, on one side of the picture, in a safari suit jacket and, on the other, in traditional ceremonial costume from his native Okiufa village, Goroka, in the Eastern Highlands Province.

A note explaining the report’s cover picture says: “As mana ger/staff, Aho has risen to a responsible position in the bank after less than 10 years service . . . “Even though he main tains strong links with his home and its traditional importance, Aho has adjusted to the deman ding tasks of a bank executive in the modern economy . . .”

General manager of Leisure Pacific, a new company in the Pacific holiday scene, is Jac ques Saint, a young French man who has already acquired a wealth of experience in the travel industry.

Mr Saint was six and a half years in Sydney with American Express Travel as product

manager, spent two years as manager of the New Caledonia Government Tourist Office in Sydney, and then was market ing and development manager for Air Caledonie in Noumea for another two years.

Leisure Pacific, with its base in Port-Vila, Vanuatu, is offer ing deals for holidays in New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Tahiti.

It also handles bookings for CREIPAC, the non-profit centre established in Noumea to facilitate French-language study in the Pacific.

Recently back in Vanuatu from Japan is the editor of the government newspaper, Tam- Tam, Japheth Tavoa. With six other journalists from the Asia- Pacific region, Mr Tavoa made the visit as a guest of the Japanese Government.

Another prominent ni- Vanuatu in Tokyo at the same time was Foreign Minister Sela Molisa. Mr Molisa was atten ding a meeting of the Economic and Social Council for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). He re ported favorable responses, especially from representatives of Japan and Malaysia, to his appeal at the meeting for more financial aid for his country.

Maureen Wright