people

The director of SPEC, Mahe Tupouniua, has appointed Tre vor H. B. Sofield, to the position of deputy director of SPEC. Mr Sofield has taken up office and replaced Dr Peter Adams who has returned to the New Zealand Ministry of For eign Affairs on completion of his secondment to SPEC.

Before taking up the post Mr Sofield was Australian High Commissioner to Solomon Is lands from March, 1982. He was head of the South Pacific Regional Section in the Austra lian Department of Foreign Affairs in Canberra from Janu ary, 1980, to February, 1982.

From 1976-1980, Mr Sofield was attached to the Australian High Commission in Welling ton. During this period, he undertook short-term assign ments as acting head of mission in Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia. In this time, he was also associated with SPEC-sponsored meet ings, particularly in the areas of regional transport, trade (in cluding SPARTECA) and regio nal fisheries development. Mr Sofield therefore joins SPEC with 10 years involvement in South Pacific affairs behind him.

Mr Sofield joined the Austra lian Department of Foreign Affairs in January, 1968, and has served in Tanzania and Sri Lanka. He has also worked in his department’s United Na tions Section in Canberra and was head of the African Section prior to his posting to Wel lington.

Well known author, administra tor and sportsman, Philip Albert Snow, was awarded the OBE in this year’s Queen’s Birthday honors.

Mr Snow served in the colo nial service in Fiji from 1938 to 1952, in which year he re turned to England and the post of Bursar of Rugby School, which he continued to hold for 25 years.

Mr Snow almost single-hand edly introduced cricket into Fiji.

He published a book on the subject in 1949, and has since written a number of other works, including one Stranger and Brother: A Portrait ojC. P.

Snow, concerning his older brother, author and statesman, Lord Snow of Leicester.

Tagaloa Tavita, otherwise known as Prime Minister David Lange of New Zealand, on August 1, became Matautia Tagaloa Tavita after he was awarded a secondary honorary matai title as a gift of Western Samoa’s Prime Minister Tofilau Eti and his village of Iva, Savaii.

Mr Lange was in Western Samoa on one of a number of visits he has recently paid to Island countries.

Joe Tauvasa has been appointed a director of Shell Papua New Guinea Pty. Ltd.

Mr Tauvasa joined Shell Papua New Guinea in April, 1984, as general manager marketing. He has had a distin guished career in the public service and before joining Shell was general manager of Air Niugini.

Manoa Bale, from Fiji, recently joined the South Pacific Com mission as Health Education Officer.

Mr Bale has a wide under standing of health problems in the region, as well as practical experience in this field, having worked with the Fiji Govern ment’s Health Services as a sanitarian and health educator for more than 18 years. Prior to joining the commission, Mr Bale was acting divisional health inspector (Eastern Divi sion) with the Fiji Health Services. He has a Master of Public Health (MPH), majoring in health education and in ternational health, from the University of Hawaii and from Israel’s Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and is a member of the Royal Society of Health, London.

The Health Education Officer will co-ordinate the public health education and related activities of the commission’s work program. He is responsi ble for providing advice, as well as practical assistance and in formation, on health education problems in the SPC region, at the request of member coun tries.

British pop star Boy George is negotiating to buy an island in Fiji on which he can build a nuclear hideaway for himself.

Agent Ron Jobson said after looking over privately owned islands near Taveuni: “Boy George is terrified of the nuc lear age and wants to get away from it all.”

A former first and only B.Ed. graduate of the University of the South Pacific in 1975 has scored another first by complet ing his Doctor of Education degree from Columbia Univer sity in New York City.

Dr Aminand Sundar, an officer of Fiji’s Ministry for Education, has returned home after three years in New York.

He was trained as a primary teacher in 1966 and taught in Nausori before going on an in-service training course at the USP in 1975.

An Australian pilot in August survived for 12 hours drifting in the Pacific and fending off a shark after he ditched his light aircraft. The pilot, William Veil, 47, was forced to ditch the

Philip A. Snow, OBE.

Trevor H. B. Sofield

Joe Tauvasa of Shell PNG Pty.

Ltd.

single-engined Cessna 182 he was ferrying from the United States to Australia when it de veloped a fuel line problem just before dawn on August 17 about 450 kilometres northeast of Hawaii. After what he de scribed as “a nice landing” he inflated a life raft but was unable to scramble into it. By the time rescuers found him, the swell and current had taken him four kilometres away from the raft and the partly sub merged plane. He told rescuers that he had kicked at an attack

ing shark which stayed with him for about three hours during the ordeal. A search was launched when Mr Veil failed to make a scheduled radio check. An emergency locator radio signal was later picked up by a search and-rescue satellite. He was taken, unharmed, to Hickam air force base on Hawaii.

In Australia to pursue a career as a male model is Prince Soane Takaniua, grandson of the Lavelua (King) of Wallis Island in the French territory of Wallis and Futuna.

In 1961 tourism in Fiji was launched with the inaugural Fiji Tourism Convention. That same year Cherie Whiteside decided that “there was nothing in Fiji with a distinctive Fiji label” so she launched her own particular contribution to tour ism, the well known fashion label, Tiki Togs.

In the beginning there was just Cherie, a keen but amateur screen printer and home dressmaker, her mother, and one seamstress. Today Tiki Togs employs 80 people, has two factories in Vatuwaqa, and

six retail shops. Cherie and her daughter Tanya are the design ers, working closely with two artists, Benny Stowers and Richard Morris. As a team they work through a design from fabric selection to color co-ordination of screen print; a small, new collection will take approximately three weeks from concept to creation.

This year has been the Year of the Cyclone in Fiji. Eric, Nigel, Gavin and Hina have all attempted to redesign the Fiji landscape. Sadly their efforts have had a drastic effect upon an economy heavily dependent on cane crops and tourists.

Neither of these responds favorably to cyclonic upheaval; many people lose their jobs when these industries falter in the aftermath. Tiki Togs is proud of its record of maintain ing full employment of its staff during these trying times, a remarkable feat for an industry which, by Cherie Whiteside’s admission, is “totally reliant upon tourism”. For this reason there is a constant stream of people to their door seeking jobs.

Further expansion will be

possible if an export market can be established. Cherie’s son, Desmond, is currently working closely with SPARTECA to try to overcome various obstacles such as the quota systems. The Queensland resort area is seen as a possible market place, as is the U.S. west coast. If these can be successfully negotiated then Cherie envisages setting up a training program, particularly for younger women. The bene fits would be twofold ensur ing skilled seamstresses for the factory expansion, and provid ing initial employment and training for school leavers.

Tanya Whiteside and her ’B5 collection was the fifth whirl wind to hit Suva this year with a parade at the Suva Travelodge as part of the Fiji Tourism Convention in June. Her weeks of hard work from initial design through to co-ordination of the showing including dressing the models earned her the position of Fiji fashion’s first lady when the collection was received with admiration and enthusiasm by the 400 dele gates, wives and associates of the convention. Ngaire Douglas.

The Rev. Isikeli Hau’ofa of Ton ga, a long-serving missionary in Papua New Guinea, who recently returned to PNG for a final visit (PIM Aug, p 53) - PNG Post-Courier photo.