deaths

Sardar Bakshi Singh Mai In Suva on January 6, aged 67.

A Suva landlord and former senator, Mr Mai went to Fiji in the mid-1980s after completing his college education in Punjab, India.

He was one of the first graduates from Wellington Uni versity in New Zealand.

In Fiji, Mr Mai took over his uncle’s business running an aerated water factory before branching out into a real estate business.

He was responsible for the development of many resi dential and commercial blocks in Raiwaqa and along Rewa, Bakshi, Mate and Mai streets.

Mr Wal also developed blocks at Wainadoi and Nasinu.

He held the post of secretary and president of the Samabula Sikh Gurudanora for a number of years, and played a major role in the construction of the Samabula Sikh Temple.

In early 1950, Mr Mai got together with colleagues from the Indian Association of Fiji and helped to establish Indian High School and Deenbandhu Primary School.

He was chairman of the Board of Governors of Indian College.

He was also chairman of the Transport Control Board, and was made a Member of the British Empire (MBE) for his services to the country.

Ram Sami Reddy In Lautoka on December 8, aged 62.

Mr Ram Sami Reddy was one of four brothers who founded Reddy Construction which is now one of Fiji’s biggest family-owned enter prises.

The Reddy group of com panies is involved in construc tion, hotels, real estate and other related ventures.

Mr Ram Reddy, as he was known, moved to settle in Au ckland in 1974 but still retained his business interests in Fiji.

In addition to his interest in the family business, Mr Reddy

owned a roofing iron factory and a liqor shop at Lautoka.

He was a childhood friend of the Prime Minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, who visited him in hospital two days before his death, and of the former Governor-General, Ratu Sir George Cakobau, and the late Ratu Sir Edward Cakobau.

Eileen Holly May Lawlor At Lami, Suva, on January 15, aged 89.

Mrs Lawlor, who was born in Suva, was a daughter of Mr and Mrs T. P. Nicholson. Mr Nichol son was a leading Fiji boatbuil der in the early part of the century: Mrs Lawlor’s husband, Led wedge Arthur (Les), was a partner in the firm of Pearce and Company, Suva.

His early years were spent in shipping and he served with one of the Fiji contingents in World War 1. He died in 1956.

Ganga Raju At Rarawai (Ba, Fiji), on Janu ary 10, aged 57.

A Sugarcane Growers coun cillor from Ba, Mr Ganga Raju was a previous national trea surer of the Fiji Sugar and General Workers Union, ser ving for 14 years, and also served for three years as the union’s Ba branch president. • • • Following the brief notice of the death of Mrs Lynette Townsend at Buderim, Queensland, con tributed by Margaret Parer (PIM Feb.), we have received the following tribute to the late Mrs Townsend from Judy Tudor: The death of Lynette Town send takes another from the dwindling number of ex-resi dents who knew New Guinea in the 19205.

She was the widow of G.W.L. (Kassa) Townsend, but also well-known in her own right at a period when Euro pean women on New Guinea outstations were few and far between.

She was born in Parramatta,

New South Wales, in Novem ber, 1903, the third daughter of the Rev. Arthur and Mrs Tonge, but spent most of her life until her marriage in Melbourne where her father was headmas ter of Trinity Grammar School.

After a conventional education at Melbourne Girls’ Grammar School, and a visit to Europe, her engagement to Townsend and the prospect of life in unknown and primitive New Guinea caused apprehension in her family, particularly as Townsend’s liking for fieldwork was well-known.

However, in 1927 when he was posted from Ambunti on the Sepik River to Kavieng, New Ireland, it was considered just possibly the sort of place where a young wife could be taken to live. Townsend had no leave owing to him at the time so his bride-to-be had to come to him via mutual friends in Rabaul. The way he tells it in his autobiography, District Officer, the usual New Guinea mix-ups then ensued in that the Burns Philp steamer Montoro bringing Lynette to Rabaul, was also bringing the then Minister for Territories to Kavieng on a state visit. While Townsend did the right thing by the minister in Kavieng, she languished in Rabaul and her mother worried in Melbourne. As soon as the minister and the Montoro were on their way, Townsend char tered a schooner and duly arrived in Rabaul for his de layed wedding.

“We were married the following afternoon,” he re cords, “and left the next day but not before I tried to quieten the fears of my wife’s mother in Australia . . . she knew when the Montoro had reached Rabaul. For days afterwards she waited for word from us that the marriage had taken place and finally she had sent a radio addressed simply to Townsend, Rabaul’. This was delivered to the home of the Treasurer, H.O. Townsend, a namesake but no relation of mine. There his wife of some years standing opened the mes

sage and read; ‘Are you mar ried yet?’ Treasurer Townsend and I had our arguments over the years but he regarded this as a great joke, even if his wife did not.”

They left almost at once for New Ireland, taking passage on another schooner and sleeping on the hatch cover. They dis embarked at Kalili on the west coast, walked the nine or 10 miles across the island, and were eventually picked up at Karu on the east-coast road by the government lorry.

Home for the young couple in Kavieng was the sprawling house built by the famous Ger man administrator of New Ire land, Bulominski, who was also responsible for the east-coast road from Kavieng to Namata nai, one of the few significant roads of any sort in pre-war New Guinea.

While Townsend was in the army during World War 11, Mrs Townsend and her two children lived in Melbourne. They accompanied Kassa to New York in late 1945 when he was appointed to the United Na tions, returning after 10 years to retirement in Montville, Queensland.

After Kassa Townsend’s death in 1962 she lived in Buderim, latterly in Buderim Garden Village. She took an active part in local community work but kept in touch with many old New Guinea friends.

During her years in New York she had met a number of Quakers, become interested in Quakers generally, and after her move to Buderim became one herself.

Her background and the period in which she spent the early years of her life, her experiences in New Guinea, and the influence of the man she married, reinforced her naturally firm and disciplined views, which possibly made her seem slightly formidable to an easier-going generation. She was an active person to the end, fiercely independent and determined to live alone the sort of character upon which Empires were once built.