Deaths

Mr Alfred Jarrett Elphick, MBE, retired Fiji Government printer, died at his home in Adelaide on April, 20, aged 77.

Bom in Adelaide, Mr Elphick, known among his friends as Sam, joined the Fiji Public Service printing and stationary department in May, 1934, be came government printer in 1951 and after retirement in 1960, returned to Adelaide. He was awarded the MBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours in 1960.

Father Desmond Scanlon, member of the Society of Mary (SM) and parish priest in Nor folk Island for the last 25 years, died at the Mater Hospital, Sydney on April 28th at the age of 79. Bom in New Zealand, Fr Scanlon went to Solomon Is lands after his ordination, ser ving there until the Japanese invasion when he was evacu ated to Sydney and became chaplain at the Mater Hospital.

Mrs Olga Page, born in Apia, Western Samoa as the daugh ter of Captain and Mrs August Saffings, died in St. Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, on April 27th aged 91. The widow of Mr Alfred George Page, she spent the greater part of her adult life in Sydney where she was hos tess at the Polynesian Club, and with the club, lent her services to many elegantly-staged Polynesian song and dance routines. She was known as “Auntie” to the many Polyne sians whom she assisted and over the years, although she had no children of her own, she reared and cared for many children.

Father Roger Labrecque, of the Society of Mary, died suddenly in Suva of a heart attack on April 27th at the age of 61. Bom in the United States, he spent most of his

priestly life as a Marist mission ary in the South Pacific serving in the Samoas from 1960 until 1970 when he went to Rome, returning in 1972 and going to Fiji. At the time of his death, he was provincial bursar in Suva for the Oceania Province.

Miss Helena Parham, a mem ber of a family well known in Fiji, died in Suva on April 25th, aged 82. Her parents arrived in Fiji in 1919 and operated a plantation in Vanua Levu until the family moved to Suva where Mr Parham made a reputation as a horticulturist and author of many stories on Fiji flora and fauna. Mrs Parham was also well known as a botanist, while their son, Mr Bayard Parham, was director of Agriculture in Fiji and Western Samoa for many years. Miss Parham,and her sister, Miss Beatrice Parham, who died last year, were social workers.

Sir Pita Simogun, knighted by the Queen in 1985, died at his home in Wewak in Papua New Guinea’s East Sepik on April 11th, aged 87. He was a police sergeant in the colonial era, a war veteran and a mem ber of the Legislative Council (1964-1968) and as one of the first settlers on an oil palm plantation at Kapore, near Kimbe, was instrumental in in troducing new crops of coffee, rice and peanuts to West New Britain. He was buried with military honours at Moem Bar racks Army Centre.

Mr John Dobell Wilkinson, aged 79, formerly a planter in PNG’s Milne Bay Province, died in Townsville, Queensland on March 24. Arriving in PNG in 1932, he worked as a mine supervisor until World War 11 during which he served in Palestine, the Western Desert, Crete and New Guinea. As a medical officer serving during fierce fighting on the Kokoda Trail he was mentioned several times in despatches. After the war he remained in PNG and created a flourishing coconut, coffee and cocoa plantation under the Returned Soldiers scheme. He leaves a widow, five children and nine grandchildren.