NATIVE RESCUE SERVICE

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 November 1946, Page 4

NATIVE RESCUE SERVICE

INSTIGATOR/ VISITOR TO GREYMOUTH SOLOMON ISLANDS CHIEF A man who can claim to have been instrumental in saving the lives of 187 Australian and New Zealand pilots and naval personnel, and of 27 American pilots, was' interviewed at Greymouth by an Evening Star representative yesterday afternoon. He is Kata Rongoso, a Solomon Islands chief from the Morovo Lagoon area. Kata Rongoso, who is an ordained minister : of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, was left in charge oi that church’s mission when the white missionaries left the Morovo Lagoon area in 1942. He organised a series of watch-posts approximately five miles apart oVer a distance of about 150 miles through his territory. The spotters in these posts reported to the nearest of a number of rescue stations whenever a plane crashed or a ship was sunk. The survivors were rescued by canoes if they were in the sea and, if they parachuted into the jungle, were located and helped. Those who needed medical attention were nursed back to health and secretly taken by cahoe through the enemy lines to the nearest wireless post. Asked if he had received any Government recognition for his work Kata Rongoso said that as a minister of religion he wanted no recognition and had received none. Government chiefs and their helpers in the Babu and Ngatu islands and the Morovo Lagoon area had, however, received medals and rewards for their services. Merciless Japanese. The Japanese had shown neither mercy nor discrimination during their occupation of the Solomons, said Kata Rongoso. They burned the houses, broke the natives’ canoes, destroyed churches and shot many of the inhabitants. He had been beaten and had faced a Japanese firing squad for refusing to co-operate with the invaders. His escape from death on that occasion had been miraculous.

The chief smilingly commented that the Japanese had not destroyed everything, as much had been hidden by his people. The engines of some of the mission launches had been dismantled, carefully greased and concealed in various places. The boats were taken up rivers and houses built over the top of them. This was no mean task as one of the boats was 45 feet long, he added. When the Japanese were driven from the Solomons the natives returned to their old living places, said Kata Rongoso, but the work of replacing what had been destroyed was a slow and costly .business. It would cost £130,000 to replace the many boats which had been destroyed and the work of rehabilitation would be neither easy nor speedy. Kata Rongoso related how one American pilot who had been rescued was in deadly fear that he might be eaten by cannibals. The natives, on the other hand, had to be absolutely certain that those they brought in were Allied airmen and always questioned them carefully. On this occasion equanimity was restored on both sides when it was discovered that the airman came from Hollywood, as Kata Rongoso had visited that city in 1936. Much-Travelled Chief. He said that he had travelled in 22 states of the U.S.A., had toured Australia, and was now making a two months’ tour of New Zealand. Everybody he had encountered in this country, he said, had been exceedingly kind and helpful. When asked the object of his present tour Kata Rongoso said that his main object had been to attend the Seventh Day Adventist ’’’Conference at Sydney. He also wanted to visit the churches of his denomination in New Zealand. “I bring the thanks of my people and myself to the sons and daughters of New Zealand who gave themselves and their energies to the work of restoring peace,” he added.

Since arriving in th’is country, he said, he had met several of the men whom he had been able to help during the war and it had given him great pleasure to renew his acquaintanceship with them. Kata Rongoso addressed a meeting at the Greymouth Seventh Day Adventist Church last evening and will speak again this evening. He will leave to-morrow for a visit to the Glaciers.