in Vitu proper was of the order of 103 males:100 females post-weaning. That is reversed upon Unea, and the social doyens of the upper Witus are or were the ladies happily bride-stolen by the Mundua and Witu lads on wife raids, there being no bride price to pay, and this keeping the populations pretty much stable and balanced wrt genders and genetic make-up. These figures are from the late 1960s and may not apply today, as one in fifty persons in Nuigini are now positive to HIV (Air Nuigini In-Flight magazine, Sept. 2009). Nonetheless it is an extremely rare occurrence wrt population make-up. On expulsion of the Germans post World War I the group was acquired by the island trading group Burns Philp, plantations comprising Lama, Meto, Ilia and Langu on "Big Vitu" - Garove - and Ningau as the plantation whole for Mundua-Naragé. Edward Hann was plantation manager on Ningau for approximately 36 years. During World War 2 the Japanese landed on one end of the Ningau and he was lucky enough to escape on the other side of the island. Langu was ceded by Burns Philp to the Coote family post World War II as compensation for the execution of their family head and Burns Philp Rabaul store manager by the Japanese for refusing them the keys to Burns Philp's Rabaul enterprises on invasion, and for the duration of the war Vitu was occupied by Japanese who had the sense to treat the native population well. Nonetheless, Coast-Watch activities proceeded, and one Tumbuan Tuagolo, or "Talasea" of Mundua acted as guide to Eric Feldt within the New Britain area. One of the greater claims to international fame of Vitu is that a daughter of the Langu manager for the Coote family, and later, owner, Richard {"Dick"] Doyle became Miss Nuigini. Under the German Roman Catholic mission at Vuonopope, Kokopo, a mission was established inside the caldera which is the bulk of Garove, a wise choice considering the Group's exposure and sea-states at times of both the NW Monsoon and the SE Trades, the island comprising basically at places only the precipitous higher ground of the caldera rim. This mission, Peterhafen, was the redoubt of the notorious militant German Archbishop Wolffe, and was to the left of the passage outside the entrance to which the Australian Navy laid blockade to the German raider of the same name - Wolf