Memorial service in NZ for MV Joyita victims

Nearly 57 years after 25 people vanished from a boat in the Fiji waters, a memorial service B the first for the missing B will be held in the NZ Parliament later today.

Around 250 people, including family of the dead from around the world are present in Wellington to commemorate the strange story of the MV Joyita, which disappeared on a voyage that began on October 3rd, 1955, from Apia in Samoa to Tokelau.

The waterlogged boat was found five weeks later in Fiji waters, but there was no sign of the 25 people aboard.

Stuff.co reports that the fate of the passengers and crew has never been determined and as Police Conduct Authority investigator Luther Toloa puts it, they have “simply withered into the backblocks of New Zealand history.”

The service to be held in Grand Hall at 5pm comes as Tokelau’s Ulu, or head, Hiano Kalolo is in New Zealand pleading with the NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs to honour a long standing promise to replace the now ancient boat which serves the 1400 Tokelauans living on three atolls 300 kilometres north of Samoa.

A commission of inquiry, assisted by a young lawyer who later became chief justice, Ronald Davison, found that engine failure and damaged communication equipment were the cause of the vessel's demise.

The youngest victim was a three year old girl and the oldest a 66 year old businessman.

Story by: Vijay Narayan