Native Debtors

In New Guinea

Further Aspects Of

Growing Difficulty

Written for The Pacific Islands Monthly by Gordon Thomas.

A SHORT article appeared in the August issue of The Pacific Islands Monthly dealing with native debtors in Papua and compar ing conditions in that Territory with those in the Kingdom of Tonga.

The Papuan correspondent should congratulate himself that he is not re siding in Mandated New Guinea, where the trading firms have no claim whatsoever against native debtors.

A native may have obtained monies or goods in advance on the promise of copra or shell to be delivered and, in the event of his failure to meet his obligations, the white man is un able to take any legal steps for the recovery of the debt; rather is he making himself liable to a charge of illegal trading.

It is common knowledge that the extension of credit to natives is gen erally practised throughout the South Seas. In fact, in many areas, there would be little trading done at all were it not for the credit system.

The economic change which has come about in the native’s life during recent years, makes him dependent to a large degree upon the local trader for cash and goods that are often required for unexpected events —e.g., death, feasts, tax collecting, etc. — when copra supplies are not always available for bartering. Credit at such times is given in good faith and in the interests of the native. In other islands, there are stipulated times for cutting copra or fishing shell, and credit is often extended (even as it is extended to the man on the land in Australia) between the various periods to enable the native to purchase lines which his metamor phosis from the primitive savage has made necessaries, where previously they were luxuries, to be obtained only in times of affluence.

The average native recognises these debts as a first call upon his produce; and there is a very high degree of honour amongst them, which com pels them to discharge the debt with out equivocation. Unfortunately, there fire some natives (and their number is increasing with the amount of their contact with civilisation) who contract these debts with little inten tion of ever liquidating them; and in some cases with a knowledge that the trader has no legal recourse for their recovery. Other natives are often in a position to pay off the debt; but have a strong aversion to parting with money and “cry poor,” with the result that the trader may be paying 6 to 8 per cent, on his overdraft, which could be decreased if his native debtors, from whom he receives no interest, would pay up.

It is contrary to the rudiments of fair play; for the large profits, which were made in the past and covered all these bad debts, are but dreams of a distant past to the present-day trader. As native sophistication has isen, so have prices fallen.

The present position in many places is that the traders are carrying large numbers of small debts contracted by natives prior to the slump in copra who cannot, or do not desire to, understand that twice as much copra is now required to meet a debt con tracted when copra prices were higher.

The argument is advanced that if the trader is such a fool as to make advances to natives, when he knows full well that he has no avenue to recover, then he must grin and bear the consequences.

There is the other side of the ques tion: If the native is to be allowed to have the advantages of civilisation, then he must also be prepared to accept his responsibilities as a civil ised individual, and not shelter be neath a protecting law for primitive and unsophisticated natives. There is ample scope here for the mission aries to exert their influence, by im pressing upon their converts to moral responsibilities pertaining to civilisation. Native missionaries are by no means exempt from being num bered amongst the delinquents when it comes to store debts.

When a native receives the favour of goods or cash from a trader, and voluntarily agrees to make payment by a certain date, there should oe some machinery whereby he can be forced to carry out his agreement.

Otherwise, it is encouraging the dis honest practice of evading legitimate responsibilities and is liable to have a detrimental effect on the character of the future generation.

The idea of not recognising the necessity of granting credit to natives is ridiculous, and only shows crass ignorance of this time-old Islands practice. The principles and practices of commerce are universally applied, whether it be a case of the large combine and the merchant, or an island trader and a native cocoanut grove owner.