Technical Training Of

Natives

Experiments in New Guinea

IN schools all over the world it is found that a very clever teacher, who has gained honours in a particular subject, somehow or other cannot impart his knowledge to his pupils in such a manner as to render the subject simple to learn.

He knows his subject thoroughly, but cannot convey his data in sufficiently lucid terms. When examinations come along and the pupils fail, parents blame the teacher. It is the tragedy of the teach ing world.

And so it is with the training of raw “boys” in New Guinea. Europeans are apt to forget that they are talking to a “boy” whose life, up to the time he has been recruited, has probably been a monotonous routine of digging the family vegetable patch, and planting the Kaukau and yams, making bows, arrows, and axes, or decorating his body.

The training of the “boys,” particu larly for housework, is a slow, tedious task requiring great patience. Lessons have to commence in the very rudiment ary stages; a “boy” must be treated as a child and not expected to grasp his sub ject in a day, as some white men think they should, especially when they know little of “pidgin English.”

It frequently happens that a new native boils sox, shirts, trousers and ties in the one pot at the same time, and then com pletes the job by scorching them all when he attempts to iron the ruined clothes.

One “boy,” when told to serve soup, endeavoured to balance it on a dinner plate, and was very upset when he found “soup ’e no stop.”

Another case is known of a “boy” who was told to fill a saucepan of water and “put ’im along fire,” which he promptly carried out to the letter, much to the dis gust of his white “missus,” as it was but five minutes before “kai” time. This woman could not convey to the “boy” ex actly what she meant. If she had told the “boy” to “put ’im saucepan of water along stove along fire,” she would not have been distressed unnecessarily.

That these natives can be trained to execute tasks intelligently and efficiently is clearly shown by the following ex amples.

In the Department of the Chief of Police, Rabaul, a local “boy” is being taught to use the typewriter and is prov ing an excellent pupil, with great possi bilities.

At Wau, Mr. Alan McCay, a dentist, has a Kuku-Kuku “monkey,” whom he is training as a dental assistant. The Kuku- Kukus are the famous nomad cannibal tribe, slayers of more than one white man.

Mr. McCay’s little “monkey” has exceeded all expectations—and does not display any cannibalistic tendencies when meeting Mr.

McCay’s patients. Many offers have been made for this “monkey” but the dentist refuses to part with his “find.”' Mr. Ray Parer, of Pacific Airways Transport, is training a “boy” to become a pilot. This native can safely control an aeroplane in the air, but he has yet to learn the art of taking off and land ing.

It would seem that most natives’ intelli gence depends upon the intelligence of their “mastas.”—S.L.

Mr. H. lan Hogbin, who has been en gaged in anthropological research in the Solomon Islands for a year, returned to Sydney by the last “Mataram.” Prob ably, he will go on next year to New Gui nea, for further anthropological work.