Problem Of The Half-Caste

Europeans Must Provide a Future For the Euro-Polynesian Communities

By Julian Hillas

„„,. , , , I ’HE Euro-Polynesiail half-caste not -*■ only provides a problem for others, but in the majority of cases he presents „ , . one tor himseil. *Forty years ago, an Official census, • t> . „ taken in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, showed a total population of 2,454 persons, of whom 38 were rated as half-castes. To day, it would be safe to estimate this same section of the community as well

into the hundreds, especially if one in cludes the children of half-castes: and, since this is customary in matters where distinctions are made between the various strata of Islands residents, it may also serve for present purposes.

Everywhere, except perhaps in the Union of South Africa, where the colour line is now probably more sharply drawn than anywhere else in the world, mis cegenation has automatically followed the economic fusion of the two races, white and coloured.

Of course, the result of such relation ships, whether lasting or temporary, is children. The offspring of these unions often inherit the less desirable qualities of both races, usually, it will be found, in direct ratio to the biogenetic differ ences which separate the parents.

The European strain does not mix well with Asiatic, African or Mongoloid: whereas, with the North American In dian and Polynesian it is the reverse.

The explanation is not far to seek. With the Polynesian there is a basic strain estimated by some authorities as high as 30 per cent—of Caucasian blood, which forms, as it were, a foundation upon which are superimposed the many sub-strains gathered during the eastward and southward migration of the race.

This, in addition to having a very direct bearing on the compatibility of tempera ment which usually exists in such mar riages, also accounts for the ready adop tion of European habits and manners by Euro-Polynesian half-castes.

The unreliability of the half-caste has frequently been stressed—perhaps to an unfair degree. It is. I think, less a matter of unreliability than a disregard for many of our Western standards of value.

Ancestral memories of a nature utterly foreign to us condition a subconscious philosophy that reveals itself as a kind of Jaisser-fairc which we condemn—not without a trace of envy for the carefree outlook it represents.

TPHE problem of the half-caste confronts * every Administration in the South Eastern Pacific.

In Western Samoa, the Government are attempting to meet it by a scheme of organised land settlement. Land, which the pure native child inherits from both parents, is halved for the children of a mixed marriage, whose only claim, other than on leasehold property, must come through the distaff side. And, in a community drawing its livelihood princi pally from the soil, land is of paramount importance. In the final analysis it en sures to the individual occupier a living, if not a competence, a lack of which forms the whole crux of the problem under review. Such minor official posts, plus the few commercial or clerical open

ings available are, and will continue to be, incapable of absorbing any really large number.

At present, the only alternative seems to be a drift to the customs and social standards of the natives —a movement as wasteful as it is regrettable, but one which no doubt accounts for the dis couragement, in certain quarters, of mixed marriages.

But to discourage miscegenation will not stop it. By far the better and wiser plan would be to recognise frankly its inevitability—even, under certain condi tions, its desirability. 1 EFT to himself, the pure-blooded Poly nesian seems either incapable or un willing to battle with the complicated mechanism of modern life. Physically, he falls an easy victim to introduced disease. Mentally, he is no match for the imported ethics of commerce. Often pro tective land laws alone stand between him and complete destitution. On the other hand, the half-caste, with his in fusion of new blood, appears to gain a two-fold stamina which, coupled with the material background, renders him pecu liarly well adapted to his environment.

That happier results have not been achieved seems primarily due to two causes: (1) An absence of responsibility on the part of white men forming al liances with native women; and (2) the existing lack of co-operation between European and half-caste.

Only too frequently there are cases v/here white men. having contracted unions with Islanders and become fathers of families, desert them when circum

stances or inclination urge them further afield. Thrown back thus upon their own reserves, the native mother has no alter native but to bring up her children as natives.

Few Europeans are so constituted that they can hope to spend their whole lives in close contact with a Polynesian woman unless she has been reared according to their own standards. Unfortunately, equ ally few are constituted to live monas tically. The result is a loosely knit at tachment, often conceived on some lonely island, and which, having no particular financial or conventional ties, eventually becomes wearisome and is shaken off at the cost of a little heart-burning and a few transient regrets. Yet worse again are those casual visitors who indiscrimi nately add their quota to the population of the Islands.

From such raw materials as these good citizens are not evolved.

'“PHE other aspect to which I have drawn attention must surely be only too apparent to anyone who has spent any length of time in the Islands. Euro peans, particularly the better-off ones— although here and there are exceptions— do not make any noticeable effort to raise either the social or cultural status of the half-caste.

The history of Polynesia is one of tra ditional co-operation and a communal spirit still exists strongly in the half caste. Given a worthy incentive, he res ponds nobly. But, all too frequently, there is none, and abilities which might have been devoted to the common weal

are lost in the shadier purlieus of local commercialism. With his intuitive know ledge of the native mind, the educated Euro-Polynesian can be, and often is, exploited to serve the baser ends of others who themselves are ready, with equal facility, to accept the fruits of his labours or to disclaim responsibility for his actions.

T7HOM what and from where is an in * centive to come? The answer, I think, must rest with the policies which underlie Islands Administrations, and their readiness to consider the future, not solely in the light of profit-making for an elect few, but in the interests of all within their territories.

Much of the old framework of Poly nesian life has been shattered by the intrusion of European ideas. It should now be our aim to rebuild this so as best to house both the old and the new, the indigenous population and the stranger from other lands; and it would seem to me that the most lasting adhesive with which to cement such a structure is the half-caste, with his kinship to the native on the one hand, while on the other is his nascent urge towards the progressive life of the European.

The suggestion occasionally advanced by idealists that the white man should abandon the South Seas is wholly im practical. Admittedly, we should never have clattered noisily into this quiet paradise. But, having come, we are bound to remain. Dislocation would inevitably follow evacuation. We have injected our hosts too deeply with the virus of unrest,

so that they, like ourselves, do not quite know what they really want, but will never be content until they gain it. With them, and the half-caste whom we have created, we must now march forward, irrevocably bound together, to whatever destiny may hold for us.