Territory Gossip

A Letter From

Rabaul

(Part of a private letter to the Editor, from a friend in Rabaul, dated April 8, 1939.) EASTER holidays; and so for the screed you asked me to let you have as soon as I had found my bearings in this salubrious town. Holiday time is a good time for letter-writing; there has been little doing here so far; yesterday was a veritable Good Friday, and the news of the Prime Minister’s death add ed to the general sadness of the place.

Any place is naturally sad when all the pubs and clubs are closed.

A dozen odd cricket “sports” sailed away on Thursday afternoon to play a test match with Kavieng. This has come an annual event and Kavieng is generally capable of showing some good cricket to the visitors. These test matches are a good idea. They foster a better inter-district spirit, the which does not exist to a very great extent just at present.

Rabaul, I find, is inclined to “look down” a bit on the out-stations, and in turn the out-stations (such at Kavieng, Salamaua and Madang) are inclined to reckon that Rabaul is too high and mighty and a little bit too much “up stage”. That is all as it may be. Any way, inter-district sports would do much to eliminate this not-too-good spirit, where everyone should pull together for the good of the whole.

Away on a spot of holidaying-cum business is the Administrator and Lady McNicoll: they sailed a wav on the lux ury yacht “Dorunda” and are visiting the Baining district.

The Sepik Patrol

NO doubt you have heard that Jim Tavlor and his party have arrived safely at Wabag. the base-camp of the famous Hagen-Sepik patrol where Walsh, the medico-man. has been keep ing the camp-fires burning and the tele radio radio-ing, while Taylor and Black were out “contacting” the unknown tribes around about the headwaters of the Sepik and along the Dutch border.

True is the saying about a prophet and his own country: Localities seem to take verv little interest in the expedition, ex cept one or two to ask: “What’s it all about, and what, are they doing?” But when the publicity men get goinsr down South I suppose there will be some fine reading, equal almost to poor old Hides’s trip.

But in these days when radio and aer ial transport are available, expeditions into the hinterland are not what they used to be’ more especially when, dailv. the boss rine-s up and wants to know how von’re netting on. There’s no doubt but, that, radio, as we have it these days elimiuates isolation, which was looked ur»nn as one of the hardships of old natrol Recruiters are asking whether the “contacting” of the patrol will open up new country where boys may be obtained.

At the present, every steamer that comes in brings a host of wails from these gen tlemen regarding the closing of areas for recruiting. One lad said to me the other day that there were scores of natives who wanted to “make paper” but that they were not allowed to.

“What with the missionaries telling

them to put away polygamy, and the Kiap telling them they can’t leave the place, the natives reckon they are hav ing a pretty thin time. And what about interfering with the liberty of the na tive?” he added, and referred to a re cent case which had come before the Supreme Court in Rabaul here. It does seem that this “native welfare” stunt can be carried too far; and when it definitely clashes with the development of the ter ritory—from an economic point of view —there should be some way of arriving at a compromise.

Native Evidence

TALKING of the “deprivation of lib erty” case the Chief Judge gave his summing up last week. Of course, he crossed every “t” and dotted every “i”, and laid bare to his listeners exactly how his brain functioned in arriving at his decision, when he discharged the two ac cused. It took him over two hours, so they say, to deliver judgment; and, in cidentally. he had a tilt at the local Evi dence Ordinance, where one of the sec tions allows witness to be questioned as to whether he had made any former statement inconsistent with his evidence in Court.

This, of course, refers to the time when the case is being prepared, both by the Crown and the defence, and na tive witnesses, especially, are put through a very thorough dress rehearsal. Taking evidence in cases where there are na tives who do not understand “pidgin- English” is a most trying job, and to closely analyse the meaning of the words or intention of meaning which the na tive witness desires to convey, is almost impossible when his remarks are trans lated first from his own dialect!, or language, into “pidgin”, and then from “pidgin” into English by the Court in terpreter. In many cases boys are asked to remember casual events which have occurred months previously.

This is bad enough for a white man many times, so how the Courts expect to get the dinkum oil from primitive natives who do not appreciate an oath it is hard to say. Anyway, the Chief Judge said in his summing up that evi dence coming from an unsophisticated native could be more readily believed than from a more sophisticated one.

There’s probably a lot of truth in that, too.

Who Will Pay For The Road?

THERE is now a new topic of conver sation about the local pubs and clubs; a very welcome change to the ever-present subject of international ten sion, and what are we going to do in Rabaul if an enemy should suddenly come round the corner of Matupi Island.

The new topic is the cost of the gold fields road. Some people seem to think that there may be anything from £50,000 to £BO,OOO to be found, and which has not been provided for—that is, if any of the money has been provided. Direct taxation seems to be the solution of the problem, and even if the goldfields crowd is correct in saying that huge sums have gone into consolidated revenue which should have been ear-marked for the road construction, that does not alter the fact that the money has been spent— and not a small amount by any means on the goldfields—in making nice, com fortable homes for the many officials who have to live there, and the making of a few roads already in that area. This expenditure would easily go into a few hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Someone suggested the other day that the road should be called the Folly Road.

I don’t exactly know why, unless it is after a certain director of the N.G.G.

“Ted” Taylor’S New Job

rD TAYLOR has arrived from Sala maua and is going to take over the duties of Acting Director of District Services. Many people are hoping that there may be a tightening up of native labour conditions locally, now that “Ted” is here.

I certainly hope so, for natives at present do practically what they like and when they like. As a result, the town is not looking the nice clean place it was a few years back, when I passed through here. Rubbish is left lying about for days; pathways on the main street are neglected, and the few pedestrians have to trudge along ruts and long grass.

There are still a few people who do not go about in motor cars—though very few —and thus the thusness of the path ways, I suppose.

Another factor, I believe, is the short age of labour in the various Govern ment Departments whose job it is to keep the town clean. But “Ted” most probably will have to mind his “p’s’ f and “q’s”, lest someone higher up the ladder gets a tap over the knuckles for bring ing a little discipline into play. Can you imagine anyone trying to run a huge school with some three thousand pupils, without discipline? Well that’s practic ally what the Administration is trying to do.