Praise Where Praise Is Not Due

Professor Elkin and Australia's Record in New Guinea

r T , HE following is from an article by ■*- Professor A. P. Elkin, 'published in a recent issue of the Methodist “Missionary Review Professor Elkin holds the Chair of Anthropology at the University of Sydney.

THERE have been sad and disastrous patches in the relations of Western civilised nations and peoples with the peoples of Melanesia, Polynesia, Malaysia, and East Asia; e.g., black birding, exploitation of the natives’ lands, undermining of native culture and society by misdirected missionary zeal, with some consequent depopulation.

On the other hand, there have been wise native and general policies put into operation by the British Administration of Fiji and the Western Pacific, and by our own Administration in Papua and the Mandated Territory of New Guinea.

These policies have not been perfected.

In British territories the education poli cies have lacked imagination and drive, but the interests of natives have been the first consideration. We all realise this is the case of Papua, but it is also true with regard to the Mandated Terri tory of New Guinea.

In the former Territory, we were not trammeled by any preceding type of administration: whereas in the latter, we had to take over from a German system, with its policy of substitution of culture, and its method of force. Moreover, we have had difficulties in this Territory with the indenture system and also with the exploiters of gold and some planta tion folk, who think first, and sometimes also last, of themselves.

The New Guinea Administration, how ever, has not given way to clamour based on selfish interests. It has, moreover, built up a well-selected team of officers, especially trained for them work, who regard the natives as human and social beings. I think we should pay a tribute to the manner in which these Adminis trative officers, wherever possible, have remained in their districts with the natives in spite of the Japanese advance.

Here too, I would like to pay a tribute to the missionaries of various denomina tions who have done the same. Amongst them are both the Church of England missionaries in South-east Papua, and also the Methodist missionaries in New Britain and New Ireland. Unfortunately,

nothing is known about the fate of some of the latter.

With regard to the future; If mission aries are as well-selected and trained as the Administration officers of the Man dated Territory; if full co-operation between the Administration and missions prevails, as is a characteristic of British policy; and if we refuse to depart one iota from the policy of administering these islands for the welfare of their native populations, and of helping the latter to develop them, then prosperity and blessing will follow.

Hard Earth and Cold Facts

AND now, with regret, we must bring Professor Elkin down to hard earth and cold facts.

The record of the Australian Govern ment in relation to the education and the bodily care of the natives of New Guinea is dismal and far from credit able. The “PIM” has been pointing this out, year after year, for at least ten years; and, even yet, whenever a politi cian opens his foolish head on the sub

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ject of New Guinea, he begins to shout about Australia’s “splendid record” there.

And now we have a scientist making the same error. Statistics must supply the answer.

All the development and progress that happened in New Guinea during the twenty years between the wars was con nected with the establishment and

growth of the gold industry. Neither the Australian Government nor the New Guinea Administration had anything to do with the credit goes to the indomitable Australian prospectors who found the goldfields, and the plucky, far visioned investors and engineers who developed them.

The outstanding good thing in Austra lia’s government of the Mandated Ter ritory was the creation, as Professor Elkin has said, of as fine a corps of adminis trative officials as could be found any where in the Pacific. This meant that the work of administration, in a local sense, was done admirably; but the pic ture on the bigger canvas, the creation of policies by the Administration, to be given effect to by the officials, was much less impressive.

Education of natives, health of natives, development of agriculture (both Euro pean and native), encouragement of white settlement and enterprise, provi sion of means of communication—in all such things the Administration, during 20 years, although it had abundant revenues, pursued a policy of laissez faire.

It had “Tropicitis”—it dithered and did nothing.

THAT was because of the Canberra politicians’ practice of appointing to the Administratorship, not a man trained in tropical government, but some ex-soldier or ex-politician who was out of a job. The only Administrator which New Guinea ever knew, who really took hold of Territory affairs and began to frame policies, was General Tom Grif fiths; and, because he refused to bow the knee to the Canberra bureaucrats, and insisted on being administrator in fact as well as in name, he did not remain there two years.

It is a long, unhappy story, which need not be re-told here.

THE story of Papua is less dismal. That was because the man in charge there for 30 years (Sir Hubert Murray) was not only a strong man but also was a Lieutenant-Governor, and not an Administrator; and this gave him certain powers which allowed him to defy the Canberra bureaucrats, whenever they tried to “push him around,” He did what he believed was best for the ter ritory he controlled, and his success was remarkable.

But, when Sir Hubert died, the little tin czars in Canberra promptly changed the Lieut.-Governor-ship to Administra tor-ship, which gave them greater autho rity over the head of the Papuan Administration.

THE history of native education in New Guinea will suffice to show the poor quality of the Australian effort there during two decades, and the lack of any governing policy.

Brig.-General Wisdom retired from the Administrator-ship in 1932, after 11

years’ service. He had, on a couple of occasions, made a worthy effort to inaugurate something worth while in the way of a native education system, but nothing had come of it. Native educa tion—what little there was of it—was almost wholly in the hands of the mis sion bodies.

He was succeeded by Brig.-General Griffiths, an energetic administrator, with considerable experience of Pacific Islands conditions. None knew better than he (a) the need for a comprehen sive native education system; (b) the difficulties in the way of establishing such a system—especially the lack of teachers and the lack of a common language.

Therefore, as soon as he took charge in 1932, and so as to promote “a more rapid expansion of educational activities,” the Administrator in 1932 entered into dis cussions with the various mission organi sations, planning a system under which the missions would undertake entirely the duty of educating the natives. It was proposed that the missions should train, supply and control the school teachers, while the Administration should compel attendance at the schools, pre scribe the curriculum and the hours, grant subsidies and generally supervise the system. There were to be village schools, primary (or middle) schools and high schools (or colleges).

In 1933-34 the plan was still under discussion.

LATE in 1934, General Griffiths, refus ing any longer to carry on “under Canberra office-boy control,” retired and Brig.-General Ramsay McNicoll took over. The following was published in the first report issued by Administrator McNicoll (June 30, 1935) “It has been decided not to proceed with the proposal that the religious mis sions should undertake entirely the edu cation of the natives. It is proposed, however, that the existing system of vil lage schools maintained by the Adminis tration should be extended . . . Develop ment must be slow, and will be dependent on the availability of funds and a suit able staff. The Malaguna elementary school will become a training school for future native teachers ...”

There followed a brief outline of the Administration’s education plan. The natives were to be trained “only to the extent that will enable them to apply their increased knowledge to improve their conditions of living in their villages, or to be absorbed into the community as trained natives, artisans, or clerks.”

On June 30, 1936, Administrator Mc- Nicoll reported that the committee set up by Administrator Griffiths to examine native education had been replaced by a Special Committee of the Legislative Council, consisting mostly of heads of departments. This special committee then apparently engaged in a series of

conferences with the mission bodies; and “was granted further time to study the matter in greater detail.”

AFTER that effort, everyone directly or indirectly responsible for native education went peacefully to sleep; and their slumbers were not again dis turbed until the Japs came bursting into Rabaul in January, 1942.

The “Special Committee” lapsed in 1937. because the Legislative Council had expired. On June 30, 1938, in his annual report, Administrator McNicoll published a series of excuses for his failure to get on with native education: The Special Committee had lapsed; a long time was needed to train native teachers; it was undesirable that important phases of mission work should be disturbed by “the untimely introduction of a scheme of education which had not been scrutinised more closely”; there was a language diffi culty, and it was undesirable that Pidgin should become the lingua franca’, the teaching of English could not be carried out by the missions, because 586 of the 682 missionaries in the Territory were not British; and so on. Good reasons enough, but no sign of any effort being made to solve the difficulties.

After that, the annual reports disclose no attempt to introduce or even to plan a system of native education —although, as shown by the table published here with, hundreds of thousands of pounds of new revenue were being provided by taxes on the new gold industry.

With all due respect to Professor Elkin, it is not a record of which Australia can be proud—especially when comparison is

made with native education systems in territories where revenues are much more limited.

An air-graph service now exists between the United Kingdom, Canada, and the Middle East, and the Colony of Fiji. Sir Philip Mitchell, Governor of Fiji, received the first air-graph from the Secretary of State for the Colonies, at

the end of May. The service to Canada and the Middle East is for the members of the armed forces only; the service to the United Kingdom is for all. Messages cost 9d. (Services personnel) and 1/- (civilians).

1937-8 1938-9 1939-40 Spent on education of natives £6,726 £7,946 £8,274 Native pupils, Government schools 445 485 488 „ „ Mission schools 65,246 68,773 65,598 Spent on public heatlh £80,376 £89,783 £85,207 Total revenue £506,397 £460,835 £496,689 Gold royaltv . . . . £97,464 £107,974 £143,906