Papua's Education
p. 45 · Read in the full issue
System Defence of the Missions' Record
IN reply to certain statements made in a letter to the editor, by “RHF.” pub lished in July, on the subject of “Government or Mission Education in Papua?”, in which the record of the mis sion schools was criticised, we have received a flood of correspondence, for which it is impossible to find space.
This journal does not subscribe to the anti-mission opinions of “RHF.'’ But that writer represents a school of thought, which is entitled—like everyone else—to express its views in these pages.
The following are points from some of the letters received.
Rev. John W. Burton (Methodist Over seas Missions) agrees that it should be possible for the Government to greatly extend the education system, for the good of the Papuan natives: but he cannot understand why ANGAU should be given the task of inaugurating a new system.
That, surely, should be the duty of a restored Civil Administration, endowed with larger funds than the pre-war Administration ever knew.
Rev. Maurice Nixon, of the London Missionary Society, says that much of the Papuans’ good war record is due to the sound, good training of the Missions’ schools: that secular instruction was not displaced, to any degree, by religious instruction: that it was the missionaries who reduced some of the Papuan language to writing and made education possible; that very remarkable progress was made, considering the language difficulties and the limited school hours: that there were no sterner critics of the Papuan educa tion service (handicapped by lack of funds and facilities) than the missionaries themselves; and that the missionaries, out of a half-century’s practical experi ence, have much to contribute to an extended education plan, and should be consulted.
The Fiji Indian War Effort Committee has sent to the Governor of Fiji, Sir Phillip Mitchell, a cheque for £367, to be forwarded to India for the Viceroy’s War Purposes Fund. The Committee asked that the donation be applied to the relief of famine sufferers in Bengal.
An epidemic of dengue fever and gastric influenza occurred in Apia and the country districts of Western Samoa in early July. Though not dangerous, the epidemic incapacitated numbers of office workers and put whole families on the sick list.