tropicalities

yy EW GUINEA natives are to hear Motuan and Pidgin news-broad casts over former Army stations. When this was announced in March, the

Sydney (i Daily Telegraph ” published

the following as an editorial. The Pidgin is peculiar; but the sentiments are sound.

Like other official broadcasts, these news sessions will doubtless be devoted to ministerial statements.

As head of the Information Depart ment, Mr. Calwell will be a prominent contributor.

This is one message the natives are sure to hear pretty often:— “All de same-time youfela tunim wire less, hearim Big Boss Calwell tellim Guvman truth longa free peoples bilong world.

“Yu mas chuckimout all newspaper.

“Paper yabba e no gud. E callim mefela rattabag.

“Mefela no rattabag, mefela gud plenty too much. Mefela Big Boss Calwell, plenty strong, plenty bigshot, yu askim

udefela Kiap, Eddie Ward.

“Eddie Ward e givim yu railway, poker mashin, foundation-stone, escalator, alia same King’s Cross.

“Eddie Ward luvim boong. Mefela luvim boong no mass readin paper yabba, yu bet.

“Supos yu findim paper yabba longa place belong yu, yu chuckimout hariap.

“Cursim newspaper! Cursim paper yabba, mi word!” • ♦ ♦ EVEN a tidal wave does some good.

Rumour has it that the backwash of the North Pacific marine disturb ance which reached Western Samoa on April 1 (reported elsewhere this issue), washed many of the village privies far out to sea.

Visitors to the Territory have long lamented those eyesores that are a fea ture of the Savai’i and Upolu landscape, which is otherwise very beautiful. In theory, such an edifice, stuck at the end of a long jetty and out over the tidal water, has its points. But, built of drift wood and bits of tin, and located above low water mark, as they often are in Samoa, they have served little useful purpose, anyway. * * * APROPOS the Tropicality in March “PIM,” regarding cigarettes packed in peanut tins, and the authorities’ view that it was the work of a “gang” in Suva: In my opinion the authorities are bark ing up the wrong tree. In the days of the American occupation of Fiji, there was a period—evidently coinciding with a crisis in the tinplate market back in the States—when American cigarettes, sealed in tins still bearing the brand of a well-known variety of American pea nuts, were on sale to troops over the Post Exchange counters. These, in the natural way of such things found their way into the hands of local civilians as well, and it seems more than likely that the cigarettes about which the Sydney customs men are getting hot under the collar are a hangover from this period.

—Mac P.

• * * LIFE among the natives of some of these Pacific Islands is not as simple and free from complications as many people believe.

Take the case of Aisea, for instance.

He gave a portion of his bushland to some other Rotumans to plant food, on the understanding that he was to re ceive some of the crop.

In due course, the food matured and baskets of yams and taro were presented to Aisea.

That should have been the close of the incident. But custom decreed that Aisea must give a feast to the people who had paid their rent. To this end, Aisea spent the rest of the day fishing, while the food-bringers lolled at home, waiting to be fed! ♦ ♦ ♦ THERE was once a European resident of Rotuma who persisted in shoot ing pigeons when the season was closed. In season and out, he continued, until finally he was approached by a delegation of Rotuman chiefs who com plained that very soon there would be no pigeons left.

And the culprit replied glibly: “But, you see, I shoot the male birds only.”

Naively, the delegation believed this

astonishing statement, and retired, with profuse apologies.—AMEL. * * * JUST a year ago (May 13, 1945) a US bomber crashed into a “hidden val ley” in Dutch New Guinea. Twenty one of its passengers were killed; three, including a WAG corporal, Margaret Hastings, survived. The valley, which was called “Shangri-La” and featured in articles all over the world, subsequently proved to be the Grand Valley visited by the Archbold expedition in 1938.

The real story of the crash and the survivors’ life in the valley, before they were rescued by a glider (which was towed into the valley and then snatched up on a tow-line trailed from a plane) has been written by Margaret Hastings, in collaboration with Inez Robb. It dif fers substantially from the newspaper accounts; but it has drama and humour, and is shorn of the high-coloured exag geration we have learnt to expect. Prob ably such an adventure does not warrant exaggeration even in America. The story, called “Crash in Shangri-La,” is condensed in the March issue of “Reader’s Digest.”

Margaret describes their meeting with the allegedly superior, lost tribe of natives who lived in the valley, and of whom US pilots, flying over the valley, had already Drought back tall tales: ALL the things we had heard about them were suddenly very clear and ominous: They were seven feet tall, they were canmoals, they practised human sacrifice, they were fierce war riors. And we were armed with one pocketknife!

“There’s nothing we can do but act friendly,” said McCollom. 'He ordered us to nold out our only food, the hard Cctnay, aaamg nis jack-Knife to the pitiful gifts. “Stand up,” he barked, “and smile! ”

Black heads began to pop out from be hind trees. We smiled. We smiled for our lives.

There were about 100 men with wicked looking stone axes over their shoulders.

The chief led the way. Our smiles by this time had the fixity of granite.

About 15 feet from us the natives stopped and clustered round. The chief was talking 60 to the second. And then his ugly face crumpled into a beaming smile. It was reprieve. It was life.

The chief stepped up to McCollom and held out his hand. McCollom, weak with relief, grabbed it and wrung it. The smiles had done it.

“How are you? Nice to see you,”

McCollom kept saying, over and over.

“Here! Meet Corporal Hastings and Ser geant Decker.”

We suddenly realised that the natives were more afraid of us than we of them.

Far from being seven feet tall, they averaged around 5s feet. And certainly they didn’t look very fierce. * * * rXES became due in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands on April 1. The whole 415 tons of it!

By proclamation in February, the Act ing Resident Commissioner “under Sec tion 2 (a) of the Landowners’ Taxation Ordinance, 1923,” deemed it just that a tax of 360 tons of copra should be im posed on the landowners of the Gilbert Islands (with the exception of those in the islands of Butaritari, Tarawa and Abemama—that is, those affected by war); and that a tax of 55 tons of copra should be imposed on landowners in the Ellice Islands (with the exception of those in the islands of Manumea, Nuku fetau and Funafuti).

The proclamation, issued in the WPHC “Gazette,” ends on the archaic note: “Whereof let all men take notice and govern themselves accordingly.”