Nh Natives

Raw Deal For

Melanesia's Bishop on Solomons and The Condominium

THE condition of the natives in the British Solomon Islands, and in the Condominium of the New Hebrides, was summed up in the following state ment made in New Zealand at the end of March by the retiring Bishop of Melan esia (Rt. Rev. W. H. Baddeley).

His Lordship always has been noted as a forthright speaker; and in this state ment he “pulled no punches”.

“My primary care in the New Hebrides has been the welfare of the native popu lation and I fear it is they who have suffered most—falling between two stools (the French and British administrations).

There has been little or no joint action in the interests of the indigenous peoples.

“Here and there is a French hospital where ‘natives’ are treated; in some areas mission hospitals (subsidised either by the Condominium Government or by the British Administration alone) fill the gap.

"There is very little district adminis tration-little interest in village hygiene; attempts to administer the law are very spasmodic and only some serious public misdemeanour—a murder or a big fight —puts the wheels in motion.

“I am not sure myself that this lack of government control is altogether to be regretted. There is something to be said for laissez faire. But where there has been such contact between primi tive communities and the outside world’ there must be some authority to which an appeal may be made and some author ity to recognise its responsibility for these simple peoples—in other words, there must be the recognition of trus teeship.

“It is for this reason that I very much regret that the Colonial Development Fund—a most generous grant by the British Colonial Office of £5,000,000 a year for each of the next 10 years for the de velopment of the backward areas of the Empire—has not been extended to include the Condominium.

“The future welfare of some 65,000 people of the New Hebrides, Banks and Torres Islands must still remain, so it would seem, the responsibility of societies and groups which, inspired by evangel istic and philanthropic ideas, have hither to borne the heat and burden of the day, and that with very little encouragement or assistance.

“IN the Solomon Islands, the situation 1 is different. Here, since 1893, there has been a British Administration —for long periods somnolent, if not (at times) asleep.

“But at least there has been a Gov ernment which made some provision for native welfare and development. Med ical work was undertaken in some centres, and such work undertaken by other agencies was encouraged and subsidised.

“Then, too, there has been the steady development of local administration—the setting up of district native Councils and district native courts in which local gov ernment is planned and local justice is administered by leading men of the local community under the watchful super vision of a Government district officer.

In other words our people in the Solomons are now ‘going to school’ in the matter of self-government.”

Mr. J. S. Grimshaw has been appointed Superintendent of the Papua-New Guinea Police Force. Previously, Mr.

Grimshaw served with the South Aus tralian police force, which he joined in 1925. He enlisted in the AIF in 1940.