Tropicalities

A DECREE of great importance reached Rabaul at the end of October!

Henceforth Chinese residents are not to be palled Kong-kongs. They must be referred to .as Chinamen. The term Kong-kong, or more usually “Kong,” has been in use since Pidgin English was first used in New Guinea which is be fore the present reformists ever heard of the place.

Not long ago we were instructed that we must no longer use the term “boys” for adult Fuzzy-wuzzies. They must be called “natives/’

Oh, well I suppose we still have some way to go yet. An acquaintance tells me that when he visited Fiji he was called aside by an official and asked not~to refer to the Fijians as “natives” they should be called Fijians!—“NEW GUINIAN.” * * * TWO old Papuan residents are on the staff of the Commonwealth Statis tician in Sydney (Mary Street Army House). One is Mr. S. H. Chance ex RM of the Territory, the other is Harry Glanville late manager of the Gort Plantation at Baibara, Eastern Papua.

In both cases, after their many years successful solving of native relationships, all should be easy to them! ♦ * * A LETTER which travelled 4,360 miles across the Pacific with the Kon-Tiki raft expedition, was delivered re cently to Miss Stella Wood, of Brisbane, five months after it was written by her sister Mrs. L. Raber, of Lima (Peru).

Mrs. Raber is the wife of the assistant US Military Attache in Peru, and was married in Brisbane during the war. Her husband was wounded at Salamaua, New Guinea.

The letter, dated April 28, from Tua motu went to Tahiti with the party on the French Government schooner, “Tamara,” which towed the raft. It was posted at Papeete, on August 28—J.M.H. * * * CIO East young man! Why fiddle about 1 with New Orders in Papua-New Guinea and other socialist-controlled Territories in the Pacific? The Republic of Ecuador, in South America, is in the market for British and American colonists and has just set aside 124,000 acres of rich land for the encouragement of these people.

Every British or American settler may obtain 124 acres of this land, plus a townsite lot, in one of two villages on the land concession located upon the new all-weather highway that links the con cession with Quito, capital of the Repub lic.

Married men may obtain twice as much land 248 acres.

The country is equatorial but enjoys a pleasant climate because of the cold Humboldt current which sweeps close in shore as it flows north from the Antarc tic; and because of the proximity of the snow-capped mountains of the interior of the country.

Soil is rich and produces bananas, oranges, limes, lemons, paw-paws, pine apples, sugar cane, rice, breadfruit, coffee and cocoa. The Anglo-American con cession is well watered. Wild rubber trees are scattered throughout the area.

During the war Ecuador supplied the United Nations with crude rubber, balsa wood, quinine and other vital tropical crops. It is said that stands of magni

ficent tropical timber are to be found upon the land which settlers “can use for building purposes or sell at good local prices.”

The pamphlet describing the new colony states also, possibly as an added inducement, that close to the concession live the picturesque tribe of peaceful Colorados Indians whose women-folk are noted for their beauty of face and grace of body.

Anyone wishing to know more about the land concession or Ecuador may obtain a 36 page booklet which gives complete details.. Just write (airmail) to; Dr. J. M. Sheppard, Co-Intermediary, Casilla 315, Quito, Ecuador, South America. * * * A GENTLEMAN at Kingston, Jamaica, BWI, stimulated by this writer’s wail in a recent “PIM,” has been good enough to instruct me how home boiled sugar-cane may be induced to crystallise.

The Jamaician expert tells me that all that is required aftdr the mash has been boiled is a pinch of coral lime in the pot which causes the thin syrup to mend its ways and become both sugar-sweet and substantial.

My Jamaica friend did not, however, tell me if the lime is sprinkled in, as it is or slaked with water and poured in as a liquid. Perhaps some Fiji reader may be able to clear up that point?

No successful attempt has been made here on Managaia to make sugar since the Williams era. Sugar cane grows

locally at no cost, while store sugar from Fiji is lOd. per pound. It would save money to make our own—E.G. * * *

Government-sponsored “news

papers” for the instruction of Fuzzy- Wuzzy are springing up like mush rooms in the old Mandated Territory of New Guinea. Lae (with its “Garamut”) is the latest district to break out in this direction. Roneo-ed in Pidgin most scientific Pidgin! it is as entertaining as a cross-word puzzle or an anagram to the average Pidgin linguist and must be totally incomprehensible to the new comer to the Territory whose Pidgin is usually of the bastard, war-time variety.

If this sort of thing "goes on I can see the day coming when the European resi dent of the Territory, new or old, will attend classes to learn this new written variety.

What might pass for the imprint of the “Garamut,” states that it has been published by the Education Department of New Guinea. Are we, then, to take it that this is the standardised version of written Pidgin? If so, who standardised it? It bears little resemblance to the Pidgin guide books which were issued during the war —which perhaps is under standable as they were for the use of Europeans.

Now for an example from the second issue of “Lae Garamut”: A statement by Morobe’s “Namba-wan Kiap,” Mr. A. A.

Roberts, is reported verbatim. It be gins: Oltem igat palanti man nabaut long hap bilong Lae igo inap long hap bilong Nadzab na arapela hap mo oltem oil kukim kunai. Sampela oil kukim bilong mekim garden kaikai bilong ol; sampela aiting oli kukim bilong holimpas momot.

It continues: Sapos man i laik kukim kunai bilong wokim garden kaikai bilongen imas wetim gudpela dei or taim turu bilong laitim ino taim bilong bignela wind. Man imas