Magazine Section

Territories Talk-Talk

By "Tolala"

LAST month I referred to the official decrease of convicted sorcerers in TNG, which brought a letter from an old-time resident of Rabaul concern ing an incident when Law and Order bumped up against a practical demon stration of the “art.”

A high Government official was deter mined that sorcery in a certain section of the Duke of York group must be stamped out. He went seeking the guilty parties, and during his patrol lost no opportunity in de-bunking the ways of sorcery, as well as flagrantly defying native taboos and the like; tasting food which was banned, walking on ground where the spirits forbade any tres passers. He returned, after some weeks, minus any sorcerers, but shortly after wards developed most irritating skin trouble on his feet and legs which kept him a prisoner in his house for many a moon.

Native sorcery just bunkum? I dunno...

Perhaps. . . Perhaps not. . . ♦ ♦ ♦ ONCE again the good old ship Malaita is bringing live specimens of brightly coloured tropic fish for the Taronga Zoo.

Back in the early 1930’s special. fish tanks were installed on Malaita for the purpose of “bringing back alive” these specimens from the Islands’ ports. Each call at Soraken (HQ of the CPL in Bougainville) saw the tanks filled by Boyd Whitehead with piscatorial specimens from the reef-infested waters in and around Buka Passage. “Whitey” met his death in Kavieng at the hands of the Nips, who were recently tried in Hong kong. * * ♦ IT’S refreshing to hear of a missionary who is not afraid to speak his mind concerning present conditions in TNG. One such is Talatala Rodger Browne, of the New Britain area, now on furlough in Australia.

Natives, he said, had changed for the worse since the Jap occupation, and since the Australian troops had been there the natives had had too much money and developed a desire for privileges of Euro pean civilisation without the correspond ing responsibilities. Also, they had got into gambling habits, in some cases using their wives as stakes in card games.

When will our native administrators realise that economics and ethics must travel hand in hand among the dusky New Guinea people?

Another point which officialdom seems to ignore in its present disregard for European prestige is the fact that the native is, in his natural state, a strict observer of caste and respecter of per sons, as his own primitive social systems prove. * ♦ * NAURU natives recently forwarded over £7OO to Minister Ward for the Food for Britain Appeal. A magnificent effort by a native community of only 1400, said Prime Minister Chifley, who re ceived the money from Mr. Ward.

It’s not a bad effort, certainly. But ten bob a head from the Nauruans will not by any means deplete the family coffers.

They are amongst the richest natives in

the Pacific, collecting royalties from every ton of phosphate shipped from their island. Nearly 1,000,000 tons were shipped from Nauru in 1939. * * * ‘TITHE axe-man is at work in the virgin 1 forests of New Guinea.” Such was an editorial comment in one of Sydney’s Sunday papers recently. (And it was not in connection with the current legal proceedings at the time). It was in reference to the official report to UNO on Australia’s “long-range plans for a big New Guinea timber industry,” and ex pressing the hope that due regard will be given to reafforestation of areas worked.