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Territories Talk-Talk

By "Tolala"

THERE are few links with the past which create greater nostalgic feeling than old newspapers. I have been browsing through some old copies of “The Rabaul Times,” and one—dated eight years ago (October 10, 1941) —tells of District Officer Gregory sentencing a native labourer to six months for con suming intoxicating liquor; and another five labourers collecting one to two weeks i.h.l. for gambling . . . R. Melrose, re tiring Superintendent of Rabaul Red Cross E. S. Company, reported receipts from May, 1940, to September, 1941, amounted to £1,562 . . . The vulcano logical Report mentioned 16 tremors for the week and “dust emission was mild.” . . . G. W. L. Townsend proceeded on leave to Australia. . . . Anzac House (in the old Military camp) on September 30 had been opened one month . , . Mr.

Curtin had recently formed his govern ment and Senator Fraser was Minister for the Territories . . . Rabaul ALP Branch was formed. Tom McLaren was chairman, Vic. Florance secretary, Bert Gaskin treasurer and Committee mem bers were R. L. Clark and T. Walsh , . .

The Mayflower II sailed with Bob Mel rose and Pat Holmes for Lae to estab lish the new administrative HQ over on the mainland . . . There were extracts from letters from the lads in the Middle East: “Soldier” Williams, J. R. V.

Graham, Gordon Clarke, Graham Mir field, Lloyd Hurrell, Dr. Backhouse and K. W. Burston . . . What waters have flowed beneath the bridge since those days! * * * BISHOP STRONG, of New Guinea, who was senior chaplain during the war to the lands in NG and now has re cently returned from a conference over seas, gave a talk over the ABC network at the beginning of the month and delved in to a bit of Papua’s old history. While ad vocating the “pro-native” policy, he re marked that the rights .of Europeans should not be ignored. It is to be hoped that this fair-minded remark does not go unheeded in the right (or perhaps one should say the “left”) quarters. He regretted that the present NG policy had become so much a political party issue.

The Bishop is a man who has been around a bit. Before his ordination, in 1923, he had a commission in the Royal Engineers, then took his BA at Cam bridge and a year after entering the Church took his Master’s degree. ♦ ♦ ♦ THE war certainly put places like Gona, Buna and Milne Bay on the map and made them everyday names, but it took Peace and Philan thropist Hallstrom for Nondugl to be widely-known and now, I suppose, it is one of the most-discussed places in the Territory. Artist Bill Dobell added to its fame when he went into raptures over a local native lass’ qualities as a model. During his stay in the NG high lands he had Nip Blood to show him the sights. Now, back in Sydney, Bill Dobell is returning the compliment by show ing Mrs. “Nip” the local spots of in terest, and that does not go unrecorded by Sydney’s social writers.

In a report of the “Naughty Nineties Ball” held in Sydney last month one read of Mrs. Blood’s attendance there when she “wore a gown of Guipure lace and salmon pink chiffon, which had be longed to Queen Emma of Samoa.” A bit mixed as to the late Mrs. Kolbe’s monarchial rights; but then, after a Naughty Nineties Ball anyone might be in a bit of a fog—even a social reporter!

Before the war Nip was, among other things, the star pitcher for the Admini stration baseball team in Rabaul. • ♦ ♦ MR. JACK HALLSTROM, son of E. J. returned at the beginning of the month on Malaita, bringing with him some alleged new species of birds of-paradise—for zoological purposes, not for millinery adornment (for the latter is still outside the law for some absurd reason, which is based on ornithological misinformation). I remember that when the Hagen-Sepik patrol, about ten years ago, reported the finding of a new species of BOP there was some controversy in ornithological circles as to whether its claims as a discovery were justified. In these days we are inclined to “discover” all sorts of phenomena in NG, only to find later that foreign scientists (usually with old German expeditions) had them classified 40 years ago. The late Lord Moyne, on his trip up the Sepik some years ago, “discovered” a race of pygmies—until a Catholic Father pointed out that he had contacted them years before. Jack Hallstrom mentions (or a reporter mentions for him) meeting up with “natives with Semitic features.”

That is certainly not an unusual hap pening in that portion of the highlands of NG. * * * TALKING over the matter of “dis coveries” in NG with old Bill, while he sipped his lemonade which Madge had carefully poured out, he told me of the time, some 30-odd years ago up in the Territory, when he thought he had found a new species of orchid. Proudly he sent it South and suggested it be named after himself. But he found that, strangely enough, it was already called

by his name —had been classified 20 years previously and named after a Governor of Fiji, where the orchid was first found.

Breaking fresh trails in NG is not so easy. It is surprising how often it is found that, at the end of an “unbroken trail,” there lies hidden in the under growth a rusty bulamakaiu tin tossed there by a trail-breaker years before. ♦ * ♦ MENTION last month of the disinter ment of the Chinese Nationalists in Rabaul (PIM page 8) recalls to mind the night before their execution when the Japs regaled the prisoners with a sumptuous feast of chicken and other delicacies, which were consumed in blissful ignorance of what the morrow held for them.

Incidentally, that well-known Chinese merchant, the late T. C. Wee, was amongst those to be executed, but, after digging his own grave, was peremptorily withdrawn from the condemned party and sent about his business. He did not escape the Grim Reaper, however, for he was reported to have been drowned while attempting to land in a canoe down the South Coast a few months later. ♦ * * BROTHER APPLEDORE, arriving in Sydney recently from the Kariru Mission, off the Aitape coast, New Guinea, recalled the time w'hen the Japs invaded the island of Kariru and took away 30 missionaries, including seven Sisters, by ship. Later, they were all thrown overboard and drowned. That was one of the many incidents which stick in one’s mind and make it diffi cult to kiss and be friends as General MacArthur has suggested. Perhaps his reason is more economic than ethic. ♦ * * BITS AND PIECES: After internment for three and a half years in Hong Kong during the War. Elizabeth Mosey, a one-time popular matron in Rabaul, has died in Ceylon. She smoothed many a fevered brow in the Namanula Hospital . . . Richard Russel Pugh has passed to his rest at the age (Continued next page)

of 59. Latterly he was general manager for the COR. Old Islanders will re member him best as the dapper, dash ing Collector of Customs at Tulagi . . .

Gerald McPhee from Djaul Island, was married to Margaret Murphy, of Dul wich Hill, on September 9 and sails in Bulolo this month for his island off the New Ireland coast . . . Mrs. Winifred Godson (her husband has a rubber plan ation in Papua) had her Elizabeth Bay flat burgled last month and lost property valued at a couple of thousand pounds.