Magazine Section
pp. 51-52 · Read in the full issue
Territories ' Talk-Talk
By "Tolala"
AMISSIONARY and a retired Papuan Public Servant had a short argu ment in the Sydney Press recently over “Homes for Papuans.” Quoth the Missionary: “The Papuan is perfectly happy* in his house of bamboo floor, coconut or sago walls and thatched roof ...” The retired public servant retorted with, “This is equivalent to saying that neolithic man was perfectly happy in his cave and the Australian aboriginal in his bark lean-to . . . The native house is verminous, unhygienic and totally lack ing in the rudiments of comfort . . .”
Where the Missionary made an error was in saying that: “The Papuan is happy.” He was happy. And you can’t tell me that an iron roof and walls tend for greater comfort in the tropics, nor are they necessarily less verminous. It’s pride of ownership that appeals to the native mind —having something which the white man has: Like boots and a pair of trousers, although they are not at all comfortable, they appeal to primi tive vanity.
I have known many native chiefs who have prided themselves on their iron houses and European furniture; but they didn’t live in them. They preferred a well-built native house, which was cool and comfortable. I have experienced far more comfort in grass houses than I have in some of the small European edifices erected in various parts of the islands.
An iron roof may give you social status; it will, also, give you a lot of sleepless, sweaty nights. I have yet to be con vinced that our much-lauded civilisation is the answer to man’s “Happiness”— particularly in the tropics. * * * IT is good to hear that copra inspec tions are to be resumed in the Terri tory. Inspection lifts the local pro duce above the common-or-garden “South Seas” grade, much of which is of low quality. “Rabaul Hot Air” had a good reputation in European markets, and it is to be hoped that that standard will be reached again. The Ordinance will, of course, apply equally to native-produced copra, and inspectors will have to be on the alert for anything in the bags from sand to chunks of anchor chain, mixed with the copra, a little trick adopted by the more sophisticated sellers. And they are past-masters at top-dressing, as I know from many years of trading. Copra inspection will be an innovation for the Papuan portion of the Territory. ♦ * « THE “ambitious project” concerning hydro-electric power (PIM, Nov., p 7) is not, by any means, a new sug gestion. Back in 1920-21 Evan R. Stanley put forward a comprehensive scheme and bewailed the enormous amount of water power being wasted. Stanley, who was Papua’s geologist in those days, was a member of the Wattle scientific expedi tion which did some fine exploratory work throughout TNG in 1920-21. His report, which was included in the Terri tory’s first official Report to the League of Nation’s Permanent (sic) Mandate Commission, is full of good solid reading and information about the Territory’s re sources. In those days, however, TNG had no millions to spend on develop ment. Captain Jimmy Duncan was also
a member of the expedition. Stanley has gone to his Long Rest many years.
DEVELOPING the Territory’s resources reminds me of the latest turn of the wheel in the NG Timber busi ness: The government plan to form a joint enterprise with BGD to work the Bulolo timber stands, with government holding a majority of shares of the £750,000 capital. I seem to recollect an official statement, during the not-so-long-ago inquiry, to the effect that all timber leases in New Guinea would be disposed of only after public tenders had been called for the areas available. Or am I wrong? * * ♦ Managing-director of Placer Development, C. A. Banks, told the annual meeting in Vancouver last month that the devaluation of the Australian £ was of considerable benefit to BGD. He also mentioned that the yardage handled for the year was about 30 per cent, less than that estimated. One dredge had been abandoned, two would close down during the next three years, and another three in six years, leaving two with an estimated life of 13 years.
Which reminds me of the prognostica tions in the middle thirties that the life of the Morobe field would not be more than 15 years—at the most. ♦ ♦ ♦ WAR amongst the ants (PIM, Nov., p 74) recalls to mind the benefits which have long been derived by NG
planters from the old kurakum ant— Oecaphylla Smaragdina virescens, to give him his full name. It was especially use ful when palms had been infected with Promocotheca antiqua. The method was used by the Germans and, to assist Mr.
Kurakum in his duties of patrolling the fronds, palms were linked together by long strands of bush rope, with some times portions of fish attached to attract the ants. It’s a most economical method of controlling pests, for Mr. Ant doesn’t worry about the 40-hour week or rates of pay. Incidentally, Entomologist O’Connor was an old Territory identity before going over to Fiji. ♦ ♦ ♦ ONE cannot allow the sad death of the “Little Major’’ to pass without men tion being made of his untiring work, both in Rabaul and Wau, in con nection with the dramatic societies he so keenly fostered, and of the many plays he so successfully produced, often under great difficulties. Both towns owed a debt of gratitude to Major Ayris for many a pleasant evening’s entertainment.
It’s safe to say that a dramatic society would have been flourishing by now in Kokopo had things turned out other wise. Vale the Little Major! ♦ ♦ * THE colour question is becoming acute in South Africa, especially since Missionary Scott has taken up the cudgels on behalf of some of the SA natives, whom the Union wishes to ab
feorb and thus terminate the mandate trusteeship system. People are apt. to foirget the peculiar racial position of South Africa when criticising the whites’ determined pronouncements on the colour question. With the general trend towards universal race equality the SA whites recognise the danger of being a minority section in a country where there are four natives to every European, but are intent on maintaining their sovereignty, which has been theirs for the past three hunderd years, and maintained purely as a result of racial dominance. When a white minority in a black country loses that dominance the only thing to do is to pull up stakes and get out, as Britain did in India, as Netherlanders have done in NEI, and as the Australians will have to do in New Guinea when the Trustee ship target has been reached. The colour ratio in NG is about one white to every two hundred natives. The South African situation has much of interest to NG folk; to the older settlers, anyway, who know some of the difficulties attached to the task of a minority maintaining its sovereignty against big odds. * ♦ * BITS AND PIECES; The modest pea nut can be an expensive crop to grow under government supervision.
It recently cost Britain’s Overseas Food Corporation £23 million to produce some 2,000 tons of groundnuts . . . The juris diction of the UN Trusteeship Council has been extended to cover “dependent areas not expressly placed under trustee ship.’’ Such as Papua, for instance . . .
Declarations of contents must be attached to all goods sent either by letter or parcel post and addressed to the Gilbert and Ellice Islands . . . Brazil coffee crops this year are down 10 million bags.
Coffee prices in Australia are tipped to be shortly about 10 - a lb. Any coffee plantations going begging? . . . Miss Bonny Nash, formerly of Inverell, NSW, was married to Mr. Frederick Mason at Wesley Chapel, Sydney, on November 29.
They will live in Moresby . . . Old Rabaul Club members are being asked to submit their claims to J. I. Cromie, at PM, before March 31, 1950 . . . E. C.
Vider, a well-known islands skipper, has gone to his Long Rest. He died at a private hospital at Randwick, on Novem ber 22.
Mrs. G. Hofman, wife of a Lutheran missionary in the Madang Area, NG, and her children, recently received a scare while Mr. Hofman was away from his station, when two Japanese came to the door and inquired if the war were really over, and whether Japan had actually been defeated. Within the next three days eight more Japs were taken in to the Patrol Officer of that area. For the last few years they had lived about two days’ walk from the Mission Station un noticed.