First South Pacific
pp. 27-29 · Read in the full issue
Conference
(Conclusion of Report of Con ference, which sat at Nasinu, Suva, Fiji, from April 25 until May 5, under the chairmanship of Sir Brian Free ston, Governor of Fiji.)
Importance of Fisheries
THE Conference, recognising the im portance of fisheries in the South Pacific area, both as a source of economic wealth and a means towards im proved food supply, placed on record its satisfaction that the work programme of the Commission’s Research Council al ready included the study of fishery methods in their many indigenous and commercial aspects. The following were recommended to the Council for atten tion:— Marketing possibilities, both within and without the South Pacific area.
The processing of fish by drying, salt ing, or smoking, also the preparation of fish meal and fish fertilisers.
The poisonous nature of certain species of fish in some areas.
The cultivation of fish in ponds.
The possibilities of a deep-sea fishing technique capable of use by the peoples of the area.
The Commission was recommended to publish a book illustrating the fish of the South Pacific area, using both scientific and local names.
The Conference learned with alarm that, in some parts of the South Pacific, fishery methods included the use of poisons and of explosives. Wherever pos sible, it was stated, such practices should be prohibited.
Vocational Training for Islanders
THE Conference submitted the follow ing recommendations: — It recognised the need for vocational training for the social and economic life of the people of the South Pacific, and learned with pleasure that the Research Council had already undertaken a study of existing facilities. When that study was completed it was hoped that suitable steps would be taken by each territory to provide further facilities for the vocational training of students in local, central, or overseas institutions.
An endeavour should be made to ar range for the higher specialised training of men and women, especially teachers, in one or more centres serving one or more groups of territories in the area.
The Commission was requested to pro vide information and assistance con cerning the introduction of mechanical knowledge and tools.
Australia and New Zealand should be requested to allow the South Pacific ter ritories to make full use of selected insti tutions of vocational and professional training in all necessary fields.
The member Governments should see that initiation into manual activities al ready existing in higher classes of primary schools should not be neglected.
The Commission should endeavour to secure agreement as regards the language to be used as the means of instruction in all centralised vocational training in stitutions.
Concluding Scenes
AT its penultimate session, the Con ference was addressed by members of the Research Council and by various official observers.
DR. H. G. MacMILLAN (Council mem ber for economic development): The Islanders were looking for markets for
their products: it was their intention td go to an outside world to ask for a partnership in its business. No matter what it may profess, the world and they would be ruled by economic necessity— that fatal king whose laws were not passed or repealed in legislative halls. The Commission had working plans, now separated into projects, intended to con
tribute for better conditions in new tropi cal crops, improved agriculture, more and desirable foods, growth of soil, the taking and handling of fish, and financial credit.
All were based, he declared, not on luck but upon design.
DR. BAAS BECKING (deputy chair man) : The resolutions passed by the Conference would strengthen the belief
of members of the council as to the value of certain projects already undertaken, and would, indeed, enlarge the scope of the latter.
“The council should, however, be more than a single recipient, or even a re sonating medium of the various demands put upon it,” he added. “If it listened to and obeyed every claim our programme would become a patchwork quilt instead of a homogeneous issue. We have to as similate the suggestions made to us in a plan. That plan should be more than the sum total of all the suggestions placed before us. It should embody a certain idea, or to use a dangerous word, it should embody an ideal.”
DR. MASSAL (Council member for Health): The emphasis placed on health by speakers indicated the importance with which they regarded that subject. He out lined various projects under way and they would demand close collaboration from all the parties concerned.
MR. H. E. MAUDE (Council member for Social Development): Considerable practical assistance had been obtained from the Conference, especially in rela tion to the village school, vocational training, and the co-operatives. One of the most remarkable developments in the Pacific in recent years had been the latter movement. As it had been impossible to obtain an expert on co-operative societies from within that area, it might be ne cessary to secure one from outside.
Several of the topics discussed, said Dr.
J. van Beusekom (Department of Trus teeship, United Nations Organisation) particularly mosquito control and, like wise economic and social activities, had been dealt with by his Organisation.
Dr. Harold J. Coolidge (Pacific Science Board of the US National Research Coun cil) referred to the Conference as his toric. “You have made a good beginning,” he said, “and I hope that science will in the course of years be able to solve some of your problems.”
Speaking on behalf of the missionary bodies, the Rev. Father L. A. Doherty
(educational secretary to the Catholic Missions) said he had been impressed by the delegates’ demands for the education of women and girls, a trend that he re garded as highly significant. There must also be progress in the spiritual sphere, he observed, and an advance in moral character, if the aims of the Commission were to be achieved. A combination of both spiritual and material objects would best serve the native peoples.