Commission

South Pacific

Headquarters: Anse Vata Noumea, New Caledonia

Special Social Development

Meeting in Fiji

ON January 16, a special meeting of the members of the Research Council in the field of social development will be held in Suva to consider reports on three projects in the fields of vocational training and social anthropology, carried out during 1950.

The meeting will be attended by Mr. H.

E. Maude (Executive Officer for Social Development) M. M. Grangie (Director of Education, New Caledonia), Dr. van Baal (of the Netherlands New Guinea Adminis tration), Mr. W. C. Groves (Director of Education, Papua-New Guinea). Mr. F.

J. H. Grattan (Secretary of Samoan Affairs, Apia), and Mr. Howard Hayden (Director of Education, Fiji).

Dr. H. G. MacMillan, Executive Officer for Economic Development, and Dr. Emil Massal, Executive Officer for Health, will also attend. Miss H. Shiels will act as Secretary.

Vocational Training The first report for consideration com prises a survey of the facilities for pro fessional and technical training in the South Pacific, and recommendations for further development of centralised train ing institutions for Islands peoples.

This project was carried out last year by Mr. R. A. Derrick, M.8.E., A.M.1.5.E., Supervisor of Technical Services, Fiji,

whose services were made available bv the Government of Fiji. J

- Social Anthropology

Two further reports deal with different sections of the Commission’s Project S 5 which comprises—“a review of research on social anthropology, with emphasis on what still needs to be done.” (a) Polynesian/Micronesian Section This survey was prepared by Dr F M. Keesing Senior Commissioner for the United States and well known authority on Polynesia (b) Papuan/Melanesian iSection * The report on this section was com pleted in November by Dr a P Elkin, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Sydney.

In addition to reviewing the extensive but previously unrelated documentation of research in the area, Dr. Elkin re visited Papua and New Guinea, including the little-known Central Highlands area to consult with Government Officers’ missionaries and others concerning present problems and research needs.

New Programmes to be Planned All three reports will be discussed fully at the Suva meeting. In the field of social anthropology, detailed proposals for a further research programme will be drafted on the basis of the recommenda tions contained by the two relevant reports.

These proposals, together with the re commendation for further development of centralised training institutions for

Islands peoples (contained in the Derrick Report on vocational training) will be considered at the Seventh Session of the Commission, to be held at Noumea on April 28.

Dr. Kerrest to visit Australia This month Dr. J. Kerrest, Research Assistant to Dr. Emil Massal, Executive Officer for Health, is visiting Australia for consultations at the School for Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Sydney

and at the Australian Institute of Anatomy at Canberra.

Dr. Kerrest will be in Canberra at the same time as Miss Sheila Malcolm, the nutritionist who has been carrying out investigations for the Commission in New Ireland, Rabaul and the Trobriands. With Dr. Hipsley, Director of the Institute of Anatomy, problems relating to the Research Council’s projdpts dealing with nutrition will be discussed.