Prig”

Writer Called “A Stiff-Collared Prig”

Letter to the Editor I HAVE read with interest your article “Still in the grip of the Planners,” which I am sure most people in the Territory will agree with. There is one thing though, where you are off the beaten track and that is in regard to your caustic criticism of Works and Housing workmen.

I have been a resident of Rabaul for the past three years and think I have seen more and know more of these Works and Housing hooligans you refer to than you do. For a man in your position, one would not expect to find such an outlook; and to say you are a. stiff collared prig is, in my opinion, little enough to call you.

I personally do not know you, but as one of these Works and Housing hooli gans you refer to I take umbrage at this statement of yours.

You are judging all by the actions of a few. You call these men uncouth hooli gans of the low wage-plug type. May I remind you, Sir, that it’s no disgrace for a man to be on a low wage. Many of these men in Works and Housing are good citizens, and I can say without fear of contradiction an asset to any community.

I am one of these low wage earners, being employed in Works and Housing in the humble capacity of a storeman, and that is why I take this stand against you.

I have mixed with these men both

during working hours and socially, and take this opportunity of saying from my own personal observations these men, generally speaking, conduct themselves in a manly fashion. They are law-abiding, courteous to the womenfolk, and conduct themselves as well as the next one in the clubs and places where beer is served.

It appears to me that you, Mr. Robson, look down on the fellow who dares to

soil his hands with honest toil, and place him on the lower strata of society. I would advise you to go amongst them, your outlook will be broadened. Remem ber, tough work breeds tough men, and these men building your roads and bridges are doing a darned good job in spite of blundering officialdom.

In my opinion, Sir, you are one of those snobbish “Befores” who frown on the

newcomer to the Territory and brand him a no-hoper and ne’er-do-well before he has a chance to prove himself. You may rant and rave, but you cannot retard progress; and, where a population moves in that has the greater percentage of males, you must expect things to be a little boisterous at times.

Therefore I say be fair, Mr. Robson, and do not judge the majority by the

few. Remember, in the pot of gold one always finds a pennyworth of dross.

I am, etc.,

P. A. Mackenzie, 8.E.M., J.P., F.R.E.S.

Rabaul, 7/12/50.

EDITORIAL NOTE—To which the writer of the articles replies: W & H workers were not criticised because they are manual toilers or receive low wages, but because a section of them (and by no means the majority) are “low-wage plug hooligans,” a type so debased in the social order that they lower the white man’s prestige in this tropical country by behaving and dressing in a slovenly manner and mixing on terms of equality with natives and half-castes who live as natives. The writer himself spent many of his youthful years as a manual worker.

He would be about the last man to look down on the honest toiler. The sugges tion that we sneer at W & H men in New Guinea on low wages is funny. Even the unskilled there are getting from £35 to £4O per fortnight, and are being messed for 16/6 per week. That is the burden of one of our bitterest complaints.

The majority of the W & H staff prob ably are all that Mr. MacKenzie claims them to be.

New additions to LMS staff in Papua are: Miss Margaret Woodland from Birmingham, UK; Miss Joan Phillips (Swansea.); and Miss Christina Macaulay (Glasgow).

Mr. Norman Nelson, head of the old established Sydney-Islands firm of Nelson and Robertson, Ltd., accompanied by Mrs. Nelson, left on the liner Himalaya this month on a leisurely visit to Britain and all Western European countries, in cluding Scandinavia. They plan to return, about October, on one of the Swedish freighters which carry a few passengers.