Another Native Messiah Goes To Gaol

Dealing with Cargo Colts in Melanesia

rHE fate of all “cargo cult” leaders in Melanesia —and there have been plenty of them Ince the war—seems to be the ame: gaol.

To gaol went the leaders of the Solomons’ Marching Rule, and ■ladang’s post-war native Big Noise, fall; and, more recently, the select ompany has been joined by Paliau, if the Admiralties, self-confessed onfidant of God and a six feet lunk of man who, according to one Australian journalist, has been riaking Manus missionaries appre lensive and Manus Administration fficials blanch.

The real facts of all these cargo ult manifestations are hard to get ecause officialdom, for some reason lard to understand, has refused to pen its mouth about them; they ome into the very hush-hush, top ecret group. But officialdom’s aethod of dealing with these /ould-be native dictatorships ollows the same pattern—they play : down, they won’t talk about it, hey try moral suasion, and psy hology—then they clap the cul irits into gaol.

In Paliau’s case he is in for adul ery (six months), which apparently > a penal offence under the native rdinances of the Territory. It is lid that he had five wives, although his in itself cannot be regarded as [legal—NG natives away from Mis ion influence have always had as nany wives as they can afford.

Jut part of Paliau’s doctrine was ree love.

Paliau apparently had been a tolice sergeant before the war; he pent the war years in New Britain nd came home to find the people n Baluan, his small home island, outh of Manus, ripe for some lationalistic caper of the kind he Levised.

Some believe that the seeds of ’arliauism were sown by the Ameri an negroes who served in the area luring the war and were treated like white men.”

This may be so, but there have teen cargo cults in the past with ut the benefit of American negroes; lor was New Guinea, before the var, devoid of non-Europeans of oloured skin who were treated as omething less than equal by the uling white “masters,” but as su >erior to the native masses.

PALIAU’S methods followed the usual cargo cult pattern: he promised his 3,000 followers, vhich he collected in no time at ill, the usual ships laden with cargo md that they should be free from European administration: he or :anised their daily lives; he collected taxes” from them and men were jiven instructions in drill and

marching and, so it is alleged, rifle practice.

He was supposed to have organ ised a canoe flotilla and a plan to sail into Larengau, the administra tion centre, and to capture it.

During the height of his power, officialdom gave him a free trio to Port Moresby to impress upon ‘him how unfitted the natives really were to rule themselves, but this seems to have had the opposite effect to what was intended, and Paliau came back with his reputation much en hanced.

Six months ago the Administra tion cracked down on him and he was given a term in the local cala boose*—for adultery!

He is, it is reported, a model prisoner but few Admiralty Islands residents believe that six months gaol has cured him of his aspira tions; when he comes out, which will be shortly, they expect that there will be fireworks.

One experienced missionary who regards the set-up seriously says that a foreign power would have

only to send a ship loaded with free gifts for the natives, to have them go over to them in a body. He says the natives are ripe for any simple ideology—including Com munism.

It is perhaps time to reflect that

although there has been a singular dearth of native leaders in Papua- New Guinea, those who do arise are fanatics or anti-European, and usually end in gaol. For compari son we can take these people’s cousins, the Fijians, where the people’s leaders have not only made British administration possible, but increasingly are carrying it out themselves.

A high administrative official on

Manus is reported to have said that his patrol officers are so tied up with filling in official forms and in other varieties of non-essential work that they can no longer get about among the people.

This is probably so—although the beneficial effect of official patrolling among the villages is well known to all Territorians.

Officialdom has tried psychology and pandering to these cult-follow

ers and giving them sufficient rop in which to strangle themselves—fe no avail. Experience now shoul show that the time to stamp out Cult is at its beginning; and that th counter to it is less form-filling fo the United Nations and more con tact with the outside villages working with them, giving thei] education, improved agriculture and a purpose in life.

If there is one thing that Ne\ Guinea natives can be expected t admire and to understand, it i practical performance on a larg< scale. And if there is one thing fo: which they have a contempt, it i a man, or an Administration, tha natters and does nothing.