Territories Talk-Talk

By Tolala

FOR downright drivelling inanity, launched for political obstruction sm, give me the critics of Australia’s eport to UNO on New Guinea. Mos ow Radio charges us with not taking any steps whatever” to develop NG awards self-administration. The oviet representative wanted a com lete description of all lands alienated nd Irak (of all places) wanted to ilk about self-government for the atives.

How much war damage would the oviet have paid NG natives?

Belgium, France, Salvador and ussia were delegated to draft com ments and recommendations for the ouncil on Australia’s report. Cer inly a fine combination of colonial cperts.

A native in Madang has been •dered a caning as well as six onths gaol for an offence against a uropean girl. This is reported to be e first corporal punishment im )sed in the Behind Days, and no >ubt Russian Rep. Soldatov in New ork will raise a cry to high heaven, ut he can rest assured that when idge Phillips orders corporal punish ent it is well deserved.

By the time Soldatov hears about e caning it will probably have own to a “flogging” and transla rs should be careful to differentiate :tween the two modes of punish ent—that is, if there is such a mild sgree of punishment in Russia as ning.

The Moresby paper, SP Post irted a flutter in some of the rais in dove-cotes recently when it re rred to “umpteen varying brands religion among a small popula >n. . . and suggested the ad ►ability of “screening” missionaries.

The number of varying denomina >ns in the Territory, to me, has vays been a matter for regret owing the confusion caused in the native nd where these sects overlap and mpete for the saving of souls.

Sectarian bitterness has been res nsible, on more than one occasion, r criminal actions in the Terri y’s Courts.

Perhaps if a few disciples of the ophet Mahomet began propagating Jir particular creed (there is free tn of religion in the TNG) such ght tend to a more co-operative rit amongst the Christians, of

whom in the TNG alone there are at least eight different denominations.

I remember one case of 40 years ago in NG, when a native mission ary hanged himself as a result of inter-denominational strife.

He didn’t die, because I happened to cut him down in time. But it is remembered as an example of the

effect of religious confusion upon the native.

My eye caught a report of a mis sion pastqr being sentenced to two months with hard labour on a charge of theft. A native charged with a similar offence received two months in the boob without hard labour.

Mr. Soldatov, please note.

A suggestion was made recently in Moresby that native motor vehicle drivers should have their photos on their licenses. This was practised in

Rabaul Before with native cyclists ind proved a good idea. It ruled out rafficking in permits and was popular vith the local bike-riders—almost as ►opular as it was with the Chinese >hotographers who turned over a ;ood penny.

And so Kieta is again to be a lain port in the old German Solo ions, or Bougainville. And just let le here make mention of the many mes I’ve heard reference to Bou ainville being in the British Solomon ilands.

Geographically, of course, it has [ways been in the Solomons, but not alitically, and is one of the brightest jms in the old TNG’s crown. There ere more British interests in Bou linville during the German regime tan any other area in the German issessions. This was due to the :quisition by the BP Coy (CPL) of ich estates as Soraken, Bainu, Teo isino, Arigua and Konua. And this quisition was due to the German iap (Captain Doellinger) a very le type of colonial administrator, lere was a wharf there for inter and vessels back in 1912, and ieta is one of the finest harbours ong the coast, hence its selection r the Germans as the chief port.

So Bert Gaskin has said a farewell Rabaul. He should know his ibaul by now. In earlier days he is an officer of the Commonwealth adit Department there and later ik over the Cosmopolitan Hotel. post-war years he did much for 3 rehabilitation of the town and is a man whose influence will be ssed.

Chinese residents in NG are imouring for representation on the gislative Council and have gone so ’ as to demand it from the UN usteeshlp Council.

Chinese have come a long way in JG during the past 60 years when 5 Neu Guinea Compagnie first )ught them in as artisans and mtation labourers. Main reason the former class was the German ijudice to a white man performing menial labour such as carpen ing, tin-smithing and the like. A it not shared by the Australians en they took over the country in 14, which somewhat surprised the ives.

By the 1920’s most of the Chinese 1 taken over trading stations and ew small stores, which constituted matown in Rabaul and other out •ts. tn Rabaul there were a few major rchants like Akun and Ah Tam,

and there was the famous Ah Chee, hotel-keeper.

Chinese plantations were confined to the South New Ireland coast, but now have spread almost everywhere.

In the middle thirties a move was started to eliminate from Pidgin English the word “Kong Kong,” de signating a Chinese person, and since that time they have become more or less vocal. During the Jap occupa tion the known Kuomintang sup porters received short shrift, several of the leaders being summarily exe cuted. Where the sympathies of the present generation lie would be hard to say. Like most other minorities they suffer from a certain amount of

inferiority complex besides being purse-proud. Papua, anyway, has no such problem for they were never permitted to settle there.

Reports from Manila tell of a vol-» cano pushing itself out of the sea and rising, after several days, to a height of 500 ft. Rabaul’s Vulcan, in 1937, after about 12 hours built up to over 600 ft. It gave a living example of how volcanic hills are formed. Eight, years later it was covered in vege tation.

Missionaries in the Rooke Island Group, NG, according to a recent ABC broadcast, are looking for en-|

thusiasts to buy them heifers at £SO a pop. Any bidders? :: A correspondent wrote in recently saying that if the TNG had only become Australian territory when the League of Nations went phut it would have saved the Commonwealth a pot of money because it would not

have had to spend so much in wm dow-dressing for the UNO’s edifica tion and the natives would probably have been relegated to the same posi tion as the Australian abo, I don’t agree with this correspondent, although he has something with which to prove his case—judging by past experience.