Territories Talk-Talk

By Tolala

CONGRATULATIONS to the re- J cipients of decorations for “erup on bravery”: the George Cross, six ißE’s five MBE’s, a George Medal id the BEM make an appreciative jsture for the nasty Lamington ffair in January, *5l.

A Tasmanian “bush wireless” tells ic that Administrator Murray’s visit > the Legislative Council in Hobart as for the purpose of studying pro cure. It may not be surprising, lerefore, to see a few changes in le Legislative Council at its next iceting.

Sydney papers are carrying tender ivertisements for 51 tons of native vist for spread delivery, wanted by le PNG Administration.

What is going to be the position f the Territories regarding the new nport restrictions? Can they be pplied to the Trusteeship portion? lo doubt there may be conflicting pinions on this. If the natives have ) consume their own “brus” it will e as bad as club wallahs having to hange from Scotch to Australian hisky—than which I can imagine othing worse.

It’s a pity that the Territory’s rain Trust, with all its available dentists, cannot produce a twist ibacco palatable to the native taste, hey’ll have to take a leaf out of the ite George Murray’s book, as re ited in the Quinine story (April IM, p. 89) and send some scouts 3 Virginia, or wherever the Yanks oncoct the ever-popular twist, and urloin the recipe. Time and again ttempts have been made in TNG to ansform the real good tobacco leaf ito twist, but without success. Terri- Drial economists would do well to ork out a solution and save dollars, ven as the Bulolo pine is saving ollars for Australia by replacing JS timber as storage battery separa 3rs.

New Guinea has always prided it slf on being outside the hurricane elt; but the Louisiade cyclone which id such damage in the Misima area n April 28 rather refutes that idea, nd will make those people who gurney abotft in sniall launches in >pen seas somewhat apprehensive. !ut then old-timers have been saying or the past thirty years: “The easons are changing.”

New targets of production have been set by the Commonwealth Government for PNG, and the aim in copra for the 1957-58 period, I notice, is 90,000 tons. That might sound a lot, but actually it is only 1.000 tons more than was produced in Papua and TNG 19 years before, or in the 1936-37 period. Papua then exported 13,000 tons and TNG 76.000 tons. They should be able to do better than that with all their

native co-operatives functioning and copra the price it is.

Still, if the price holds, 90,000 tons, at around £.90, is not to be sneezed at—providing, of course, the £A is not further depreciated.

Five years is a long time and, by then, we might be working in a United Nations currency, or the rou We, or the dollar—or even native shell money, To assist in this target a repre sentative of the Department of Terri tories has been admitted as a mem ber of the Australian Agricultural Council, which has previously con sisted of only State Ministers for

Agriculture and the Federal Ministe for Commerce and Agriculture.

I notice the targets do not includ< tea or rice, or even desiccated coco nut. Gold, oil and timber couh also have been mentioned. It is al part of a Five Year Plan (nothing t( do with Stalin’s) to add a mere £10( million to Australia’s export income NSW Minister for Education Hef fron is the latest anthropologist t< mount the soap box and tell peopk they should not segregate the colouret races. It occurred at the opening o a school at La Perouse, where botl European and aboriginal pupils wouk attend. Said he: “Some white peopk would desire that aborigine children and even aborigine adults, should b( segregated . . . The treatment ol aborigine people in Australia doe; not reflect credit on any of us. Som< people still refuse to accept abori gines as equal human beings.”

It has certainly taken the peopk of NSW a long, long time to moutl such expressions of sentiment, but ai the moment the Bill of Humar Rights, with criticism of the Soutl African Segregation policy appear; to be a popular item of interest.

To my (no doubt) somewhat simple mind it appears that had the Aus tralian Government been given it; own abos to look after under the League of Nations, or Trusteeship ol UNO, there would have been all the fuss in the world made about them —regardless of cost, But there is another aspect ol the whole question which seldom seems to be ventilated. Europeans talk of segregating the dark races— the sovereign and the servile. How do we know the dark races wish to be absorbed in our so-called Western civilisation?

I think we often kid ourselves that natives are breaking their necks to absorb our culture, our methods of government and our moral standards.

There may be some in NG who de sire to assimilate our way of life, and only too ready to absorb our moral standards, but I am prepared to say there are far more natives (and I am talking of NG) who prefer their own moral standards, but are pre pared to tolerate the Whiteman’s dominance for the sake of those material gains such as medical ser vices and varied foods.

As for natives absorbing the white man’s moral codes: to me, that is a retrogressive step, based on primitive native standards—and I do not refer to present day natives, who have assimilated Western morals and who (Continued on Page 109)

are continually being charged with rape and stealing in the Territories’ sea-ports. I refer to the old tribal customs—enforcing a stern regard for private property, whether it was the neighbour’s pig or wife, and where the penalty—in most cases death —was sufficiently severe to act as a deterent.

Those who have lived among pri mitive natives have come to respect their standards of morality as com pared with those of Western civilisa tion. I know of many an old-timer who would have no compunction in leaving his wife on an island with primitive natives, but would think twice about it if more civilised be ings were about.

The extent to which our civilisa tion has penetrated in PNG seems apparent in a Sydney press statement about Tommy Otari, “the only fuzzy wuzzy to box in Australia.” He was reported to be at the Sydney Show in a well-known boxing troupe. Is this the Government’s idea of education for the natives?

Bits and Pieces: Margaret Cilento bas been holding an art exhibition in Sydney recently. A bit too modern for my old-fashioned ideas, though it was well received ... A native welfare conference opened at Noumea under the SPC on April 28 . . • “Fortify New Guinea,” says US 3eneral Eichelberger. Billy Hughes was saying the same thing back in 1937.