Missions And Native
p. 137 · Read in the full issue
Education
An Important Conference
Prom a Special Correspondent
P. Moresby, Nov. 10.
NE of the most important develop ments connected with the pro m of native education in the South :ific Islands took place on No nber 10, when there assembled e, at the invitation of the Admin ation, delegates from 26 Christian ssions operating in Papua and New inea. Matters relating to native ication took first place; but the iference also considered numerous er matters affecting contact be :en the activities of the Admin ation and the Missions. ’radically ever since the arrival of opeans in the Islands, 150 years , the Christian Missions have as led responsibility for native educa i and health; and the Govern its generally were content ta leave t that. It is only in the last 40 or years that the Governments have epted an increasing responsibility both the fields of education and licine; and thus there has been an •easing overlap as between Gov ment and Mission activities.
'his overlap has created sharp blems in education, because the vernments generally wish native cation to adhere to one system, jreas each of the many missions developed independently its own em of native education. This, of rse, has led to much argument, occasionally to bitterness.
THE need for co-ordination in the field of education has been emphasised in Papua-New Guinea— first, because among the H million of native population there, there are scores—perhaps hundreds—of separate languages; and, second, because the Administration itself, the Trusteeship Council which directs it, and the South Pacific Commission which advises it, have all in recent years developed a lively interest in the problems of native education, and the need for coordination of effort in relation thereto, and have turned scores of secular education experts loose upon its several problems.
The Acting Administrator, Mr.
D. M. Cleland, who is largely re sponsible for this Conference being called, opened the proceedings to-day, and discussed the problems before delegates in a frank and forthright way; and then he handed over the chairmanship to the Director of Education in Papua-New Guinea, Mr.
W. C. Groves.
In a statement expressing cordial goodwill towards the Missions, Ter ritories Minister Hasluck said that since the war Australia has given increasing financial aid to them— -1946-47, £.33,000; 1948-49, £l5O, 000; in 1951-52, the grants totalled £193,000, and the estimated grant for 1952-53 is £239,000.