Mr. Wilberforce Cunt

On The Warpath

AN Anglican missionary, the Rev.

A. Clint, giving his testimony before a Convention of the Aus tralian Workers’ Union in Brisbane recently, said that Mau Mau type of terrorism could break out soon in Papua-New Guinea.

He said that the “minor, paltry methods of the whites and the ex ploitation of the native Papuans” had reached such a pitch that Aus tralia might find terror striking to the north of her shores. Further, the natives were finding their efforts to establish agricultural and trad ing co-operatives hampered at every turn; land that had belonged to their tribes for centuries was taken from them by the Crown and the white man’s laws were denying them the use of it. * * * We think we have heard of the Rev. Mr. Clint before. If we re member aright, he was for a short time stationed at Anglican Missions in the North-Eastern Division of Papua. More recently, he has been in the Bathurst district of NSW where he took it upon himself to make frequent utterances about the iniquity of the European in P-NG — particularly as it related to depriv ing the natives of land. He has been fighting actively against soldier settlement in P-NG, and other enterprises.

He now appears to be at the Lockhart River mission, up in northern Australia.

Mr. Clint is typical of a certain type of missionary who has emerged since the war, and who feels that not only is it incumbent upon him to convert the heathen to Christi anity, but also to stand between him and the evil machinations of all non-mission Europeans.

If P-NG ever develops any type of Mau-Mauism (and this is, of course, possible) a large proportion of the blame will be attributable to such men as Mr. Flint whose rabid sectionalism and misguided feeling of “dedication” has done more to stir up racial feeling and distrust be tween natives and Europeans and European institutions than any other factor.

The cry of exploitation from the theorists, trade-unionists and other reformers with an axe to grind, is old stuff now. It usually slides off the backs of wicked planters and traders with accustomed ease. But such utterances still make the head lines, and for this reason, we fancy, are used deliberately by missionaries who desire a little publicity for their own purposes.

Mr. Clint and his ilk, of course, go further than the castigation of “vested interests” in the Territory and impertinently accused the Ad ministration of falling down on the job of protecting the interests of

those people whom they are there to protect—the natives.

This deliberate rms-use of publicity for the sake of cheap sensational ism has done a great deal of harm to missions. If they continue to play politics in a country such as P-NG, it could lead to disaster for them, as well as for the Territory.

Hawaiian music fans—and there are many in the Islands—will learn with regret of the recent death of Sol K. Hoopi, one of the most popular exponents of this music. He was Hawaiian born; his full name was Sol K. Hoopi Kaaiai, but he dropped the final surname on com mencing professional performances in 1923. He died while in Seattle, USA, aged 48.