Territories Talk-Talk
pp. 28-31 · Read in the full issue
By Tolala
The Forgotten Bainings
I see that Mr. John Stokie has a chip on his shoulder—and possibly quite justifiably concerning the lack of Government amenities in the Bainings area in New Britain.
He says that there were more facil ities during the Ward-Murray regime than there are to-day.
The poor old Bainings have always been like an unwanted child as far as the Administration was concerned; too near Rabaul for a separate establishment, and too far for adequate supervision with a de pleted staff. And yet it is one of the most prosperous areas in the Territory, with its closer settlement scheme which, when started by the Germans in the early 1900’s, was classed as a “peasant farming area!”
Over thirty years ago I remember a patrol station being established there near Nambung, and old-timer Bill Edwards (of PIR fame) was in charge.
Consistency in Standards
It would seem that the much vaunted higher living standards and amenities for the P-NG indigenes as planned by the Administration.’ are receiving a bit of a set-back,
if one can put any credence in the reports from “Up Yonder,” regard ing members of the PIR and itinerant native students.
Provision for the accommodation of both these sections of the P-NG natives seemed to have slipped a cog, which only goes to show that when theories are put into practice there is always the possibility of a slip in the machinery.
“PIR Treated like Pigs,” says one heading in the Moresby SP Post . and previously there was a strafe over native students en route from Australia not having appropriate accommodation to their newly acquired status. All of which, pre suming reports to be correct, show a lack of co-ordination within the Administration framework.
An Appropriate Title?
Port Moresby has a Scientific Society and from what I hear is not idle in adding a bit of culture to the general social and educational life of that capital.
There were a few raised eyebrows, however, last month when ii was announced that a talk would be given at the Society’s meeting en titled, “Termites of the Port Moresby Region.”
Happily, it turned out to be o all right. The speaker did not i to any white-anting by the hui species.
“Granny" on Pidgin
Column 8 in the SMH, as n turned in previous issues, shows an interest in Pidgin and a;, recently whether the idea of phonetic spelling adopted by Pii experts was to “make it look un-English as possible?”
Professor Hall replies to question in the affirmative, add ‘‘lf an accurate system of spell for Pidgin also helps to make language seem more distant fl English, that’s just so much grai I still maintain that spelling plain English would mean a she cut for the ultimate introduce of English when (and if) it repls Pidgin.
Kandy for Mrs. Jack Murray The wife of PMG’s ex-Admii trator, J. K. Murray, departed 1 month for Colombo, where she been appointed First Principal the Ceylon Agricultural College Women (as reported in April PII A few weeks before this announ ment the Sydney Bulletin rar long eulogistic article on “Mur On New Guinea” in a March isi (though it called him John wH
[name is Jack) and quoted him Baying: Australia must attempt to de jp such a dependent area as New [nea. There are some people who pose to develop it in such a way t when it is developed its best icultural lands will no longer me to the New Guinea people, lope that in fifty years’ time native people will still own their i country and will be running it I, perhaps still under our guid e.” me thing is pretty certain—if we i’t develop it without more de then it won’t be “under our iance.”
live Priests and Handcrafts
I there were a palm presented the best Publicity Officers each k, I would certainly award it to PO of the RC Mission about middle of last month for letting world know about the arrival Sydney of “Papuan Priests” for centenary of the Sacred Heart isionary Society at Kensington, Iney, and for the display of ive carvings, handcrafts and it-have-you at David Jones lery. tuly, the craftsmanship was, for most part from the Papuan side, the priests (Fathers •man Paivu and George Bata) both from Rabaul, so let credit given where credit is due. I met eral of these students for the jsthood while I was at Ramale, Dre the Aussies relieved us from Japs in ’45, and was astonished, no less gratified, at the know re of these educated New Britains well as a couple from Bougain ; shows what can be done with ive material—providing there is inner urge to attain knowledge.
Correction
List to keep the record straight, svant to correct a bit which teared in my last month’s “Talk k” about the female sun ■shipper who came out to join fiance. She didn’t die oh Dakon Island as I described, but jr a short sojourn there de ted for the flesh-pots of Rabaul, ;re she lived with a Government hal and his wife and eventually imed to the Fatherland where, all I know, she may still be e and hearty if she was lucky ugh to escape two wars. . . So ry. nting in the Breeze lention by an old-timer “Up ider,” who patriotically flies the Lon Jack at the masthead on his ntation, that this old-established tom is falling into disuse, and is n questioned by some as to the son for such a display of British rit, recalls the old German days.
Then every tin-pot trading station flew the red, white and black colours of Germany and meticulously dipped to every water-craft in pass ing. It was a friendly custom, and no one enjoyed it more than the “boy” whose job it was to ' look out 'long pilag ” A vessel’s approach was well and truly heralded by every one giving the old-time “Sailo-o-o!
On one occasion, when I was stay ing with the German Kiap at Kieta (in pre-War I days), a British schooner came into the harbour, passing the Residency with its Ger man colours flying from the tall, white flag-pole. The schooner courteously dipped its Red Ensign but the Kiap’s flag-boy must have been having a snooze-off somewhere.
There was no acknowledgment of the dip. Within seconds, and before the schooner had anchored, police boys reported the fact to the Kiap of “No down ’im pilag” and when the Aussies arrived to pay their duty call on the Kiap, they were invited to witness the offending “flag boy” receiving ten across the posterior, and no amount of plead ing on behalf of the visitors pre vented the punishment being meted out..
Whether the flying of the German colours so generally was due to the fact that the flag could be made by stitching together lengths of red. white and black trade calico (always on hand at every station) had any thing to do with it, I do not know.
Certainly in these days of high prices the cost of the Union Jack floating in the breeze every day would run into a few quid.
Forgotten Men
The shouting and the tumult of Anzac Day is just dying as I write, and there is the usual aftermath of criticism in letters to the Editors of the Daily Press. One scribe ex presses a thought which has often occurred to me. He refers to the members of the AN & MEF who preceded the Anzacs by seven months on entering War I, and won a victory by acquiring NG, and not a defeat as Gallipoli proved to be.
For some reason Australia’s con quest of German NG has always taken a back-seat when actually it was one of Australia’s outstanding naval and military performances, and the epic action of young Eric Pockley should have won him a VC in a more publicised incident.
The Bitapaka memorial, erected in memory of those who fell in the advance from Kabakaul, should be rated as one of Australia’s First Memorials—if not THE first. The idea of this memorial came origin ally from the agitation launched by the NG Automobile Club and sup ported by Administrator Tom Griffiths, in 1934.
Something should be done—per haps by the P-NG Historical Society —to put this memorial on the map and to bring into proper perspective
SoMp** Kabakaui * “ Anzac created Australia nation as speakers are always ing us on Anzac Day—them landing at Kabakaui created traha a protector of the peopll NG. A task it has consclentii F^£ rio f °ut—despite adverse c jsm from both the League Nations and the present UNO..
Grabbing Land
It is a strange thing that i
oS any Australians—pre;-
fn bl hi^ n^ Um who hold their hr n high terror at the suggestia development in P-NG. To them t always be the bogey of ploitation ’ just around the co< and p the fiend ‘‘Colonialist™ shape every time a private en countries. m “ ed
inSines Government department
surround their land polfcS wttl P6 u ai l ci re vations of which the Departmen Territories is now suffering.
The Department will not spf pretends it does not see—that the /nH ,?r ro ? aganda ’ launchec eSt K ri interest s ini attempt to sabotage the work the present Administration. man ’ writln g recently t ? yd^ y Paper asks: “After all, w did the goldmining exploiters of fiSicv. 1 5 Ve ! behlnd them when t finished cleaning up*? Whaf a did the wealth they P took™t dl the country?”
Thf answer obviously is: It put! a sel K f r su PPorting finar: basis and enabled thousands tcc spent on native health, welfare educatwn without calling .on Australian tax-payer to pay bd i’ which is not the case at present time.
Clothes and the Man
In the ABC news of May 2 cs mention of the “dress ref or adopted by the white male in P-I and some rather caustic critic; from Administrator Cleland * Councillor Whittaker on the ores vogue of men wearing only a n —and not even sh«j Natives are dressed better,” s Administrator Cleland. “and hj more dignity.”
I know of no other trcn country where the white man 6 cards so much clothing In pubj as well as self-respect and resp: fo .rhis ° wn ra ce—and gets aw with it. True, Aussies are the mr tolerant people in the world (as that is not an original saying* • was made by Judge Phillips' Rabaul many years ago) buttolerr ? I ?f.,. their fellow-countrymen * hibitmg themselves in pub II garbed only in a pair of shorts? carrying such an attribute a far in a native country. Here
Btralia it is bad enough where the hr is common (more’s the pity), jedally amongst hard-muscled, irv-chested he-men, who allow »ir flair for exhibitionism to run t; but in P-NG—no, it’s really not Q 6. or shouldn’t be. rhis semi-nudism commenced ■iously with the arrival of the iops in War 11. in Rabaul, at y rate. ’Twas a common enough ht to see a ; party of soldiers en
;ed on digging gun-emplacements
what-have-you in the Rabaul eets clad only in shorts and Dts, proud of the sun-tan they d acquired. It was frowned on locals. But there was a war ! ; don’t remember shorts ever be r worn in TNG. to any, extent icept for tennis perhaps) until ; mid thirties. :In the German ys no white man would venture t on the street unless he was aring an immaoulate white coat, ;h patrol collar, usually and often ;h only a singlet underneath, aring a topee and invariably Tying a walking stick, rhe dandies of the day-—Steve liteman was one favoured sore suits. Even I ssies carried oh this natty mode Rabaul, and Jerry Hogan—TNG’s own Law Officer, lost in the mtevideo Maru —insisted on •torial splendour in his office and Maunsell Turner, Phil Woodhill d Ivan Shoobridge, always went ■coated, be-t ope e d and be aked.
Vmongst Rabaul bachelors’ wash es (most often hailing from itupi and Nodup) there was ke.en airy for each to turn his master ; in the best starched white drill ts. A contest, naturally, en gaged by the masters. (I spppose is a lost art these days), rhe pendulum ha s certainly ung the full distance now. A iple who have no pride in dress i have little pride in anything all. That must, reflect, eventu y, to a country’s disadvantage.
>rd Gowrie Passes 1
rurn down an empty glass for very gallant gentleman.
Lprd Gowrie, VC, and one-time stralia’s G-G, has gone to a well rned rest. He made many friends TNG when he Visited Rabaul ,er the 1937 Eruption, and acted a welcome stimulant to a some lat jaded populace suffering from rves and volcanic ash-dust. He s more approachable than many reaucrats from Canberra who have ited the Territory. In his party ring that tour was a reporter for 5 “SMH," David McNicoll, the Ad nistrator’s son, who is now itor-in-chief of the Svdnev '“'Tele aph.” ts and Pieces Henry Annesley (“Joe”i Voysey, e-time of Papua and later of
Buka, has passed away and was cremated at the Northern Suburbs Crematorium on May 4. A good cove. . . . Bill Middleton, of Karkar Island and Bathurst, left in Bulolo this month—Spends Aussie winter in NG and then comes back to his Bathurst station in Aussie summer.
It’s forty-five years since he first went to Papua, then was an In spector for Exproboard for some years before taking up Karkar
plantations. . . . Diana Coote,
daughter of the late Phil (who was manager of BP, in Rabaul, when the kite went up), and Mrs. Rhoda Coote, of the North Coast, out of Rabaul, is engaged to Henry Martell, of Devon, England. Diana is over in England at present.