They Did Not

Savee The Talk

The present Visiting Mission re minds me of an incident which occurred during a previous visit of UN dignitaries to NG, when some semi-progressed natives of a certain island asked the Mission for the right to consume alcoholic liquor; £5 a bag for copra on the beach; and the preservation of certain fishing rights.

Said the UN leader (a former official in British West Africa) : “My friends, I did not come here to talk of these trivial matters—they are for your local officials to adjust and I advise you to go to them. What I came to see is how you are de veloping your lands that the Good God gave you; how you live; how your health is and how you keep your villages. What do I find? Your lands are not being developed; you do not assist others to develop their holdings: your villages are decrepit, they are unsanitary, they are full of idle people. You depend on trade stores for meat in tins, flour in bags and tobacco in crates. Why do you not grow your own meat, fish in the sea, grow plenty of food crops in your fertile lands and keep your villages in proper order?

“I say to you that unless you after

your ways, develop your lands and show more enthusiasm, then the millions of land-hungry people to the north will descend upon you and take over your lands because you will have forfeited all moral

right to them in this overcro and hungry world.”

The natives looked at one am dumbfounded; “Master taIHJ ’long what-name ’ere? Me felloi savee this kind talk!”

Dale Collins death of Dale Collins, one of lia’s most prolific short-story , as well as full-scale author, to mind his first visit to 1 in an American millionaire’s Speejacks, back in the early ;s. craft was anchored off the arf at Easter-time and every town was on a long and wet r . I met Dale wandering aim ibout and introduced him to i NG Club where, in those they drank between drinks ,fe was uninhibited and joy iconfined. made a pub-crawl to Ah Ching King’s and the Rabaul where everything was wide rom dawn to midnight—and irds. is a bit of a shock to Dale, istanding his previous years i Inky Way in Melbourne. gave him some useful il for subsequent writings, sa Tracks of the Speejacks” a best-seller, later to be fol [ by “Ordeal,” which was suc y filmed. anger brother of his, Admiral in Collins, has recently been :ed Australia’s High Com er in New Zealand. Dale is have made more money than ler Australian writer of his id was a jovial, kindly soul

it Mariner

i_ n Conan Doyle (a son of the creator of Sherlock Holmes) ing an appeal for someone lowledge to guide him to the less-known Australian pos ; that lie off the beaten track Pacific,” and he mentions l and Kapingamarangi groups, the first-named is an Aus- Trust group, otherwise as the Feads, and more or ious for various reasons; but ter would presumably come JS Trusteeship, and is also as the Greenwich Islands. It aase of the Japs in pre-War the first to be bombed by ;raft.

Feads are of historical in- They were the site of the :e of several Europeans in d were also one of the most copra-bearing groups in the owned by Queen Emma, and ;h many unfinancial mem his staff were sent as tern managers from Ralum in hat their personal accounts i the red) could be adjusted iiting them with their per laries, plus copra commission, was, incidentally, a very attitude to adopt in order are the accounts of good who had made the error of Ing the amount of their r chits!

Tropic Productions

And the Budget At long last it seems that produc tion of tropical produce in P-NG for consump ion in Australia is re ceiving official approval. Recently (March 21) Minister Hasluck, in reply to a question in the House, pointed out, with emphasis, the ad vantages accruing to Australia from assisting in the supply from P-NG of tropical commodities.

The saving to Aus ralia in ex change, he said, would be approxi mately £500,000 on coffee alone.

What is a “European”?

The absence of legal interpreta tion of the term “European” has

been causing some speculation in P-NG judiciary circles since Chief Justice Sir Beaumont Phillips re fused to “visually decide” the status of a prosecutrix in a case.

The Germans had a simple method during their time. If a person of mixed blood lived as a European and, if a male, had served the re quired time in the German army or navy, then he/she was deemed to have European status.

Not so easy to follow that system now, perhaps, with so many natives adopting the European way of life.

In many ins ances our standards of living have deteriorated while those of the native have soared to lofty heights. (Over)

cation of Mossie read some of the recent self ;ory reports on the work which ig done to eradicate the wily lito in P-NG, one is almost in to think that no such previ ork has been undertaken by a iment department. first blitz —in the true sense word —was launched back in when Dr. Cilento (later Sir icl) was PMO in the TNG, ganised gangs made systematic to “kerosene” tanks of house s, and the larvae-eating fish • usia affinis) were placed in ignant pools of water within wnship. :ial gangs regularly and con ;ly inspected all public and 3 property destroying and col : any rubbish capable of hold iter.

Tom Brennan, who succeeded ), meticulously carried on with mpaign until there was a time ‘mossies” were practically un in the township. Prosecutions aunched, irrespective of per igainst those who disregarded :ulations and everyone became Lossie conscious. l a campaign in these days of ive labour costs in any P-NG would be an uphill job, lly (especially if, in future, is to be no “calaboose.”) And much doubt whether the same rative spirit still exists among fidents. There is far too much is isn’t my job, anyway! Why I worry?”

P-NG Investigations

Official promises are certainly something like eggs—to be broken.

The latest, coming from the newly appointed Federal Minister for

the Church of England, Rabaul, recently, Mr. Frank Dyer, manager of the Bougainville [?]s married to Miss May Fieldwood, of Liverpool, U.K. Our photograph shows (left to right), [?]ide; the groom; the Rev. A. V. Hatters; Miss Margo Edge (bridesmaid); and Mr. Len [?]estman).

Photo by C. H. Meen.

Works, for a “most through in vestigation of the operations of the Works Dept, in P-NG and the con sideration of i s transference to the Dept, of Territories,” will be awaited with interest.

In fact we can say with as much interest as the long-promised in quiry into Territorial Finances which was promised following the Auditor-General’s report some time ago, but of which nothing more has been published.

If, as suggested by the Minister, the Works Dept, may be transferred to the Territories Dept., it is certain that some red tape may be avoided, and if the modern economist were to consult his slide-rule he would undoubtedly find that every yard of red tape costs the tax-payer (in Australia) another few thousand quid.

As an alternative I would suggest that Dept, of Territories take over and call upon private enterprise for tenders to accomplish at least some of the outstanding works projects in the Territory.

To put it in a nutshell—the Public, or Tax-payers’, Works Dept, has a far greater over-head cost than a private enterprise contractor who has to bear his own loss, if any.

Surely the immediate post-war trend towards nationalisation of in dustry proved a farce, with the public the suckers who pay for the loss.

The Only Exception

The one venture, which is only semi-government, anyhow, which has proved a successful undertaking in P-NG is the Copra Marketing Board and this is due in the main to its capacity to short-circuit red tape and to the practical methods and strong personality of its chair man (Mr. lan McDonald). A recent conference in Rabaul, attended by Territories Secretary Lambert, agreed to the continuance of the present system of copra marketing, with minor amendments.

Let us hope that Ministes approval is obtained for the rett tion of this somewhat unique org? isation.

Finding the Loop-Holes

* A pat on the back is due to i ministration NL Officer C. Hole for having the intestinal fortitt to officially reveal a racket practr by new native employees in sic stepping their obligations to tl: employers; a racket which has bd known for sometime by employ

can do nothing about it until Ordinance is amended. e deaf ear turned to employers ;op-ranking officials regarding need for a more equitable re Labour Ordinance is notori- The fear that UN Members adversely criticise labour con is in NG has created such a •eyed attitude by the Adminis m towards employers that the lance has become practically rkable. It seems to have been Uen that the main legal re nent of a contract between two es —quite irrespective of colour— uity, and that is an ethical at -3 non-existent at present be i employer and employee. ;ives must be made to realise have responsibilities as well as eges.

. Knowledge

hes On

: installation of the automatic lones in Moresby, and the nem that the same type will Derating in Rabaul within 18 is reminds me that a few years ; War II a request was made itomatic telephones in Rabaul prove the service of the some mediocre “Hello Boys.” i official reply was that auto s were an impossible feature to the high humidity in that hnical knowledge certainly has iced insofar as radio and acro ss are concerned. At one time il was practically a “blind for radio reception; hence the Jerman station at Bitapaka. n 1923, when units of the US visited the port an attempt lade to launch a seaplane with iccess, owing (so it was stated) mospheric conditions unsuit to carburettors. Time and liques change.

ia Pigs

ison urally, there has been much sm of the “corrective institu replacing the old “calaboose” 0 me it seems but another iture and precipitate step in ig with the social life of a ;ivs people. them walk before they are to run. For the more primitive guilty of offences through customs and genuine ignor- Df European law, I would sug -1 system of “Instructive Cor n” instead of the “Corrective ution.” sophisticated native offender itled to the full penalty of the lulling no punches, t is the price everyone has to

or attaining knowledge. But

nkum cannibal, the immolator idows, head-hunter and entious adherent to tribal

customs, he is the one deserving of instructive correction for the first offence; a'ter which there should be no discriminatory treatment.

Bits and Pieces

The gold subsidy will be continued by the Federal government for an other three years as from July 1. . .

An old NG lad, Ken Nettleship, Jr., Third Officer of the BI Company, saved the lives of 4 men who were overcome by gas recently in Singa po r e and was commended for courage. . . Miss Susan Williams has announced her engagement to Mr.

Jan Snijders, of Rabaul. They will be married in May and live in

Rabaul. . . A son arrived on March 6 to Margot Grimes (she was a daughter of the late “Nobby” Clark, of Rabaul). The son is to be named after her father, Robert Leeuwin.

If Police Inspector John Wood mansey, chief of the Port Moresby Cl Branch, was recently on leave in Toowoomba, Queensland, in which State he served for nine years before entering the Territory Police Force. t New Caledonia was threatened by a cyclone in early March, but the depression moved off to the West and little damage was done.