Development

[?]Drial Comment

ents Which Led to This Development

> political development, while irtling for the residents of jw Caledonia, should not have mexpected. has been reported in this 1 from time to time over the ) years, the General Council has swung far round to the i policy, and in its practical ition. first development was almost sal suffrage—a vote being ed to all literate persons ctive of their colour, and the ion of literacy being very ndeed. , result, control of the Gen buncil was seized by people f not Red in politics, were ily very Pink. M. Lenormand, esent Deputy—who has held ost for some years—was re

garded as something of an ex tremist in politics.

With this set-up, the General Council gained an increasing amount of local government control, and inevitably came into conflict with the powerful bureaucrats of the French Colonial Office. The Gen eral Council, by every means in its power, resisted the tendency of Paris to establish highly-paid Ad ministrative officials in Noumea, at New Caledonia’s expense.

The o 1 d-established European families and commercial interests in New Caledonia did not like the new regime. To put it in a phrase, they thought that the General Council, under the new conditions, was too Socialistic in character.

LOI Cadre, apparently, is a new system designed to create a set of Administrative conditions, as between Paris and the various French Colonies, which will smooth away some of the post-war diffi culties which have developed, as in the case of New Caledonia.

Naturally, M. Lenormand and the ruling section in the General Coun cil of NC will oppose anything which is likely to disrupt the new political world which they have created in Noumea. But the report that all political parties there have dropped their differences, and have rallied behind M. Lenormand, sug gests that the Government of

Metropolitan France has gone a little too far in its plans for reform —as such Government always is likely to do.

Before World War 11. New Caledonia politically was far be hind modern trends. After the War, the political pendulum swung to the other extreme. Now Paris is hitting back.

A new situation probably will be established which will be somewhere between the two extremes, and therefore most suitable for New Caledonia.

Loi Cadre may be a little too drastic for New Caledonia; but a little wing-clipping, as applied to the General Council, might be a good thing.

If The High Commissioner of Western Samoa (Mr. G. R. Powles, CMG) and Mrs. Powles returned to Apia at the beginning of March. Mr. Powles had been on an official visit to Wellington, to discuss policy matters with the New Zealand Government, tl A popular official, Mr. Norman Saggers, Director of Broadcasting and of Station 2 AP, at Apia, left Western Samoa in February, at the completion of his term of office there. He went there as senior technician and, later, became Director of Broadcasting, in which capacity he greately improved the local broadcasts.

that a confrere brought it d him from France in 1950. Thee with it was: An atheist girl was discussin ligion with a Christian friendj walking in the country. She sa and fell and, falling, presses shutter of her camera. The ; nician who developed her film j her where she got that bes picture of Christ. . . She bees: Christian.

“It took me a long time t that picture—but it is no diffi because of that,” writes Bh Delabarre. “I wonder how different stories exist aboutf picture, in other countries.”

Oscar Nordman's

Sight Threatened

Our old friend Oscar Norr writing from Tahiti, in Januan ported that the sight of his ; eye is gone and that some olt disease now is attacking his lei; and there is danger of his his eyesight completely.

He is under skilled treat! however, and his friends haw lost hope that he will retain j eyesight. He is only 65.

Oscar Nordman is one of thee known men in the Polyn section of the South Pacific. HI for some years a steward and h on American passenger shipsa long ago he settled down i:i home island of Tahiti as a chandler and providore, anb enjoyed considerable success merchant. He is a friendly who has helped hundred;! travellers —especially yachtsmes sailors. Probably few peoph French Oceania receive a I personal mail than he —letters « to him from most countries o world.

The Curing of

Beche-de-mer

A reader in Apia, trying to out how to cure beche-de-men failing in inquiries in Hong and Japan, asked PIM to heie Sydney merchants thought ‘ of the old-timers might know.”' could not find a suitably info old-timer in Sydney.

Finally, we directed an inqui Mr. T. C. Roughley, the W former Director of Fisheries New South Wales. He came stir back with the following answ “They are boiled in an iron for 20 minutes. After half ah j when cool, they are split lengthways with a sharp knife! gutted. They are then usuall;! in the sun for a time to dry, must be dried.

“They are kept open by pegs

lenty of air and sun can get hen sufficiently dry, they are i. smokehouse is generally jular in shape, usually made vanised iron, and is fitted lie trays in the upper portion, he-de-mer are arranged on ays and a fire is lighted i." Smoke from the fire bakes she-de-mer. The wood most ;d for the fire is red man beche-de-mer are usually [ for about 24 hours. At i of that time they are hard rivelled. After that they are itly placed in the sun again e sure they are quite dry. hey are not quite dry they seep; but if they are quite ;y will last forever. Getting ry is the essential factor.”

! Education and

ive Papuans

n I look at the education of this country I cannot i what our future is to be,”

Fohn D. Wilkinson, of Sideia (near Samarai, Papua), ar as teacher standards go, ir in advance of its time, ir better to have a lot of get some education than a a lot. In time, all would )t. [ not mission-minded, but I edge that missions have i the natives to their pre mdard, with the exception few turned out in the last irs by the Administration which took over where the i left off. ■op in the price of copra save most of the native co es ripe for Communist s —some fellow-travellers of rowd are already in the co is a nice thought for one ! spent 25 years here! iend of mine was in the les pre-war. I think he was by the Japs—l have not om him since the war. But ‘ me and said he saw very ifference between Filipino ipuan, except that the had a lot of American >’ grafted onto him. ite of his being able to talk :e well, he was basically a nainly because he had ad too quickly to fully grasp A few well-educated ones art from the others, and 5 real rulers of the lower afraid that may happen the small mission primary ire shut down. As soon as gets a bit of education he pencil behind his ear and

lives, as much as possible, by the work of others. It takes a long time for him to get past this stage— some of them never do.” t There still are Japanese service men hiding in the Philippines.

Four were captured, still with their rifles, late last year. Others are believed to be still in the jungle on Lubang Island, 80 miles from Manila. t Between 700 and 800 people of Tonga’s population of 56,000 are suffering from tuberculosis—fewer than was generally believed. In 1955, five per cent, of all certified deaths in Tonga were due to TB.

In 1956, the figure was 12 per cent.