The Tapini Affair

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The Tapini Affair In the Open

THE mysterious affair at Tapini, Papua (PIM, June, p. 138, and July, p. 24) has resolved itself into court proceedings against two iNative Affairs personnel and a native police corporal. ’ The two Europeans charged are District Officer Frederick David Anderson and Patrol Officer John William McGregor.

Anderson is charged with assault ing two natives and tying them to a flag-pole on August 24 last year: and of unlawfully confining one of them to Tapini gaol for six months from that day.

McGregor is charged with setting fire to a native house in January this year; and tying a native to a flag-pole in May last year.

The native policeman, Ataimbo Kakarosi, is charged with assault of several natives, one of them be ing a native named Siwoi.

Tapini is in the Goilala country (“a region of razorbacks”) and the natives there are notoriously dif ficult to control.

The two Europeans appeared briefly in the Port Moresby Court cf Petty Sessions on July 27; they remanded to August 5 and on that date, further remanded to August 19.

The hearing is expected to last several days. The defence (con ducted by Mr. Craig Kirk) claims that it has a complete answer to the charges and explanation of the circumstances.

The case against Ataimbo began in the Port Moresby Court of Petty Sessions on August 7. It was alleged that during an investigation into the murder of an old woman, the corporal had tied Siwoi to a stake in the ground, had beaten him with a rifle and set fire to him in an effort to make him confess to the crime. [ The reason for the desire of the Administration to muffle the Tapini affair in a cloak of official silence (June PIM, p. 138) is now easily Inderstood. . One way and another, the stars have not been propitious for the P-NG Administration in the last couple of months: drunken school coys sent home from Australia, a surprisingly frank report by the registrar of co-operatives (see else where) ; and Vaffaire Tapini.

All of them may be regarded as fcgitimate contingencies in running l large, primitive country like P-NG But so head-line making!

No one in UNO is going to like $ a bit.

t The French Government has acknowledged the long voluntary help of Dr. E. H. Bridgman, medical superintendent of Rotorua Hospital, New Zealand, to the leper colonies in Tahiti by making him a chevalier of the Legion of Honour.

Dr, Bridgman’s association with the lepers in French Oceania began in 1947, when he visited the leper colony of Orofara with a friend from Papeete. Dr. Bridgman was formerly medical superintendent of Levuka Hospital, Fiji.

t A long row of wooden posts, with a concrete pillar with a brass knob inset at each end, has been set up alongside the Lands Office in Nukualofa It has been set up to ensure the constant accuracy of measuring chains used in the Cadastral Survey. The distance be tween the centres of the two brass knobs is exactly 100 feet, measured by a scientifically checked and accurate steel tape,

Samoan

Nurses

At the graduation ceremony at Apia Hospital, Western Samoa, on July 18, a record number of 20 Samoan nurses received their graduation medals and certificates from the High Commissioner, Mr.

G. R. Powles. In this photo, Mr. Powles pre sents a certificate to one of the nurses.

Photo: Edwards Studio.