The Editor's Mailbag

No News from

the Home Front

A visitor to Hollandia from the Australian side of New Guinea sums up the newspaper situation there, thus: Netherlands New Guinea has no printed newspapers, such as the three that flourish on the Australian side of the New Guinea border. And not even in the reading room of the t’Rif, the luxury KLM Hotel at Biak, where one may read all the leading European newspapers and periodicals, only a few days old, can there be found one Australian, or Australian New Guinea, paper or magazine. . The place of newspapers in NNG is taken by several small cyclostyled of which the chief is • El T Hler Het Nieuws” (“And here News”) which is issued by the Office of Information and Radio Broadcasting at Hollandia.

It is issued daily, and consists of 3-sheets, stencilled back and front, so as to make 6-pages.

There are no Editorials or Leading Anicle; and according to some residents, the news is censored, or at least ‘slanted” in the direction tne Government. Apparently accepted Edltor are not r>7,?n-h al \ ?! wh J ch > no doubt , the Dutch could reply: How many Dutch [ an 9uage newspapers are read on the Australian side? “PIM” has a ™ V v NG o’ur bU LT.

The Wrights of

Quirindi and Nasese

G,nn! Nondugl flock in the New Dublipf<:prf lg v!. land ® P rovi des the most thPri i d sh u ep m the Pacific—but there have been plenty of other mosT o X f Per^ en v! S T the Isla nds, NonrJ„o-? f whl , ch > hke that at success^ 1 ’ Can Claim only indi fferent °was% ea g y P she^? ig b h r t “ 1908 Q and n i9l7 N ? W ’ T ho be^ween iyuo and 1917 sheared up to 1 900 shS a ra y n a on r ? Un H The centlv 1t e L^ r - . Wright wrote re shteD but tn n “L lr l to

to A**

he and his wife have' the fondes memories of them. It was Mrs Wright, who 60 years ago taugh him the words of a chant used tr Fijians of a certain family to bring a huge eel out of the mouth o a cave near Sigatoka.

He says: “The eel lived in th» stream of water which flowec directly out of the huge limestont cliff there, and was considerec sacred by the natives.

“When chanted to by certain Fijians, it would come forth and b« fed. After 40 years absence, I re turned to Fiji for a short visit las year and was told that the eel i; now no more.”

With his letter, Mr. Wright en closes another, written to his father then 83, by Mr. George (oi Georgius) Wright, of Nasese, in 1930, who was then 78. The lettei is full of Fiji news of the day; including an account of the manj concrete buildings going up in Suvai the roads that were being built, ano also of the new local flying-boai service. ~J T hi. s air service enjoyed a brie:: life—it was an offshoot of the successful Guinea Airways, of New Guinea. Unfortunately aii. services did not take in Fiji, a:> they did in the Territory, the first; venture soon folded up and Fiji had to wait for 20 years, and Harolo Gatty to provide the Colony with its first permanent service.

Memory Revived,

Friendship Rekindled

Another reference to the Wrightj family comes from Mr. C. J. El Brennan, of International Harvester company, Melbourne. He too was. caught up by the reference in May PIM, to Mrs. E. Wright and hex; sons. , T* 16 na me Maitey Wright rang s 5® 11 . and - he says, “I thought I would check up on him when next!

I went to Suva. . “ I . was there last month ana inquired whether Maitey Wright hao been wi t h the Australian forces in.

World War I because, if so, I mightr have known him, as a troop-matej of mine in the old 6th Light Horse; Regiment was a young fellow ole name, although I had noi from° ry aS t 0 where he had comei tv/toS c - ut the story short, I founebi Maitey in one of the Customs shedsi on Suva wharf and, sure enoughn ciL S ? y old fr iend. We hadn’t'. £ Oe P each °th er since the day w©\ sr^^! S6m P a i ked from the troopshioi Madras at Sydney on August 1 ? le t U P with Maitey imi fhnrt S? qo ugust 14 > 1958 > one dayn short of 39 years later.” (OverXi

Got an Unoccupied

Coral Reef Around?

A group of young New Zealanders is planning an underwater ex pedition “somewhere in the Pacific islands” for mid 1959, and is asking for information.

They would like to hear from anyone in the South Pacific about local underwater conditions in the months, May to September—such as clarity of water and abundance of marine life, etc. They would also like to know the cheapest means of transport thither, for four men and their equipment, compressor, aqualungs, underwater cameras and so forth.

They aim to make photographs and movies of marine life on coral reefs, collect specimens, and maybe write a book.

These four aspiring amateur frog men say their funds are limited— and they have already been warned that expeditions to the South Pacific Islands since the war have seen so numerous that no one is likely to work up much enthusiasm about them, no matter how worthy the cause. However, if anyone would like to help with advice, the ex pedition leader is K. E. Tarlton, 14 Hansons Lane, Upper Riccarton, Christchurch, NZ.

Bena Bena Incident—

Another Correction

I was one of the “eight who helped”, writes Mr. F. Rod Fowler, of the Public Health Department, Goroka, New Guinea Highlands— but asks if he can make a correc tion to something that appeared in August, PIM, p. 63, about the famous Bena Bena Incident.

Mr. Fowler is referring to the fact that in that August article, when listing the eight people who helped his party escape, Lt.-Colonel B. G. Dawson included Fowler— but referred to him as “the Rev.

Rod Fowler, SDA Missionary at Kainantu”.

Mr. Fowler protests that he has never been a mission pastor, nor pretended to be one. He explains how the mistake occurred: “At the time mentioned, I was a medical assistant, having been evacuated from Lae after the Japanese bombing. Eventually I found my way to Kainantu, on orders from Ted Taylor, who was OIC, Nadzab.

“I occupied the SDA mission house after the departure of my friend, Pastor A. J. Campbell. A trip was made to Madang for medical supplies and the Kainantu mission house was turned into an emergency hospital for Europeans.

No doubt the fact that I was run ning the mission house as a hospital, gave the impression that I was the missionary who normally belonged there.”

The unauthorised ordination of Mr, Fowler is as much PlM’s fault as that of Lt.-Colonel Dawson.

He has been in New Guinea, ANGAU and then Papua-New Guinea health services since 1941, and his name is well known to us.

Fiji Planters are

Not All Happy

Someone who is obviously a Very Unhappy Fiji Planter writes to take us to task for an item in Vakatawa’s column, page 55, August, PIM. (Vakatawa said that Fiji planters were lucky in having the local crushing mill, where they were paid promptly at prices higher than planters elsewhere in the Pacific were getting).

Our Very Unhappy Planter dis agrees entirely; it is “far from the truth”, he says. “Fiji copra planters have got to sell to Islands In dustries who weigh, grade and crush and can deduct anything from 6/- to 26/- per ton as fines for moisture content, etc. These happy planters you talk about have no redress”.

He goes on: “The town of Levuka is just about to close up and residents are petitioning the Gov ernment. What planters want in Fiji is buyers of copra, not one firm.

If only the old days would come back, with German firms in Levuka to buy copra. Then you could write about ‘Happy, Happy Fiji Planters’. ”

Alas, the good old days Unhappy Planter regrets are like all other good old days—they won’t ever be back.

Good Wishes for New

Planter at Maron

“I have received a long letter from a Mrs. Batt, who now resides at my old home, Wahlenburg, on Maron, in the Western Islands of New Guinea,” writes Mr. H. R.

Wahlen, of Hamburg.

“She was a German girl—Gisela Hanson, of Flensburg. She married a returned soldier, who was a planter in New Guinea. He now has bought some of my former plantations in that area and, from what she writes, I think they are brave, hardworking people, and I think that those plantations will make them rich.

“She likes Maron—she says she feels as if she is living in Paradise.”

That represents a further chap ter in the post-war story of the Batt couple—he, Bertram C. Batt, a former RAF officer, and she a girl straight out from Germany, They had few resources but he took over a couple of plantations near Kavieng and with industry and de termination, rehabilitated them.

Mr. Batt proved himself a suc cessful planter and Mrs. Batt was noted for her charm.