Territories Talk-Talk

By Tolala

Australians pride themselves in giving the other bloke ir go”. But this apparently does not extend to Australian papers whose judgment is influenced only by the sensation of any news item.

the dust-up occurred near ai, in the Southern High- Js, between police and local silling two natives, there id-lines in the Sydney Press jrtain type of Aussie reader •sting for the blood of the Die officer. e beginning of September DO, B. K. Leen, who was under Sec. 33 of the PS ce, was absolved and fully ,ed after a full inquiry into lent but, as far as the Syd ss was concerned, he was [er a cloud. coneration should have re ;he same publicity as the Dns levelled against him. de ourselves on being a or giving a “fair go”. Does gleet in maintaining our Dn indicate a lag in official ts by the PRO. Or what?

Fwycross

month I mentioned that Twycross, head “Sparks” of k in Rabaul pre-war, was at e in West Australia. Quite iwn to me, Jimmy had on to his well-earned rest le. It was only the other •eceived a clipping from a rspaper containing the news ed June 24. And so another pected and loved Old-Timer e from us. g the Thirties—Rabaul’s time —Jimmy was O/C AWA and did a fine job; public and energetic he was a e with all sections of the lity. After leaving TNG he pointed to the Inspectoral nd during the War was of radio communications e Department of Civil i in Perth.

Birds idise reference to the BOP trade New Guinea (Editors’ Mail pt., p. 29) is interesting. The >n talk” mentioned about ions being financed by those as only too true.

Most of the small holdings along the NG coast from Madang, north wards to Eitape (as it was spelt in those days), were kept going by BOP shooting, even as around New Britain and New Ireland the pioneer planters kept their accounts with the Big Firms sweetened by trade copra.

BOP snooting was declared illegal only when the Aussies came into the colony’s picture. Even dur ing the Military Occupation in 1916, the export duty on “portions or feathers of one bird” was £1 each; Crown Pigeons (Gaura) were 5/-, cassowary or emu feathers had an export rate of 12/6 per lb; and Heron feathers £25 a lb.

I don’t think any prohibition would have been placed on NG birds’ feathers had some of the members of the AN & MEF ( Aussie Occupation troops in German NG) been a trifle more circumspect in their gifts of plumes to their girl friends in Aussie.

It was somewhat incongruous in the years 1915-16 to see rather crummy-looking dames from the lower social brackets of Sydney sporting these rare plumes in their headgear at race meetings and such gatherings, much to the chagrin of the social lights from Potts Point, who were featherless.

Consequently the RSPCA (or some such allied organisation) got cracking and the rumour went round that the feathers were “plucked” from the female birds during their nesting period. This, of course, was all hooey, as the feathers and/or skins were taken mainly from the male birds. But Mrs. PP won out and the embargo went on.

I think there could easily be an open season for BOP shooting and no particular diminution of the birds would occur. But no politician (so far) has ever been game to make the suggestion.

As late as the Twenties Crown or Gaura Pigeons were allowed to be shot, providing they were re quired for urgent food supplies and Sot for export. And who would not want to have a meal off this meaty, tasty bird? I have never tested anything better in the bird-line.

Bonus For The Vernacular A small par., tucked away on page 55 of the September PIM, has made me very happy. It deals with granting a bonus to officers of the Cook Islands Administration “who learn to speak the local native dialect of Maori”, The bonus is £5O per annum.

Not so long ago I suggested a similar bonus being granted to P-NG field officers and some alterations being effected in order that an officer returns to his original dis trict after the 21 months’ leave and thus gain a thorough knowledge of a particular district and its dialect. The time will come (and not so far distant either) when the knowledge of a native language will be a MUST.

I was glad to notice that Chief Justice Mann, in his report on the Navunaram incident, made special mention of this need for govern ment officials to have such a know ledge if they want to have a thorough understanding of the native attitude.

The worthy Chief Justice gave the Rev. Wesley Lutton (chairman of the Methodist Mission) a pat on the back for his assistance in in terpreting the evidence at the In quiry. Said the Commissioner: “Two Tolai natives. . . . who have both received a considerable education in English, acted as interpreters, but from time to time they had to ask Mr. Lutton for assistance as to the meanings of words and gram matical usages in both languages and on every occasion Mr. Lutton was able to give them the guidance sought to their entire satisfaction.

Without his help it would have been extremely difficult to gain much real impression of what was going on in the minds of the natives.”

The Chief Justice then suggested that without “in any way comment ing on the long-range policies of the Administration,” he thought it would enormously strengthen the bond of confidence. ... if officers of sound judgment and experience could become really expert in some of the major native languages.

Just how much attention will be paid in Canberra by the self sufficient Bureaucrats to such a suggestion remains to be seen. But the need must be obvious if such a recommendation comes from a Chief Justice who has been in the Terri tory for only a comparative short time.

Dr. Hahl, the old German Gov ernor of the Colony, is still held m high esteem by the Tolais. His

popularity—to a great extent—stems

fmm the fact that he had a thorough knowledge of the Blanche Bay dialect, and encouraged this knowledge amongst his own officials.

r Book Wanted

myone in the House got a jpy of the book, The Making ern New Guinea, by J. W. M. r and S. W. Reed? They vo US research workers In y who did extensive field TNG during the ’3o’s. It is i obtain here, but there’s a that one of PIM s many might have a spare copy, offered.

id Gerald

l and New Guinea both hit ,d-lines in one of Sydney’s i weeklies recently. But the f the publicity I would say e classed as “dubious”.

Port Moresby appeared the »f a fear-stricken woman d her identity under the ’ “Joan Smith” because “She ;o back. . . She must not go ’marked woman.” She de her terrifying experiences its when her husband Is id “two black fists knock on •o at midnight outside my i and the native’s soft and t whisper, ‘Let me In, Sina et me in!’ ” lies there paralysed with ripping her .25 automatic, the “boy wire” at the will hold. She says that he arrived in Moresby five go “boy wire” had scarcely ;ard of. (That is certainly i! To my knowledge, boy iors and windows have been itory towns for just about 3.) outpourings from a nerve l female to a sensational- Press is decided dis-service Territory from whichever ou look at it. Natives will intending residents will be

ipprehensive—especially the

-and its ventilation, in this , can have no beneficial )ther pictorial NG sensation a youngster smoking cig “No cork-tips or filters for He likes to draw directly tobacco,” says a sub-title, here follows the amazing in on that Gerald has been * since he was 18 months old, sed to this habit by the local I] natives. j is a life-size picture of s face, dragging away at a nd, judging by this illustra seems a pity that this who “has been smoking for er of his life —and now he’s :en a day;” does not spend of his time cleaning his lails. childish precociousness and A indulgence are enough to ,nyone hesitate about setting a country that creates such g individual attributes.

That Welfare Office

i, . . .

My old friend Bill from up Rabaul-way (who, for certain obvious reasons, must remain anonymous), is a bit critical in his remarks concerning the article which appeared beneath the pen of our worthy Publisher who, as Bill puts it, “must have been led up the garden path to some extent by enthusiastic officials, who were probably suffering from a guilty conscience.”

Says Bill: “RWR saw the joint (Welfare Officer’s headquarters) a good few months after Ted Taylor had departed. The DC actually allotted him a part office, furnished with a table and a chair. The most elaborate furnishing was the ‘Welfare Officer’ sign outside, which was not particularly well appreciated by Ted, who said most of his time would be spent in the villages and his office work done at home.

A home, by-the-way which he obtained privately from a friend who was going on leave and to whom Ted paid rent.”

Bill describes Mr. Taylor’s visits to Tolai villages, which were made mostly in utility trucks hired from Chinese, and with no official trap pings such as Departmental of fflC „lTivt CC Se anying Wm OT 3 “ ne “The only typing,” said Bill, “was done by a friend of Ted’s typing out a draft of his report, and for this

reason his activities created an atmosphere of ‘hush-hush’. Te< was a self-contained unit. The ‘two modern desks and secretarial assis tance,’ mentioned by RWR, had nothing to do with Ted’s job and were probably put there after he left.”

And as for the ultimate result, Bill was a bit pessimistic. “Ted did an excellent job of getting inside the native mind and got to know just what made it tick and the reasons why they would not play ball with the Administration. What his report contained I would not know—Ted is too circumspect for that—but from yarns with him I gathered he thought there should be closer contact between the field officers and the villages, and not so much activity of the “Petrol Officers” (coves who cruise about in cars) and a greater use of the vernacular between field officers and the people to replace the pidgin.

“Well, time will tell”, concluded Bill, “but I don’t suppose they’ll do a bloody thing about it”.

Yes. Time will tell, and let’s hope "they” will do something about it before there are other “incidents”—or worse.

The Wau Show, New Guinea, will be held on December 13 this year, and a Show Ball has been organised for the previous night.