Talk-Talk

territories

With Tolala

It might seem appropriate that a controversy regarding the \fores” and the “Behinds” should be waged between two ex wrs of “The Rabaul Times”.

thankful to Mr. Gus Smales ; his criticism (Editors’ Mail „ April) for I gather that mot denying the existence of nuance” (which he refers to “division”, whereas my jary tells me that it is “a Ee difference in or shade of ng, feeling, opinion, colour”) incere in a desire to eliminate tfference between the old and m residents of P-NG. many years now I have ■;d the lack of unity between "ious sections of the European Jtion in the Territory where =s decidedly more than a mere ne” between Administration, [;rce, planters, and mis ses; with more differences rwith intersectional jealousies

runco-operativeness between

iistration departments, busi concerns, individual planters iission denominations. ; these same differences exist Itralia and any other civilised ,y, as Mr. Smales points out. . . in my opinion sectional is more essential in a native jy where Europeans form a Ity group than in countries there are no racial problems, same “division” is by no peculiar to these days. I [ber becoming aware of it II first arrived in New Guinea in 1911; it became more meed during the Military ation in 1914 and even more Australians started replacing :id German residents: the • were envious of the status older residents and their in ;; with the natives; the latter ;; of their local knowledge ■;d after years of work. have continually suggested ii certain year forms a division n two sets of people”, then :ference has been made un ously and most certainly not he intention of fostering that iteness among the people, t I have done —and will con i.o do—is endeavour to counter s impression given consistently :iberra and Port Moresby that /e welfare policy was only fil ed as a post-War II measure ittle was accomplished by the Papuan or New Guinea istrations in the pre-war insofar as native health or lion were concerned. political reason for such ;anda is obvious. It is, how

ever, unfair to those Administration officials of the past who, working on a comparative shoe-string, did lay a very substantial foundation upon which more extensive edifices can now be built and, at the same time more or less satisfied the critics in the League of Nations.

From these remarks it may be assumed and correctly so —that, in my opinion, the controversial nuance is more pronounced amongst officials than the Man in the Street.

Had Rabaul officialdom given a lead for the observation of the local ceremony under discussion there could have been another story.

I will skip the natural sentimental reaction I experienced when I read of the poorly-attended ceremony to honour the memories of my many friends of long-standing whose loss was due, primarily, to official bungling, and admit that my pen may have run away with me.

But I put the question to Mr.

Smales: If nearly 300 principal citizens of Rabaul and environs today were herded together by an enemy, then lost at sea, together with some 800 troops who defended the town; what would his reaction be when a ceremony for their memory was so sparsely attended?

I hope he never has to contend with such a reality.

Educating New Guineans

There is much publicity anent the ques t i on of education in P-NG. We read inspired stories of what has been done and what will be done by our Administration and from what I can gather the target is to make the whole of the native people literate at the ex pense of the Australian taxpayer.

On the other hand, we read of the Dutch with a target to create an elite amongst the native people of NNG and then hand the whole business to them to “carry on”.

Surely this seems a logical solu tion. Or does it?

Do we hope to inoculate every school-aged New Guinean with our particular civilisation virus, whereas the Dutch are willing to allow the elite to perform this act?

The Dutch method appears the more practical, while ours is an attempt to play to the UNO gallery.

Surely it will be incumbent on the native administrators of New Guinea to have some responsibilities when, and if they are appointed.

Let them bear the expense, the tears and tribulation of total educa tion of their own citizens —if they so desire.

Modern Wat Tylers According to reports from Rabaul the old anti-tax question has again arisen amongst a group of Tolais in the Navunaram vicinity. Let’s hope, with the knowledge of past experience, there are no ‘'incidents”.

By this time officialdom should be aware of the Tolais’ natural tendency to become immolators for what they consider a just cause.

Goodness only knows how such reactionaries will fare when they are under their own native govern ment. I’m tipping they’ll receive short shrift and find themselves promptly clapped in the boob with out any beg pardons!

Tourists in "Paradise"

I read an interesting “plug” for tourism by PIM editor Stuart Inder in a recent Sydney Sunday newspaper, setting forth the potentialities of the South Pacific as a tourist venue for world travellers and, one assumes, in particular the folk from the USA who are generally accepted as being the best source of income.

Such an agitation is nothing new insofar as TNG is concerned. Only recently I turned up an old copy of The Rabaul Times in which appeared a leading article entitled “Telling the World”.

The date line was March 8, 1935, and I quote the ultimate paragraph, which was preceded by reference to past visitors from tourist vessels “who were amazed at the beauties of their visit and astounded that such scenic wonders should be kept so secret”.

Tourist money is new money; it it not the same old pound note changing hands continually be tween the local butcher, the baker and the ginger-pop maker. New money means development, ex pansion and progress. Do we want them, or do we not? If we do, then let us bestir ourselves and introduce Publicity and a Tourist Bureau in order to enable New Guinea to take its place in the sun and remove from beneath the “bushel” those attractions with which nature has so bountifully endowed us.

One of my favourite spots for a tourist centre is the island of Mioko in the the Duke of York Group: White coral sands, swaying palms, blue lagoons and the most marvellous under-sea coral beds.

Must we wait for some enter prising Yank to start such a venture? The day will come when many of these quiet back-waters will become top-line names amongst world-wide resorts. We need a few more Inders to tell the world about them. (Over)

ng No Punches— Wise? s pen of that stormy petrel oman, “Steve” Stephens, has [.inly lost none of its vigour he vacated the editorial chair Drt Moresby South Pacific Post „ April, p. 135), and his >cative article in the Sunday *r of April 3 is indubitably [Tht-creating, to say the least, iit is such a true picture of side of the coin and that, in , raises the question as to the »m, in this enlightened age, of > candid criticism and prophetic aarisons. [tnions on this point will doubt rvary; but to my mind the 9r lies not so much in the LI wording of the article as the oretations that may be placed the writer’s implications by jophisticated and semi-sophis >;d native readers in NG. must realise that to many >e P-NG indigenes newspapers no longer merely material for ■ng cigarettes; the inky icters now hold a mass of Ling to the educated native; i contain opinions hitherto un in to the native mind and are 3d on by the sophisticated, with [■ride of knowledge, to his un ited fellow countrymen and too unfortunately, in such process jansmission the true meanings [intimations of the writer are i.ated either intentionally or sently by the sophisticated ::r. :d therein lies the danger, in pinion, of such articles as the in the Sunday Mirror. They fan the flames of the very the writer is attempting to >guish. iirty years ago the position was •ent. But today with higher fttion, the natives’ knowledge of English, their access to ries stocked with modern books controversial subjects and theid in all its forms a major I topic, a certain discretion is :1 for by writers whose words *ead in multi-racial countries, fully appreciate how words and gs can, and have been, mis preted and purposely mis rued by mischievous sophis ms one has only to listen to rtories told in the native dialect I have done —of events otf ti I have had personal know e distortion of facts has been ilievable and the true picture cognisable. But there has, •iably, been present just that ilia of truth which has made re more dangerous and im ible to repudiate in entirety.

ng Malaria?

doubt about the Public Health ITtment having an ambitious ramme for P-NG. Its latest of spraying all buildings with

insecticide for the extermination of malarial mosquitoes certainly is a stupendous undertaking, and one which, I must admit, is a bit beyond

my comprehension.

The first concerted effort to eradicate malaria in Rabaul that I remember was in the early ’3o’s, when that funny-looking gambusia affinis was dropped into pools of stagnant water and a general clean-up campaign was inaugurated.

But malaria still existed. However, let’s hope it may receive its death blow soon and the Territory freed from this dire pest.

A Valuable Thesis

And talking of the P-NG medical services reminds me of a thesis I have been reading lately. It is the work of Dr. Jan J. Saave, who not so long ago was Regional MO, stationed at Rabaul, since trans ferred to Port Morseby for some more specialised work. ’Tis a massive collection of most valuable information on “Malignant Disease in Australian New Guinea”, (which is the title of the thesis), written for his Diploma in Public Health at the University of Edinburgh in 1958 and is a comprehensive survey of the whole medical set-up dealing with cancer in NG; its past history; the present methods of dealing with it and the future prospects of its control.

It is amply illustrated with coloured photographs of case histories and underlines the re search work carried out by Dr.

Clive Backhouse and the author amongst the Melanesian negroid community in more recent years.

The period of review of malignant diseases extends from 1879 to 1958.

It is, for those interested in this research work, a most informative document. It was received with enthusiasm and appreciation by the Wellcome Museum of Medical Science in London and the National Institute of Health authorities in Washington, USA.

From The Highlands

I have just perused the second issue of the Highlands Quarterly Bulletin. And it makes good read ing. I am glad to see published the Charter of the Association, first drawn up in July, 1956. It is really one of the best lines of policy I have ever read for a multi-racial country, and if anything tends to wards harmonious similation in this country it should bear happy results if its aims are adhered to.

And there’s no reason to believe that the principles enunciated then are not honoured now.

There is a good editorial on “The Security Issue” and in its ultimate paragraph offers the solution; New Guineans must be given the freedom of becoming Australians and New Guinea must become the Seventh State.

And, with UNO becoming less

popular every day, who is to say that this is an impossibility?

Another article, dealing with over-all conditions, and a welcome tranquiliser from an official pen, is that dealing with “Co-operation in Government. How private Enterprise Can Assist Us”, by Public Service Commissioner N.

Thompson.

All good reading and a pity its circulation does not reach out to carry its message to more readers.

A Welcome Note There came to hand recently a welcome note from Rolf Cambridge, now domiciled at Robinson River (Papua), but an old friend who once ruled the roost at Soraken, Bougainville. He refers to the two crowned palm at Medina (New Ireland) mentioned in the February PIM and writes; “In the middle twenties there was a triple-crowned palm from the one trunk on Lever’s Estate at Rua Vatu, Guadalcanal.

The native name of the property being Utuni. . . . There are few who remember Berande by the old name. I wonder if Jim Campbell and Phil Shelley’s ghosts ever come out in the moonlight; they could be in the form of puk-puks now, guarding the mouth of the Balasuna River? All these Solomons (native name for Guadalcanal) streams had a ‘guardian angel’ at the river mouth”. Rolf will be down on leave sometime this year.

The Changing Scene

Thus from an old planter, who claims he has seen the light: “I don’t want to own any more plantations, run another labour line, fill in any more quarterly returns, give another NAB injection or sign on or off any more boys for plantation work. It’s gone ... All gone. And I have no regrets. They can make their NLOs and abolish all penal causes and order the boys to nave tea and toast and enact that all boss boys shall wear bowler hats and carry gold-headed canes.

Not for mine, any more ... I do feel much relieved to be out of that part of it. Of late years it has rather “got me bloody goat” so to say. But the irresponsible, sullen, bush lawyers that were being drafted to plantations were tres difficile And it weareth a Christian down!

And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, With the epitaph drear: A fool lies here, Who tried to bustle the East!”

And so passes out a New Guinea planter who feels there is little security for the future for the individual man.