Canberra

Commentary

From our Canberra Correspond'] The advance of Pidgin a expense of English in Papuaj Guinea is deplorable, Li back - bencher William W worth said in the Hous

Representatives.

Mr. Wentworth damned Pidj clumsy and inexact, lackirr literature, restricting in its con and separating the indigenous ] from the white population.

He urged a crash program! teach English as a living lan instead of being taught “as L; taught in Australian schools”.

Other proposals he put fc included incentive pay for government servants who qu in English as opposed to Pidgi a task force of retired people to P-NG to teach English i villages.

Territories Minister Paul H told Mr. Wentworth that, whi Government agreed with objectives, the fact was that could be mastered in a shor sufficiently to enable people tc municate on simple matters.

Another factor was the pers of the missions in perpe; Pidgin as a written as welll spoken language.

The natives themselves wan learn English and large grouj been known to leave a mission where teaching was in Pidgin in of one where it was in English The Minister accused Mr. worth of very much exaggerat:: picture by suggesting that Engli making no headway and that was. * * There may be a warning J South Pacific in the annual re; the Commonwealth Film Cense C. J. Campbell.

Deploring the ever-increasin.j towards violence in films, he; to the disturbing effect on the of young people, “who may wr the impression that crime, imrr and violence are the dc features of Western civilisatio He adds: “That impression ever more readily absorbed by

Lsia and Africa if the films are jited in those countries”, r. Campbell could easily have red his sights on islands nearer ;, where there has been some ism of film censorship recently p. 47). ie picture he drew after seeing i theatrical films and 9,173 TV was not a pretty one. Here i few of his comments: hemes dealing with the sordid of life are the basis of an ever ising proportion of films. Fewer ’ewer deal with the more whole and happier subjects.” any are so pre-occupied with nd violence that they are com v unsuitable for children . . . q no State are children legally j admission to adult films.” oducers exploit violence by ng in detail, and with great m, extreme brutality ac anied by a callous indifference t suffering of the victim.” . Campbell has made a point, one of the most compelling of ropaganda media is to portray xn civilisation as “Western” n, who is to be blamed if [ing peoples get a completely picture of the world beyond their shores?

H*. t of the biggest proportionate ,ses in Government spending this vill be on Territories Department

Sty.

5 vote will rise from £34,000 7,000, reflecting the swing away the pinch-penny attitudes which iriy marked this aspect of Gov :nt spending. nittedly, the fault probably lay with the Treasury than with 'erritories Department, but the to influence world opinion has strengthened the department’s t Assistant Secretary (Finance Economics), Mr. C. E. Reseigh, ie cat out of the bag at an ry by the Parliamentary Public Jnts Committee into the over ing of the Department’s publicity told the committee that Terri- Minister Paul Hasluck had £d the increased spending “in l ght of world circumstances”. other words, Australia has ened to the need for telling her 5 what she is doing in the Teri t the break-down of the figures 'Mr. Reseigh quoted suggests the biggest slice of the extra y is being spent on persuading a hans and the Territory people

A film and a booklet on the open ing of the re-constituted Legislative Council cost £12,000, and the printing and distributing of a speech which Mr. Hasluck made a year ago on Australian policy in the Territory cost £1,500.

Another £720 went on printing and distributing speeches made at the opening of the Legislative Council. * * sk Tear gas or bullets to quell rioting, excited mobs?

This thoughtful suggestion was put forward by a Country Party mem ber, Mr. David Drummond.

Tear gas bombs, if issued to native police, would disable without any

lasting ill-effects, and could be used in such situations as the recent riot ing between Tolai and mainlanders at Rabaul.

The Minister admitted that ways of controlling riotous mobs were under consideration, but said that he could not say for certain whether tear gas was one of the methods under examination.

But in Port Moresby the Admini strator, Sir Donald Cleland, dis missed the tear gas suggestion as impracticable.

He did not say why. * * * Papua-New Guinea showed up rather better than the Northern Terri

in two sets of education figures :h the Minister for Territories lied to the Deputy Opposition ler, Mr. Whitlam. the face of detailed questioning Mr. Whitlam, Mr, Hasluck had idmit that only one aboriginal 1 was at secondary school in the : the 540,000 indigenous children :hool age in P-NG, 2,987 were ving secondary or technical ation.

Iministration primary schools had primary pupils, subsidised on schools another 82,515 and bsidised mission schools 76,490. r. Hasluck put the number of pean, Asian and mixed races ren in P-NG at 4,000, of whom were receiving secondary educa in the Territory and another were being assisted with idary education in Australia. * * * e Minister for Territories hotly d in Parliament a newspaper t that his Department was sed to a proposal that Pacific is Regiment rankers should have ipportunity to qualify for com ans. nsultations between the Army territories Departments had been harmonious, and the Territories rtment’s attitude could be gauged he recent decision to enable ;s to rise to commissioned rank j Royal P-NG Constabulary, le Army announced nearly 12 lis ago that native soldiers would lined at the Officer Cadet School ictoria but nothing has been of the scheme since. A report e Melbourne Age claimed the iories Department was opposing love because it thought natives ft yet ready for commissioned I * * * t Minister poured cold water on Jgestion by Mr. Bandidt (CP, island) that a delegation of i members of the P-NG Legisla- Council should be invited to the Federal Parliament, ur endeavour is to make no ction between native and other bers of the council,” he said. * * * e Federal Treasurer, Mr. H. E. on the eve of departing for eas, had to listen to a few barbs the Opposition, who said they i he would return promptly this and not make any stops for fishing, as he did last year in Mr. Holt, who is a keen fisherman, said his main pur at Papeete had been to “look the matter of landing rights,”