Boys Will Be Boys,
pp. 29-31 · Read in the full issue
But What About Men?
IS it right that grown men, fathers of families, respected elders in their villages should be called “boys”?
This question—the sort of question that most Europeans in the Islands seldom bothered their heads about until recently—is posed in an article by the Rev. H. F. Peak in a booklet on the New Hebrides recently pub lished by the Australian Presbyterian Board of Missions.
Mr. Peak, a Presbyterian mis sionary in the New Hebrides, says it often happens in those islands that a white teenager will call a man, old enough to be his father, “boy”.
He goes on: “Even men and women who have the welfare of the people at heart do it. One lands at a beach and someone calls out, ‘Leave your bags; the boys will bring them up.’ Presently, two or three full grown men, often grey-headed, will follow you up with the heavy boxes and cases.”
Mr. Peak asks: Does it matter?
And immediately answers his own question by saying that if the name matters little, the attitude matters im mensely because “if we always re gard them in that way, we shall never know them for the men they really are”.
And he adds: “Surely world history of recent years should teach us that
Harry Spanner.
are foolish to underestimate the lities of any race of men.”
Vfr. Peak says he is continually pressed by the natural culture and dent wisdom of the so-called >ys” of the New Hebrides, and he )tes a couple of cases from his n experience to support this state nt.
Dne of these cases concerns the age of Mele where, until the elec i of a new chief recently, it was custom to hold huge wedding sts, which involved the slaughter many pigs and frequently landed young couples and their parents )0 in debt. ks a result, marriage was just too tly for some young men and men. But the new chief changed this by proclaiming that “a small • of tea” would have to suffice mark the occasion.
Such a decision was far-sighted I courageous,” Mr. Peak says, aw many Australian fathers dare their daughters: ‘Twenty-five inds has to cover the cost of your iding. You need every penny for r house!’?”