Territories TALK” TALK

With Tolala

It is always nice to see due regard given to the Correctness of Things, especially in this slap-happy age when the “that’s good enough” policy is so prevalent.

r WAS glad, therefore, to read in I- the New Guinea Times-Courier if June 17 that the North Coast New Britain] Development Associa ion was showing some concern over he spelling of the name of the local entre there known as Keravat and vhich, according to the report, “is pelt with equal frequency” as Cerevat.

There is only one way to spell the lame, so far as I am aware, and that » Keravat, although at one time I idieve it was Kerawat; but never /ith two. “e’s”.

The changeover from “w” to “v” i native names generally throughout Jew Guinea occurred about 1911 /hen the German Government irought in a rule that all “w’s” in ative names should appear as “v”.

'he change naturally took time to nplement, and in many cases where he letter was the first one in a name, 10 change was made.

Why this thusness I do not know; t could have had something to do /ith interfering with the indices in he records.

Since World War II and the greater üblicity of native names in the *ress, incorrect spelling of proper ames has been most apparent and, nfortunately, no attempt seems to ave been made to standardise the pelling from an official angle.

This move from the NCDA, there ore, comes as a welcome augury of n awakening consciousness as to the Correctness of Things. May it be ome general throughout the Terri ary. And, what is more, may it have le support of the Administration.

L College Choir On Tour

The Jones Missionary College Choir rom near Rabaul is to make a tour f Australia in December. It is a eventh-day Adventist set-up and will ravel from Cairns to Melbourne.

The delightful choral reproductions f the Tolai people have long re lained in my memory. They have a atural harmony in their singing

which is a joy to hear. I always re member an occasion in the ’3o’s when the Administration staged a concert cum-native art exhibition in Rabaul when Tami, from Matupi Island, brought along a choir of his training and they rendered the Hallelujah Chorus.

With only a gramophone record as a guide, Tami had succeeded in training his choir to near-perfection.

If the SDA choir is up to that standard (and I expect it must be), then there is little doubt but that its tour in Australia will be successful —unless it is hampered too much by

IN BLACK AND WHITE: Of all the pictures we've seen of the recent tour of New Guinea by Australia's Governor-General, Lord De L'lsle, this is the one that most appealed to us. It was taken on the wharf at Rabaul by a Department of Information photographer. The names of the children were not vouchsafed to us.

ligiosity and only attracts a ctarian class of audience.

This would be a pity. Our par ;ular brand of sanctity is far too mbre and dirgelike, A good, live choir, without ctarian strings, would go over in ustralia —or anywhere—in a big ay and with a good public relations ficer could give good rousing, lique entertainment, showing a ofitable box office, always provid g the singers were allowed to re in normal Island attire and not rned out to imitate the stuffy Euro lan. . . . Good luck to the tour.

\Rly Issues Of "Rim"

Wanted

Came a letter t’other day from a iend who has, with much diligence, cceeded in collecting an almost mplete set of the Pacific Islands dnthly from 1930 to date. Eleven pies are missing: August, September, :tober, 1930; March, September, ovember, December, 1931; Sep mber, 1932, and March, April, May, >33.

He has numerous duplicates back 1931 to swap; but is naturally will g to pay for any issues to complete s file. Anyone who has any of the ►pies in question and is prepared to irt with them may address me, care PIM. Thanks.

Efamation

A report in a Sydney morning iper quotes the Vatican newspaper, sservatore Romano, in denouncing e topless swimsuit for women, “as return to the ‘bestial nudity of the vage.’ ”

This is somewhat surprising, com g from the foremost RC newspaper, hich is usually well-informed as to orld customs and cultures. 1 hope at the director of the Vatican iper, Ramondo Mazini, gets his ikies caned by some of his better formed co-religionists who come to personal contact with the avages” to whom he refers.

They, at least know only too well at there is nothing “bestial” in the idity displayed by the savages of ew Guinea, at any rate; neither is ere any sex motive.

Verbal Jungle"

Numerous meaty letters have jpeared from time to time in the [oresby Press from Missionary ircy Chatterton, MHA, but he cer inly deserves an orchid for his reed in the South Pacific Post of me 30 under the heading “Stand g Orders ‘Verbal Jungle.’ ”

In this he pointed out the cavalier

manner in which Standing Order were negated at the first session o the new House of Assembly.

Speaker Home Niall’s job is goin, to be no sinecure if he is to main tain a fair and equitable balance ii the House and that, presumably, wil be his aim as it is in every democrat! assembly.

Despite the rumours that emanate< from the Sogeri political kindergartei that Standing Orders were to be de gobbledegooked, nothing apparentl; was done about it.

Perhaps I am a bit dumb, but still fail to see why Standing Orders which were brushed aside to intro duce bills for the Government’s con venience and, apparently, passec through all stages at the one sitting should not have been suspended tc give Handabe, the member for Tari an opportunity to air his view; through his interpreter.

And why Motuan as one of tht “official languages”? Why not Tolai' I’ll lay a few odds that more people speak Tolai than Motuan, anc it would surprise me if there is one member in the House speaking Motuan who is unable to understand and speak either English or pidgin,

Uniform Packaging

Many features of the opening of P-NG’s first House of Assembly have been highlighted in the Press, local and in Australia, but there was one aspect, especially, which intrigued me and created a line of thought.

This was: The paternal Government adopting a uniform packaging policy for mem bers and putting them into the un comfortable confines of Western

Handabe, lari's "silent" Assembly member

;ss; divesting them of their free 1 unrestricted clothing to make of m tailor’s dummies in their light ollen suits. (By courtesy of the >ol Board, perhaps?).

Undoubtedly there would be a 'etiological reaction found in this far-seeing anthropologists in that ny of the people, accustomed to iring g-strings or lava-lavas, would ct better to Western guidance and iught if attired in Western raiment, 1 shorn of much of their natural nity. 3ne can easily realise the distract ; discomfort experienced by the re primitive members, accustomed unrestricted raiment, when address the House in their newly-donned b, every effort being made by them concentrate their mental faculties their speech and then at the same e to be suffering physically from -pinching shoes, chaffing under re or a too-tight shirt collar.

Government action, implementing h conformity, makes one wonder ether there is not some truth in a nphlet, recently published by the vancement League Inc., of South stralia, and written by T. G. H. ehlow, of the University of Ade ie, who was born at Hermanns ■g, Northern Territory, and was some years a patrol officer and puty Director of Native Affairs in Northern Territory. \ review of the pamphlet, “Assim :ion Problems: The Aboriginal ;wpoint” in The Bulletin of May says: ‘Strehlow comes out strongly

against assimiliation in his pamphlet, and surely he is right. An assimilia tion policy is the logical result of that supreme arrogance which leads us Europeans to think that not only is our way of life the best, but that civilisation is synonymous with Northern European standards. The issue is important for it seems that the average white Australian will not accept the aborigine until he is a white black man. Or maybe not until he is physically white?

“But make him a white man so

that his own customs and pas: are completely obliterated, and we. the white Australians, will be so much the poorer. It is not just handicrafts and material objects that enrich Aus tralian culture but the languages and different customs and values.”

That could apply equally to our thoughts and actions in P-NG. To us, no way of living is right except our way; there is only one standard of intelligence and that is our standard. How wrong can we be in our xenophobic thinking?

[?]Man Honoured: When Mr. A. J.

[?]tag, of Lae, was honoured by the [?]sen with the MBE recently, he was wered with congratulations from his [?]ny friends. For many years he has [?]n one of Lae's hardest working com [?]nity leaders. He has lived more than years in Papua-New Guinea and at time was mining at Edie Creek. PIM [?]k the photo the day his honour was announced.