Territories TALK-TALK

With Tolala

It is a pretty safe guess to say that in this month of De cember, when Christmas-time is coming up, the majority of us become a bit sentimental and let our memories go back to other Christmases.

S the Territory of Papua-New . Guinea is becoming more Aus iianised than ever these days, with labour strikes, dissatisfaction in Public Service, the prevalence of se messy, sexy crimes, drunken s—you know what I mean, it is y to be expected that Christmas :s promotion has been launched the Territory’s urban areas, even in Australia. t is sad to see this festival com •cialised so greatly; but it is one those things we Squares have to ure, together with stretch-pants de-genderised females stalking the ets. attic wonder then that my mind r els back to the days when sales motion was less organised and quid was less pro quo than it is ly. At least it was wrapped up er. am thinking of those early istmases at Soraken, down in igainville—the headquarters of the >iseul Plantations Ltd. in 1913-14oraken really started Christmas on igainville for native labourers on itations. : also launched the fashion of ing hot tea and biscuits first thing the morning for many of the Hirers, and a few other amenities, oduced by that old scout, James ipbell, who was CPL’s first sral inspector. This was done i an “eye to casting bread upon waters” in the interest of re ting. And it paid off, he first Christmas sing-sing at iken was something to remember, re were sports, there were pigs, e were peculiar contests—strange ihese bush natives—such as sack :s, three-legged races, pillow-fights, isy poles, and there was a tug-of ugs-of-war were favourites, they sometimes ended in r tragedy. At this time at iken there were labourers from v Britain, New Ireland, Talasea various parts of Buka and gainville and at times, in blissful >rance, tugs-of-war were arranged

between tribes with long-standing feuds. The defeated team’s supporters invariably took it upon themselves to wreak vengeance on the victors; at other times tempers snapped with the ropes.

It was difficult at first to teach these primitives that the ethics of sport did not include the death of the vanquished. “Fun” wasn’t in their vocabulary.

The major domo of those early sing-sings was Stanley Annandale, an ex-BSIP Government official, who had previously been in Samoa. A true master of protocol, an English man and a cousin of the well-known British Lord Chancellor of the time, Lord Haldane, Annandale, in all his contest-adjudicating, seemed to get away with his verdicts to everyone’s satisfaction.

Those who benefited more than all from the Christmas sing-sings, were the recruiters for the early CPL plan tations.

There was Buckley in Rogeia, and then later there was Bill Slower in Actaea, who later became famous as a NG recruiter.

Thousands of lads eventually “made paper” or (if you prefer it) signed forms of indenture between themselves and Adam Forsyth, who was one of those nebulous Back Room Boys of Burns Philp, possibly chairman of CPL at the time. Labour indentures in those days were made between an individual official of a company and the native.

Much has been written about the “forced labour” of those early days of the century; of coercion, intimida tion and false representation, but boiled down (with very few ex ceptions) the iducement technique was little different to present-day methods adopted by the live-wire commercial houses in obtaining pur chasers of their wares.

The image of a recruiter too often is reflected from the days of the African slavers; even as the harsh overseer of labour is another Simon Le Gree.

The tactics of the slavers who aim to make a quick quid, get out and

never return have not existed in New Guinea since Tib’s Eve and those folk who have used them are as much hated by their own colour as by the native. For he is the reason of the enmity and revenge which have been dealt out to the innocents who follow in the wake of these quick quidders and have too often spelt bloody massacre.

Conditions have changed con siderably during the last decade where labourers are concerned: trade

The Peculiar Case Of The Canihfi

ons, native labour officers, escala i of wages, and the reduction of our forces generally, cannot visualise a plantation run g a line of “beetle monkeys”, nbering perhaps 50, in these days high wages. And what happens the pests: the larvae of the nchophorous ferrugineus, the lastid tribe and the leaf hispa %gatti brontispa? The good, old [RO looks after all those dis ;eable items on a plantation, pre lably. But what is going to pen when this wonderful inde dence becomes a fact? Will there be strikes and pay rises? do believe that many a lad is pier with a hibiscus stuck in his twanging away at a jews-harp, i togged up in an Hawaiian shirt, :ing at a guitar. I mean basically py; not bottle-happy.

If A Century Ago

is difficult to understand the reason for a recent co-ordinated rt by Sydney newspapers in drag ; out of the past—over half a ury ago—the “flogging” in Pro lation Square, Rabaul, of those mans for their treatment of ionary Cox. >meone, going through the effects j. A. V. Stanley, comes upon a ograph of an event in New lea’s World War I history, an it of which photographs were led. But banning a thing usually ns putting it under the counter sometimes it gets away, as in this , and the Sydney Press features nd becomes front page “news”, t extravagantly displayed and 5 one an entirely new concept ic value of newspaper space, id the recent publicity accomplish good for anybody? It tied up no current affair; an event half itury old was certainly not news; relations with Germany in no warranted such publicity; in fact raking over of old ashes is one he easiest means of rupturing 1 international relations. >or old G. A. V. Stanley will ably turn in his grave when he ses the publicity that has been ed by his “banned” photo, identally, when does a banned ograph become de-banned?) F all the Press comments on the lamation Square incident the one h appealed to me the most was in Gavin Souter’s “Data” column 'he Sydney Morning Herald.

“How strange,” he writes, “that the caning of a few Germans by the AN&MEF in New Guinea half a century ago should be causing a stir.”

And then he starts to play down the incident (as he should do) and opens up a bit of a barrage on other incidents about that time which were “nastier shocks”. 1 am not interested in retailing stories of those first years of Aus tralia’s occupation of German New Guinea. I was there, I heard of many an action, I saw several incidents which embarrassed us Australians as being compatriots of these power

drunk soldiers stumbling sadistically through the bush.

It would have been far more appro priate if the papers had lifted out of the past such incidents as that of Dr.

Brian Pockley, who gave up his Red Cross brassard to a temporary stretcher bearer carrying a wounded soldier, and was then himself killed; or mention of the deaths of Aus tralia’s first casualties in the First War along the Bitapaka Road. Even on anniversary dates these incidents which occurred during Australia’s initial action in World War I are seldom, if ever, mentioned. VCs have been given for less brave deeds than that of Brian Pockley’s, The point made in “Data” about

ling” instead of the common ise “flogging”, was a good one. oo often we start yelling out at “flogging” when young Johnny iven half a dozen strokes with a ; at school for some breach of ipline. It must be a latent com we have from the convict days at triangles and cat-o’-nine-tails. sly strokes with a cane are a ng; with a birch a birching and it-o’-nine-tails a flogging? Don’t get too extravagant in our uage! aning was a common means of itaining discipline in New Guinea he German time: And when I “maintaining” I do not mean “in ng” discipline. s most of us know, the old sians were stocklers for prestige discipline. That was the reason the government issued what was d a Disziplinar erlaubnis (Dis ne Permit) to approved civilian ters or employers of native urers who were then entitled to mister canings up to 10 strokes, set to keeping records of strokes i, reason, etc., etc. le real value of this permit was so much the fact that the holder tie permit was officially invested that authority, but the native urers knew it, and when the em sr threatened punishment the r e knew he could expect to re ! it if he disobeyed, iter, after the arrival of the Civil linistration in the early twenties, oral punishment was out for all ite individuals, and the native knew that, too. afortunately there were quite a cases of illegal punishments in d, many resented by the em se, and there’s where trouble le native did not know exactly e he was, and that is one of the >ns why old-time natives, dis larians themselves, remark in s days: “Time bilong German fella time belong before”. The Guinean likes to know where tands,

lee "When 'Floggings' Were

fhe Rule", p. 85.

The Commonwealth Department /orks has completed work on a airstrip for the Royal Australian Force at Kiunga, in Papua, le airstrip, near the Fly River only about 20 miles from the New Guinea border, is one of ain of airstrips being built for iAAF in western P-NG.