Tropicalities
pp. 39-40 · Read in the full issue
Indonesian and Australian surveyors in May started on the final stages of the marking of the border between West New Guinea and Papua-New Guinea. Every step they take from now on will bring the two countries closer to the time when one of the real border problems will have to be faced.
That is, what happens to the New Guineans whose lands straddle the border?
-IE first stage of the border mark ing was completed last year, onesian and Australian teams :ted seven concrete cairns down northern half of the border as as the central ranges. In the t six months they will put eight -e markers down the southern half, ough these will be in aluminium, concrete, to lighten the transport blem. t has been agreed that the border follow the bulge of the Fly er, as at present, and also be ited in the centre of the mouth the Bensbach River, so there are problems there. The problems
Ng Border
Problems
Developing
will develop after the agreed positions are put on to the maps, for ratifica tion by both governments.
On the northern half, several villages straddle the border, and have so for many years—well into Dutch times. Some villages are clearly situated on one side of the border or the other, but their garden lands are on the opposite side. Other villagers who thought they were on the Indonesian side have found in recent years that they are really in Australian territory.
How will these difficulties be solved? Will there be resettlement?
Will there be enclaves? Since it is a safe bet that Australia will not tolerate enclaves, what follows when villages opt for the “wrong” side will be a sensitive social and political problem.
“Rule Britannia!”
Rotumans say
WAIT till the United Nations Committee of 24 hears about this!
On May 13, when the island of Rotuma celebrated the 86th an niversary of its cession to Great Britain, the island’s council sent a message to the Governor of Fiji, Sir Derek Jakeway, saying it wanted to stay British for ever —no matter what the UN Committee of 24 said.
Said the council: “We value so much the long and happy association we have had under the British Crown, We humbly request Your Excellency to accept and convey to
Her Majesty the deep loyalty and affection of Her Rotuman subjects, who humbly pray for Her Majesty]s continued rule and protection. It is the genuine desire of Her Rotuman people to remain British for all time no matter what the United Nations Committee of 24 says.”
Rotuma (population 5,795) is about 240 miles north-west of the main island of Fiji, and has been administered as part of the British Crown Colony of Fiji since being ceded to Britain on May 13, 1881.
The message from the island’s council to Fiji’s Governor is in direct contrast to a resolution adopted by
the United Nations General As sembly on December 14, 1960, which said; “The subjection of peoples to alien subjugation, domina tion or exploitation constitutes a denial of fundamental human rights, is contrary to the Charter of the United Nations and is an impedi ment to the promotion of world peace and co-operation.”
The resolution also stated that im mediate steps should be taken in all territories that were not completely independent “to transfer all powers to the peoples of those territories, without any conditions or reserva tions . . . to enable them to enjoy complete independence and free dom.”
Since the Assembly resolution was adopted, the UN Committee of 24 has constantly demanded that the few remaining colonial powers give independence to their colonial ter ritories.
Erromanga, where
ships go to pot
(] N the New Hebrides island of V Erromanga—south of the main island of Efate—there’s a busy hum of activity these days as a French company, Etablissements Rougier, prepares to exploit some of the is land’s extensive stands of timber.
Recently, work was completed on a new 800-metre airstrip at Ipota, on the east coast; and on April 21, one of Air Melanesia’s Drover aircraft landed there for the first time and so began a regular twice-weekly service.
Round about the same time, a mooring buoy was put down at one of the best anchorages at the island— Pot Narevin (not Port Narevin, please!), where Captain Cook an chored in the Resolution on August 4, 1774.
Pot Narevin is on the eastern side of the island. It lies in the south eastern part of Polenia Bay, and you enter it by sailing northwestward of Traitors Head. Captain Cook an chored there in 17 fathoms, brown sand, and about half a mile off shore.
Until the current activity over the timber project, this part of the New Hebrides was seldom visited. How ever, as it now seems likely to be in the news quite frequently, its about time we explained that Pot Narevin is Pot Narevin and not Port Narevin (a) because it is not a port, and (b) because the name comes from two native words—“pot” meaning “place”, and “narivin” meaning “sandy”.
Nearby Traitors Head, on the other hand, has been handed straight down to us by Capitain Cook. It com
memorates an affray that Cook had with the natives when he landed there to try to get food and water.
The natives were friendly until he got ashore. Then they let fly with clubs, darts, stones, bows and arrows, forcing him to order his men to fire.
And now a newsletter
from Ocean Island
WHEN social historians of the South Pacific look back on the second half of the 1960’s in the years to come, one thing that should strike them with the force of a cannonball is the proliferation of Islands literature.
In the past two or three years, the amount of literature produced within and about the Islands has probably been almost equal in quantity to all that produced in the preceding 15 years.
Learned bodies such as the Col lege of Guam and the Papua and New Guinea Society have begun producing their own journals (see p. 67); organisations such as the Papua-New Guinea Public Service Association have started producing theirs; Australia’s Department of Territories has started a regular newsletter; and roneoed newspapers have been sprouting all over the place or increasing their frequency of publication.
The newest of the Islands news papers to come our way is an ex cellent roneoed publication of 32 quarto pages from Ocean Island.
It is called the Paper Nautilus.
Ocean Island, Nauru’s nearest neighbour and a smaller version of it, is a phosphate island like Nauru, worked by the British Phosphate Commissioners (i.e. the British, Aus tralian and New Zealand Govern ments). Its native inhabitants now live on Rabi Island, Fiji.
The island is part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, but it is unlike any of the other islands in the colony in that whereas they are all either atolls or reef islands, Ocean Island is a solid lump of upthrust rock.
The editress of Ocean Island’s Paper Nautilus is Miss or Mrs. L. J.
Thwaites. Her paper is a useful and interesting mixture of overseas news, Melbourne football results, local sporting results, locally written poems, a children’s section, informa tion on local tides, arrivals and departures, book reviews, cinema programmes, and even what amounts to a magazine section.
The magazine section in the first issue to reach us (April) includes a
couple of informative articles ships that have come to grief Ocean Island’s reef, plus somethi we have never seen in any otl publication—the meanings of names of the Gilbert Islands.
The glossary was compiled by Sallai. So many people outside Oce Island would probably find it interest that we have taken 1 liberty of transcribing it here: Tarawa-divided by the sea Butaritari— smell of the sea.
Abaiang—island to the north.
Tabiteuea—kings forbidden.
Onotoa—taking part in everythir Nonouti—the person who nev sleeps can always provide evei thing.
Kuria—an object everyone war to snatch.
Abemama—island under moo light.
Aranuka—our centre.
Beru—a species of lizard.
Marakei— stone fishtrap.
Maiana—from below.
Nikunau—a broad land.
Tamana—his father.
Arorae—the most distant one.
Makin—(apparently no meaning Banaba (Ocean Island) Roc island.
The terrors of
Islands life
QNE of our youngest staff writer Y went off to inquire into the fact • i 1 / 6 on darkest Lord Howe Islan in May—and came back full of flesh creeping tales about monsters ths stalk in the night.
As the night of his arrival wa fairly warm, he left the door of hi guest house bedroom open to catcl the breeze, and fell into a deep slum ber after a long day.
In the eerie half-light of three ir the morning, he was awakened by tapping sound near his head; anc presently he could make out twc small, beady eyes sizing him up ic the darkness.
Thinking it was some jungle mon ster not yet recorded in the Pacific Islands Year Book, he let out whal he calls a blood-curdling yell, which brought a guest in a neighbouring room hurrying to his aid.
The harsh glare of the electric light revealed that the intruder was one of Lord Howe Island’s numerous pheasants. Apparently a believer in the old saying that the early bird catches the worm, the pheasant was simply looking for a meal.
Our man has since established that, although they stand about two feet high, Lord Howe’s pheasants are not man-eaters.