Letters

Memories Of The Gilberts

Sir, —In an article in PIM (May, p. 81) on Anton Meyer you refer to a Lucien Tom. The name should be Russian Tom. Tom told me he was born near Odessa and fought in the Crimean War. At the battle of Bala clava he fought against the English and was shot in the side of the abdomen with a copper bullet. The wound never healed, and when he became drunk, his stench was worse than a skunk’s.

Tom’s trading station was at the northern end of Tarawa, near Buariki.

The name Peter Grand you men tion should be Peter Grant. If my memory has not failed me, Peter with his wife (white woman) and two daughters, lived between Nuatibu and Taratai.

While writing about traders in Tarawa Lagoon, I might as well men tion all the others trading there at the beginning of this century. Francis J.

Lodge, a New Zealander, traded be tween Grant and Russian Tom. In 1906 he wrote to Mr. Deakin, the Prime Minister of Australia, saying that I refused to take his copra. He got a reply, of which I received a copy, telling him that if he brought his copra to the ship I could not re fuse to take it, provided the vessel had room. Lodge lived at a part of the island where the ship’s copra boats could only go at spring tide and as Lodge had no boat of his own he was in an awkward spot. How ever we settled our difficulties amic ably without having to resort to the old method of “pistols for two and coffee for one”. Then there was Anton Kawarra, a native of Trieste, an Austrian who could neither read nor write but had a marvellous memory. His station was near Aber kora.

Then came that fine old American skipper, Captain Kustell, whose right hand had been blown off by dynamite while fishing. I liked Kustell, for his word was always accepted. It was off Kustell’s station that Captain Handley, who was executed by the Japanese during the war, careened that beautiful schooner, the Louise J.

Kenny, but she did not rise again.

The next station south of Kustell’s was owned by On Chong and Co., of Sydney. It was near Buata but I forget the Chinaman’s name who traded there. Still travelling south, the next trader was that very nice

German Jew, Edward Meyer. His station was, as your article states, near Eita.

The next trading station was one owned by On Chong near Teaorereki.

The trader’s name was Ah Chew.

Poor Ah Chew died in the hospital at Betio. The hospital orderlies had been told not to let his wife near him while he was ill, without authority from the doctor. Mrs. Ah Chew managed to get into her husband’s sleeping quarters and it was said that Ah Chew died while performing matrimonial duties.

On Chong and Co.’s head office was in George Street. They owned shops in many parts of the country.

In the Gilbert Islands their head quarters were at Butaritari, where they had a very large store, and they had a wharf and stations at every island in the group except Abemama and its satellites, Aranuka and Kuria, Tamana and Arorae.

It used to be said that any of their New South Wales traders who could not pay his debts, was shipped to the Gilberts to work the debt off.

It is interesting to note that each vessel On Chong owned left its bones at Butaritari. The Fernmount, which they bought from the North Coast Company, sank at her moorings in the inner lagoon during the night of Christmas Eve, 1904, while under the command of Captain Menmuir.

The barque Loongana, which was built on the Derwent River in Tas mania and traded for years between Sydney and Butaritari, was lost at Butaritari. The SS Brunner, and the barquentine Alexa were wrecked there. (Captain Wynn, who is now a marine surveyor in Sydney, was master of the Alexa for four years and made some remarkably fast runs m her. He did one trip in 23 days.

He was not master of her when she was lost.) Mention was made in your article of Mr. J. Mitchell’s trip to the Gil berts. The passenger list that trip read as follows: January 5, 1899 Titus, 760 tons, Captain James Kuncie, sailed for Santa Cruz and u * „ and Ellice Elands with the following passengers Sisters Genevieve, Julienne, St. Pierre,

Valentine, Francaise, Apolline,

Clementine; Bishop Leray; Fathers

Raymond, Cochet, Troublanne, Quar-

2 er : ,X an T Hoogstraaten; Brothers Fusholler Eouis, Basil; Mr. and Mrs. . Mitchell; Mr. W. Johnstone; and :ight in the steerage.

The Titus returned to Sydney on £? rC u h i? 2 vJ 899 ’ with Mr - and Mrs.

Mitchell. The cargo consisted of 200 ons of copra and 2,000 lb of shark

fins. The Titus only made one more trip to the Gilberts. Mr. Mitchell only made the one trip. He shortly afterwards became manager at Thurs day Island, where he did wonderful business for Bums Philp, especially in pearl shell.

“Supercargo”

(Neville Chatfield) Killara, NSW.

Glen Wright's Samoa

Sir,—Mr. Glen Wright’s article about the Western Samoan universal suffrage vote (P/M, May) is un sympathetic and unperceptive. The former might be allowable, but your readers deserve more expertise and knowledge of local attitudes, customs and laws than Mr. Wright evidently possesses.

People in Western Samoa are worried about matters Mr. Wright should have mentioned. Will matais be able to maintain law and order at the village level with universal suffrage? Probably not. Would the present police force be able to take over their role? Certainly not. Would funds be available to enlarge the police force in the event of universal suffrage? Certainly not.

As Americans, both Mr. Wrighl and myself have doubtless beer brainwashed into thinking that oui system of democracy must surely hi best for all people, in all places, ai all times. I hope Mr. Wright ma) some day understand how absurd thi: notion is.

At least he should learn the fact! about the matai system. He claim: that matais have their pick of th« women both in and out of marriage Anyone who knows Samoa will spo the false ring of that statement. Du< to their position and authority, matai: must maintain the respect of thei people. In a Samoan village, when privacy and secrets do not exist hanky-panky quickly destroys tha respect.

Since the special sexual privileg of the matais is a myth, the com plaints of the taule’ale’a (untitlei men) must be a myth, too. And s< they are. My taule’ale’a friends wer vastly amused by Mr. Wright’s lad of knowledge. They pointed out tha the taule’ale’a are the ones who hav the fun in the moonlight under th bananas, and that when a man be comes a chief his days of playm around are over.

I am puzzled as to why Mr. Wrigt brought titillating matters into tha article, and also into the one m you

(Continued on p. 21)

June issue. For the latter, he was writing about Western Samoa, suddenly switched to American Samoa to inject a little sex into his journalism, and just as suddenly switched back to Western Samoa.

Does he have some sort of ecclesia stical bee in his bonnet?

What I find most troubling about both these articles is the lack of respect towards Samoa inherent in them. There seems to me to be a mockery there which, super-imposed upon an almost negligible attempt to understand Samoan attitudes, can only help make it difficult for Samoans and papalangis to under stand and trust each other.

I have just ended a year of journalism and anthropological studies in Western Samoa. During that time I lived about as closely with Samoans as a foreigner can.

When all is said and done, one cannot claim—explicitly or implicitly —that Samoans are dumb and dirty natives. They are a kind and good people. Their attempts to rule them selves in independence deserve a coverage more gentle and perceptive than Mr. Wright seems capable of producing.

Richard A. Goodman

Hotel Tahaka’a, Papeete.

Chatterton's "With-It-Ness"

Sir, —I would like to answer the letter of Mr. John Huon, firstly by voicing my great admiration and re spect for Mr. Percy Chatterton. In my six years in the territory (firstly as a volunteer worker and then as a member of the private enterprise sector) I have been increasingly im pressed by Mr. Chatterton’s humanity, understanding and vision towards this country and its people.

Far from “reflecting the psychology of the former LMS coastal pastor”

Mr. Chatterton’s column “To The Point” and his published statements in the Press show him to be a man of exceptional “with-it-ness” on to day’s “Niugini”, Naturally his electorate of Port Moresby and his great knowledge of the native people in the area are the subjects upon which he is most fre quently heard. However, he has proved himself upon numerous oc casions to be very aware of the problems of New Guinea and has very constructive and sensible ideas to alleviate many of them.

Mr. Huon’s letter, on the other hand, reflects an unfortunate and destructive regionalism combined with a thinly disguised contempt for the coastal population of Papua and possibly of New Guinea as well.

It is all very well to uphold the Highland population “who in 20 years have responded spectacularly to Euro pean influence”. These people have been singularly blessed in their short colonial experience with a very much more enlightened and beneficial system of administration than was the lot of the coastal population. The coastal people put up with a genera tion of bumbling paternalists who made little attempt to initiate economic development, however well meant their intentions.

They also have been fortunate, the Highlanders, in the productive poten tial of their land and the efficient example of the European planters.

The Niuginian kiaps will inevitably be recruited at first from coastal areas where educational facilities have been available longer, and it’s surely better for the sake of future understanding and unity that trained Papuan and New Guinean officers of all branches of the Administration work where they are needed without reference to the region of their origin.

Mr. Huon’s contention that “sophisticated native administrators are often more authoritarian and arrogant to their primitive brothers than former white officers” is doubtful to a degree in the light of modern training and ideals. Furthermore his example of the inequities of Liberia, a country that has been independent for over a century and has a rather unique history, is hardly a valid one.

What about Zambia and Tanzania where their respective presidents Kaunda and Nyrere are notable for their modest standards of living and their devotion to improving the living standards of their people—in Nyrere’s case, against almost insurmountable odds?

Mr. Huon mentions the hypo thetical example of the “indolent Sicilians running Italy”. As a student of the history of Sicily, I would say that the Sicilians are less indolent than oppressed and poverty stricken due to the indifference and neglect of their more fortunately situated northern fellow countrymen. Is Mr.

Huon recommending that this un fortunate and unfair system should be perpetrated in this country? As for Corsica, it produced Napoleon!

He cites an article in The New Guinea Quarterly of October, 1968, by a local writer as being anti- European. I read this article and considered the point of view of the writer to be that too much power is

wielded in primitive areas by young, inexperienced men of very often con temptuous and self-important outlook.

His criticism did not seem to me to be anti-European as such, and I believe that in many respects it was very accurate. I don’t think he was criticising the system of District Ad ministration in the territory as much as the amount of power wielded by its younger officers.

Agriculture is all very well and very important, too, Mr. Huon, but the urban scene of Papua-New Guinea is just as real. Home rule is probably not very far off for Papua- New Guinea, whether the people like it or not, and “racial polemics” and politics will be an ever increas ing reality. We can’t turn back the clock but we can hope and work for unity and racial harmony.

No one can fail to admire the pro gress and industry of the Highlanders or to sympathise with the problems they face in being superficially “less sophisticated” than their coastal brothers.

But let us not sneer at the coastal people and make unfavourable com parisons. They, like the Highlanders, are producing many fine young men and women who are worthy of our respect and faith that they can achieve success in the “white collar world”. This country needs them every bit as much as it needs the pro ductive planters and farmers and graziers. Let us wish them all success and let us hope for more leaders as fine and far-seeing as Mr. Chatterton.

Mrs. Penelope Bryning.

Lae, New Guinea,

Bar, Belly And Beach

Sir, —We are recent subscribers to PIM, having discovered your ex cellent magazine during our previous visits to Australia and Papua-New Guinea. We are now planning another trip for early 1970, and this time we hope to see something of areas we have missed, particularly the British Solomons and the New Hebrides.

I very much agree with US actor Victor lory’s views as stated in an article about him in July, 1968, PIM.

Mr. Jory pointed out that air fares in the South Seas are high. This is due to the large distances and, some times, to small passenger loads.

We always travel independently, using local services and facilities. We never use pre-paid US travel agents’ suggestions and tours and in that way we avoid the bar, belly and beach crowd who patronise only Hiltonised places.

Edwin L. Gustus

Chicago,

Usa