They Spend More On Beer

Britain’s “go slow” on education in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, first made known by statements in the colony’s House of Representatives May-June meeting, is provoking bitter criticism, not the least from local missions.

Briefly, the GEIC House was told current education expenditure $424,000 annually would be about as much as the GEIC could afford in future years. Also, government would not be playing a bigger part; education would remain mainly the burden of local Protestant and Roman Catholic Missions ( PIM, July, p. 31).

These hard words waren’t helped by a recent disclosure that the colony government spent $137,920 on primary education last year—s6,oBo less than the $144,000 spent by the colony on beer alone.

Education policy

The Rev. Brian E. Ranford, in charge of most of the Protestant operations, has had some terse words to say on education policy in the GEIC. He said his views were per sonal, and did not necessarily repre sent church or missions attitudes.

“Primary education may or may not be a sound economic investment, but it is needed as a fundamental human right,” he said.

Less than one-third of the GEIC’s children received a satisfactory education, and the government had concluded that the GEIC didn’t need a better primary education.

“What sort of society is to be built

which for its future leadership relies on only one-third of its population?

“The field for selection is small enough by any standards, the colony’s total population being just over 55,000, yet it is proposed that two

thirds of the potential administrators, doctors, teachers and other leaders should not even be allowed to enter the race.”

Mr. Ranford said what was needed was a government committment to provide trained teachers when local councils built suitable classrooms.

Universal primary education should be accepted as an ultimate objective.

Britain, he said, had a “moral responsibility” to guarantee the basic human rights of her subjects in a British colony. The total cost of the GEIC’s primary education budget would “hardly be missed” by the UK Treasury.

Henri Martinet Makes It

New Caledonian aviator Henri Martinet finally com pleted his Paris-Noumea marathon on August 17. An enthusiastic crowd waited at Magenta airport to greet Le Cagou, his single-engine Caudron Renault plane, as it arrived from Vila via Honiara and Santo. The 63-year old veteran was accompanied over his last leg by French co-pilot Rolland Denize, who had flown out from Paris at the end of June to help repair Le Cagou after a crash in the Celebes, Indonesia, in March. They are seen together here (M. Martinet left) with the plane at Honiara. Mrs. France Martinet, who was co-pilot as far as Singapore, plans to accompany her husband on the re turn flight to Paris, in two months’ time. The 28,000 mile flight via Australia is to commemorate Martinet’s original Noumea-Paris adventure in a single-engine plane 30 years ago.

Photo: A. G. Shearer.