The Editor's Mailbag

On Hating Your Neighbours

Sir, —Last year I had occasion to comment on the ideas of Mr. Percy Chatterton, MHA, and I wish to re peat that I still sincerely esteem the former missionary, but less and less the politician. Mr. Chatterton in the House of Assembly as well as in his PIM “Footnotes”, shows a growing tendency to demagogy, mainly in spired by the special conditions of his coastal voters. In PIM October Mr. Chatterton is again insisting emotionally on the economic dif ferences between “local” people (he means Papuans) and the Europeans.

Apparently his Port Moresby friends “hate” white men for their expensive parties, houses, cars, etc. . . .

But during weekends it can be ob served in all the main towns that local drinkers, also, spend the equiva lent of many months of salaries, getting drunk in the pubs, or in wild parties in native compounds. Some times, they form a “pool” to get one man “high” in turn every Saturday.

Claims for higher wages and better accommodation are justified for local public servants and many native workers, but Mr. Chatterton should recognise, like myself, in the territory how often these wages are wasted in unnecessary purchases, and on playing “matches” (since cards are prohibited).

How did those poor starving Papuans manage, by the way, to afford up to $4,000 for some bride prices, an amount that would have paid for a nice car for the young couple, thus saving them from hating their white neighbours?

Like Mr. Chatterton I have only a small car, but I know at least two local men, one young enough to be my son, driving expensive Holdens.

Are they hated too by their Papuan brothers? For most of my life I have not owned a car, and probably like Mr. Chatterton, I never hated the drivers who passed my old bike in Europe, or passed me in territory towns, when I had to walk to work.

I had a personal friend in a senior local position, getting only $4O less than myself a month, in cash clear, considering that I have to pay super annuation, taxes, insurance, etc., but he was always broke, and complain ing of constant in-law bludgers in his home. He had also bought ex pensive furniture and hi-fi equipment (which personally I cannot afford), probably for social prestige but com

pletely unnecessary in furnished Ad ministration houses.

I know a local driver, earning $25 a fortnight, who spent $34 on a Polaroid camera, rapidly discarded, as films were found too expensive. 1 also heard about a student who lost a $6O watch. Did Mr. Chatterton ever possess a $6O watch? I know another student with an allowance of $l5 a fortnight who paid $l6 for a pair of shoes. In all my life, 1 never spent that sum on shoes!

Mr. Chatterton may claim to be fully integrated into the local popu lation. I am married to a New Guinean girl which couldn’t classify me among colonialists or racists. But because I like my “tambus”, I don’t like to lie to them and to maintain them in the illusion of a certain Para disea as soon as they will have taken over from the white man. My native wife, in travelling around the world with me, observed much more social injustices, slums, miseries, starvations, etc., than in Papua-New Guinea.

A last interesting note. Does Mr.

Chatterton know how much a full doctor is paid by the Administration in Indonesia? The equivalent of $lO a month. He is supposed to work for the government hospital until 2 p.m. and then work for his income in private practice. And on the other hand the generals have taken the place of former wealthy Dutchmen, owning cars that are bigger than that of Mr. Chatterton’s or mine. Is this a future Pagini Republic?

John Huon.

Goroka, New Guinea.

Oil Drilling

Sir,—To the east of New Guinea, in the southern regions of the Solomon Sea, lie a vast assemblage of coral reefs and atolls, which, biologically speaking, are part of one of the richest marine regions in the world. These may soon be threatened by exploitation and the dangers of oil exploration.

Because of possible contamination and pollution, oil drilling may have drastic effects in coral reef areas.

Unfortunately, there appears to be too little scientific information to either support or invalidate this claim. However, there is at present a Royal Commission investigating the problems of drilling on Australia’s own Great Barrier Reef, where all oil exploration has been suspended.

Meanwhile, Mr. Barnes, Australia’s

Minister for Territories, is calling for applications for permits to explore for oil in the reefs of the Trobriand Islands, the D’Entrecasteaux, the Lousiade Archipelago and Bougain ville. What’s the hurry?

Surely this is the utmost in irresponsibility when Mr. Barnes can permit oil exploration in an Aus tralian Territory before a report is made by the Royal Commission on

our own reef areas.

B. Goldman.

School of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney.

Fashion, Sex, Missionaries

Sir, —So the missionaries are getting kicked again, this time by the Aus tralian Broadcasting Commission. A recent news item from Australia, relayed over the Fiji broadcasting system, commented on the dislike of the mini-skirt by some of the Fijian chiefs. Then it added: “They want a return to the ankle-length skirts introduced by the missionaries a hundred years ago.”

A hundred years ago all European “ladies” wore ankle-length skirts.

Fijians had only to look at illustrated magazines to see what Sydney “society” thought was the last word.

A young man off a tourist ship recently burst into my office, his face pale with wrath. “You b— mis sionaries”, he shouted, without any introduction “I have been all morn ing in Suva and haven’t seen one woman with bare breasts”.

If Europeans could only get past their obsession with sex they would realise that it was not “the mis sionaries” who told Island women how to dress, in minis or out of them; it was Dame Fashion.

George A. F. Knight,

Principal.

The Pacific Theological College, Suva.

Whereabouts Of Ward Williams

Sir, —In September PIM (p. 127) Mr. William C. Huston, Chairman, Papua Philatelic Society (GB) is inquiring as to the whereabouts of Ward Williams and Stuart Campbell.

I was Assistant Resident Magistrate at Daru during the Archbold and Ward Williams’ expeditions and I knew all those concerned very well.

Ken Garden, of course, was killed during World War II whilst ferrying aircraft over England. I do not know what happened to Ward Williams but Stuart Campbell, now happily married, is in business in Thailand and can be got at P.O. Box 847 Bangkok, Thailand.

Claude Champion.

Dee Why, NSW 2099.