The Editor's Mailbag
pp. 31-126 · Read in the full issue
Bad Fashion
Sir, —I am 15-years-old and a student. I’d like to have a little say about magazines.
The thing I want to say is, why do you draw or put pictures of girls who are half dressed on covers of magazines or inside them. It does not look nice to see girls in those kinds of dresses. It is not really a modest thing to do.
Many girls think it’s a very bad fashion putting women on the front covers of magazines without even being dressed in modest ways.
How do you feel when you put those silly things? If you want to do that well you can put nice pictures.
When educated people get those books they think it’s good for modern world, but when some uneducated people take them (e.g. look at pic tures, when they come across these sorts of pictures) what do you think they’ll say? They’ll say that the European people are showing us the bad habit. And also some of them say they come into our country just to have good times.
P.S.: If you think that I’m wrong please just write and tell me in your reply.
Cecilia Limo.
Our Lady of Mercy College, Yarapos (Wewak, NG.).
Sir, —I enclose my subscription.
This is an excellent publication, for which I thank you. But you spoil it with your picture of sex on the front page of January’s issue.
Sex is a good thing created by God for a definite purpose. Like all good things it has its proper time and place. The front page of your paper is neither the time nor the place. A good magazine does not need sex to sell it.
I renew my subscription now, but I shall hope to see decency respected in further copies, unless, of course, you prefer me to cancel it.
Thank you, and happy New Year.
Bro. Patrick, Sm.
St. Patrick’s Agricultural School, Mabiri, Bougainville, P-NG.
Sir, —As a photographer I find that the cover photo of your January issue is aesthetically disturbing. The com position is all wrong, and to anyone who has studied art, the cause is obvious. The bikini. It should be deleted.
Suva, Fiji.
Rob Wright, Snr.
Fruit Jugglers
Sir, —With reference to the PIM article, “Tonga’s Jugglers” (Jan., p. 69), the game of hico, or hiko to give it correct Tongan spelling, is still played very widely and expertly here.
My own secretary can very ade quately handle seven balls. Actually, oranges, lemons and passionfruit are most generally used. The game is seasonal and probably depends on the availability of the fruit. It is per formed by most young Tongan girls and at certain times of the year the craze sweeps through the villages.
I have never seen boys hiko —it seems to be confined to the ladies.
Maybe a worthy cause to be taken up by the Male Liberation Front!
Michael J. Birch.
Liahona High School, Nukualofa.
Samoan Politicking
Sir, —I refer to an article from your Apia correspondent in PIM (Jan., p. 27), “They are politicking in W. Samoa”.
I think this article is historically misleading. Your correspondent says that New Zealand “planned for Malietoa and the late Tupua Tama sese to be the Joint Heads of State and for Mata’afa to be Prime Min ister. It was an imposed solution”.
This, of course, is incorrect.
New Zealand advisers assisted the Samoan leaders to develop and form the structure of their independent government but the NZ advice, which in any case was certainly not an imposed solution, had no refer ence to particular personalities.
A few minutes study of the pro ceedings of the two constitutional conventions, or of the relevant meetings of the Legislative As sembly, from time to time, will dem onstrate this beyond doubt.
Thus it is also incorrect to say that the “New Zealand decision” had the effect of delaying a two-party system. New Zealand made no such decision. What happened was in full accord with the long-developed tra dition of the Samoan people. “Poli ticking”, to use your correspondent’s unfortunate word, has been an im portant part of the fa’a samoa since long before the arrival of the palagi.
When your correspondent says,
Continued on p. 123
“The key word these days is loyalty —loyalty to two individuals—and the two-party system is thus developing”, he is referring to a traditional fea ture of Samoan life, in which loyalty to individuals always has been an extremely important factor.
Incidentally, your correspondent starts his article by stating that the Samoan Parliament is moving to wards a “multiple party system” and finishes by stating that “the two party system is thus developing”. I think your correspondent should really consider again what he means by “a party system”.
All friends of Samoa wish the new government well, but the political situation will develop in true Samoan ways and will not fit readily labels applied by the palagi.
Guy Powles.
Wellington, NZ. • Sir Guy Powles is a former NZ High Commissioner in Western Samoa.
Correction: Senate Salaries
Sir, —The Duke of Edinburgh truly said last November or December that journalists and radio commentators could wreck the Commonwealth.
The latest local instance of journal istic irresponsibility is that of your Suva correspondent in the PIM article, “The High Cost of Fiji Indepen dence” (Jan., p. 27).
The committee appointed “to review the emoluments for members of the Fiji Senate” was not a com mittee of the Senate, as the article wrongly states. For the record its members were Mr. Alex E. Muir, MBE (elected as chairman), Dr. A.
Ali Asgar, and MLCs K. C. Ram rakha, C. A. Shah, W. B. Toganivalu and R. H. Yarrow, with Mrs. L. B. Ah Koy as secretary. No member of the Senate was on the committee.
R. L. Munro,
President of the Senate.
Suva, Fiji. • PI M’s report was wrong. We apologise to the senators and we send our compliments to the Duke of Edinburgh.
Sechstroh River
Sir, —I have an enquiry about a river and an island in New Guinea, and though I am one of the Befores, a resident of that area for over 30 years, I am unable to answer the question, and I am hopeful that you might be willing to insert an enquiry in PIM seeking some information.
My questioner lives in Bremerhaven, in Germany, and is a member of the Papuan Philatelic Society, of which I am one of the foundation members.
I quote the relevant portion of his letter.
“Professor Finsch undertook a re search trip with the schooner Samoa along the north and east coasts of New Guinea in 1884. The first mate of the crew was a Mr. Sechstroh of Bremerhaven. The Sechstroh River and Sechstroh Island were named in his honour. Is it known what names the river and the island have today?
It would be most interesting for me a citizen of Bremerhaven and a collector of TP&NG stamps to find the answer to the question. —B.
Marquardt.
(Rev.) A. H. Voyce.
Postal History Society of New Zealand, Inc., 17 Prospect Terrace, Milford, Auckland 9.
"Snark" In Ha'apai
Sir, —Russ Kingman’s article in PIM (Jan., p. 71), unfortunately does not solve the riddle of the where abouts at present of Jack London’s yacht Snark, and the following in formation will help to end their fruit less search for this vessel.
I joined BP (South Sea) Co. Ltd, Sydney, in late 1922, just after the South Sea company was formed, Mr.
Warwick Black offered me a position in Ha’apai, Tonga, which I accepted, and left Sydney on the Marama, De cember 24, 1922, for Auckland, where I was booked to proceed to Ha’apai on the old Navua.
Among the old shellbacks I found there were Frank Wall, Gerald Batty, Jack Protheroe, Dr. Andrews and a West Indian who ran the bakery.
Darky George used to say I was the first white man in Ha’afeva to bake bread, and he was black as ink. He could bake and cook.
BP had a two-masted sailing ship named the Malololelei, in charge of
Captain Fifita. In Ha’apai there was the Hihifo Co., Tongalileka, of Pagai Ha’apai and they owned a sailing vessel named the Makamaile, which plied throughout the Ha’apai group and down to Tonga and up to Vavau.
I have been on board this vessel, which had a small auxiliary engine in addition to sails. Gerald Batty and Frank Wall told me that the Maka maile was once Jack London’s yacht and the Hihifo Co. bought it from an Englishman in London, The ship was very sturdily built, with a very wide beam. When I left Tonga and came to Western Samoa in December, 1927, the Makamaile was still in service.
My memories of this ship were awakened when T read Russ King man’s article. In Ha’apai, also in my time, were Norman Pine, Collector of Customs, and Frank Cunningham, Harbourmaster in charge of Buoys and Beacons, Rivers and Lakes.
Where the rivers and lakes were is anyone’s guess, but those were his official titles in those days.
Often at weekends we would all meet and polish off a few bottles of JDKZ gin and invariably the topic would turn to the Makamaile and a discussion on Jack London’s books would ensue.
That the Makamaile was the old Snark was emphatic and vouched for by the old timers. Since reading your article, a very old friend of mine, a Tongan gentleman named Manase Tui, whose father was in the Tongan Government Treasury office, Nuku alofa, during World War I, told me that the Hihifo Co., Tongalileka of Pagai Ha’apai, went broke during the depression, and that the remains of the Makamaile are up on the hard in front of the courthouse in Pagai, Ha’apai.
Manase has offered to write to the Government of Tonga for photo graphs of the Makamaile and I am going to look through my old albums to see if I have a photograph of this ship, and if so, will send it to you.
Of the personalities I have men tioned, I think that maybe there are only about three of us left. Harry Gray, last heard of with BP as coun try manager in NSW for chain stores, and Lawrence Stanford, last heard of as being a director of BP Co. Ltd, Sydney.
We three were in our early twen ties. I celebrated my 21st birthday in Ha’-apai on April 12, 1923, and the other two, who lived in the company batch alongside the store, were not much older than me I am sure.
The happiest days of my first entry into business working for the South
Sea Company were spent in Ha’apai in the company of 11 other Euro peans who worked and played in harmony, I was the first person to bring in a wireless receiving set, a Gilfillan Super-heterdine set worked on a six volt wet battery. I had two and the purser of the old Tofua, Dave Butler, used to take one and have it charged and drop it off on his return and pick up the other one. Reception from Australia in those days was excellent.
When I went to Vavau in 1926 I took it with me and entertained the Tongans, who just couldn’t believe what they heard as coming from Australia. I still have the original No. 1 licence issued from Nukualofa and stamped and signed by the Nuku alofa Wireless Officer, Mr. Jack Land.
It’s interesting to look back over the years and bring to memory the good times we all had, with food so cheap and where £25 per month was considered top pay. Gin was 4/2d a bottle and a fifth of good Scotch 5/6d a bottle, with beer (Australian) Tooths at l/2d a quart. Heigh-ho, may God continue to instil longevity.
Henry Cyril Krone.
Secretary, S. V. Mackenzie and Co. Ltd, P.O. Box 586, Apia. • Who in Ha’apai can shed further light on the “Makamaile”, possibly ex-“Snark”?
What "Muritonga" Means
Sir, —Following your paragraph in PIM (Jan., p. 117), we have learnt that Muritonga, the name our yacht is to revert to, means SSE Wind in Rarotongan.
We wonder if you could help us further. In order, eventually, to reg ister our craft with the British reg ister of shipping, it is necessary to know where our vessel was built.
We are slowly tracing her history back to 1948 when we believe she was launched from the Lyttelton Shipyard, NZ.
We are having some difficulty in tracing Mr. R. L. McGaffin from whom Mr. Basil Fleming purchased her in late 1963/early 1964. Mr.
Fleming, now owning Cutty Sark. may know from whom Mr, McGaf fin purchased Muritonga and when.
Perhaps he is one of your readers!
Although Muritonga is now schooner rigged our shipwright thinks there is a possibility that she was once rigged as a ketch.
H. M. Timperley.
6 Cooper Street, Fannie Bay, Darwin, NT, 5790.