The Editor's Mailbag

Pim Covers

Sir, —Your cover illustration of November, 1970, was prejudicial, misinformative, biased and a dis service to the other racial groups in the Solomon Islands [See reproduc tion below].

As a Solomon Islander, I’ve felt rather insulted over its biased and un representative nature. What’s instantly evident, which your photographer had apparently overlooked, were the more delicate issues of race and colour whose implications and connotations could very well be precedents for future political and racial divisions and disharmony.

The Melanesians, who by numbers are the predominant group, have been sporadically belittled and de meaned by unscrupulous Europeans time after time over the past. Unless someone dare speak out on their be half, such attitudes will certainly persist. And who can tell that any thing which is done repetitiously cannot become a habit in time?

By the time you’ve read this far, you may have formed a mental pic ture of me as a hardcore racist. If I’ve succeeded in depicting myself as such, it’s because I’m patriotic and very sensitive of the consequences that would eventuate if Solomon Islanders allow “outsiders” to judge us by virtue of our skin colour.

I was reluctant to use the two inno cent children to brag about the photo grapher’s lack of balanced perspective and sound judgment concerning the racial composition of the Solomons, Did he think the Melanesian is too black and would therefore obliterate the beauty of his picture?

It doesn’t require one to be a racist to see at first glance the phenomenal contrast between the white child and her light-complexioned playmate, and the darker, crudely clothed Mela nesian boys in the background. And does he genuinely think that the place for the Melanesians of the Solomons is in the background?

I wonder whether his conscience and sense of judgment weren’t in nuended by the dictum “Blessed and beautiful is white: Cursed and ugly be the black”.

I’m in no way trying to infringe on the gentleman’s freedom of speech and his right of access to the Press, but trying to point out the fact that practical democracy must necessarily

require the sound sense of judgment and co-operation of people like Mr.

Wendt to make the slogans of racial equality a reality.

Remember that our biggest propo sition, like everywhere in the world, is to make the best of our country by assimilating the diverse people and races into one nation. As a young country we cannot hope to solve the complexities of living in a multi-racial community by merely wishing for a Utopiac society. Nor will we find solutions to these problems by adher ing to Mr. Wendt’s doctrinaire of racialism.

Shrewd favouritism of one or two categories of the community in a multi-racial society will only breed divisionism along colour lines and racial disharmony, which are incom patible with our aim of racial assimi lation.

One of the characteristics of the Solomons is the warmth and friend liness of its people to foreigners.

However, if the people are so con ditioned to behave thus to “outsiders”, isn’t it hypocritical and illusory if in the main, we remain a divided house, among ourselves, where it counts most?

On the other hand, I’ve seen much in the way of racial integration which I’m proud of. I loath Europeans who have established concepts of racial superiority and inferiority complexes because they will contaminate our be haviour and outlook toward our fellow nationals.

May I therefore warn foreigners that it would be for the good of all the different racial groups in the Solo mons that their cameras should never be used contemptuously to evoke emotionalism.

J. S. Saunana.

University of Papua and New Guinea, Port Moresby. • For what it’s worth, the photo grapher, Alex Wendt of Suva, is a quarter Fijian, a quarter Samoan and half-European.

Sir, —As a broadminded 50-year old, who has been a constant reader of your admirable magazine for many years, I endorse the views of your 15year-old correspondent, Cecilia Limo (PIM, March) re. the front cover picture on the January issue.

I was depressed and disgusted by the spectacle of a prostrate, semi-nude female, photographed at close quar ters, sprawled across the front cover of your magazine. I most sincerely hope that this editorial indiscretion will never be repeated. I feel that PIM can very well do without illustrations of this description, and very much doubt whether this lewd picture was appreciated by the vast majority of your readers.

Pictures of nude and semi-nude females are a feature of most publica tions these days, and in the past it has been a refreshing relief to peruse your magazine, from which such pic tures have been absent. Readers wish ing to gloat over pictures of nudes can easily find them elsewhere. They will not have to look far to find them.

I feel that this lamentable lapse has impaired the tone of your magazine.

Incidentally, for several months last year, I was nauseated by the “Adam and Eve” ad. for tobacco (depicting a nude man and girl smoking a pipe and munching an apple) and was re lieved to note that it has recently been deleted, but superseded by a slightly less offensive ad. for denim trousers.

PIM has functioned most success fully for four decades without pic tures of nudes and semi-nudes. Please permit your readers to be spared from them in future. A magazine of the calibre of PIM does not require these pictures to sell it.

W. S. Halt.

North Sydney.

(more letters over the page)

More On Juggling

Sir, —I noted your January story (p. 69) by Robert Langdon, concern ing the art of juggling in Tonga; in 1969 I spent a year teaching in Houma, Tongatapu, under the Volun teer Service Abroad scheme. There, and in surrounding villages such as Ha’alalo, Ha’akame, ’Utulan and Vaotu’u, I often saw young girls, and not so young, juggling small fruit— from two balls up to 10. Many of them were very proficient at it.

In August of that year the Catholic primary schools of Tongatapu held their annual sports day. Among the attractions of the day was a juggling contest in which girls (in different groups according to the number of balls they could juggle) competed.

Some had four, some six, some eight, and one or two had 10. The speed, number of times the balls circulated and the age of the contestants were taken into account.

On another occasion, at the home of my adopted family in the village of Ha’alalo, a group of girls were re hearsing some Tongan dancing for a concert in town. One of the items they arranged was a tau’olunga, in which several girls mimed the actions of juggling—throwing and catching, watching, nearly missing, and drop ping. TTiis was performed very elegantly. On other occasions I saw mimes of baseball and cricket games.

The young boys of the villages 1 knew well used to become expert stilts-walkers, and held “jousting” matches on them. Each of the oppon ents would attempt to knock the other off, while avoiding a similar fate by darting to the side and rear, or prop ping one stilt to take or ward off an assault.

Of course, many other pastimes are indulged in in Tongan villages, such as “bush” cricket, marbles (all ages), knucklestones, sikoti (hopscotch), kite-flying (to prodigious heights) and many team sports. But I think the juggling and stiltsmanship abilities struck me as the most unusual when I first encountered them, although, of course, I got rather more blase about them as the year passed.

I have bought your excellent maga zine since January, 1970, and find it invaluable for keeping in touch with Pacific affairs, and for an adjunct to my study of Island Polynesia in an thropology at Auckland University.

Roger C. Cowell.

Auckland.

Fate Of "Alexa"

Sir, —I note with interest the photo graph of the barquentine Alexa in your January issue (p. 70). Although I have not got full details of the history of this vessel, I thought the following may be of interest to you:

She was built as the Voorburg by Gebr. J & G Verstockt, Martenshoek, Holland in 1904. She was 334 tons gross and made of steel. I do not know when she was renamed Alexa.

From 1914 until she was lost, she was owned by Mr. Loo Tom Fin.

She was registered at Wellington in 1905, numbered 118466.

She made one trip from Newcastle to Auckland in 1917 and one trip from San Francisco to Auckland in the same year. She also made a trip from San Francisco to Auckland in 1918.

She was eventually destroyed by fire at Butaritari, Gilbert Islands, on February 14, 1929.

A. Wharton

Auckland.

Sir, —I was interested in your pic ture of the barquentine Alexa in PIM (Jan., p. 70), and can bring your enquiry at least a little forward.

In the early twenties she was berthed at West Circular Quay, Sydney. I had a before-the-mast friend serving in her and remember climbing the fore-mast. She was— I’m almost certain—then trading to New Zealand.

Earlier she was an occasional visitor to the Clarence River (NSW) carrying timber to NZ. The Clarence then supported a heavy traffic of the wind-ships.

Goya Henry.

Harbord, Sydney.

Sir, — Alexa was a total loss by fire in Butaritari Lagoon, Gilberts, in the late 1920’5. Captain G. H. Heyen, the then Master, later served in the phosphate ships—a fellow officer with the late Captain Albert Rhodes.

I see that Captain Heyen is still V. much on deck. A newspaper report says he recently helped in the restoration in Melbourne of the disused coal hulk, Rona, originally the three-masted barque, Polly Wood side. He drew up new plans of the ship, and the National Trust intends spending $200,000 on restoring her.

P. J. D. Milne.

Glen Iris, Victoria.

Chief Moses" Reputation

Sir, —We act on behalf of Chief James Tupou Patuntun Steven Moses, about whom an article appears in PIM, Jan., p. 38, and reads in part, “His image as a semi-religious leader is flawed by a reputation for beer, expensive trips abroad, and numerous young wives”.

This is libellous. Our client does not touch a drop of liquor, and in deed, the followers of Nagriamel pledge not to drink. As you will see from the enclosed petition, alcohol is

sought to be outlawed by the Nagria mel.

As for expensive trips abroad, our client has to travel to gain support.

New Hebrides is rather isolated, and he has to attract world attention to his plight, and seek friendships, help and advice. It is the nature of the isolation of New Hebrides that makes such trips expensive, and our client lives simply wherever he goes.

As for the numerous young wives, this is again incorrect. He has three wives, whom he has married accord ing to local custom. Your suggestion that he is morally abandoned is not correct since the article implies that he is a man of very casual morals.

I shall be obliged if you would give this matter publicity in your paper, or preferably, print a copy of this letter in your columns.

K. C. Ramrakha.

Xx A •

Ramrakhas, Barristers and Solicitors, Suva, Fiji. • The comments Mr. Ramrakha refers to were contained in a long report on the New Hebrides by Honolulu journalist John Griffin.

Shortly after receipt of the above letter we received the following letter from Mr. Ramrakha. The March report he refers to was a summary of what Chief Moses allegedly told the Fiji Alliance magazine “Nation”, and was acknowledged as such. Details of the UN petition submitted by Mr.

Ramrakha are published elsewhere in this issue.

Sir. —I refer to an article in your March issue (p. 27). In it, you state that 1 have been paid $2,000 to pre sent the case of Nagriamel to the United Nations, and that nothing has happened so far. This is quite in correct, and libellous. I made two journeys to New Hebrides and repre sented a number of men charged with criminal trespass. For this I charged and received fees.

It was later that I was requested to present the case to the United Nations by sending a petition to that body. I gave them a telegrammed petition in August, 1969, prior to which I had personally called at the United Nations and discussed the mat ter with the Secretary to the Commit tee on Colonialism. Later, I decided that it would be best to wait until Fiji became a member of the United Nations, and late last year Fiji, which had earlier become a member of the United Nations, actually became a member of the Committee on Col onialism. You will therefore see that I have not been idle, and it was in correct to state that nothing has hap pened so far.

"Hie article maligns me profession ally by suggesting that I took a large

sum of money, and then did nothing about it. Without prejudice to my right to claim damages for libel, I request you publish the contents of this letter in full in your next issue.

K. C. Ramrakha.

Father O'reilly

Sir, —I was lucky enough to meet up with Father Patrick O’Reilly, the French priest, anthropologist and his torian, in Auckland recently. He was in NZ during a two-months’ tour of the Pacific doing further research on native cultures.

Father O’Reilly agreed that it was a far cry back to 1934, when one Sunday sitting on the veranda of our mission house on Teop Island, north Bougainville, I saw coming along the beach from the seaward end of the island, two white men —and I in vited them to drink a cup of tea.

One of them was Father Patrick O’Reilly, a Frenchman with very little English, newly arrived to do anthro pological work for the Paris Museum; and the other was a German, Peter Berkenheier, representing MIVA—a German Society for helping missions with vehicles, boats, cars and aero planes! It was for aeroplanes that he was on Bougainville, for MIVA had presented the late Dr. Thomas Wade, the Marist Bishop of the Northern Solomons, with an aeroplane to help in his work (unfortunately the plane crashed on its first attempted “take off” at the mission in Kieta).

Father O’Reilly and Peter Berken heier were shipwrecked on the end of Teop Island. Their small Catholic mission vessel had gone down and they were fortunate to get ashore.

Some weeks later I was to be with both of them, and “Shorty” of Tin putz Estate, and Chris Faulkner of Teop Estate, as the first white people to witness the Upe Hat cerpmony at which youths were initiated into man hood.

I remember some time later in Burns Philp’s store in Kieta, introduc ing a Seventh-day Adventist mission ary by the name of Tutty, to Miss Beatrice Blackwood (who later wrote Both Sides of Buka Passage) and Mr. Tutty said he was going into the bush behind Inus to see a native cere mony. Miss Blackwood asked him what the ceremony was, and he re plied: “The adultery ceremony”. Miss Blackwood said: “The what, Mr.

Tutty?”, and he replied; “The adult ery ceremony—the initiation of youths into adult life!” Miss Black wood retorted: “Just call it the initi ation ceremony, Mr. Tutty”.

Well, after Pat O’Reilly returned from Bougainville to the Paris Museum, we used to correspond in termittently on ethnological subjects

Letters

until war intervened, and on Bougain ville all my records and addresses were lost. He had to suffer four years of irksome living under German domination in Paris, till better times came with the liberation armies.

Rev. A. H. Voyce.

Auckland.

In Reply To Sir Guy

Sir, —I have a deep respect for Sir Guy Powles, a man renowned for his administrative ability while he was High Commissioner in Western Samoa, and a man of proven talent in his present post as New Zealand Ombudsman. To admit it r-uite frankly, however, I am and have been extremely biased against the New Zea land administration in Western Samoa.

You have only to read Professor J. W. Davidson’s history of Samoa, and other histories, to realise that the Samoans have been traditionally against the New Zealand administra tion, mainly because, I think, the New Zealanders bungled their attempt to introduce new ideas and methods on the Samoan feudal system.

I welcome Sir Guy’s criticism of my article, “They Are Politicking in W. Samoa” (PIM, Mar., p. 29), but as a keen student of political science I am not easily fooled. The article may have caused some misunder standing, but a writer is often limited by space and he has to condense as much as possible and I would say that that article, which I wrote, and which was edited by PIM, was very condensed.

Now, I am not a revolutionary, neither am I a conservative. A revo lutionary tries to break down the existing system by force. A conserva tive, to me, is either a matai, or one who wants things to remain as they are. According to my definition Sir Guy would be a conservative. But I am in between.

Clarifying that article a bit further, I would say first that when Sir Guy hinted that the Samoan people, acting on the advice of New Zealand, had decided their own he meant the Samoan matais, who in point of fact decided the constitution. New Zealand did not even guarantee that we would have a proper democracy.

New Zealand left us without indus tries, without insuring a democratic form of government. There is no uni versal suffrage in Western Samoa to day. In my opinion, New Zealand is responsible for this.

I wish to point out that I am not

for pulling the present system down.

But in the article I merely pointed out that the present political setup, as sented to by New Zealand, had the effect of discouraging the future de velopment of the country’s political institutions.

The present system has discouraged a two-party system because of the emphasis on the loyalty to one man, preferably a man approved of and brainwashed by New Zealand. The present system has also discouraged the introduction of universal suffrage.

I pay tax to the government, but only the matais enjoy it. They alone can vote and enjoy the fruits that come with political power. Some matais may be smart. More often they are dumb-bells out of touch with modern reality. Who is responsible for all this? To me it is NZ.

When I said a multiple party sys tem, I meant two or more. I am glad to note that the new government at least has a sense that Samoa needs progress. We can still have our matai system, but that should not prevent other reforms too.

Finally, I do not agree with Sir Guy that the political situation in Samoa cannot be improved in the sense that it cannot profit from the experience of developed countries.

Would Sir Guy have said the same thing of England or France in the

Middle Ages?

Felise Va’A.

Apia,

Friendly Tongans

Sir, —After reading in PIM (Feb., p. 117) of tourists who experienced unpleasantness at the Houma Blow holes on Tongatapu, I realised that I could provide a concrete example of the usual friendliness of Tongan chil dren which you mention.

In February I also visited Houma, a lone traveller on a borrowed bicycle.

On arrival there I was met by five young girls aged about three to eight, carrying the usual beads and toy canoes. A very welcome coconut was offered for a few cents and after I declined to buy any souvenirs they re mained to chat and shared my lunch with me.

An impromptu concert was pro vided as I took their photos, my bicycle and bag were manfully lugged over the rough ground and they happily posed in the foreground of my scenic photos. Finally, a further coconut and numerous strings of patiently-made seed necklaces were pressed upon me as “present for you” and eventually I was sent on my wobbly way with sad cries of “good byee” and much waving.

(Mr.) R. Neich.

Petone, New Zealand.