Up Front

with the Editor

When Emeritus Professor J. C.

Beaglehole, that extraordinary authority on Captain Cook and of Pacific exploration, died in New Zealand last year he left a prodigious amount of finished work as his Memorial. One still wonders how my one man could have produced he Hakluyt Society volumes of book’s journals and still have found ime for anything else, let alone the vealth of additional material he did >roduce in his lifetime. But one of ny favourite bits of Beaglehole is to >e found in a booklet of only 22 >ages, which can be bought for '0 cents from the Sydney University ’ress. It’s called “Cook the Writer”, nd it’s the Sixth George Arnold Vood Memorial Lecture, which leaglehole delivered at the University i Sydney in April, 1970. I did not now until recently that the lecture ad been printed, but those of us /ho heard him deliver it were agreed lat he brought Cook the man into tie university’s Great Hall that night.

Beaglehole explained to that atten ye audience that Cook had begun is sailing career with little experience f the written word—he could merely his letters and spell in a rough nd ready fashion. As he approached le age of 40 he was faced with the ecessity of keeping a lengthy journal nd so he put his mind to the busi ess of expressing himself.

The journal of the first of his three reat voyages, with the journals of >me of his fellow captains—Byron, arteret, Wallis-ended in the hands [ Dr. John Hawkesworth, who pro need an official “history” of British tploration so ornamented by literary :ence that the captains were en iged.

Beaglehole’s own close study of ook’s journals convinced him that i the second voyage Cook, still parting, was writing his journals ith care, on the assumption that the iblic as well as the Admiralty would ad them, and that things must be ated so clearly that there would be > opportunity for jiggery-pokery at e hands of any literary lion invited 7 the Admiralty to jazz them up.

Unspoiled, they did in fact get to the public.

On his third, fatal, voyage, Cook did better. He produced for the record “a sophisticated document”.

“He knew from the start exactly what he wanted to do,” said Beagle hole. “His second voyage of ex perience of writing, recasting, and final arduous revision had left him in no doubt. He set out deliberately to write a book—a book by James Cook.

“. . . His spelling had greatly improved . . . and one must have the feeling that if Cook had lived . . . when he arrived at the Admiralty to report on his proceedings he could have said not merely, ‘Here is my journal’, but ‘Here is my book’.”

Thus Cook the navigator became Cook the writer, so as to give the best account he was able of his pro ceedings. If death had not come in the Sandwich Islands, one wonders what extra wealth of Pacific observa tions and Islands history we might not have had from his sharpened pen. * $ * As everybody knows, statistics can be made to prove anything. You can make what you like out of the result of a questionnaire put to preliminary year students at Port Moresby’s University of Papua and New Guinea.

The result might or might not have a wider application.

The questionnaire sought to find

out the attitudes of the students to wards self-government and indepen dence in PNG—fashionable matters at the moment. There were 40 multiple-choice questions and the students were asked not to sign their names.

A total of 115 students (only a few of them female) filled in the question naire, nearly all of them aged be tween 17-20 and coming from Papua New Guinea (a handful of students came from other islands).

A report on the findings, prepared b> Lecturer in Education E. Barring ton Thomas and published in a recent University of Papua New Guinea newsletter, showed that there is con siderable uneasiness—at least among that group of students—about the proximity of independence, and to a lesser extent self-government.

Eighty-one per cent, claimed they clearly understood the difference be tween independence and self-govern ment, but a question set to test their understanding showed a quarter couldn’t choose the correct definition.

Despite their own claims to under standing, more than half the students believed that most New Guineans had little or no knowledge of what inde pendence meant; something less than half felt that as most New Guineans didn’t understand what self government meant, it shouldn’t come until they did.

Sixty-seven per cent, considered Papua New Guinea was ready for self-government but not independence; nearly half of them believed the country wouldn’t be ready for inde pendence for 20 years, and almost the same number felt that if inde pendence did come within five years it would be a disaster. But about 40 per cent, thought PNG would be ready for independence in five years.

Forty-two per cent, thought that most people were worried about the speed with which self-government was coming.

When asked what they thought the effect would be if PNG did get inde pendence within five years, 68 per cent, thought the country would re main united, 30 per cent, thought

that Bougainville or some other district would break away.

Eighty-two per cent, of the students believed in the formation of political parties if people wanted them; nearly half thought that PNG should try to find a new system of government not like other countries.

What did they think the social effects of independence would be on

Png?

One-half thought most expatriates would leave; 57 per cent, said Euro peans would have to behave carefully if they wished to stay; 71 per cent, felt people would not attempt to take over the Europeans’ cars and houses without paying for them.

Eighty-nine per cent, believed there would be increased crime after inde pendence; two-thirds thought there would be some increase in bribery and corruption; and 22 per cent, thought some minority groups (e.g., Chinese shopkeepers) would be attacked or driven out of the country.

One-half considered that life would be harder after independence.

Nearly three - quarters of the students felt there would be difficul ties as New Guineans took over positions now held by Europeans, but that services would soon get back to normal; 65 per cent, thought there would be better jobs for New Guinean public servants.

Sixty-one per cent, thought wages and prices would remain about the same, but 83 per cent, said Australian aid would either cease or be reduced.

Most people thought PNG would still be able to get enough experts after independence, nevertheless.

On the likely political effects of independence, 41 per cent, thought there would be serious inter-tribal fighting or civil war at some time after independence and 70 per cent, said that some parts of the country would secede either soon or over a long period.

Nearly 60 per cent, believed that Communism would begin in PNG al though most thought it would not become very strong (it’s worth a note here that since this survey was taken, the Communist Party of Australia has announced that it intends to make a drive for attention in PNG).

If independence comes soon, 45 per cent, saw the country as being run either by the Army or a dictator within 10 years, although nearly half saw the country as continuing to be run as a democracy. After indepen dence the government would continue to bring uncivilised people in remote places under control, according to 73 per cent, of the students.

As I said, there are no prizes for making assumptions on what this survey might mean.