Letters

Bougainville's Shame

Your magazine is a source of news, merest and information to all in the slands. Please keep it that way, with ir without your ‘Port Moresby cor espondent’ whose article (PIM, June, > 7) re the Panguna Distrubance— Bougainville’s shame” has left your eaders unfortunately misinformed.

Ask any resident of this area if here “has been only one previous trike —last December”? The answer -“You jest”. As for the excellent scord of industrial relations—“ You lust be joking”!!

The strike was by BCL employes lone—all “more than 1,000”, and lOT by employees of “service in ustries and sub-contractors at the line site”. And maybe a cause of le strike was the dismissal by BCL f a union officer. The previous eek three BCL employees were re istated, having been suspended, for similar offence—theirs having been the Karoona Tavern. Contradic on!!—more so in the light of a anagerial instruction that employee isdemeanours warrant immediate rmination. More contradiction!!

This strike could have and should ive been avoided.

The “shame” that is referred to ust be borne by management for lowing such a shameful situation develop. Commonsense will post »ne a repetition.

Damage to property will be long membered by witnesses of our ock Opera’, a pity the judiciary J not pursue the matter with the ent of our mobile squads.

F. B. Donovan

eta

Civilisation

In ‘Tropicalities’ (PIM, July, p 27) u had an item on the excavations an anthropologist, Mr Grahame ard, on Pakea Island in the New lt said that more recent ‘tory of Pakea has it that Fiijans ided there and ate most of the pulation!

The chiefs of my ancestors occas lally ate the dead bodies of their iditional enemies left behind after battle, as a ritual celebration of

victory. These incidents were few and far between, because war parties in retreat always made sure they took with them, or hid, their dead to pre vent them being violated by the enemy.

Such conflicts were usually con ducted and resolved by customs which were admirable in their human de cency and dignity; a far cry from the typical savagery with which ‘civilised’ men conduct their wars nowadays.

The exaggerated tales of Fijian cannibalism are mostly the fabrica tions of the first ‘uncivilised’ Anglo- Saxons who came into contact with my illustrious ancestors—those foreign savages who projected their own greedy and destructive motives on to the ‘natives’, whom they would have their own kind at home believe was not capable of any humanity.

That Fijians may have landed at Pakea is believable, but to say they ate over half the population is, I be lieve, a piece of fabricated nonsense.

Your writer’s reference to the “ancient Fijian habits” is a rather sick joke that has no place in a magazine which has been a great ser vice to the Pacific countries.

Jone Dakuvula.

Suva, Fiji.

Murder From The Past

Perhaps you could help me in fol lowing up a story of a murder that happened many years ago in the vicinity of Sudest Island, Papua.

The murder was of a one-legged Australian man who owned a lugger being crewed with five Sudest Is landers employed in the fishing of beche de mer. The name of the lugger, I think, was the Ithaca. The murder, by drowning, was committed in 1912, but the five crew members involved were not brought before the court until 1918 when they received the death sentence. This sentence was later commuted to life imprison ment. The court was presided over by a Judge Herbert in Port Moresby.

The reason for my interest in this case is that my father, Michael Thomas Healy, was the gaoler in Moresby at the time. I was born in Moresby, and in childhood I came to know Erau, one of the convicted men, who was delegated as man servant to our household at the Koki gaol. Erau proved to be a faithful servant to the family for many years until my father’s death, when of course the family had to leave the gaol residence.

It would be deeply appreciated if you could give me the full story, or any facts available.

M. Healy.

Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

• Anybody know the story?

"As for the excellent record of in dustrial relations (at Bougainville Copper mine), you must be joking!" says a correspondent. Here, armed with batons, shields and gas masks police charge rioters during the dis turbance at the mine site in May.