Pacific Islands Monthly - 17 November 1944

Dr. V. W. T. Mcgusty

But Will Carry On in Temporary Capacity

ANOTHER victim of the prevailing wave of retirements among high officials in Fiji is Dr. V. W. T.

McGusty, Director of Medical Services, Secretary for Indian Affairs, Central Medical Authority for the Western Pacific High Commission, and one of the best-known men in the Central Pacific.

In view of wartime conditions, however, Dr. McGusty offered to carry on his ap pointments on a temporary basis; and he has been re-appointed temporarily to those offices which he held on his auto matic retirement on September 15.

Dr. McGusty went t(5 Fiji first in 1912, and in his 32 years of service has filled many posts, apart from those connected with the Medical Department. He has been a District Commissioner on several occasions, and in 1931 was the Governor’s Commissioner. He has acted as Colonial Secretary and has been the Governor's Deputy. He was a member of the Civil Service Reorganisation Committee, and for a time was Chairman of the Suva Town Board.

Recently he played a prominent part in forming the preliminary plans for the ambitious medical services scheme for the South Pacific, which was announced earlier this year, and which it is hoped will be put into operation within the next few yeart.

Pacific Islands Stamps Are

Valuable

AT stamp auctions held in Melbourne in early November, four mint Ger man New Guinea stamps, part of a set issued in 1900, were sold for £lO6.

The design of the stamps depicts Kaiser Wilhelm’s yacht “Hohenzollern.” Follow ing the AIF occupation of New Guinea in September, ±914, the stocks of German stamps were seized and overprinted with the letters GRI and a new value in British currency. The four stamps, which bear this overprint, have a face value of 11/-.

All Pacific Islands stamps have appre ciated in value since the war —partly due to re-awakened interest in the Pacific, and partly due to the fact that much of Europe has been shut off from the rest of the world.

Sandy Creek Co.

THE annual report of Sandy Creek Gold Sluicing, Ltd., a New Guinea com pany which ceased operations when the Japs invaded in January, 1942, shows a loss of £217 on the year. The company has over £lOO,OOO invested in its Sandy Creek and Watut leases; expects to receive war damage compensation; and has about £21,000 on hand wherewith to resume operations. The directors are Messrs. H. B. Jamieson, H. G. Hyde, J.

W. Hinks and A. J. Smeaton.

Mr. T. W. Brighouse, well-known and popular planter of Nu’u Plantation, Western Samoa, recently received word r that his eldest son, Private Rex Brig ‘ house, has been killed in action while serving with the New Zealand Forces in Italy. Private Rex Brighouse had been wounded previously. He had been living in New Zealand for the past ten years and leaves a wife and two children.

Honour For L. W. G. Bell,

Of Kavieng

WELL-KNOWN in New Ireland, TNG, as a planter and as the owner of the Kavieng Engineering Works be fore he enlisted in the RAAF 3 h years ago, Flying-Officer L. W. G. Bell has been awarded the Order of the British Empire (Military Division).

The citation says: “Flying-Officer Bell had been engaged in the installation of several radar stations in New Guinea. An installation party was landed on a certain island and commenced the erection, without any de-

lay other than that due to continued bombing and strafing by the enemy.

Flying-Officer Bell was able to keep the personnel employed to the best advan tage, and the station became operational three days later. During three weeks after the completion of the station, the island was subjected to 60 bombing and strafing attacks, and it was mainly due to Flying-Officer Bell’s outstanding cour age, resourcefulness and leadership that the morale of the personnel was main tained at a high level.”

Last April, F/O Bell contracted scrub typhus and was many months in hospital and convalescing. He recently spent two months’ leave in Australia, but has now returned to New Guinea.

Flying-Officer and Mrs. L. W. G. Bell, in Australia in 1941.

Appointments To The Fiji

Government

Mr. J. Granger Johnson, Manag

ing director of W. R. Carpenter & Co., Ltd., Suva, paid a flying visit to Sydney in early November. He re cently was appointed to the Legislative Council of Fiji by the retiring Governor, Sir Philip Mitchell. It was an appoint ment cordially approved in Suva, where hard-working “Tui” Johnson is held in high esteem.

IT was announced in Suva, in September, that Messrs. H. H. Ragg and F. L.

Smith (manager of the Suva branch of the Bank of New Zealand) would be nominated unofficial members of the Executive Council, on the retirement in October of Mr. R. Crompton, KC, CBE, and R. Howard Ellis.

Capt. Charbonnier, of the French Army Medical Service, has arrived in Noumea from Algiers. He is on his way to Wallis Island, a New Caledonian dependency used in this war as a US naval base. He will replace Capt. Mattel.

Already Being Made

The Coming Pacific

Air-Age

Empire and US Plans Already Being Made

IT is believed in some circles that the former prohioition of Pan American Airways bases in Australia will be lifted alter the war, and that Auckland, formerly a PaA Pacific terminal, will be by-passed.

The Australian non-Labour Govern ment that existed at the time PAA was spreading to this part of the Pacific, in the late ’thirties, was ever-mindful of British shipping and British airways interests, and refused the American line any facilities on Australian soil. The Pacific war, and America’s consequent greater influence in this part of the world, plus a change of Australian domes tic politics, has ironed out some of those “difficulties” which existed hitherto, and prevented the Pacific air service from running direct from Noumea to Sydney— and thus cutting a day out of the air journey from the States to Australia.

Pan American plans for future Pacific transport were before the Civil Aero nautics Board in Washington in Septem ber. It is believed that, if PAA are per mitted to fly direct to Australia, a feeder service will be run between Sydney and Auckland, either by PAA or by the pre sent Tasman Empire Airways with im proved machines and organisation.

American steamship lines are asking that the US ban on shipping companies entering air transport should be removed.

The Matson Line has long had its eye on an air service between Honolulu and the Pacific poast of the States, and has sub mitted plans to Washington for a two trips-a-day schedule between those points.

PAA also has submitted similar proposals to cover this route.

The NZ Prime Minister (Mr. Fraser) said recently that there was a possibility of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom combining to oper ate a service across the Pacific, to North America. This would, of course, be im possible unless landing facilities in Hawaii were granted by America. However, if similar facilities are to be granted America in Australia, an Hawaiian stag ing base for Empire aircraft would no doubt come into a reciprocal agreement with the United States.

Trans-South Pacific Air Route?

CAPTAIN P. G. TAYLOR, famous Aus tralian airman, arrived in Sydney at the end of October, in a Catalina, after surveying a possible trans-Pacific air route south of the equator. It is all very hush-hush; but he appears to have left a point in Central America and called at a number of almost-unknown islands between the South American con tinent and Fiji.

Firms Amalgamate

TWO firms of merchants and traders, well-known In New Caledonia and New Hebrides, Kerr and Cie., and Gubbay Freres, have been amalgamated.

The name of the new company is Societe Gubbay Kerr & Cie; and it is now trading.

Australia

p. 8

When Japs Were Poised Against

300,000 Men and Thousands of Horses at Rabaul

A EOinr April, 1942 there were, in the Rabaul-Kokopo districts of the Gazelle Peninsula, New Guinea, between 300,000 and 400 000 Jananese troops. They were lavishly equipped, and with them thousands of horses. This huge force was intended for the invasion and occunation of the Victoria. Part ° f Australia—es P eciall y Queensland, New South. P Wales and

rAT is the most interesting and significant thing told by Mr. Peter Kyllert, a New Guinea planter, who has just arrived in Sydney, after being a prisoner of the Japs for nearly three years. How he escaped may not yet be

Toiq.

Mr. Kyllert had been in New Guinea nearly 20 years when the Japs invaded.

He has five plantations. The Japs made him a prisoner on his well-known Stock holm plantation, near Pondo, which he bought ten years ago from his Swedish fellow countryman, Captain Lindahl.

Although he was kept under close observation, Mr. Kyllert was able occas ionally to move about the district, and he kept his eyes and ears open and, through various channels, he learned much of what was going on. He has travelled widely and is accustomed to judging crowds, and he is certain of his estimate of the Jap army intended for Australia.

“I talked in Pidgin with some of the Japs, in 1942, and m German with some officers, and they w§re quite sure that they were going to take Australia,” he said. “They said they were not much interested in the cities, which would be quickly smashed up by their planes, but they were very eager to settle in the country. One man told me that he had a lovely little farm already selected for himself in the Northern Rivers.”

But the war began to swing against the enemy late in 1942, and the huge con centration of forces in Rabaul began to Australia d m the opposite direction to rE European civilians and soldiers weie kept in camps in and near Rabaul for some months, said Mr Kyllert ; and he learned something of w ent on - He said that no man showed a finer spirit than Mr. George Murray, Director of Agriculture. Mr. a . cr i ppled mad - a nd the Japs lost hw SS him kindly; but he never I? e^ se - of hui *iour, and he kept his fellows inspired and amused. Jit first the Japs recognised the rank of Mr’

Haroid Page, Government Secretary—but later they forced him to work on the wharves. All Europeans were forced to dition. Irrespective of their rank of con “ln June, 1942,” said Mr Kvllert “i Sotof teTck ‘toT 1 ® int „° Ral ™ ul a motor truck, to see a doctor. I saw the r Rabaul°^Tinfes d ’ Mr V H °°S erw erth, of Xf b s^d T To eS beTo S r^ g th ? he f f eZe i

sss? Mr L di r" are

European men confined on 1 wired-to verandah near the Post Office I think but I am not sure of that. I waftowW

certain Japs fairly recently that there was only one white man left in Rabaul— and from their description I think it was Bill Korn, from Pondo. If it was, they kept him there because of his uni que knowledge of the natives and their talk Evanson and Korn were left at Ponjdo by the Japs for some time, and I used to see them there occasionally. But about July, 1942, the Japs took them away from Pondo to Rabaul.” rLL the women not to worry too much about the prisoners,” added Mr. Kyllert. “One doesn’t get fat on native foods—but one doesn’t actually starve. Men in good health, organically, will come through, all right.”

The Japs left a small number of old Europeans on their plantations, as they did Mr. Kyllert, but they gave them no supplies, and they were often hard put to it to eat. The half-caste people in Mr Kyllert’s household provided bananas in all shapes and forms, and made a flour from tapioca.

The Japs were suspicious and in humanly cruel. The missionaries at Vunapope (a large proportion of them Germans) have been ruthlessly im prisoned, and their food has been taken and many of them have suffered greatly from privation and hunger- The Japs, for the first year or so, did e y e rZ^ ln £>. possible to get the goodwill of the natives, and set them against the Europeans, and in Mr. Kyllert’s opinion much harm has been done to future European-native relationships. But lately as the war turned against the Japs, they have been treating the natives very roughly—and now even the natives are “awake to them.”

WHILE, for a long time, the Japs f T “kidded” to the natives, they treated the Rabaul Chinese, from the outset, with the most horrible cruelty They robbed them, beat them, gaoled them and tortured them. Mr. Kyllert

f ai <L?. e that, when the Invasion 1S f ?u St ’^ lt u Wlll be found that two-thirds of _!£ e Rabaul Chinese are dead The Jap soldiery loot wherever and whenever they get a chance, and they show the same licence in their treatment at native women. General Sir Thomas Blarney said recently that the Japanese have thousands of acres under food gar dens around Rabaul. That was quite true said Mr. Kyllert, but it did not mean that the Japs were getting large supplies of food from them. The food plants were not allowed to grow to maturity— tne Jap soldiers were most expert in gardens half " grown stuff from their own T he \ n 1943 > were as certain that they would have to meet an American }S V fSo n «?\ baul » as they were certain m 1942 that they were going to Australia In each case, said Mr. Kyllert, the Americans upset their calculations. In 1942, they destroyed the Jap transport Y™ slated for Australian waters; in 1943, they by-passed Rabaul, and left the discomfited Japs to their own brutal devices.

“They are horrible people,” said Mr.

Kyllert. I did not meet one really human Jap in Rabaul district—except the men who came ashore from a warship at Pondo. They seemed kind of civi lised.

Another Planter Escapes

ANOTHER planter, Mr. Kenneth Spanner (he is 80 years old, and ™ therefore considerably the senior of Mr Kyllert) has also escaped to Aus tralia recently, after 21 years, in Jap hands. He is now with his daughter, Mrs. T. Fraser, of Lennox Street, Mary borough, Queensland.

He had a plantation on New Hanover, off the northern end of New Ireland; and when the Japs came, in January, 1942, he decided to stay, along with one or two other whites, in Kavieng. He told the Japanese officers that he was a Ger man, and he claimed the privileges of German nationality. The invaders were suspicious, and asked another man, a Nazi German, who was there, about Mr Spanner. The German played the game: hfe said that Mr. Spanner had lived a long time in a Germany colony, and possibly was of German nationality. So the old British soldier (he had seen active service in many places) was allowed to go back to his plantation on New Hanover, where he lived for over two years on coconuts and native foods.

Then he was sent for 10 months to a leper island, where there were 400 lepers.

When Mr. Spanner left, there were less than 150—the others had died, or dis appeared.

Fijian Soldier Wins Victoria Cross

p. 8

Posthumous Award for Sacrifice on Bougainville

TO a native of Fiji has gone the honour of becoming the first non-European British soldier to' win the VC in this war. The award was made posthumously.

The soldier’s name was Corporal Sefa naia Sukanaivalu. He was a member of a Fiji Infantry Battalion which fought on Bougainville. He heroically sacrificed his life in order that his comrades should escape.

The full story of Sukanaivalu’s sacrifice was told in the September issue of the “PIM” by a New Zealand officer of the same battalion. The Fijians, in battalion strength, were engaged in a coastal raid and they ran into a wall of Jap machine gun fire from prepared pill-boxes and positions As darkness drew on, it was decided to evacuate the area by sea.

“There were plenty of tales of gallantry to be sifted out,’’ records this officer.

“Here is an outstanding case. Corporal Suka, from Cakandrove, when bringing in the wounded, was shot in the groin and the thigh, at short range. After a while he called out to his platoon not to try to get him out, as he was too near the enemy and could not move.

“The Nadronga men called back to him to wait, and that they would never leave him, knowing that to be taken alive meant death, and probably torture.

“The issue was clear to Suka. His friends would not leave him unless he were dead, and to get to him would be death to his friends.

“Our men saw him raise himself up on his hands in front of the Jap machine guns, and take a burst right in the chest.”

Head of Big Pacific Trading Co.

W.R.C.

Back in Sydney After Successful Establishment of Canadian Co.

SIR WALTER head of W R. Carpenter & Co., Ltd., is pay ing Sydney a short visit, after three years’ residence in Canada. He is accompanied by Laciy Carpenter.

Sir, Walter has one of the shrewdest minds in the world of Austral-Pacific finance- He founded his big company 25 years ago, and saw it flourish; and when the war-clouds (which he had long fore seen) came in 1939, he knew what they meant to Pacific trade- He disappeared for a time from Sydney; and, when he returned, he had laid the foundations of W R Carpenter & Co. (Canada), Ltd., and established the first copra-crushing plant in Canada. Copra, part of his big firm’s life-blood, being now shut out of Europe by war, found a new and profit able market in Canada.

Then came the Japanese invasion. Sud denly, the free world, instead of having far too much copra, did not have nearly enough: and again there developed a situation wholly in favour of Sir Walter’s Canadian enterprise. He has watched his Canadian company grow—and grow.

Sir Walter is treating his Sydney visit as a holiday. He has worked very hard for many years, and has well earned the rest his health demands He expects to return to Canada in February-

Fiji

New Chief Justice For Fiji Successor to Sir Owen Corrie

AS announced previously, Si» Owen Corrie, Chief Justice of Fiji, will shortly retire. His successor will be Mr. Claude Ramsay Wilmot Seton. MC. who is at present Chief Justice of Nvasala^d.

Mr. Seton was born in 1833 and was educated at Framlingham College and University College, London; he was called to the Bar at Grey’s. He served in World War I from 1914 to 1920, was wounded, was awarded the Military Cross, and was twice mentioned in desoatches.

He was President of District Courts in Palestine. 1920-1926 and from 1931 to 1935. and Judicial Adviser. Trans-Jordan, from 1926 to 1931. From 1935 to 1941 he was Puisne Judge, Jamaica.

Suva, Oct. 29.

A FULL list of the last Birthday Honours, recently received from Eng land. includes, as a Knight Bache lor. the name of Mr. C. R. W. Seton, new Chief Justice of Fiji.

Lieut. "Snowy" Rhodes Twice

Decorated

THE only South Pacific resident to win two American awards is Lieut.

Ashton (“Snowv”) Rhodes, RANVR. up was a resident of the British Solomon islands before the war and since Pearl Harbour has been attached to the American forces.

In 1942, after the American landing in the Solomons, he was one of the first four Australians awarded the American Distinguished Service Cross bv General Mac Arthur for extraordinary heroism in action in the South-west Pacific area.

Later (June, 1943), he acted as guide to a nartv of American commandos when they landed on a beach on Rendova. For this he was awarded the Silver Star,

Looting Is War Damage!

PTA Has Some Measure of Success After 2½ Years of Hard Work

AFTER over 2i years of continuous and unrewarded effort on behalf of evacuees from the New Guinea ter ritories, the Pacific Territories Associa tion achieved a large measure of success in a single announcement by the Com monwealth Treasurer (Mr. Chifley) on November 2, relating to “consequentml” war damage.

Here is Mr. Chifley’s statement in full: The Treasurer (Mr. Chifley) announced to day (Nov. 2) that war damage contributions will not be required from property owners after the end of this year. As from Ist January, 1945, the present fund will be used to meet any damage which may subsequently occur, as well as the losses for which owners were insured during 1944, or earlier years.

Mr. Chifley also announced that the Govern ment had approved an extension of the com pensation benefits to those who have suffered damage to their property in evacuated areas such as New Guinea, Papua, and Darwin.

Hitherto, compensation has been payable where property has been damaged by direct enemy action or by our own Forces in combat with the enemy, or in carrying out a “scorched earlh” plan. Payments have also been made where property has been taken over by Allied or Australian Services to meet Service require ments.

There are other forms of loss such as loss by fire, neglect, theft, etc., for which the owners have not been covered, but the Government will now treat losses of this character in the same category as war damage for which provision is already made under the National Security Regulations.

Mr. Chifley said that administration of these extended benefits would rest with the War Damage Commission, but it will not be necessary for owners to lodge claims with the Commission in those cases where particulars have already been supplied for war damage purposes.

He made it clear that the compensation will relate to physical loss or damage to property only, and account will be taken of amounts which owners may be entitled to recover from other sources.

This apparently means that the owner of property which has been damaged or deteriorated, or stolen, as the result of his compulsory removal from the Terri tories now will be able to claim compen sation. As long ago as March, 1942, the “PIM” argued that the man whose plan tation, or house, or water-race, had deteriorated owing to his compulsory absence, was as much entitled to war damage as the man whose house had been bombed; but the argument was flatly rejected by the Australian authori ties. Thenceforward, the fight was on.

The PTA was formed shortly afterwards.

FULL credit for the abandonment of the seemingly ironclad rule that loot ing and other “indirect” war dam age did not come within the scope of war dahiage regulations, must go to the PTA. and more particularly to its executive, for its tenacity of purpose, patience and un tiring endeavour in the face of the brick wall of official indifference ever since evacuees were compulsorily landed on Australian soil. The cases of Territorians whose property had been removed piece meal by the armed forces in the New Guinea area are legion, and need not be repeated here; yet, because they were unfortunate enough not to have had their belongings bombed off the face of the earth by enemy action, or scorched off by our own retreating troops, they stood to lose all. This anomalous position will now be rectified, and, at the same time, the long fight of the PTA justified.

Had this process of whittling at the

official brick-wall not gone on, there is little doubt that Territorians would have been allowed to take it in the neck, while the large surplus in the War Damage Commission coffers (something like £14,000,000), would have been either lost down the Canberra financial drain-pipe or been applied to some pet scheme of Australian officialdom.

In true political style, Mr. Chifley allows the Australian public to assume that he thought of this benevolent scheme all by himself: but Territorians can bear with that, and his gross understatement that “payments have been made where property has been taken over by Allied or Australian forces” in the knowledge that about 50 per cent, of their grievances have now apparently been rectified.

Mr. E. A. James, president of the Paci fic Territories Association, interviewed in Sydney after the Treasurer’s announce ment, said that in view of the fact that many of the matters which they intended to take up with the Prime Minister (Mr.

Curtin) come within the new scope of war damage, and also because of Mr. Cur tin’s illness, no PTA delegate will go to Canberra for the present. (It was decided at the last PTA meeting, that a dele gate should go to Canberra to lay Terri torians’ grievances before the Prime Minister in person.) Mr. R. A. Battersby, an officer of the War Damage Commission in Sydney, said that it will be some little time before fresh regulations can be gazetted and the necessary machinery established for handling indirect losses. He said that the matter was well in hand, however, and that claimants should defer writing to the Commission until further informa tion is made available —probably in the form of further press announcements.

The Commission has also informed the PTA that owners of property in the Ter ritories will not need to lodge fresh claims in cases where claims have already been made for war damage purposes.

Death Of Sub-Lieut.

Olander

THE death is officially announced of Sub-Lieut. Albert (“Bert”) Olander, RANVR. He was on New Britain for some years, and was manager of Num undo plantation, Talasea. After enemy occupation, he was engaged on special duties in New Britain and on the north coast of New Guinea.

He was reported missing on February 1, 1943; but in May, 1944, notification was received that he had been killed in action at Amelut plantation, New Britain, in March, 1943, having been ambushed and shot by a Japanese patrol.

The only white man with him was Petty-Officer Tupling, who also was killed.

Mr. Tupling is believed to have been a resident of New Guinea.

News was received by the Director of Lutheran Missions, Dr. F. O. Theile, of the tragic circumstances under which two American Lutheran missionaries, the Rev. H. Dott and Brother Wenz, who were held as prisoners of war by the Japanese in New Guinea, met their end. The Rev.

H. Dott was beheaded, and Brother Wenz was shot.

Achievement

p. 10

Harold Gafty's "Raft Book" is a Remarkable Achievement

1981. —Wiley Post, pilot, and Harold Gatty, navigator, make the first flight around the earth. 1937.—-Harold Gatty, as South Pacific manager of Pan American Airways, establishes the first regular air-mail service across the South Pacific— between San Francisco and Auck land. 1944.—Harold Gatty produces “The Raft Book,” something unique both in literature and navigation. rOM the moment he first came into the Pacific, Mr. Gatty was fascinated by the ancient stories of the Poly nesian navigators—those men who, know ing nothing of sextants and charts and compasses, found their way repeatedly, and accurately, across the vast, empty stretches of the Pacific.

How did they do it? There are many strange stories of their methods and appliances, but none quite authentic.

Gatty, himself a famous navigator, set himself to a study of this unusual subject.

His researches extended over years. In the middle ’thirties, -he told this writer something of what he was doing, and it was evident then that he was digging in a rich field. But by the time his work had reached a point where he could tell the world of his the world had turned topsy-turvy. Every day, sea men and airmen, victims of the war, were finding themselves adrift, without navi gating instruments or knowledge, on those great wastes of the Pacific waters.

Here was an opportunity. The ingenious, rule-of-thumb methods by which the ancient Polynesian navigators read the stars and the ways of nature could not only be made the subject of a fascinating book; they might also be adapted to mod ern. wartime use, and serve to guide our castaway Servicemen to safety.

And so Harold Gatty, assisted by an understanding publisher and a clever book binder, has produced “The Raft Book.” It is not a big book; and it fits into a case, which in turn fits snugly into the pocket. The sailor or the airman who takes this with him, and finds himself adrift without a navigator, not only has something most excellent to read, but has the means of navigating himself across any part of the Pacific or the Atlantic Ocean.

Within the case is, first, the book itself, with its fascinating accounts of how the Polynesians guided themselves across the oceans; of what can be learned from birds and winds, and clouds and winged insects; ol what is told by ocean currents, the temperature and colour of the water, and the character and direction of the waves and there are most remarkable data about the stars and the moon as means of navigation.

Next there is Gatty’s “Combined World and Stan- Chart for Emergency Naviga fi°“- . , ls a very large, and a most ingenious thing. On one side, is a chart of the world s oceans, from 50 South to 70 North; on the other side is a very com .c^ of t* l6 heavens, showing all the stars as seen by man in his journey around the sun. An exceedingly ingenious supplies mea ns by which the uninitiated may recognise the stars.

Next, there is another large sheet with ™ ass es °/ tables , arran ged so simply that the amateur navigator, hqving recognised st ll s . and knowing the date and hav mg obtained true Greenwich time, can g»t his approximate position. Finallv S a S ad^u . ster - mada to fit onto the edge of the mam sheet, to be moved

alone: to the right date; whereupon the reading of the tables becomes very easy.

There is only one catch —the castaway must have a timeniece from which he can exactly calculate Greenwich time.

With that, the rest is simple Without it, he still can make very good use of “The Raft Book”; and, with the aid of the old Polynesian methods, so effectively ex plained by Mr. Gatty, he could get him self out of danger.

Mr. Gatty has completed a monumental work (one has to see the compilation to realise the labour that has been put into it by this practical navigator); and thus, while still a young man, has carried out his third great achievement. Where next?

Every man who takes the risk of being cast away at sea should carry the “Raft Book”—it might make the difference between life and death. It does not seem to be on sale in Australia. The publish ers are George Grady Press, 445 West Pqrtyfirst Street. New York; and the orice, 3 dollars 25 cents, is the cheapest

insurance we have ever seen.-

Rwr.

Pidgin War-Song Of Bsi

p. 10

Natives

LIEU T.-COLONEL John V. Mathers, of the Solomon Islands, who is at present in Queensland, says that when he was recently in the Russell Group of the ESI (Cape Marsh, to old hands) he found that the natives were singing a new song in Pidgin which was an interesting product of their own very close participation in the war. The Pidgin is peculiar to that place, and different from the Pidgin spoken elsewhere. Here is the song, as he transcribed it.

ME fly all about, along easti, along westi, Me senteri all aroundi, keep him o’Solomoni.

My worka looka looka, along landa alone sea, Ha-ha, ha-ha, ha-ha-ha, ha-ha!

I amu air ford, me sina ’long him Because he big fighti, come along Japan!

Me look ’im one fella submarina diva downi.

Ha-ha, ha-ha, he kai-kai belong me!

Me fella coma downi, along my para chuti, Enemy shooti come, but miss all abouti I heari him come, but where me ’lone him.

Ha-ha, ha-ha, Japani, ha-ha!

Japani want to simash ’im, every island Pacifici; Amereeca simash ’im capitana Tokio You looka outa my friend, all mani kicki backi.

Me laugh along you, Japani,. ha-ha!

When the Rev. and Mrs. H. A. Brown (formerly Sister Anne Cole) of the LMS returned to Papua they spent a week with Rev. P. and Mrs. Chatterton in their missionary station at Delena before go ing on to their own station in Koaru the sub-station to Moru. They walked’ the forty miles _to their station, taking six days to do it, and staying with different missionary teachers at nights.

Copra Board's

p. 10

Surplus

Fiji Position Explained

Letter to the Editor rE note in your June issue referring to the operations of the Fiji Supply and Production Board is, in one respect, misleading. The Board did, as you indicate, accumulate a surplus of £15,000, but the reason for the accumula tion is not the one given by you—viz., that the Board “bought at the old fixed prices and sold in a very hungry market.”

The surplus arose from copra bought during the period February 1942-April, 1943, when the Board was acting on behalf of the Fiji Government. Through out this time, the f.o.b. price of copra was known. The only uncertainty was one affecting the price which could be paid to copra producers at local centres after making allowances for storage charges, shrinkage, interest on purchase price, insurance in store and other inci dental expenses, all of which, of course, would be greatly influenced by the fre quency of shipments. The Board also had to make provision for war risk in store.

The Board became involved as a buyer of copra at a time of extreme difficulty in the Pacific and when it was quite impossible to make any forecast of future shipping conditions. Moreover, the Board was dealing with public funds and was bound, therefore, to make adequate pro vision for all known charges as well as some allowance for contingencies. The latter term covered a wide field in 1942.

From the beginning of its operations, the Board adopted the principle that any surplus of receipts over actual expendi ture should be regarded as the property of the producers, to be returned to them at the first opportunity. It was also hoped to make periodical revisions of the local price in order to bring the latter more into line with actual handling ex penses. But a practical difficulty soon arose in this connection as a result of the existence of relatively large accumu lations of copra in distant islands for which shipping could not be provided, and in resnect of which serious losses might consequently have been incurred.

The last of these remote accumulations was not, in fact, lifted until well on in 1944 though, meanwhile, one adjustment, increasing the local price by 5/- per ton, was made in June, 1942.

The surplus of £15,000 now being dis tributed may thus be regarded as coming from two sources: a part of it may be regarded as a marginal provision held back temporarily from the producer: while the remainder is more in the nature of a “windfall” resulting from the emergence of considerably better shipping facilities than those which could reason ably have been hoped for in 1942.

It is to be hoped that this explanation may serve to dispel the conclusion, which might have been drawn from your note, that the Fiji Supply and Production Board had been “playing the market.”

I am, etc.,

C. Harvey,

Acting Director of Agriculture, Controller of Production and Marketing.

Suva, Fiji.

Sept. 9. 1944.

An American naval surgeon was re cently flown from US South Pacific head quarters to Efate, New Hebrides, where he successfully performed a delicate brain operation on a Hebridean native who had been seriously injured in an accident.

Topicalities

p. 11

ABABE-IN-THE-WOOD story—lslands

version. When a Fijian who had been born in Tonga arrived in the land of his fathers for the first time a few weeks ago, he could not speak a word of Fijian. Some time later he found him self in a Suva hotel and' was arrested and charged with being on “licensed premises unlawfully.” His defence was that, having lived in Tonga, he did not recognise a hotel when he saw one. He thought that it was a store!

The magistrate dismissed the case. * DURING the last few years, the in habitants of the outer Cook Islands have tried to join in the minor prosperity wave provided by the tomato market, which shows a much better return for one’s labour than time spent on bananas and oranges.

But it is a game of chance. So often their hard worked crops go to waste when, due to war conditions, the hoped-for ship fails to eventuate.

I was reading the news-bulletin outside the post office of one of the outer islands, at a time when a record tomato crop was rotting on the ground—after so much bush-clearing, planting and tending, so much weary carrying of water.

Then Little Lulu came round the cor ner. He is small and quaint, and his real name is Ruru. There is a dash of Scotch in his blood—(Scotch nationality I mean, of course). He is also an indus trious planter and a church-deacon.

“What is the news to-day?” Little Lulu asked.

I gave him a brief summary.

He shook his head sadly. “It is so silly, all this killing—killing. The white men came and taught us that it is wrong to kill —that we should love our fellow-men.

Yet back in their homelands they seem to spend most of their time killing each other. Bye-and-bye there will be no more white men; no more Germans; no more British; no more Americans.”

He spread his hands in a hopeless ges ture at the futility of it all, as applied to the Cook Islands. “And besides —look at

our tomatoes !”-

Wsb.

WHO will govern the Pacific Islands between New Guinea and Japan after the war? When this question was put to the Australian public by Gallup poll in November this was the result: Favour joint control by— P.C.

America and British Empire IS America and Australia 12 United Nations . 12 International 2 Total “joint control” .. .. .. .. 39 Favour control by— America 22 Australia 19 British Empire 11 Other answers 3 No answer 6 It is interesting to note that it was reported that among Labour voters, a high proportion favoured giving control to Australia. The state of inflation of the Australian Labour ego is a most interest ing phenomenon; but one still wonders what prompts this quaint notion. Aus tralia at present is riven by class war and industrial chaos: the Labour Gov ernment has proved that it cannot govern even its own trade-unionists. These things indicate that it should tend to its own knitting for some generations to come.

There is also the apparently unimport ant fact that these islands have been won back from Japan at considerable loss to the United States in both men and materials.

rE New Caledonian Administration— so says an Australian newspaper—is to import pre-fabricated houses from Australia to relieve that colony’s hous ing shortage. These—with corrugated iron roofs, and ranging in price from £245 for two rooms to £BOO for five rooms with bathroom and conveniences—will be imported duty-free.

Many Australian victims of the housing shortage will no doubt wonder why this “charity” does not begin at home, and why these pre-fabricated mansions are not available for home consumption. * SPEAKING at a Rotary Club luncheon in Auckland, in October, Brigadier J. G. C. Wales, former commander of the Fiji Defence Force, told of the lighter side of fitting the Fijians into the military pattern.

“The Fijians had to be put into full uniform, including boots,” he said, “and the Fijian foot has to be seen to be believed. He takes about a size 14. After a year or so, when he hast become accus tomed to footgear, he can wear about one size smaller.”

But the men rapidly became used to the uniforms and became very proud of them. To enable them to wear steel hel mets, their fuzzy hair had to be cut off.

But once they had been issued with hel mets it was not easy to get these off them again. They thought they were most beautiful and comfortable! They even slept in them.

Training the Fijians to eat European food was also a problem. Their natural food, of course, is vegetables, such as taro, yam and tapioca, and fish, but, after a time, even this difficulty was overcome. * “T>AGIAI,’’ who claims to be an author- Jt> ity on Pidgin English, writes as follows: “With reference to the phrase ‘bomb happy,’ in August ‘PlM’—in Pidgin as spoken in Netv Guinea, the words ‘please’ and ‘glad’ are almost unknown. Some of our sophisticated youths are beginning to use The word ‘please’ a little—the use of this and other words are brought about mostly through contact with the Army.

“True, the words may have been used in Kitchen Pidgin, which is the curse of Pidgin English—Rebaul being the leading culprit.

“ ‘Happy’ is a hard word to translate into Pidgin: the nearest you can get to it is ‘hamamas,’ but to use it in the sense required by Pastor Campbell would hardly be correct.

“To say, ‘ ’E hamamas long bomb,’ would actually mean ‘He is happy or joyful about the bombs.’ To get the native to under stand that a person was really ‘bomb happy’ you would have to say, ‘ ’lm ’e long-long long bomb ’e fire-up.’

“Believe me, the native of New Guinea knows more about bombs these days than the average Australian resident.

“Tell Territorians that they need not worry about the word ‘boong.’ It will leave with the Army, if not before.

“Actually, I first heard the word many years ago in New Guinea. An old North Queensland friend of mine always used it when making any reference to an Aus tralian aboriginal; it was commonly used by other residents of Papua who had lived in North Australia. There is no doubt that the word ‘boong’ is a cor rupt abbreviation of the word ‘aboriginal.’

“This is Captain Deland’s story about the word: “A new arival in Port Moresby was following a Police Boy (ex-Manda*ted Ter

ritory) along the street and kept calling Hey, Boong.’

The new arrival was left gasping when the PB swung round and said; ‘No can, masta. Me one fella, that’s all!”’

LEd. Note: For the benefit of non- Pidgineers, “boong” (or “bung”) in Pidgin means “all get together.”] * rE “Scratching Song” of a Serviceman in New Guinea (August “PIM”) reminds me of the nursery-rhymes of a teacher at the catechist’s college in New Guinea. The following jingle was designed to educate the Sepik natives to cleanliness and to cease their everlasting scratching. For the uninitiated, “kas-kas” is an irritating rash, suffered frequently by natives who are not overgiven to washing. “Kas-kas-man” is, therefore, simply a man who suffers from the itch.

“Broom ’im” means to sweep; “scrape” to scratch. The natives sang this song to the tune of “Lightly Row.”

The Pidgin has been anglicised for the benefit of readers.

Scrape, scrape, scrape—all kas-kas-man ’e scrape— Scrape ’im arm and scrape ’im leg— scrape ’im backside, scrape ’im neck!

Scrape, scrape, scrape—all kas-kas-man ’e scrape.

Broom, broom broom—all cook ’e catch ’im broom.

Broom ’im place and broom ’im house, broom ’im road—rubbish rouse!

Broom, broom, broom —all cook ’e broom all room.

“Pat.”

Let's Blame The Germans

p. 11

For Indentured Labour!

Letter to the Editor CotlLD any one of your readers en lighten me about the history of the indentured labour system and the Native Labour Ordinance of the Terri tory of New Guinea.

There was a rumour that the Germans thought of it and worked it out in blue print before 1914. And, subsequently, that the Australian Administration took it over, made a few amendments and adopted it as its own policy.

If that be true, the whole system would be German then? And in this day and age—well, I ask you!

I am, etc.,

Hobart, Tas. 20/10/44.

Mombo.

Busbies

p. 12

Jap ‘Colonists ’

Big Mopping-up Job in New Guinea

REFERENCES to the Japanese peril in Australia’s near north usually coin cide so neatly with Australian war loan drives that Australians generally find it easy to shrug them off as propaganda.

It is doubtful if the latest warnmg as to the state of affairs in New Guinea—this time by GOC Blarney at the end of October —will be taken any more seriously by the average Australian.

But letters received in this office over the last few months leave no room to doubt that Territorians are well aware of the colossal task of mopping-up that must be undertaken in the arc formed by Bou gainville, New Britain, New Ireland and Wewak, on the New Guinea mainland.

General Blarney estimates that there are 90,000 Japs at large in these areas.

“There will be no safety for the next generation,” he said, “unless they are cleaned out.”

If they were not cleaned out and the Philippines success—or any other success further ntprth—were accepted as a final stage to victory and used as an excuse to reduce concentration on the war, then Japanese “colonisation” of islands in the Pacific must also be accepted as a fact and the sacrifices of our troops would go for nothing.

It is doubtful if anyone expects, as Gen eral Blarney infers, that these Japs are to be left in our islands indefinitely; but while the general public, in hailing each island-hop as a milestone on the way to Tokio, is likely to forget the work yet to be done in the by-passed Jap bases, Islands people are thinking seriously of how these Japs are to be rooted out of their nests. By whom are they to be rooted; and, above all—when?

ATERRITORIAN, now back in North ern New Guinea with the Army writing in early September, said; Guessing the number of Japs in the Sepik district is a favourite pastime here—and in this your guess is as good as mine.

“But, whatever the Jap strength, it is going to be a major operation to dig them out of the Sepik; they are spread from one end to the other. Aitape beach head is still a beach-head. Few people down south realise how vast the country is at the back of the range—and I should imagine the Nip is having a wonderful time in there.

ic P getting the Japs out

a J° b for the Australian Army—they have the money and the man-power; and * equally obvious that until such time ffjhey are all out, civilian administra- ” Part ° f th 6 Territor y cannot T HE leap-frogging methods developed A S A °rtb S nr CC^ Sf v y . General Mac iri hls , VlC tory march on Tokio, although productive of militarv S ° lV6 problem of clear 15®. H p -P 16 mess le f t behind. Until recently it was confidently hoped, and bv thp lo Tam' ri^orianS as well as others, that the Japs so marooned would either be starved out or die of fever.

But the Jap, even when isolated seem* disease’ 7 Pos U sib?v ‘ die o( sta ™«on or

tahjwSta We Regions *ol Territory** Jap

‘colonists” are doing both But there are m ll fSi any U lf JS ports are correct, who are further toll nfV anatically eager to take to iSn fi? 1 - 0f Eur °Peans before they go to join their ancestors. e

!t is reported that in some areas they ?nnh be in^ili PPlled^ y u SUb . n i a n ine - ?v, SUppl - es . wou2d k® totally madequate the maintenance of 90,000 men) and that in Rabaul they have at least 3,000 acres under food cultivation.

Although units of the AIF maintained themselves in Timor for many months, it tibmtv^to 1 the n Europear * susce P" tibihty to malaria and our reliance on varied and balanced diet, 90,000 of our men could remain for long in the hinterlands of these enemy bases. But it has to be conceded that the wily Jap, thrown on durabl^an^maV 1,063 m the 2Ungle ’ 15 a durable animal.

=r.is

It can be safely assumed, too, that the Japs, wandering in native territory, will have none of the scruples of pre-war Europeans for the welfare of villagers, or Vn l 6 r!^^f a f de i is ’ ° r ¥ anyone goes hungry to-day m these districts it will not be the Sons of Heaven.

NEW Ireland has a large native popuh ? re ’ t 0 Japs have . dad °£ many European plantations and have been practically undisturbed for over 2* years. The Gazelle Peninsula in New Britain also supported fatSn e thnt lV wi? )P o nativ ? poputhat was encouraged, during the P 1 e-war years, to grow vegetables and SaKo doubt have V now Se bee a n dJ r a o C p?d £ the Japs!** c o oVrse P f P have g had ample ttme in which to plant large food eardens frtr themselves, as has already reported The native population of the Senik diQ trlct is very large The SLtaf arSf," from the river to are somewhat scantily peopled’ but inside thp pnactoi

T.;.ss e“ sk s"ssa %

“hap-villages.” Along the main trank which skirts the foothills befo™they flat ten out to become the Sepik plain vil lages are in an almost continuous chain, They are self-supporting—each familv has its plot in the large vlllagf ganSn Y and many own pigs and fowls 8 8 ’ a ™ Many of these gardens tn-dnv mnct support Jap troops who have infiltrated and who are living, not “on the coun try,” but on the natives in these back waters.

The job of hunting the Jans from thp labyrinthic village g S ystemf ovei t he r ange ’ m the unroaded Sepik district, will be a long and arduous one; if it con

rswrS-JHr*S

Busbies

HTHE repercussion on native life can be X left to the imagination. The whole European population of the Sepik district before the war did not exceed 200 “ and they came little into contact with the vast majority of the natives of the district, who went their own way undis natives’ way to grow no more than will support them frugally: but now! where they have been suddenly called upon to support tens of thousands of Jan soldiers, theff own food shortSmust be acute. It can be assumed too that these Japs will leave behind them a legacy of half-castes, as previously their pearl fishing compatriots fathered half-Janan

ef cfildre^upin I “strahan nXves

° f the Torr eS Straits bfoke h ° Ut ’ T ? yson Hore ceased to be a planter in New Shpro a ’v, an S et v. ri m d to Royal Navy, where he had held commissioned rank, o or many . ye ?T s - Between 1940 and 1944, ? n ch - ar B e of BST S^ took part in six invasions — one in

SFl' EJsn s Sm

WittiSsinsi'iS

Wewak Hinterland Where Jap Refugees May Go

p. 12

Over the coastal range, behind Wewak, We see, from an elevatoin of about 1,500 feet, first, the kunai-covered foothills and then, in the distance, the beginning of the kunai plains, which stretch towards the Sepik River.

Recognition of Gallant

p. 13

Service Empire Medal for Mrs. Ruby Boye, of Vanikoro

FOR valuable work in the Allied cause, while isolated by the Japanese occu pation of the Solomons in 1942-43, Mrs. Ruby Olive Boye, of Vanikoro. Santa Cruz Group, has been awarded the British Empire Medal.

When all other Europeans were with drawn from the Group (which is 450 miles south-east of Tulagi), Mr. and Mrs. Boye

remained behind. Then, although in con stant danger of capture by the Japs, Mrs.

Boye, on her tele-radio, transmitted meteorological data from her own read ings. to Allied headquarters. This and other information she supplied, proved of great value to our aircraft operating over the area.

Mr. Boye is manager of the Kauri Tim ber Company and formerly was attached to Burns Philp & Co. He has an exten sive knowledge of the whole area.

In peacetime, Mrs. Boye worked for the timber company as a wireless operator.

She is Australian-born, but has lived 20 years in the Islands, and is widely known for her hospitality and kindness. Last year she was made an honorary third officer of the Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service.

They have two sons—Ken, in the RAAF: and Don, who lives with an aunt in Sydney.

Because of ill-health, Mr. A. H. Phil lips, Director of Education, has left Fiji on six months’ leave of absence.

A rcent picture of Mr. and Mrs. S. S. Boye, at their Vanikoro home, reprinted from June "TIM.”

Death Of Fijian Airman

p. 13

In England

AFTER many months of illness, follow ing an attack of pleurisy, Ratu Dovi Komaisavai, RAF, died in England on October 19.

Ratu Dovi went to school at Toorak Boys’ School and Queen Victoria School, in Fiji, and later went to New Zealand, where he was a pupil at Wanganui Tech nical College. He matriculated in 1939, and in 1940 he joined the Lands Depart ment in Fiji, as a cadet.

When volunteers were called for the first Fiji RAF contingent, Ratu Dovi was among those selected, and he left for England in 1941. He was the only repre sentative of his race in the Royal Air Force, and letters from British people who met him showed that he was popu lar with his fellow-airmen.

Early this year he contracted pleurisy.

From advices received in Fiji it seemed that he had made a good recovery, but complications ensued later, and for the past few months he had been dangerously ill.

Ratu Dovi was the son of Ratu Eave naca Komaisavai and Adi Miriama Loatuicama. On his mother’s side he was a descendant of Ratu Cakobau. His paternal grandfather was one of the Chiefs who signed the Deed of Cession in 1874.

In Defence Of Contract Labour

pp. 14-15

By H. S. N. Robinson, Secretary of the Melanesian Mission, Sydney

“TNDENTURED” is perhaps an unfor- X tunate word —a word associated with the bad old days and, in the minds of so many people, associated with “forced” or compulsory labour. There are not a few who regard it as something akin to a modified form of “slavery”—and, of course, the exploitation of the poor native.

Indentured, really, is merely- another word for contract as opposed to casual labour. A vast amount of nonsense is talked and written about the matter and idealists are often a bit of a nuisance.

Indeed, many—some known to the writer —don’t seek the facts of the situation, as it is to-day, but look merely for con firmation of their own preconceived, ill based ideas.

I do not pose as an expert; but I have travelled much; I have sofight the views and experiences of many competent to judge; visited many of the islands of the South Seas on more than one occasion; know something at first hand of the native peoples of other countries—and particularly those far removed from the usual trade and tourist routes.

I know the views of the missionaries, and their difficulties, and I warmly sym pathise with them; the views, also, of the trader and planter. And, frankly, I hold no brief for “Big Business.’' AH my sympathies are with the native—while having nothing whatever in common with the over-class-conscious product of a

degenerate democracy.

IT may be taken that the white man has lost none of his acquisitiveness, and that development will take place —inevitably. Now, how can this be car ried out best in the interest of the native the real owner of the land? I know of the so-called octopus grip of the “Big Firms.” I have met and talked with both sides, and have seen the native as com paratively few white people have seen him.

Just what are the objections to con tract labour? What is contract labour?

Is it not merely an agreement between a plantation employer ,and a prospective native labourer who desires to work on

the plantation? The contract or agree ment has been drawn up by the Administration—the conditions provide ample security for the native. The em ployer is assured of labour for a pre determined time—failing which he could not carry on. Even a member of the class conscious- coterie informed the House of Representatives that “the favourable attitude of the natives to the cause of the Allied Nations is believed by the Government to be due, to a great extent, to the sympathetic administration of native affairs by past administrations . . . etc.,” which doesn’t go to show any undue anxiety concerning ill-treatment or ex ploitation. No—the native knows full well ’ tha t his position is secure, and that he can obtain immediate redress from the local DOs.

It is difficult to learn just what are the objections to a system of labour based on agreement or contract between employee and employer. The writer is not aware that these objections have been defined in detail.

Settlement and development cannot proceed, without labour—and so, what kind of labour is best in the interests of the natives? Local, under Government supervision, backed-up, maybe, with the kindly assistance and co-operation of the missionary societies; or imported: labour, as tried in the New Hebrides Islands, with all its attendant difficulties.

Imported labour would be economically and morally unsound. Casual labour is not workable in most of the, as yet, undeveloped Pacific Islands. Those who know conditions, and have had experience, know that the natives lack any sense of responsibility—very few are sufficiently mentally developed to understand any system of casual labour. The position arising from the employment of natives who, after receiving their first pay, would come and go just as their child-like fancy urged—is impossible. Some form or sys tem of “agreement” is absolutely essen tial in the present stage of native devel opment-essential quite as much for the welfare of the native as for any form of employment.

I AM not interested in dividends. I try to take a long view: What is best for the native, the real owner of the land —those people to whom we now owe so much and on whose account we have made all sorts of promises, protestations and charters.

Do not let us hamper or prohibit sound commercial development, but, recognising that it is inevitable, rather let us pro pound a scheme under watchful Govern ment supervision—something constructive —to cover a period of not less than a generation or even two—at any rate until such time as the natives are ready for a more advanced stage of, say, peasant farming, working and developing their own plantations.

The land is theirs—“ Big Biz” has got only leases. Under existing legislation, land cannot be bought, and leases only are arranged, and under the watchful care of Government. It will be more than a generation before these people are ready for any form of even partial self-govern ment.

Let those who talk and write so glibly about the exploitation of the native seek adjustment of the following points: Who controls the price of copra and many other Island products, and consequently the rate of wages? Not the local “Big Business,” but the inner circle of world financial wanglers, so difficult to trace.

Why not have international fixation of

prices? The basic wage seems to be sub ject to ready fixing. Why not basic profits?

THE worst period in the employment experiences of the native, and when he is subject to exploitation, is the period between being paid-off by the plantation manager and his return to his native home village, a period often tak ing from six to eight weeks —during which waiting time he is at a loose end, and the prey of the unscrupulous Asiatic trader and others. This is an important mat ter, and one for the attention of the Administration or/and the missionary societies Education; medical services; employ ment under benevolent discipline, develop ing a sense of moral responsibility; plan tations staffed with Melanesians (not Asiatics) housed with their families in what we might call garden villages; cared for and instructed by trained and intelli gent, friendly whites, backed by mission ary organisations—it seems that in such way lies wisdom.

These are not visionary ideas. Literally thousands of these natives have scarcely reached the school-child stage; they are not yet free from their fears and extra ordinary superstitions, their tabus. We need a system, to be introduced over a long period of years, where the native will be encouraged to move his place of abode to new native houses, on land con tiguous to plantations, where he will learn cleanliness and a better mode of life, and raise families in better condi tions. As health improves, so will men tality, and they will become better able to learn trades. Villages, then, will evolve alongside plantations which will ulti mately be taken over by the native when qualified to do so with some degree of success.

IF labour cannot be obtained on some basis of agreement or contract between employee ajid employer, then it would appear likely that the large plantations—especially those situated some distance from availability of native labour —will close down. It is not to be expected that any employer will bring labour from distances without some assurance that such labour will remain for a reasonable time. Nor will natives travel distances without some security of employment.

A trained observer, with many years’ intensive study of the Melanesian, one who has been all over many islands and in no way associated with personal or company aggrandisement, who has no vested interests to serve, refers to the present system of employment as “a con tribution to the development of the native.” He reports that labour has been well looked after. He expresses the opinion that “the regular hours of labour, the regular food, the benevolent discipline of plantations, has done a lot to improve the health of the natives and has been a real contribution to native development.”

Dr. S. M. Lambert (whose great ser vices throughout the Pacific are too well known to require any reference here) approved of the system and methods of obtaining labour carried out by the British Administration in the Solomons, and summed up: “The recruiting of con tract labour was once a curse, but more enlightened government has turned it into something of a blessing; wise labour laws have made it so that a worker usually leaves the plantation with his health better than when he came.”

The Resident Commissioner of the New Hebrides, Mr. R. D. Blandy, accom nanied by Mrs. Blandy, arrived in Ade laide, SA, at the end of October on fur rough.

Decorations For

p. 15

Territorians

Decorations to the following New Guinea residents have recently been gazetted: Distinguished Service Cross Lieutenant J. R. Keenan, RANVR.

Lieutenant M. H. Wright, RANVR.

Military Cross Lieutenant (Temp. Capt.) R. R. Cole.

Distinguished Conduct Medal Warrant-Officer II A. L. Robinson.

Warrant-Officer Robinson (“Robbie” to

all who know him) was one of the for tunate survivors of the Tol massacre, when a number of New Guinea men, caught in the jungles of New Britain after the invasion of Rabaul, were slaughtered by the Japs j Bishop Strong, of New Guinea, who had been in England during the past few months to lecture on the work of his diocese, returned to Australia at the end of October. He is now in Sydney, attending the meetings of the bishops of the Commonwealth, before returning to his diocese.

Hula-Skirt Trade Booms

p. 16

From Our Own Correspondent

Rarotonga, Oct. 6.

fTtHERE is at present a revival of the A hula-skirt trade. Several dealers have large orders on hand, and many people are engaged in this colourful little industry.

The Administration frequently points to this occupation as one of the reasons why

Rarotongans will not work on fruit at 5/a case. But who can blame the natives for wanting to make a little hay—or grass skirts—while the US sun shines? It is roughly estimated that some 50,000 de corated hula-skirts have been shipped from Rarotonga during the last two years. This represents a considerable in come to a people who have few oppor tunities to make ready cash—without which, even Pacific Islanders cannot get along very well these days.

Influenza Now : Tourists

p. 16

in the Future Grim Prospects in Tahiti From Our Own Correspondent

Papeete, Oct. 2

Notwithstanding twin epidemics of influenza and dengue fever, this island has cause for congratulation in that those breeders of disease, the honky-tonks, have been closed for a season.

The dengue fever arrived in the person of one convalescent who had lately come from a Pacific station where the disease is holding high carnival. Our mosquitoes fell upon him and have zealously carried the germs to our residents.

The honky-tonks have done for the influenza what thn mosquitoes have for the dengue fever.

This colony has had no dengue fever since 1910 or 1911 Another reason for congratulation is the announcement that the motor truck of the Bernard brothers will make a weekly tour of the west coast districts of Papeete and in accordance with existing: regulations and price-fixing orders, will sell the following goods, ex-the Revictual ling Service: 12 oz. cans of beef, 8f.75; 1 lb. cans of butter, 19f.50; bonito in oil. 9 francs per can; milk, per can, 6f.75: sugar, per kilo, 5f.50: Australian rice, per kilo. 5f .50; tea, per kilo, 90 francs; khaki cloth, 25 francs per metre. The implica tions from the sale of such goods are obvious.

Tourism For Tahiti?

SOME of our bright, forward-looking people are predicting that the Mat son Line will establish a service to Papeete, after the.war. The opinion of this writer is that the Matson Line would do so only on the condition that the Big Five be given full licence to exploit this colony as they have exploited Hawaii.

In such an event, every bright, for ward-looking individual would be driven out of business: the islands would speed ily be transformed into another Asiatic- Hollywood Blonde Melting-pot: the Booster Club would stir up pronaganda for political association .with Hawaii.

That would mean an eventual transfer of the islands to the Philippines Repub lic: for the only solution of the racial nroblem appears to be the placing of Hawaii under the sovereignty of the Manila Government—after the war has been won. Otherwise, every native son of the Golden West in the Pacific Coast States will come to an untimely end, through apoplexy. Already, the rumblings of the wrath to come are to be heard over the radio.

My opinion is that post-war tourism will gravitate to the Pacific battlefields: to Guadalcanal, to New Guinea, to the Caroline and Mariana Islands.

Such speculation is, however, of mat ters far in the future.

’Flu Worse Than Bubonic

Plague

Oct. 9, 1944.

OUR schools, theatres and honky-tonks still remain closed because of our twin epidemics—dengue and influenza.

If you have read John Masefield’s South American romance, “Odtaa,” the signi ficance of the title represents precisely our problems at Tahiti. The title “Odtaa” signifies “One damned thing after another.”

Odtaa enter in train, from passing ships, into the foul incubation of the honky-tonks, and emerge as epidemics.

And it will so continue here and else where, until influenza, in its various forms, shall be placed on the list with small-pox. bubonic plague, cholera, and yellow fever, where it properly belongs, influenza has killed more people than have all the other “quarantined” diseases combined.

This is an example of the extraordinary mental attitude of the public toward that which is familiar or otherwise.

For instance, during pre-war years, in the United States, the slaughter by motor cars maintained an annual total of 40,000.

This became familiar, and no one was horrified/ or even disturbed by the ghastly mass-murder. Had, however, a band of Esquimaux invaded San Francisco and killed 400 Chinamen, the newspapers of the land would have shrieked the “ter rible holocaust” as a major tragedy.

So. throughout the world, influenza slays its millions, while bubonic plague— a name of horror —kills its hundreds.

Horrors On Tahiti

IN the procession of Odtaa, also, are dregs of the wine press from inglori ous vineyards, that outrage the palate: the cold south wind that stirs to pernicious activity the filaria sleeping in our lymphatics: the wood-choppers who, destroying our forests, threaten our water sunply; fishermen who refuse to fish unless they receive for their catch its weight in gold; the speeding motor car that passes at a distance of a quarter of an inch when we are abroad on the highway; our young women imitating the costume and manners of Hollywood blondes.

Verily, with this last, our cup of sor row is full and running over; for we remember the charmingly modest cos tumes and the gracious good manners of their mothers and grandmothers.

Our young Tahitians are not, indeed, Clown Worshippers; but some clown cos tume or affectation will, now and again, attract? them; and another Odtaa is upon us for a season.

N. Caledonian Assembly

Line

From Our Own Correspondent

Noumea, Oct. 21.

WITH appropriate ceremony, the US Army’s 150th Ordnance Motor Veh icle Assembly Company recently assembled here its 10,000 th vehicle at the Army base motor pool. Present to wit ness the achievement—which is being given publicity in the United States to show that the soldier is capable of the same assembly line precision as the worker back home—were New Caledonian Island Commander Brig.-General William I. Rose and a number of Ordnance Unit commanders.

The 10,000 vehicles, of which the last was a GMC truck, run from jeeps to tractors, and were assembled in 15 months. v

Copra Rise

Fiji Planters Benefit

IT has been announced by the Fiji Con troller of Production and Marketing that from October 5, 1944, and until further notice, the purchase price of copra at Suva and Levuka, Fiji, will be £2O per ton for plantation grade and £lB/10/- per ton for fair merchantable sun-dried copra.

This represents a rise of 10/- per ton on previous prices for each grade of copra.

This new price is exclusive of the Fiji bonus of 15/- per ton.

Miss Colledge, of the Methodist Mission.

Fiji, has resigned.

Pleasants, Of Apia

Promotion For Col. E. T.

Apia, Oct. 6.

THE promotion of Lieut.-Col. E. T.

Pleasants, DSO, MC„ to the rank of Colonel, has been announced. He is now serving with the NZ Armoured Corps on the Italian front.

Colonel Pleasants was a popular lawyer in Apia for many years before World War II and, before his departure from Samoa in 1940, he was an officer in the Samoan Volunteer Defence Force.. He took part in the North African campaign, and his services earned him rapid promotion and the Distinguished Service Order and the Military Cross.

Fiji Commanders

p. 18

Decorated US Bronze Stars for Duty Well Done

nRHE officers commanding the two Fiji X battalions which recently returned to Fiji from active service in Bou gainville, Lieut.-Colonel G. T. Upton and Lieut.-Colonel F. W. Voelcker, have each been awarded the US Bronze Star. These are the citations: “Geoffrey T. Upton, Lieutenant-Colonel, Fiji Military Forces, for heroic achieve ment against the enemy at Bougainville, from January 12 to April 30. 1944, while serving as Commander of the battalion which successfully occupied an outpost at Ibu, 20 miles beyond the American perim eter, and constructed the Kameli strip for air supply and evacuation.

“He also submitted valuable informa tion concerning Japanese preparation for an assault on our perimeter defences, enabling American commanders to take counter - measures which contributed

materially to repulse of the hostile effort when it was launched.

“Colonel Upton performed gallantly on numerous reconnaissance in force mis sions, leading his battalion into strongly held Japanese territory. Throughout this prolonged period of intense activity, he exhibited aggressive leadership, keen fore sight and superior devotion to duty.”

“ITIRANCIS W. VOELCKER, Lieutenant- J/ Colonel, Fiji Military Forces, for heroic achievement against the enemy at Bougainville, Solomon Islands, from March 20 to June 5, 1944, while serving as commander of the battalion which pursued the fleeing Japanese forces and made a sweep along the Numa Numa trail in the Java Creek area. Later he led his troops in a fierce assault, which he planned and executed brilliantly, securing the flank of the Allied positions and keeping open vital lines of communi cation.

“From May 30 to June 5, Colonel Voelcker led his battalion on an import ant reconnaissance mission, sweeping the Empress Augusta Bay shore from the Tekessi River to Mawaraka Point. Dur- ' ing this successful amphibious operation valuable information was secured, many enemy fortifications destroyed and six artillery field pieces captured. During this entire period, Colonel Voelcker suc cessfully fulfilled his assigned combat mission and displayed resourcefulness, sound judgment, superior military ability and a high devotion to duty.”

Mr. James W. Baldie, who was a pro minent member of the Papuan Public Service 15 years ago, has been ill recently He is now living in Hampton, Victoria His son, Squadron-Leader Stan Baldie was killed in India in 1943.

Labourers And Coconuts

p. 18

Letter to the Editor IN a reply to a letter in the “Sydney Morning Herald” recently, asking why, if the Missions disapproved of the inHortt-nred labour system, they had employed it on their income-raising pro perties, the Rev. J. W. Burton evaded the issue. The point is that the Missions have emnloyed indentured labour, and at the minimum wages. He also evades another point—he says they have no properties in New Guinea. (That, I suppose, could be safely said of the New Guinea planters too, unfor tunately.) And why confine his denial to NG? Is it not a fact that the Methodist Mission has large plantation interests in the BSI?

In 1938 my agent signed on a boy at 10 - per month. After he had worked for a few weeks he was picked up by the police, as he had deserted from Mr. Bur ton’s Mission on the North Coast.

Being in NG solely for the good of the native, the Mission was not satisfied with merely getting the boy back, but prose cuted him in the District Court and got him a month’s gaol before making him return to work for them at a lower wage.

On another matter: When I put in a claim for £125 for coconut trees and cocoa cut down to make an extension to a drome, Mr. Alderman, after making me an offer of £4B (this meant 5/6 for fully grown coconuts and 2/6 for bearing cocoa), ex pressed surprise that I had put in a claim at all, as “it was done in the public in terest.” Mr. Alderman apparently does not consider that his work was “done in £™J? üblic int erest,” hence his claim for £6,000.

I am, etc..

Sydney.

R. C. Willmott.

Deadlock In Fruit

p. 19

Trade

Administration and Planters Differ From Our Own Correspondent

Rarotonga. Oct. 8.

THERE were three shipments of toma toes from Rarotonga during the last few months. The shipments were of 6,000, 9,800 and 6,000 cases respectively; the prices received for the fruit varied somewhat: £1 per case for the first ship ment; 16/9 for the second; and 16/6 for the last.

There is, however, a certain amount of local dissatisfaction about the operation of the “super-cargo system’’ during the prevailing* limitation of shipping space.

It is alleged that some Cook Island super cargoes plant extensively themselves and fill a considerable portion of their allotted space with their own fruit, and that of relatives and friends. It is alleged, also, that they fill the remaining space with cases purchased at a price considerably below the known market rate, from grow ers who have no alternative but to sell at this lower price or lose their fruit.

This is a case in which the Government could do the natives a service by acting as marketing agents, returning the full market price to the growers less actual shipping expenses, and with a scheme of fair space allotment to all. r plant, or. not to plant, that is the question which still vexes the' minds of Rarotonga planters and Adminis tration.

A number of lengthy meetings have been held recently on the banana and orange situation, but we seem to be no nearer any solution.

The growers stand firm by their con tention that the present price of 5/6 per case for oranges and 5/- for bananas is not a profitable proposition for the labour involved in production. Meanwhile, the Administration continues to threaten that if Rarotongan growers will not plant and fill their allotted space on overseas ships, the whole of Rarotonga’s shipping space will be given to other island groups whose planters will work at the existing prices.

The growers express themselves un moved by the threat. They refuse to believe that other island groups are any more willing to work for the present prices than they. They feel also, that, with world-wide attention focussed on the Pacific Islands, the NZ Government would not leave them flat.

A ray of hope has stirred in the troubled bosoms of Rarotongans recently.

There has been news that Rarotonga has been under discussion in the NZ Parlia ment and the tone of the Prime Minis ter suggests a closer co-operation between the Cook Islands and New Zealand, with the possibility of representation in the „House. That would be a Rarotongan dream come true.

Mr. Fraser voiced the hope that if and when air transport becomes possible, members might be able to visit the island.

Cook Islanders hope foi* a visit from the Prime Minister himself and a chance to discuss their problems first-hand.

In the meantime, Rarotongan planters stand with fingers crossed looking up to the sky for signs and portents.

EDITORIAL NOTE.— I Territorial, if they are wise, will not seek “representa tion” in the Parliaments of Australia or NZ. Representation means taxation —and the post-war taxation of those countries, for years, is going to be crippling. Paci fic Territories which keep clear of close

political association with big countries have a good chance of avoiding heavy taxes: and light taxation in the post-war period will spell prosperity for any Paci fic Territory. “Unrepresented minorities” in the Territories may have much to endure: but at least they cannot be taxed.

In Samoa

p. 19

Better Planting Prospects

From Our Own Correspondent

Apia, Oct. 6.

THE wet season has started exception ally early this year, after a long, dry spell. The heavy rains have greatly benefited cocoa and banana plantations, and it is hoped that there will now be relief from the severe shortage of native foodstuffs experienced during the last few months.

The labour problem on European plan tations has now eased considerably, and many of the cocoa plantations previously neglected and over-grown with weeds are being cleaned up and returning to normal production. Cocoa as well as copra prices are very good. During the last few months £lO5 per ton was paid for first grade hot-air dried cocoa of best quality, and at present, after a slight drop, it is bringing £95 per ton. The output for the present year is better than average. Most of the crop is bought by New Zealand and Australia. * Banana exports are still very small, in spite of the recent increase of 6d. per case, and new transport concessions.

Prospects for the future are, however, somewhat brighter, and the Samoans are reported to be planting large areas in bananas, particularly in the Safata Dis trict of the South Coast along the new Leulumoega-Safata Road.

Samoan Election

Several New Nominations

From Our Own Correspondent

Apia, Oct. 20.

NOMINATION of candidates for the election of two unofficial European members to the Samoan Legislative Council closed on October 13. Five men have announced their intention to stand.

Mr. A. G. Smyth, a former member of the Council, has consented to stand as a candidate and, as Mr. Smyth is popular and well-known as a public spirited citi zen, and greatly respected by all classes of the European population, he is ex pected to poll well. The Hon. A. Stowers, MLC, who stands for re-election, is almost certain of a large majority. He has gained a reputation for honest endeavour and fearless championship of the rights of the European residents.

Candidates have not yet announced their platforms, although Mr. A. Stowers considers himself a “Labour Party” can didate, and Mr. P. W. Glover, a business manager and secretary of the Apia Cham ber of Commerce, presumably represents commercial interests. Of the other can didates, Mr. Edward Westbrook is a planter, and Mr. A. G. Smyth a mer chant. Mr. A. McFarland is the local

photographer.

NOV. 4.—As a result of the election on November 1, Mr. A. Stowers (370 votes) and Mr. A. G. Smythe (321 votes) were elected. Mr. A McFarlane polled 160 votes, Mr. P. W. Glover 80, and Mr. E. West brook 42.

Died In N. Guinea

Corporal David Marr, RAAF, who died on September 6, as a result of burns sustained when fuel caught alight at an air force station in Dutch New Guinea.

Before enlisting in the RAAF, Cpl. Marr was a well-known engineer on the staff of the Public Works Department, Salamaua, New Guinea.

His uncle, Captain Edwards, was second in command of the NGVR in Rabaul. He is now a prisoner of war in Japan.

Cpl. Marr’s mother resides in Sydney, NSW.

Military Cross For Two

Members Of The Fmf

THE Military Cross has been awarded to two members of the Fiji Military Forces, Major R. O. Freeman and Lieutenant Isereli Korovulavula, for devo tion to duty in the Northern Solomons.

Both these officers are known to “PIM” readers: Major Freeman for his story, “Bougainville Patrol,” in June issue, and for other adventures; and Lieutenant Korovulavula for his epic trek, also through the mountains of Bougainville, when he and an American aviator were forced down.

The Fijian carried the American pilot for 14 days; but when he became too weak for this, he left the American and car ried on alone, seeking help. Korovulavula eventually reached his base, but the American was never found again.

Scholarship Winners