At School In Sarawak

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30498, 21 July 1964, Page 2

At School In Sarawak

Young New Zealanders who are working with the Voluntary Service Organisation in Sarawak are “doing a great job” said Mrs Edna Friel, of Christchurch, who has just returned after living there with her husband and family for two vears.

While living in Kuching, the capital of Sarawak, where Mr E. S. Friel, of the Lands and Survey Department, was stationed for a term under the Colombo Plan, the family met several young workers from Canterbury. Three from Christchurch were Messrs T. Pearson, M. Rogers and D. Fisher. “They were working in outer districts, assisting in schools and on agricultural projects,” Mrs Friel said last evening.

“New Zealanders are making a very good name for themselves. They are adaptable and fit in well.”

Although Kuching is not far from the border with Indonesia there had not been any great feeling of tension in the city since the policy of “confrontation” by Indonesia had begun, Mrs Friel said.

However, in the border areas where infiltration most frequently took place, people were constantly on the alert. The peoples of Sarawak (Chinese, Malay, Iban and Dyak) were delightful, and responded warmly to friendliness. she said. “They are also very hospitable.” The Friels five children— Gerald, aged 16, Anthony 13. Shayle 11, Katherine 8, and Elizabeth s—thrived on the life in Sarawak. “I feel that whatever they may have missed in basic education while away, they made up in general knowledge—they learnt a vast amount,” said Mrs Friel.

Gerald did lessons from the New Zealand Correspondence School. “He sat and got a good pass in School Certificate: I can’t speak too highly of this system,” said his mother.

The two girls attended an English preparatory school, and the younger boys a mission school where Chinese or Malay was a set subject. They learned Malay—and can

speak it quite fluently. “Shayle once got a higher mark for Malay than he did for English,” Mrs Friel said. But though the children flourished in Kuching, in some ways Mrs Friel is relieved that she has them back in New Zealand. “In Sarawak the climate makes it necessary to have help in the house, and one servant is an amah. The amahs just dote on the children—and ruin them. They would do everything for them: pick up their things, and clean and put on their shoes,” she said.

“For some of the English children born there it must be very difficult when they are sent to school in England.”

The kaboon, or gardener, was also necessary. “The torrential rain washes away any topsoil and leaves clay. Shrubs and flowers mostly have to be grown in pots,” Mrs Friel said. Plots that were maintained had to have bags of manure and topsoil added regularly.

Orchids are the main flower in local gardens.

The native races ate mainly rice, but there were also open fruit, vegetable and fish markets, and for the European communities a cold-

storage store offered a wide range of frozen foods from many countries—including New Zealand lamb, she said. Women in Kuching wore mainly European dress. Mrs Friel was fascinated by the beauty and daintiness of many of the Chinese girls.