Bride prices sore point with New Guinea men

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32450, 10 November 1970, Page 6

Bride prices sore point with New Guinea men

Men in Port Moresby,! New Guinea, had formed i a group to stop the exploitation of bride prices,; said Miss D. McEvedy, a teacher who has recently returned to Christchurch from New Guinea. “Fathers were asking from', $2OOO to $3OOO for their daughters, and in hard cash.” said Miss McEvedy. Bride prices in the villages were still at a reasonable level and very important. “The father in the village probably needs the bride price to pay back his relations for the purchase of his I own wife. Miss McEvedy has been! teaching at an Open Brethren’ Mission School at Kabori in the West Sepik District. ■ which is 2000 feet above sea level. There was rain every day and it had a temperate climate, she said. She taught a standard three primary school class which ranged in age from 12 to 17. “Discipline was the mfu'n problem. They were bush children used to a free life and it was difficult imposing a discipline they’re not used to,” she said. The aim eventually was to i have the children taught by only native teachers, said Miss McEvedy. There was only one girl among the 65 pupils, but they were hoping for another one next year. While there was a problem of absenteeism with the local boys the boarders were very scared of the spirits in the mission area because it was a different place from their homes. This fear of spirits in a

i strange place was one of the :most significant hurdles in ! the natives’ move towards modernity, said Miss Mc- | Evedy. Since the middle of the year the teaching service had been unified all over New Guinea as a move to making independence easier. Teacher

training was expanding also iwith a view to ence.INDEPENDENCE “The Australian Opposition leader (Mr G. Whitlam) has promised independence to ■New Guinea if his party is elected." The Australian administration was handling the social change of the people very well, she said. “They have established representative councils composed of men from groups of villages who meet regu-

larly at the Government station. There is also an elected representative in each village."

Communications were the main stumbling block to progress, she said. “But the impetus for building roads and growing new crops has to come from the people themselves. They can’t feel that it is being imposed on them.” VOCATIONAL CENTRE

A new vocational centre m the area had been established to cater for the boys who did not gain entry to high school. There they were taught agriculture, building and the raising of cattle. “The aim is to attract these young men back to their villages so that the standard of nutrition and living will be raised. “Lots of educated New Guineans have problems adjusting to the two cultures in which they live. “There is a high incidence of mental illness amongst them and I find it very sad,” she said. She said that , she tried to show the children what was good about their own culture. “And I tell them that not everything the Europeans do or did is good,” she said. She is returning to Kabori in January to a new school which the local people had offered to help build. “This is good because in the past there has been a tendency to leave it all to the Europeans and they must be involved in their own progress.”