THE MELANESIANS

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 146, 17 December 1924, Page 7

THE MELANESIANS

EFFECT OF WHITE IMPACT

SOCIALISTIC TENDENCIES

THE OLD'ORDER CHANGING,

. The people called Melanesian inhabit, the islands of the South-Western Pacific from Fiji on one side to New Britain on the other. In this area (excluding New Caledonian) - there are three spheres of Government. Australia . governs New Britain and the Northern Solomons. The rest of the Solomons form a protectorate under the orders of the High Commissioner of the Pacific, whose seat is in Fiji. The New Hebrides and two smaller groups, northwards belong to the condominium Government. For the purposes of this article,. states the writer, Dr.. Walter Ivens, in the Melbourne ■"Argus," the Melanesians in question are those of the Solomon Island protectorate and of the condominium Government.

Melanesians, as a whole, have strong Socialistic tendencies. Their kind is held in common, there is no private ownership. Every member of the family has a right to the produce whether he works for-it or no. Moneys earned abroad I have to be shared in return. •■ Their life is lived in villages, and these villages are enclosed communities, each one self-sufficient and self-contained save and except for the provision of marriageable girls. On occasions when great feasts 'are held, the unity of the whole people of 3iiiy_ district is shown in the invitations issued to a common gathering. The innate isolation is shown in the j story of the murder of Commodore Goodj enough at Santa Cruz, whose death presumably was owing to his,having landed at one village and then walked overland jto the next,' instead of going . back to his boats, coasting along, and then land.. Just as' in suburbia a person says that he. really does not know who his neighbour are, but that he knows | all the people in such and such a suburb, so your Melanesian often has nothing to do with: the people of the next village, but has friendly dealings ■ with those of a district a considerable distance off.

Of trade the Melanesian knows nest to nothing, but he has ways of circulating; the special money currency in use, red discs of shell, the best of fine size, 50. discs to an inch, each one-tenth of an inch in diameter. In the Southern Solomons the making of these is confined to .two districts, Langalanga, on Malaita, and. Makira on San Cristoval. New canoes, highly decorated, are taken on extensive tours, and payments in shell money are made to the visitors. The buying of a bride also means the circulation of the ■various monetary currencies, shell money, porpoise teeth, and dogs' teeth. AFTERMATH OP RECRUITING. The Queensland labour trade was responsible to a very considerable extent for depopulating the islands. Some places like Gaua and Lakona, in the Bank's Islands, and Vanua Lava have never recovered ■ irom the effects of wholesale recruiting. But the trade, working from without, never affected the innate characteristics of the native life." Communism still held sway, the isolation of the villages was not broken down; things still went on in the same groove. As the trade was carried on with, sailing vessels epidemics had little chance of spreading, owing to the-length of -the passage from Queensland.

; The establishing 'of local plantations on the.cessation of the trade meant in a measure the maintenance of the shine conditions .that had obtained in Queensland, but the engagements were shorter, and there, was no inducement for aii indeiihite absence from' home. However, ,the rate of mortality was probably increased by. the occurrence of epidemics, such as dysentery and influenza, both of them being imported diseases. • In the Solomons the recruiting of single women has.not been encouraged, * though the exigencies of the situation are al-ways-likely; to cause trouble. Where the recruiting is done in small cutters, and complete segregation of the sexes is im--possible, no woman recruit would staiid any chance of remaining inviolate while on board. In the New Hebrides under the condominium law no single woman is allowed to be. recruited without the consent of the chief. On Pentecost (Eaga) the Christian chiefs at the ' north end took it on themselves to issue a prohibition against the recruiting of single women, it beizi.g found that the condominium law was not observed. The good effect of this prohibition is shown in' the fact that during the eight years since it was made there has been a considerable increase in the population. Three chiefs of central Pentecost followed suit Representations made to the French Resident caused him to visit the place m question last October, and deport the three chiefs concerned. He had withhim a letter from the -British Resident sanctioning any measure which he 'mi<*ht think necessary. The arrest—whatever be the outcome—was a clear instance of callous indifference to the "question of the ultimate survival of the natives concerned, and was a brutal assertion of superior power/ A native people through Us recognised heads imposes its own prohibition on the recraitimr o f "iris and the two Governments concet-ned ride roughshod over the attempts of the people to preserve their own existence! \\ here money enters the native has not the right of selt-preserv;(tion

OUTSIDE TRADING.

The establishment of regular steamer services to the Solomons, and the advent ot the Ghinese trader, have created new conditions, and have run a wedge into tlie old Socialistic practices of the Mcl- I anesians -'Oij-entering in at Tulagi (Florida) a eteamer will take on board a large number of natives to work cargo, and w.ll keep them for several weeks me wages paid are comparatively hHi and have twice been raised owin" to strikes occumng Hough weather^ nee and tinned foodsf and ™ Z% ve l d mmm :.v"*'« N'srs Basf8 asf ■"■»■«■? failure to prow food mean,' r- the <o m p, lra t; V e stagnation ™Tmi eof decay. Work m , ldle n<*s and , lh« Solomons U, B Governmentfe prac" I Uca% ataluhed £01 oriines of violence.

Mnlaita can now be traversed from end to end, and from side to side, "by any stranger or unarmed person. On Santa Cruz alt the bows and arrows have been confiscated. Onco a week the whole population has to work.at the construction and maintenance of . Government roads. These are wide tracks, intended eventually to cover ths whole of the coastlines. Here is the final blow to the one-time isolation, and shore and mountain peoples all have their allotted tasks. On San Cristoval there are no mountain people left, the poor remnant to-day having been' ordered to leave their homes and live down on the shore.

The old order is going—has almost gone—and a wise and considerate Government will so act during the time of transition that the least hardship is entailed on its native subjects. After all, -money and trade, and financial success is not the one and only consideration in dealing with such a people as these Melanesians.

There remains the church. Her influence makes for integration and for unity. _ Where she is strong the population is on the increase. Her business is to bind up and to-heal, to counsel and advise, to inculcate ideas of selt-reliance to encourage family life, and to make her villages a delight in