POLYNESIAN WELFARE

Evening Star, Issue 19764, 14 January 1928, Page 12

POLYNESIAN WELFARE

NATIVE LIFE AND CUSTOMS SCIENTIFIC STUDY NEEDED The value of anthropological research among the races of the Pacific was emphasised on Saturday by Dr Raymond firth, of Auckland, who has just returned to .New Zealand after three years’ study at London University (says the ‘Herald’). Dr Firth is leaving Auckland again in a few mouths time to undertake a year’s field work on Tikopia, a small island to the southeast of the Solomon Islands group. He will be the only white man oil the island, which is six square miles in area and numbers 500 Polynesian inhabitants. Since anthropology is a study of man, his customs and institutions, Dr firth regards it as imperative that all those who come into contact with native races, whether in the capacity of administrator, missionary, or trader, should have some knowledge of the main principles of the subject. For the administrator it was obviously of great value, since it helped him to understand the native point of view in dealing with the multitudinous questions ot jaw and justice in the matter of marriage, allotment of land, succession of chieftainship, and the like. The missionary, too, could learn the real value of native custom, and so was able to preserve much which otherwise he might break down through his lack of knowledge. . , Many missionaries had recognised this, while incidentally some ot the most notable anthropological contributions had come from their careful study ot native life. The trader, or plautation manager, also benefited from the assistance of the anthropologist, since he is enabled to grasp the principle of native economic life and the most effective means of dealing with native labol '' INCENTIVE TO LABOR. The study of native economics, continued Dr' Firth, was a subject to which sufficient attention had not been devoted —perhaps because it dealt with the most obvious tacts of savage hie, and therefore those most easily overlooked. The general idea of the South Sea native was that he was constitutionally lazy, and that it was only under the spur of the white man s industry that ho could be kept at work. As the anthropologist showed, however, the native was like all other peoples, and it was only necessary to find the correct incentive. In the caso of native life, this was provided by a number of motives. The ambition to win fame as a gardener or fisherman, the desire to rival other men in his village, the wish to make a display at a communal least were responsible for making the native work hard and well. In the making of canoes, fishing expedition, and gardening work the native, when not disorganised by white influence, showed great industry ami care in all he accomplished. “ Enormous feasts, in _ which pigs, yams, and taro arc the principal delicacies, are characteristic of native life in some parts of the Pacific,” said Dr Firth. “ These feasts are one of the pivots of the economic system, and the natives look forward to them fol' months ahead with considerable excitement. They act as a great incentive to fishing and gardening, since the whole village wants to make the best display possible. The competition between individuals also helps to keep the gardening activities up to concert pitch during the year. These feasts also provide the means* of settling obligations, as in payment for making canoes or of marriage gifts. The social parade and display, which goes on at these gatherings is a. great attraction Ito the people. These gigantic affairs, which involve a consumption and even I waste of food, are often frowned on by white authorities. Anthropological research, however, clearly indicates that undue interference with these feasts removes an important stimulus from tribal life, disorganises the economic and social system, and robs the native of one of his greatest incentives to labor. FULFILLING A TRUST. “The study of primitive,economics has therefore a distinctly practical side. In the past grievous mistakes have been made, but missionary bodies and Government officials in the Pacific Islands are now devoting increased attention to anthropological study with distinct benefit to the native peoples under their charge. “The work which the Maori Ethnographical Research Board is proposing to undertake in the islands over which New Zealand has control will be of great practical assistance, if only from this point of view. The fundamental aim of the anthropological department of the University of Sydney, under Professor A.-R. Badcliffe Brown, is to train men For administrative work in Now Guinea and neighboring areas.

Australia has set an example to New Zealand by equipping, through the Australian National Research Council, a number of anthropologists in the Western Pacific.” , , , The future of certain important island territories, concluded Dr birth, was in the hands of Australia and New Zealand, some committed by mandate of the League of Nations. In the development of these islands it was our duty as well as in our interests to maintain the integrity of the native populations. The history of the Pacific has shown a sorrowful tale of contact of white with brown. It was to the anthropologist, then, whose business was the studv of the beliefs and cus-' toms of the native, that wc must look for assistance in fulfilling the trust.