FROM SAVAGERY TO USEFULNESS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 51, 16 March 1937, Page 9

FROM SAVAGERY TO USEFULNESS

Natives of the Solomon Islands MISSIONARY'S ADDRESS "When, in place of the savage, headhunting native, believer in witchcr.aft, sorcery and all the devilish practicos of grotesque heathens, we look at the great stream of human'life and energy, producing those things that are needed all over the world and cannot be produced elsewhere, it is something to be thankful for. They are working loday and crowding our schools and churches, ,and it is the Christian nxissionary who has worked this changej it is also the missiounary who in most cases had gone before and made easy the path of commerce/' said the Rev. J. F. Goldie, stationed on the island o± New Georgia in the western Solomon Islands, in an address to the Napier Rotary Club at its weekly meeting yesterday. Mr. Goldie gave an interesting account of the work of the missionary pioneers in the Solomon Group, the initial stages of colonial development there by Great Britain, Germany and France, and the gradual change in the native population, through the teaching of the missionaries, to a happy natiou that provides valuable tropical products for the consmptioa of the outcnde world. The almost unbelievable chango that had been. worked in the years since the end of last century could not be more fittingly illustrated than an occurrence during a collection for the establishment of a hospital on. New Georgia. A native tribe, formerly as savage as any in fhe South Seas, handed to the missionaries £1000 tnat was to be used in helping not only themselves but their hereditary enemies. V,ast Islands. The Solomons, which lifl north-west of Australia, are a vast collection of islands, many of them very big and mountainous, which extcnd over 650 miles of the tropical regions of tho Pacific Ocean. Some of the islands are 150 miles long, and produce all the well-known tropical products such as copra and pearl shell that cannot be produced elsewhere. At the end of the nineteenth century, the islands were a sort of "no man's land." British, French and German warships patrolled through the group, ' ' keeping order/' but there was no definito law or adrainistration until in I899 what was believed to be a final settloment was made. v A line drawn on the map divided Samoa, giving half to Germany and also giving her somo of the best of tne islands in this region. The Colonial Office was considered to have handied the affair very badly from the point of view of British interests, but upon the death of the Governor of Fiji, aud the High Commissioner of tho Western Pacific, who was on his way to England to protest upon the matter, the question was dropped. The group is now partly Australian mandated territory and partly controlled from the Colonial Office. Accounts of German brutality while they ruled portion of the islands were classed by the speaker as mainly propaganda. He had been in contact with many of the German officials there before the war and found that in some respects their ideas of colonial government surpassed those of their British colleagues. One main advantage was that they were not bound by the matter of precedent, and judged applications for concessions and similar matters solely upon their judgment of the worth of the applicant. , They did chastise the natives, but accounts of brutal flogging were exaggeration. The speaker considered that in most cases this was of necessity. Government Mistak®. The first mistalie made by the new British administration of the islands wsa in making a Government -of military men. These men, although excellent officials in some ways, were inclined to be of what Mr Goldie termed the ''bloody nigger" type of mind. . This . attitude had now, however, passed away, and he beliovod tHat the Government deserved praise for its very sincero attempt to settle the trouble in Samoa. One of the first tasks of the missionaries was to devise a written language from the uncouth gutturals of island dialect.. No educational system had ever been instituted by tho Government, but now, with the exception of some of the very old men and women, every native on the islands could read and write. This was of immense value to them in their commercial activities. They were able to handle business with greater in(elligence and made much money. This was instanced during the war when the natives, unable to assist by fighting, found hundreds of pounds for war relief funds. "All of those natives, many of whom I remember as filthy, dirty and ignorant savages,- by the influence of missionary life, have had their gifts turned into useful channels," said the speaker. "One tribe recently gave £1000 for hospital work among their hereditary enemies, as well as themselves. ' ' At the conclusion of the address, a vote of thanks was passed by members on tho motiou of Dean Brocklehurst, who suggested that the usual collection from members by way of smail fines might on one day be used as a collection for the mission*.