PRESIDENTS ADDRESS— SECTION F. 171 



Doiirahle to .1 r<uil Ddinjiruus Giuiiiid — RdK/ioii — Sames. 



Now it is obviously impossible for any one to know all the 

 sacied trees, all the drums that may not be beaten, and all the 

 old' men whoi must not come down from a, hill ; the most that one 

 can hope for is to gain a general idea of when one is likely to be 

 treading on dangerous ground. For instance, anything connected 

 with religion is very dangerous indeed, and we certainly ought to' 

 have known better than to have attempted to touch the drum in 

 the land of Namau. So it is practically a universal rule that any- 

 thing to do' with uttering a name is ticklish work. "A name," as 

 Mr. Hartland says, "is an essential part of its owner It is much 

 more than a mere label ; it is looked upon as having a real objective 

 existence. The knowledge of the name gives power over the person 

 or thing designated" (Frimitivt Paterrntij, vol. i., p. 223). Often 

 the man will not give his own name, or the name of certain of his 

 relations ; but sometimes, like the man who shot the black cockatoo, 

 he finds himself placed in a position from -which there is no escape, 

 as, for instance, when a man joins the police and has to give his 

 name for entry on his record of service. In such a case he often 

 adopts the subterfuge of getting another man to give his name 

 for him. 



Uchif loiixh] p — L(tii(iii<t(ie . 



Relationship is also a subject which is a fertile source of error, 

 for the native classification is entirely different from ours ; and 

 then there is the subject of language, with the question whether 

 it is better that the European officers should learn a native 

 language or that the natives should learn English. The decision 

 of this question depends, to my mind, entirely upon what kind of 

 a language thei native language is. For instance, if the native 

 language were Malay I should say, " Make the European officers 

 learn Malay," but in the case of Papuan languages I should say. 

 " Teach the Papuans English." I admit that it is much easier 

 toi take a good and fairly sim]>le language, as, for instance, the 

 Motu language of Port Moresby, and to insist that this shall be 

 used as a means of communication, than it is to attempt to teach 

 the natives English ; 'and in the transition stage which we are 

 going through at present in Papua it is being brought home to us 

 every day that things would be much easier if Motu were the' com- 

 mon language. Motu is the native language of only a few villages, 

 but, in a debased form, it is easily learned by others, very easily 

 indeed by those whose native language is, like Motu, Melanesian 

 ■ — much more easily than English, even the horrible pidgin English 

 which forms the lingua franca of the former German New Guinea. 



During the present period of transition all the arguments seem 

 to' be on thei side of making Motu the common language, but, as a 

 matter of administration, I am convinced that, looking at the 

 future as well as the present, we did right in electing to keep to 



