194 MELANESIA AND ITS PEOPLE. 
(as some of them are) and with his position well assured he could hardly 
venture to rebuke an act which he knew to be wrong. ‘The teacher 
is in most cases a man of the place, and village and home associations 
and family relationships would prevent him uttering his protest 
against a meditated wrong. 
There is very little that goes on in a native village that is not known 
to most of the people, and things are very well discussed before any 
action is taken, and generally the whole village knows the doings and 
the intentions of every inhabitant. If the teacher did know before- 
hand the chances are that he could not prevent the wrong. Individual 
action is rare among Melanesians. A man would hardly dream of 
interfering if he saw another doing a thing which was inconsistent 
with his Christian calling and no one thinks of the necessity of setting 
a standard. Correction or direction or friendly advice is scarcely ever 
administered by one Melanesian to another. Even parents whose 
children are disobedient will bring them to a teacher or a missionary for 
reproof or correction rather than administer the correction themselves. 
The last thing that a Melanesian thinks of doing is the preventing 
of harm or interfering in a matter in order to right it. 
In the absence of the white missionary, if the knowledge of a medi- 
tated wrong came to the teacher’s ears the existence of a village council 
or of a combined council of all the neighboring villages would avail in 
all probability to prevent the wrong being done. ‘The nearest thing 
to such a council is the Vaukolu of Florida, a yearly gathering of all 
the chiefs and head teachers to discuss social, ecclesiastical, and educa- 
tional matters. But these gatherings have been held very irregularly 
and their decisions have been of little force since there were no sub- 
sidiary councils in the villages to assist the teachers in carrying them 
out. 
The isolation of the peoples in most of the Melanesian islands has 
in all probability been largely responsible for the lack of concerted 
action hitherto among the Christians. Social life as such was not 
known in Melanesia before the advent of Christianity. In their pre- 
Christian days these natives do not live in villages or hamlets, but in 
isolated groups with two or three houses or huts ina group. With the 
exception of certain places in Florida and also of the artificial islets off 
the northeast coast of Malaita, where hundreds of people live on tiny 
rookeries of stone just raised above the level of the tide, there was 
nothing that was worthy of the name of a village in the whole of the 
Mission’s area in the Solomons. Consultative or joint action in a 
matter was practically unknown. Each subdistrict had its own petty 
chief with a following of half a dozen men in some cases. Every man 
knew who his own chief was and would support him when called 
upon. Each main district had also its head chief and to him tribute 
was paid whensoever he demanded it. Even these head chiefs had 
