Foreign News

Farrago, June 16, 1936 (Melbourne University) states:—

"Let's Skite a Little: Four Intervarsity contests and wins for Melbourne—that is the satisfactory result of the vacation sport. A very substantial win in athletics and comofrtable victories in rifle-shooting and women's tennis have consolidated Melbourne's reputation as the premier sjporting University of Australia, and we hope (and believe) that the many Intervarsity contests in the September vacation will add still more victories to our list of honours.

"But let us not be blinded by the brilliance of our successes in these Intervarsity carnivals. Jut as important are the weekly inter-club competitions held throughout the winter months in each sport, when every club is battling for pennant honours. Here also the University teams should be amongst the leaders, but here, unfortunately, they have in many cases slipped, and some teams are struggling against relegation. Weak teams, sometimes even non-appearance of teams (and not only during vacation time) are a poor advertisement for University sport, and discouraging for those who really are enthusiastic."

Honi Soit, June 17, 1936 (Sydney University) reporting a talk delivered by Mr. W. E. Stanner, states:—

"The aboriginal in Australia is a race rapidly rushing to extintion. Our civilisation spreads its influence to them, and if they return to the bush they crave for white men's food, tobaco and other of the amenities offered by modern society.'

"Much of the trouble between the the aborignals and white people is due to the latter's misunderstanding of the former's tribal laws, social and economic organisation, and their failure to realise that once the aboriginal religion and customs were interfered with, his morale is shaken, his purpose life disappears, he becomes listeless and "cadges" on white settlements to support him.

"The white man considers the aboriginal to be dirty, lazy and communistic. That is a well-known and widely-shared but fallacious opinion. Mr. Stanner, however, gave his experience of what was the aboriginal's opinion of the white man. The black man hates the white man's self-conscious attitude when he is present at aboriginal ceremonials. By comparison, the black is self-controlled and perfectly-mannered when present at white men's functions. Further, the black despises the attitude of whites towards physical deformities. The black never dreams of mocking jphsical defects.

"To a native there is nothing more useless than saving. Property has no use for him except when it is in use. He thinks the white man is being 'mean' when he sayes, and more than anything else, he hates meanness. He cannot understand the economic incentives of whites to accumulate material objects of value. Nor can he understand the value of time. A blac, has all day to do a thing in, and if it si not done, well as one native boy put it, 'Drawin will still be there to-morrow!'

"Legal and moral observances are different among the blacks. 'The blacks have a society which did not make neurasthenia one o its main products.'

"The black has no discrimination on the basis of possession. Anything which is of no social value is available to every member of the tribe. White civilzation, however, takes away these and other ideas, and gives nothing in exchange.

"Yet native life is not without its economic organisation. Tribes in Arnheim Land, as yet almost untouched by white civilisation, have a perfect system of tribal organisation, with a wonderful system of marriage laws. Moreover, considerving the barren nature of the environment, some of their ideas adn ceremonies show distinct beauty, and signs of cultural development, to a degree rarely credited by white opinion."