EEP Crowned pigeon number 4

EEP STUDBOOK CROWNED PIGEONS
The provincial governments have responsibility for functions delegated by the national
government, and include the development of natural resources, including agriculture, fishing
and forestry, education and industry, in addition to the provision of health services, and
education.
There is considerable overlap of authority between the national and provincial governments in
many areas. Provincial governments are funded primarily by grants from the national
government, although the provinces have limited authority to impose certain taxes and fees,
including sales tax on goods and services provided within the province. Most provincial
governments operate as business ventures within the province (UBD, 1997).
Legal system
The legal system in Papua New Guinea is the common law system based on the English and
Australian codes. Most civil matters can be dealt with through the district courts, or
ultimately, the national court. The final appeal is to the Supreme Court of Appeal in Port
Moresby for any civil or criminal matter. To supplement this, many local matters are settled
by village courts and local village administrators (UBD, 1997).
Language
English is the official language of government and commerce, but the language understood by
the majority of Papua New Guineas is Pidgin, or "tok pisin". In 1969 the orthography of
Melanesian Pidgin English was standardised.
The spelling used in the Nupela Testamen (the New Testament in Pidgin) was declared the
norm to follow, because this 861-page book has become the best-seller of South Pacific
(Mihalic, 1971). In 1971, the "Jacaranda Dictionary and Grammar of Melanesian Pidgin was
published and until now this is considered to be the official book for the Pidgin language.
There is a strong tendency towards the standard English, and at some primary and secondary
schools Pidgin has already been banned. But in the remote areas of Papua New Guinea (the
majority of the country!) Pidgin is the most common language. English is, however, having
an influence on it. Having also been derived historically from English, it naturally already
carries along much of the English influence in its grammatical framework.
This language consists of only a few thousand words, and has, for example, no past and no
plural. A lot of words are almost the same as in English, only they use the suffix "pela", for
example strongpela and bigpela. This is also almost done by the numbers: wanpela, tupela,
tripela and so on. The English "I go", is in Pidgin "mi go", but "I went" (the past time "I go"),
one says in Pidgin "mi go pinis" ("I go and it is finished").
One child is "wanpela pikinini", two, three children are "tupela, tripela pikinini" and if
somebody has more than three children (most Papua New Guineas do), one has "plenty
pikinini" (Mihalic, 1971). In addition, over 700 different languages have been officially
identified in Papua New Guinea. Most of them are only spoken by a few hundred people, who
live very isolated and most languages do not even have a name, but are simply called "tok
ples"; the "talk" of the "place".
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