VISITORS FROM PAPUA.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 300, 16 December 1912, Page 7

VISITORS FROM PAPUA.

SOMETHING ABOUT CrVTLISING INFLUENCES. AND THE WORK OF THE METHODIST MISSION. TALK WITH THE REV. MR. GILMOUR. Among the arrivals by the Maheno yesterday were the Rev. Mr and Mrs Gilmour, who have for the past eleven or twelve, years been members of the Methodist Mission in British New Guinea. The work of the various Christian missions in Papua is of a very interesting and hopeful character, though the severities of the climate on the constitutions of most Europeans renders individual effort impossible iv the majority of cases for any very lengthy period. As a of fact, five or six years is about the limit for most workers, so that Mr and Mrs Gilmour, w-ith double that interval to their credit, have been able to perform more, and have had better opportunities for observing the progress of the native Papuan und«r European influence than falls to tlie lot ot most missionaries to that malaria-ridden country. The Methodist mission in Papua works chiefly among the islands round the coast, the four religious bodies in the field each taking a separate area, in order to avoid overlapping. The mission's headquarters are at Übuia, where Mr Gilmour, as chairman of the mission, resides, and the nine missionaries and their wives, together with seven missionary sisters, have their hands full with work among their scattered native flock. Speaking of the receptivity of the Papuans for Christian and civilising influences, both Mr and Mrs Gilmour declare that the natives display in many cases a remarkable eagerness and intelligence in assimilating the teachings of the European, and that with supervision these Papuans are capable of adapting themselves in an astonishing manner to the new thoughts and fields of endeavour opened to them. At the present time over 200 boys and girls are in training at the school in Übuia, to which they graduate from the elementary schools of tlie mission, while over 50 Papuans are already teaching among their own peopleWhen the mission was founded 21 years ago, at the invitation of the Governor of Papua, Sir William MacGregor, cannibalism was rampant, but to-day it is rarely heard of, while the natives are growing accustomed to the idea of settled and fairly continuosu labour, either on the cotton and other plantations established, or on their own account. This of itself serves to show how the old prejudices and instincts of the people are giving way to the influences of civilisation through the missionaries. The great aim of the Methodist Mission is to civilise the natives without Europeaniiing them, for experience has shown that the process of Europeanising an aboriginal race of inferior stamina is almost invariably attended with disastrous results. In a place like New Zealand such an aim would be practically impossible of achievement .but in Papua, with but a handful of whites and small prospects of a large white population, owing to the climate, the eftort of the mission lias so far been largely successful. The natives are encouraged to apply the advantages of civilisation to their own native mode oi living without aping the European or departing from their own simplicity of life. The result has been that the natives remodel their own notions of life on something of an European plan rather than attempt to revolutionise and perish in the jumble. By this means a gradual and more natural evolution of the native from his wild state to a civilised one on rational lines is brought about, to their benefit mentally and physically. The men are tractable and much quicker at handicraft than the average European, becoming, under tuition, especially good as carpenters and boatbuilders, while the women, under teaching, take a pride in Keeping their homes clean and neat, which would put many! a white housewife to shame. At the! school in Übria a technical department! has been a great success, the natives showing a childish eagerness to become) acquainted with the use of European! tools, said Mr Gilmour. The work of the mission in fact, though arduous and! trying to the .white constitution, is full| of interest and hope, the Papuan being! as a rule an apt pupil and a willing disciple to the teachings of Christianity once his inborn superstition and traditions are shaken. Generally speaking he is not the bloodthirsty savage he isl often represented, being J ova i and gen .\ erous. ] n fac-t, most of the "murders per-' petrated by him hare been largely the! result of carelessness by the European in! observing the sacred taboo of the native! For instance, some little time ago a number of Germans were murdered by the! natives, and a great outcry was n.adej about it. .As a matter of fact the Germans lauded at an island and began! chopping down coeoanut trees to build i a hut. Now to go on to a Papuans] land and cut down his coeoanut trees is! considered among the natives a dedara-l tion, not of ordinary hostility but of a' d-etermina-tion to start a war of extermination. Seeing which the natural impulse of the «»,rres was to try and exterminate the aggressor first.