The Bookfellow.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 305, 21 December 1912, Page 13

The Bookfellow.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

(By A. G. STEPHENS.)

, PECULIAR PAPUA. The area of Papua, or British New Guinea, with the outlying island.*, is 90,000 square miles—a little larger than Victoria, a little smaller than New Zealand. Dutch New Guinea has 150,000 square miles: German New Guinea, 70.000. The- word "Papua 1 ' is a corruption of Malay words, "pna pua," meaning curly, or woolly. The description refers to the Papunns' hair, which led to the Portuguese explorer Grijalva (153(5) to refer to one of the Papuan islands as "Isla de los Crespos,'' or '"Island of the Frizzly Heads." Sir Thomas McHwrarth. rremier of Queensland, "annexed" both British and German New Guinfa in ISS.'J. The act was disallowed by the Imperial Government, which, however, proclaimed a Protectorate in 1534. German New Guinea was annexed by Germany ten days later; boundaries were settled in ISBS. The Australian Government now administers Papua as a territory of the Commonwealth. The foundation of the British administration of Papua was laid by Sir William McGregor (ISSR to 1898). The Lieutenant-Governor and Chief Judicial Officer for the Commonwealth is J. H. P. Murray, whose book, "Papua," just published by T. Fisher TJnwin, is the best general account of the territory and its people that has been printed. Other accounts deal in greater detail with some features, ethnological or social, of Papuan life: Judge Murray's book is comprehensive—and, of course, authoritative.

Mr J. H. P. Murray was born at Sydney in 1861: he is eon of Sir Terence Murray and brother of Mr G. G. A. Murray, Professor of Greek in Oxford University. He has ruled Papua under Australia for eight years.

There are two leading races in Papua: a brown race in the east and a black race in the west. Ethno4ogically, the black race is the Papuan; the brown race is Papuo-Melanesian.

The languages of Papua are divided info Melanesian and non-Melanesian; the non-Melanesian are called Papuan; they differ widely from each other and from the Melanesian. The Melanesian languages have a structural shnilsrity, and are related to the common, stock languages of Oceania.

To Mr Murray's "Papua" Sir Wm. MacGregor contributes an "rofcrodnetion," in which he mentions that, when he first came to the Pacific in 1875, Great 'Britain proba-bly could faave annexed, without protest, every island in. it not already in the possession of a foreign power. He says: "The two finest and best institutions I left in New Guinea were the constabulary and village police, and the missions." Mr Murray says nothing about Papuan missions, "not from want of sympathy, but from want of knowledge." "So far as one may judge from the ordinary conversation that one hears in Papua, the feeling in the European community is not favourable to missions; and I wish, at the risk of appearing eccentric, to say that I do not ahare in this feeling."

"T fihink not only that the missions do good, but they are absolutely necessary to the -development of backward races."

Though "Papua" is a solid book, full of information, Mr Murray has many picturesque and a few humorous passages that illustrate the life and character of his peoples. Cannibalism is not general in the territory- In the N.E. division "some appear to be cannibals, and others ntrt; and of those that are cannibals, some, at any rate, seem to regard human flesh as merely an ordinary article of diet, just as we regard beef and mutton.

'"We boil them,' said a witness; 'we cut them up and boil them in a pot. We boil babies, too; we cut them up like a pig. We eat them cold or hot; we eat tie legs first. We eat them because they are like fish. We have fish in the creeks and kangaroos in the grass—but men are our real food.'"

The Fergusson Islanders certainly' are fierce and intractable little cannibals,

and they carry a short spear, which they wield with some dexterity." Some prisoners mentioned were implicated in an attack upon a body of highly-respectable natives, village constables 'if,id others who hud approached them with a proposal to buy betel nut. "Why,"' said the Ferjrusson Islander, drawintr himself tip (o hjs hill height of 4 fret 7 inches, '"why should I sell you betel nut? J am !K>' n S to eat you.'" And eat them he did, or nt least he ato one of them who fell in the stampede to the canoe which, not unnaturally, followed the truculent iuannikin's annoimnT-ment, and who was speared before he could regain his feet. ■ The Bim Sim lelunder.* pet sea-birds antl retort agreeably upon the inquirer who asks why they do not eat thorn. "What for you no eat cat?" In ISSS the ship St. Paul was wrecked on Rossel Island, and it was reported that 326 Chinamen who formed the cargo were eaten by the islanders. Mr Murray's visits were fruitful of corroborative detail. "I was told, for Instance, that tbe local natives, hciriK at lenpth surfeited with a diet of t'ulnanicn, hawked tlie unfortunate survivors round the coast and sold them to the highest bidders; all except one who. from use and leanness, was unacceptable t" even the leust fastidious taste, and wlio was allowcu to make his escape. This lie<ount receives corroboratlon from a stale trient in the Annual Iteport of ISSIi that, in January. 1850, four months after the wre.l; of the St. l'aul, tbe French steamer StyN, picked up the sole survivor, who said th.v. all his companions ha<l been eaten. Thesurvivor was taken to Melbourne, and later on drifted to one of the Victorian soldfields, where he was arrested and charged with selling liquor without a license; he was clearly Ruilty, but when his identity was discovered tbe magistrate dismissed the charge, thinking, no doubt rifjhtly. that the Chinaman had already suffered enoufih." But at Port Moresby, the seat of Government, says Mr Murray: — "Human life Is at the present day at least as safe ns in any Australian or European capital, serious crime of any kind is practically unknown, and, living within half a mile of a village of nearly two thousand Inhabitants, I never dream of locking up my house at night." Dr. lawes, an early missionary, reported that Port Moresby natives stole Huxley's '-Animal Physiology" from his library and tried to sell it to him on his (verandah; so that native morals have improved since the seventies. A legend of Sydney Public Library declares that a local author (deceased) did take a MS. from a shelf and did sell it for £5 to a librarian (deceased) at the counter; so ■that, -between browns and ■whites, dishonours are easy. Magic is practised in New Guinea; and Mr Murray tried to get an exhibition of talent from a woman who used (for a fee) to call up the spirits of the dead. She made various excuses, and at last confessed that she had no longer an 7 nfluence over the spirits since she had been so imprudent as to take a bath. This may be added to the proofs of the influence of odor feminae. Mr Murray has not yet met the "tailed men" of New Guinea; no matter how far you go, they are always jnst over the next range of mountains. "A Kiwai native, who accompanied mc up the Puraxi in 1908, gave a very graphic account of a visit he" had paid to a village of tailed men up the Fly River. They had, he «ud, holes bofed in the floors of the houses, which were elevated from the ground on piles, and through these they put their tails when they sat down, the tails thus all hanging down below. The Kiiwai, when he feit inclined for a joke, used to creep under the house, take liold of each tail gently, and tie a knot in it. Then he would raise an alarm that a hostile party was approaching; the tailed men would immediately spring up to meet the enemy, the knots of their tails would catch in the holes in the floor, and they would t>e thrown on to the broad of their backs. "This seems fairly strong evidence, but perhaps the most conclusive testimony i was that given by a native of tie eastern part of the Central Division, who was insisting on the truth of the stories of tailed°inen, and stoutly maintained that he was certain, at any rate, that there had been one man with a tail. Asked why he "was so certain of this, he replied, simply, 'Because I eat him.' "In 1905 I paid a visit to the then headquarters of the Wesleyan Mission at Dobu, and there saw two little girls called Minnie and Marie CoreJli, who had been saved by the Mission from the awful fate of being buried alive." "We abstain from comment.

A man at Kairuku was charged with kissing a woman old enough to be his

■jrandmother- When Mr Murray asked him why he di<in"t leave such ancient dames in peace, he replied that the young girls ran «) fast that he could not catch them.

"As in most primitive communities, payment is, arcorriins to Papuan Ideas, n complete cullsfactioD in a rasp of homicide, and it Is often very dluVult to convince an licensed person that such a plea is not allowed in law; sometimes I have had to give np the tiisk In despair, and have seen a prisoner led off to saol loudly explaining. with vigorous ppstiiulatious, that he has paid a pic. :i tomahnwk. and a necklace of dog's ti'Cth for the iniirdcroU man. and that it was a groat deal more than he was worth. The price of n man varies in different parts of the territory, and. strange as It may seem, in n land where the women do most of the work, the price of a woman is always less I linn that of a man."

A northern native wlio had killed his. father exruscd Wmself on the ground that ma n-*v. j jijs not niuch (rood: ' and a favourite drfem-e to v rhorge of killing women am! children is that "plenty more women and children left).

A defence which showed that nil the world is aUin was raised recently at Samarni. where the prisoner ursed that the tnnrrlered man was a bore. "All the time be talk, he talk, he tslk too much."

Some Hubs should elect a Papuan to rm^mhor.ship.

When the authorities arc supposed to Vx» displeased the natives say, "Govern-men-t, he wild. - ' The American use of "mad" for "angry" seems parallel. Cro•n.Liles are a gre-at danger to the run.iway, and a belief is <raining .ground in a part of the Papuan Gulf that the crocodiles arc in league, wjth the Government, based upon the fact that a escaping from gaol v.-as severely lacerated by one of these creatures while crossing a river. Crawling to the nearest village constable, the disgusted criminal gave .himself up to justice, bitterly disapppointed at the "unsportsmanlike" conduct o-f the Government in making such an alliance. "No good we fight along Government now, alligator he help Government,*' was the way in which his complaint was eventually presented. The Government itself is pictured by the less civilised native as a kind of benejvolent but capricious monster of very uncertain temper, so that the alliance with crocodiles, though unge.ntlemanly, is mot altogether unnatural. "Government he wild," is the usual ■way of stating official disapproval, and the alliance of a "wild" Government with "wild" crocodiles produces c. combination with which it is as well to be on good terms. Still, the crocodiles are by no means all under Government control; the great mass of them remain faithful to the sorcerers, and will not attack a-inart unless, bidden by a sorcerer to do so. "I had to cross a river once which Tsas reputed to be full of crocodiles, and f asked an old man who was with mc if lie was not afraid. He sadd he was not. "A crocodile won't touch you," he explained, "unless someone has made Puri puri against you—and' if someone has made Pirri puri against you, you are a lost man in any case—he will get you somehow —if not with a crocodile, then, in some other way. So the crocodiles really do not matter." Fortunately they did not matter on this occasion, as we-all got acros3 safely. The police iorce at the disposal of the Government, known as the Armed Coneta<bulary, consists of some two hundred land fifty non-commissioned officers and men, all natives of Papua., under wtote .officers, who are generally -magistrates. Tihey are armed with the Marturi-EnfieH. carbine taking .303 cartridge. The uniform consists of a blue serge jumper and sulu, •with edges of red braid, a. cash of turkey ied ■worn round the "waist and over a belt and pouch. The force is very popular, and the men are very keen; when a patrol goes out the men who are left 'behind weep bitterry. "The worst faults of the Constabulary re a tendency to practise extortion upon village natives, and to nriaeondiict themselves with women, especially prisoners" —those seem very like the faults of constaibulary in some other places, New York, say. In the less civilised villages the police are not liked. "In 1008 I tried two men from the monotains at the back of Kigo for throwing spears at a party of constabulary; they pleaded guilty, and I explained that they must never do it again. To my surprise, they then asked that they might be hanged. I asked why, and was told that the only pleasure they bad was throwing spears at the police, and if they could not do that they did not want to live. Equally hostile, though more contemptuous, were some natives of Muria, In the same district, who gave as their reason for attacking a police patrol that they had never seen policemen

before, and did not know what they were, but that they did not like the look or them, and preferred to take no chances. "If. , they told mc on their trial, 'we had imagined for a moment that you attached any value to these persons, we would not have dreamt of hurting them. But we did uot think they were any good.'

There is a good deal of propitiatory kissing in Papua, and d'Albertis, an explorer in the seventies, took advantage of the custom.

To kiss the prirls is not a method of pacifying a native tribe which would usually suggest itself to either explorer or (Jovenvnicnt officer at the present day, yet it was a means that was used by d'Albertis in the Mekeo district with marked success.

At lOpr.. for instance, he says: "To show that 1 really meant to be friends with Aim and his purple, 1 embraced and kissed him in the open place in the village, and afterwards, amidst general laii;;hier. 1 proceeded to kiss all the women. The scene was •certainly a, very comical one: some of the most timid wanted to repel my embrace, hut were ur<re\l by the others to submit. Although it was incumbent on mc. in order to prove my impartiality, and to «»ive a ceremonial appearance to the performance, to kiss all the old and ugly women, in reality 1 kissed the youngest and prettiest only-

"The men also wished to seal their friendship by a kiss, but I explained to them that only the chief and the women had a right to the observance."

Mr Murray comments: "D'Albertis was a great explorer and a most gifted man, but I should not like to have been the first man to follow- in his footsteps in a new country; the natives would expect too much." The River Alice runs into the Fly River. "Sir John Robertson, Colonial Secretary to New South Wales, had requested d'Albertis, if he found a lake, to call it after a friend of his, Miss Alice Hargrave, and, finding no lake, the explorer gave the name Alice to this tributary." To 1911, the total estimated yields of the different goldfields are given as follows :— Louisiade .._„ ....... £70,361 Murua . ...«_....* 490,918 Gira .. 240,357 Milne Bay or 48,637. _», Yodda I 261,312 iLakefcaana , 41,250 Keveri ~, , . r 14,112 TJhis gives a total gold production of £ 1,166,947. Papuan land belongs to the natives. Only tile Government may purchase land from the natives, and can then lease it to the applicant for any period not exceeding ninety-nine years. Sometimes it (happens that the bind selected by the applicant is already Crown land, .in which case the lease can be granted , at once, but often it belongs to natives. In the latter case two questions arise; first, will the owners sell, and secondly, ought they be allowed to sell? and if either question is answered in the negative the applicant cannot get nis kind, and departs, probably to denounce the Papuan Government in Australia, and to accuse its members of an exaggerated and sentimental caTe for the welfare of the Papuans. However, as a rale, he can get his land; or, if he cannot, 'he can get equally good land elsewhere. "What will limit development in Papua," saystMr Murray, "is not want of land, but want of labour." About 8,000 native labourers aie now at -work; many more are wanted. In four years, from 1907 to 1911, the number of plantations increased from 76 to 167; acres planted increased from 4,955 to 15,881. Natives may be, and-, in lact, are compelled to carry for the Government, and ■they are compelled to keep their roads and villages dean- Otherwise, ail labour in Papua, is voluntary. Papuan exports in 1900-11 were valued at £117,410, baling not qoite doubled in nine imports were valued at £202,910, having nearly trebled in nine years. The Papuan problem is the old-problem of savage races eompuJsorfry civilised. [They have made their own compromise ■ with life, and have adopted -habits, includ--1 ing vfee habit of war, that have been [found race-preservative. Changed habits and compulsory peace are in their case ; race-destructive. "If we wish the Papu- : ans to survive," says Mr Murray, "we must encourage them to work and endeavour to change them from a non-indus-trial to an industrial .people." The outlook is gloomy.