PAPUA TO-DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 66, 19 March 1925, Page 9

PAPUA TO-DAY.

REVIEW BIT GOVERNOR. STORIES 4>F CANNIBALISM. TINNED MEAT THE NEW CHOICE. MELBOURNE, March 9. Speaking at a luncheon given in his honour to-day by the Royal Colonial Institute, the Lieutenant Governor of Papua, Sir Hubert Murray, said the province could never accomplish anything in regard to agriculture while the Navigation Act applied to the waters surrounding it. "I have said that for many years now," Sir Hubert added. "Probably I say it for the last time to-day, because I.hope that the Commonwealth will take it off. If that is done, and the Government gives us some conpensation fof the handicap they have placed upon us, such' as a preference of some sort, Papuan agriculture will do well. . There is no reason why it should not." Sir Hubert Murray said that cannabalism had gone almost altogether from Papua.. While he was not an anthropologist and was not prepared to deny that head-hunting and cannibalism might not have their roots in some deep feeling permeating the whole community, he thought it was more a question of food supply than anything else. "Our Real Food is Man." Once he had met a native on the north coast, who said: "We have wallabies in the grass, and fish in the river, . but our real food is man." ! On another occasion, when a young cannibal appeared before him, he asked him whether he had given up his maneating habits. "Yes," came the reply, "tinned meat is much better." Elderly members of some tribes had informed him that the women would not allow them to enter the villages lon return from battle unless they brought home some baby flesh. One had gone so far as to explain how the toughest old man, cooked in a certain fashion, J became most palatable. i Another native custom which the i Administtation had also had to ■ put down down was "black magic." There was, Sir Hubert admitted, quite a good deal to be said against dances and feasts. They caused great famine because of the hoarding of food. Deaths and sickness resulted. J Danger in Dances. ! In some parts dances were the cause !of desperate affrays between various , tribes. Sometimes the hosts, armed with ; spears, tomahawks and other weapons, attacked the guests, who fled to the bush, where many were murdered in cold blood. "The guests know perfectly well what is coming," Sir Hubert Murray went on, "but I have never been able to discover why they attend." Many Christian natives had given up dances, even refusing to make any displays before missionaries, holding that lit led to trouble of some sort or another. , However, the Administration always j supported and encouraged dancing, because it led to plenty of fun and ample exercise. Missionaries, Sir Hubert held', were invaluable to native administration, and their presence was absolutely essential. Sir Hubert Murray explained that the Papuans had an exceptionally keen sense of justice. It was not uncommon for a native to attend at a police station and charge himself with a murder wliich he thought he had committed, but for which there was no supporting evidence. As they always insisted xipon being tried, some very awkward situations sometimes arose. Forgot the Hanging. Once two policemen had been sentenced, as they thought, to death. They failed to appear at the time appointed for their departure for Port Moresby, but arrived a little later, almost breathless. "We quite forgot," they explained, that we were going to be hanged. If i we' had thought of it we would never ! have .dreamed of keeping you waiting." I The offenders were let off with a very i light sentence.