NATIVE RACES DWINDLING.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17814, 13 July 1923, Page 11

NATIVE RACES DWINDLING.

In his report for the year ended June 30th, 1922, which was submitted to the Federal Parliament last week, the Administrator of New Guinea, BrigadierGeneral Wisdom, explains that in New Britain, New Ireland, Baugainville, and the Admiralty Islands there are still considerable unexplored areas. The total area in the territory which has never been visited by a white man is probably more than 25,000 square miles. The remainder can be said to be known in broad outline, but detailed maps have been made only of small areas. Referring to the customs of the na- j tives, the report states that in the vicinity of Blanche Bay, and in the Duke of York Group, there was no slavery in the general acceptance of the term. It was principally confined to an occasion captive taken in war. In the Baining district, however, it was the practice for the coastal people (Melanesians) to enslave the Papuans. The German Government took measures against this practice, .and it has been stamped out. When the white man first came into the Pacific the population of many of the islands "was stationary. • In the small islands inhabited by people of more or less pure Polynesian and Misconesian descent the population is now but a Bmall fraction of what it was as recently as 25 years ago. In the islands where Polynesians and Micronesians are mixed with Melanesians there has also been a grave decline. In those of more or less pure population thre is less evidence of decline, except in New Ireland and Navongai (New Hanover), where the dying out of the natives has been so_ serious that for several years recruiting of natives for work on plantations had to be prohibited in the greater part of both islands. The Administration is pdving its most anxious attention to the maintenance of ijie population. The report deals at length with the administration of the island and questions affecting native labour. The native population, in 1921 was set down at 251.017., which included natives who had been enumerated, and 63.500 estimated in district unexplored. During the year the natives in about square miles of territory were brought under Government con-EroT, mainlv through the opening up of more than 300 miles of new roads and tracks. There were approximately 254 missionaries in the territory in the year under review. This number included: German 222, Luxemburg 1, Czechoslovak 2, Polish 3, French 6, British 21.