NEW GUINEA PROBLEMS

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 225, 19 June 1929, Page 10

NEW GUINEA PROBLEMS

AUSTRALIA’S UPHILL TASK

DIFFICULT NATIVES

Dominion Special Service.

Auckland, June 18.

The general condition of New Britain, which is under the control of the Australian Government, by mandate from the League of Nations, is considerably disturbed, according to Mr. W. R. McGregor, lecturer in zoology at Auckland University College, who returned to Auckland by the Marama, after spending some months on a scientific trip in this part of New Guinea. Labour troubles were causing much bad blood and the outlook was hardly promising. “I did not visit that part of New Guinea in which the gold mines are situated,” Mr. McGregor said. “My investigations were carried out chiefly in New Britain, with Rabaul as my headquarters. There the principal industry is the growing of coconuts along the coastal strip, and this is being greatly hampered by lack of suitable labour. Natives have to be recruited, and very few of them are willing workers. The climate is bad. Even in the ‘dry’ season there is a phenomenal rainfall a 11 tropical diseases are rife, principally malaria and dengue fever. The country could not be developed by white labour, and the only alternative seems to be the introduction of indentured Chinese labour. I understand the authorities are somewhat averse to this.” Mr. McGregor was in Rabaul at the time of the recent mutiny. He described this as more in the nature of a strike, but said it needed only one untoward incident to precipitate a serious riot. Many hundreds of Sepik natives from the northern coast were working in Rabaul, as well as a large number of natives from the Admiralty Islands. They were far better workers than the natives of New Britain, but the two tribes were hereditary enemies. In the recent mutiny these two tribes joined forces against the white man, and in view of their long-standing hatred of one another this was viewed as a most sinister occurrence. The attitude of the natives in Rabaul towards the Europeans is distinctly bad. Mr. McGregor said they loaf about the streets after dark, and seem to get in the road of Europeans deliberately. At times they are most insolent in their attitude. In Port Moresby, the capital of British New Guinea, it is different. The natives have their own compound, and they are not allowed in the town after dark.

Many were inclined to blame the Australian Administration for the state of affairs in Rabaul, Mr. McGregor continued. He did not feel that the guilt lay in that direction. The Administration had an unenviable task trying to meet the demands of the natives, on the one hand, and those of the white traders on the other. These were frequently diametrically opposed, but the Administration was making laudable efforts to steer a middle course. The administrative officers had a hard fight ahead of them, Mr. McGregor said. Owing to the unexplored nature of the interior, they had to confine their activities to the coast, and the medical service alone faced considerable difficulties. The native villages were filthy, and it was hard to instil into the minds of these primitive people a knowledge of sanitation,. How-' ever, much good work was being done.