THE SIMPLE NATIVE

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 155, 28 December 1935, Page 10

THE SIMPLE NATIVE

NEW GUINEA CUSTOMS

SHOOTING A HEADACHE

LAW AND TRIBAL CUSTOMS

(From "Tba Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, December 20. According to Mr. S. N. Gander t Seventh Day Adventist missionary, in Sydney on furlough, the natives in the "uncontrolled" area of Upper Ramu, New Guinea, have an effective, if drastic cure, for headaches. They shoot it out with bows and arrows! Mr. Gander said that the RamU natives have tiny bows and arrows. When o.ne of them gets a headache, ha engages another native to shoot these arrows at his forehead at close range until the blood pours out. The natives claim that they get relief from their pain in this way. Other curious customs were described by Mr. Gander. The Ramu natives, he said, have a shell currency. One shell is worth about Is 2d in Australian currency, and - buys a wife. When the tribes fight, it is usually at a great distance, and there is'mora noise than damage. Primitive smoke screens -are used to conceal "troop movements" in battle. This is done byburning grass. The natives are great agriculturists, with big areas resembling market gardens. They grow ten times more than they require, because the victors in battle destroy the crops of the vanquished. The man with the most wives and the biggest family has most say in tribal affairs. Mr. Gander lived among thes« people for eighteen months. Though they were never hostile, they at time 3 became "touchy," and had to ba handled with care. Papua, another section of the great island of New Guinea, has long known the value of beneficial white rule, and perhaps there is no finer example in the world of the progress that native races can make under such rule. Still, despite their long acquaintance with white men's ways, the Papuan has many strange customs and many of the rules for his government sound strange to civilised people. Sir Hubert Murray, Lieutenant-Governor of the territory for more than a quarter of a century, is now visiting Sydney, and in an interview the other day he told of some of the Papuan regulations and customs. For instance, the dusky Papuan must obtain a permit from the Administration before he may wear clothing. He must show that he understands ' the correct use of clothing and the need for constant washing to prevent disease before a permit is granted. This regulation has been imposed to protect the childish Papuan from the evil consequences of his own ignorance, and especially from pneumonia and tuberculosis. These diseases have been frequently caused among Papuans because of their habit of allowing sodden rags of clothing to remain on their bodies, not knowing that this is the surest way of contracting chest diseases. As Judge, Crown prosecutor, and counsel for the defence in the Papuan courts, Sir Hubert Murray thinks that he is able to give the natives as fair a deal as they can hope to get in any court. While he considers that tribal custom cannot be pleaded as a defence for any crime, he takes it into account in assessing the punishment to meet the crime. "There is a danger of natives coming to regard a stay in gaol as a privilege," he said. "The natives say they enjoy being in gaol, but some would die of homesickness if we did not release them. Head-hunting and cannibalism have been tabooed 'by inculcating into the native mind a scorn for the culprits; who are laughed at—and the Papuan cannot stand ridicule. By introducing the same ridicule at the expense of the gaolbirds, we hope to overcome the tendency to take pride in having been in gaol." "We are definitely preserving the dignity of white women,"said Sir Hubert Murray. "We have stopped the making of films in Papua where there is any white woman in association with natives. A rigid censorship is exei> cised over films shown to natives. American romances and all suggestions of sex drama are forbidden, and the films shown are sea stories and adventures. In one film a fine dog was shown seizing the seat of the villain' 3 trousers and hanging on as he leapt over a fence. Next morning, almost the whole native population applied to the picture-show proprietor for the right to buy the dog, as much as. £5 being offered. The natives could not understand that the dog only 'lived* in celluloid."