TAMER OF PAPUA

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 59, 9 March 1940, Page 8

TAMER OF PAPUA

SIR HUBERT MURRAY

A GREAT ADMINISTRATOR

DEATH GAME QUICKLY

"The man who tamed Papua," Sir Hubert Murray, died in hospital at Samarai last night, after a brief illness. He had been Li£utenarit-Gover-nor of Papua for 32 years and was recognised as one of the world's greatest colonial administrators.

Sir Hubert Murray tamed Papua, by wise and firm, yet kindly, administration. His association with that vast territory constitutes his most enduring monument., He was 6ft Sin in height, and in Papua proved himself to be a big man with big ideas. When he first went there cannibalism and murder were common. A few years ago his annual report showed that human life —at any rate, that of a European—was safer there than in Sydney or London. For a long time native superstition appeared to create for him an almost impassable barrier, typified in the farreachjng power of the native sorcerers, but slowly, and by great patience and sympathetic understanding, he broke down that barrier, and finally won for Australia- .great credit in its control and, protection of a primitive Pacific race. Today there is scarcely a square mile- of Papua "that has not been surveyed or brought under . Government control ■■•;•!':.:-■■■■•-'" .. .;■■•' ■:.•■■■■■ .-.

When he went to Papua there were 64 white residents. He was faced with the problem of controlling and civilising some 90,000 square miles of territory, large tracts of unexplored jungle land, inhabited by scores of different tribes, including a number of cannibals and head-hunters. He set about the task by trying to' understand the native mind. To this study he owed much of his success. He found an appeal to vanity more effective than punishment. Ridicule he also discovered was -one of the best ways of turning the natives from their worst customs. Cannibalism he quickly helped to stamp out; merely by praising the tribes that did not practise it and ridiculing those that did. By the same method he succeeded in virtually wiping out ' the practice of headhunting. ; ;/:v:;:;;, native laboue... ■' ■ Sir Hubert Murray also succeeded in solving the problem of employing native labour, and by 1936 more than 12,500 erstwhile cannibals and headhunters were working for white men. He also adminstered the native tax collection so skilfully that without any trouble he^could count on an annual revenue of £ 13,000 for native health and education systems and village improvement. Out of these funds native hospitals were established in Port Moresby and Samarai, and subsidiary health centres in many outlying stations. Sir Hubert Murray was a member of a brilliant family-^his brother, .Gilbert, is the famous Oxford classical scholar. He was a barrister and fought in the South African-War. His first post in Papua was that of Chief Judicial Officer, and Papua was then a poor and uninviting tropical territory. It was a place offering no promotion, and it seemed to offer no scope whatever, for his culture., his knowledge of.the law, or his classical scholarship. Yet he was so successful in handling native affairs that in 1908 he became'the first Australian Governor of the first Australian dependency. In Papua vhe% found his real place in the world, and gradually and patiently he made the administration of Papua a model to those interested in similar problems in all parts of the world. . .

Sir "Hubert-.Murray/wild was 78 years of age, was engaged on an 'official inspection of-the eastern division of the territory when he 1: was taken ill. He was admitted to hospital, but collapsed and died 24 hours later.