FARTHEST NEW GUINEA

Evening Star, Issue 23326, 24 July 1939, Page 11

FARTHEST NEW GUINEA

LIGHT AND SHADE IH PAPUAN LIFE ADMINISTRATOR'S BRIGHT REPORTS The annual report on Papua for the year 1937-38, just issued from Canberra, is the thirty-second that Sir Hubert Murray has written since he assumed control of the Administration in 1907. Novel in form and attractive in its matter us that first report was, each year since then has produced a document from the same fluent pen a little more informative, entertaining, . and lightened by trenchant and kindly humour than was its precursor. Tho present report is brightened from the outset by the fact that the year was the most prosperous that Papua has yet enjoyed and that the long years of careful preparation are at last beginning to show tangible results. This is nob to say that every acre of the colony is known and mapped, and still less that all the multitudinous varieties of native custom are known and controlled. Consequently there is no lack of strange detail in the reports Of the many patrols. PAINFUL MOURNING. In the Kunimaipa Valley people were found by one patrol who, as a_ sign of mourning amputate the top joint of a finger. One woman was seen among them who had lost the joints of the four fingers of her left band and who,, if the custom < hud been carried to its’ logical conclusion, would have lost more. But woman in Papua is a working animal, and her usefulness must not bo injured too far to satisfy a mere convention. So tie right hand is always left intact. Another woman came into camp with vegetables for sale who wore suspended round her neck the whole upper part of the dead body of her small child. Patrol officers have at times to hear strange complaints. One, quoted by Sir Hurbert Murray, “ came to a village where the rain-maker, a woman, had become unpopular through having had a bath. It appears that when she has a hath it rains, and when she does not the rain ceases. The. village people wanted .fine weather,-but they got rain —obviously because she had a bath, which she had promised nob to do. She indignantly repudiated the charge, stoutly denied that she had had a bath, and said she had made the rain because she had not received enough pay. She then took a bath, and splashed about enough to cause a deluge; but nothing came of it—at least while the patrol was in the neighbourhood.” The system of village councillors is proving its utility, and in the Abau district it is. found that councillors frowij upon tho settlement of grievances. by mutual arrangement when those grievances involve a breach of European law, hut insist instead that they shall he submitted to the magistrate’s court for adjustment. This in itself is an advance, but it does, not mean that the councillors are always infallible Or that they are able to distinguish clearly between European law and native custom. In the north-eastern division a ease was brought before the patrolling officer in which a man was accused of having given a betel nut to a councillor’s wife. In British law. of course, such a gift does not constitute an offence, but according to Papuan custom it is .a direct invitation to adultery, and there , was general consternation when the complainant was nonsuited. POWERS OF SORCERERS. Sorcery continues to present obstacles, and serious ones, to progress. The resident magistrate in tho Mekeo district goes so far as to complain that sorcery is the real ruling power, and that evidence in the court is almost always tainted by fear of the . sorcerers and often by their definite instructions to witnesses. The same fear prevents local natives from giving any help in the apprehension of criminals. He quotes an instance in which an exceptionally high spring tide was attributed to a sorcerer, who was offered the sum of 10 shillings not to do it again, and reports the existence of an established sorcerer’s tax. He also mentions the case of two women who accidentally jostled a.sorcerer and then fainted from sheer terror of what they had done. The Mekeo is the worst district for sorcerer’s activity. In Papua generally there is no doubt that sorcery is decreasing, partly through increasing knowledge of the working of cause and effect and partly through direct administrative action; for, as Sir Hubert writes: . . Tt is, of course, impossible to tolerate in the villages a rival power over which we have no control. So for this reason alone, apart from others, it would be necessary to suppress the practising sorcerer.” Although the whole country is now pacified, and raiding and cannibalism are things of the past, patrol officers are finding small communities hidden away in remote swamps and small valleys, and making contact with them for the first time; Mr Leo Austen recently- patrolled the Sauwami country, which is almost all swamp, and the patrol used as guide a female native of the district named Kasivio. But, the report tells us, unlike the rest of her sex, she proved quite unreliable, and promptly proceeded to Jose herself and the whole party. At last, hearing the voices of women talking in a sago swamp, Austen proposed going over to speak to them; but Kasivio restrained him. The men of the country, she told him, are insanely jealous, and could not bear that another man should even look at their wives. He might visit the village to which the women belonged, if he could find it, but on entering the village he must call out “ Botire, Botire, Bohamiyaii, Bohamiyari,” and it was desirable that each man of the party should cany a flag of truce in the shape of a small piece of whit© calico. WISE PRECAUTION. Kasivio’s instructions were carefully observed, and it was just as well that they wore, for as the party approached out rushed the men of the village with bows bent and arrows ready. A resounding chorus of ” Botire, Botire ” greeted "them, white calico was slavishly displayed and vigorously shaken, and the effect was as Kasivio had said. Bows were relaxed and arrows put away. But relations were not quit© cordial until “ tho sergeant and I rushed iorwards (we bad been waving our little white flags all the time), the sergeant placed his hand on the first man and more or less 'dragged him forward and gave him a present, and at the same time I pulled a tomahawk out of Maniti’s belt and handed it to the next man,” Gradually suspicion died and friendship was established, with a lavish performance of hospitable rites by the villagers. The chief made a speech. “ Before you came,” lie said, “we were like animals. We lived among tho leaves. You came and brought us iron, and our hearts are glad, and our bouses shall rise up and be made well. Our hands are joined in Irion lsh:p.

Fast joined as my Lauds are now . . . and in friendship they will remain. \S'e will never light you.” But having made his speech he disappeared and was no more seen. After a night spent in the village the deputy-chief approached Austen and suggested that the police had perhaps been there long enough, that the women were all terrified and had left the village, and that it would be better if the patrol were to go away now and come back in two or three months. The' visit had been appreciated, but should not be unduly prolonged. The magistrate accepted the hint and led his men out into the swamps again. A FALSE PROPHET. Hysteria broke out in the Mafulu district when Aidi Gauri went mad and preached to the people that the end of the world was imminent. He warned them at the same time that they must kill all their pigs—dearest of all possessions _ to the Papuan —tor otherwise the pigs would grow mouths like crocodiles and eat their owners. And ho advised them to cease work in their gardens, for if they tailed to do so enormous women would appear and split them,in twain, as a firestick is split on a stone. The foolish people accepted his advice, killed all their pigs, and neglected their gardens, until a Government patrol appeared in the district and Aidi Gauri became miraculously sane again. Apart from these lighter aspects, the report is cheerful in its almost unvarying record of success. Papua, indeed, has reached an important stage on the road to civilisation. Orgiastic customs have been eradicated. The Government is known everywhere and is everywhere welcomed. The native tax is understood and its benefits fully appreciated. Native agriculture is firmly established and the slow march towards economic independence surely begun. Sorcery, the greatest scourge of the Papuans and the greatest obstacle to Government ami mission influence. though it persists in certain districts where it is supported by credulous Europeans, is rapidly dying out in the rest of the country, and the Lieutenant-Governor may well congratulate himself on the success of the policy of peaceful penetratio'n that he has so patiently and courageously practised (luring his 32 continuous years of office.