BIRD OF PARADISE

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 May 1927, Page 3

BIRD OF PARADISE

HUNTING IN NEW GUINEA.

Only a few hour’s steam from the northermost shores of Australia lies the great territory 1 of Dutch New’ Guinea, which comprises more tban half of the island and consists mainly of savage jungle, noisome swamp and towering great mountain ranges.

Only a small portion of it has yet been explored and mapped out, and for the most part the greater portion of the interior is an unknown and. mysterious land, wherin strange things happen. It is always waiting to swailow up the unwary vdiite man who ventures into it.

It is in this savagely fascinating country that the Paradise bird hunter goes in search of the georgeous plumes which are still sought so eagerly in the great fashion centres of the world, such as London, Paris and New York.

Every year the hunters, some singly, with only their native carriers, and some in parties for the sake of greater safety, set out from Merauke, the somnolent little coastal town over from Thursday Island, and although frequently the jungles and the swamps claim some of them never to return, the others come back laden with plumes, which are worth large sums when purchased by the buyers, who regularly go to Merauke to buy the spoils.

There was a time once when the Paradis,e birds could be hunted all the year around, and when the administration of the territory did not place any restrictions on their killing. But some years ago it became apparent that unless something were done to control the hunting it would not be long before the beautiful birds were exterminated altogether. It is customary for the white hunters to engage the same boys each season.

Generally the practice is to provide each one of the 'gun boys with a certain number of cartridges, and send him out to do his best.

Considering the antiquated nature of the guns used, and which are often no more than mere pieces of piping attached to a wooden stock, it is really surprising that the native hunters obtain the hags which they do. But many of them are excellent shots, and a boy who can not be depended upon to secure at least half-a-dozen birds with ten cartridges is not of much use t o his white employers.

Some of them have the reputation of seldom, if ever, missing with their clumsy fowling-pieces, which are so designed that the fine shot used in them will scatter over as great a radius as is possible after leaving the muzzle of the gun.

The dangers with which the white hunters are faced are by no means trifling and they range from the risks of disease and sickness in t l 'X foulsmelling swamps which comp. ? so large a portion of the interior of Dutch New Guinea, to the risk of capture by cannibal tribesmen, of whom there are still great numbers in the country which has not yet been brought under control. Within the last two years there have been cases of white men having been captured by fierce natives and subsequently eaten.