COURT IN JUNGLE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXIX, Issue 4726, 30 July 1935, Page 7

COURT IN JUNGLE.

STRANGE PROCEEDINGS. CORONER IN NORTH AUSTRALIA. Sydney, July 18. With parrots screeching amongst the branches of the banyan trees' under which the open-air Court was held, Australia's strangest inquests

have just been concluded. Aboriginal witnesses, some naked except for a belt of human hair, stood before the Court "table" of petrol cases, screwing their black toes into the dirt, while inquiries were held into the deaths of two natives killed in a tribal battle.

To investigate this encounter in which 200 natives fought and two were speared to death, the Darwin Coroner, Mr. V. L. Lampe, Sergeant Koop, and the Deputy Chief Protector of Aborigines, Dr. W. B. Kirkland, made a four days' journey through wild country. They crossed the wide Daly River

in a dugout native canoe and in punts propelled by natives. They waded over other shallow, river crossings, They camped for three nights under a banyan tree, spreading nets to guard against mosquitoes. They drove through miles of jungle cou'ntry in an old motor truck. The Coroner inquired into the death of Charlie, whose aboriginal name was Darmant, arid Noel, or Mynemanemeri. On the edge of Butterfly Creek the Coroner inspected the body of Charlie, of the Brinken tribe. Near the spear-littered plain on which the battle had been waged, Charlie had been placed on a raised tree platform, which his sons were guarding. Then the body of another warrior, called Noel, was disinterred. It had been buried, native fashion, in a sitting posture, in the red sandy soil. Having completed the formality of viewing the bodies, the" Court was j established under a banyan tree in a wilderness of palms and flowering trees. The crier called "Silence!" and the strange Court began. Everybody rose to the call of silence as the Coroner took his seat on the jjetrol case. A you'ng parrot which theCoro l ner had obtained from a blaqkfellow, squawked loudly for food from its perch under a branch of the tree! When the Court had been proceeding for a while, an aboriginal who had been commissioned to catch fish for the party's lunch, arrived on, the outskirts with his . catch, much to the consternation of the Court.

During the investigations it was learnt that enmity had existed" be- i tween the Daly River abbriginal tribes, the Mulluk Mulluk, Angulmeri, and Waukaman tribes, and tribes known as Bri'nens and Moyles, whose country is westward of the Daly River area, because of its natural food resources, and were pushing the local tribes eastward. The aborigines were' killed in a fight which took place on a plain near the? Daly River about June 9. The immediate cause of the fight was disputes amongst the tribesmen over lubras.

There was a queer medley of witnesses—Wallo, Police Bby Charlie, Smiler, Many-Finger-Toe (so called because he has six fingers to each hand and six toes to each foot), Benjamin, Nin, Jerry, Alligator, Barney, and Almurruk. They gave their evidence in the vividly expressed pidgin English that seems to have become the language of the Northern Territory. The Coroner committed one native for trial, but found that another native had killed in self-defence, and set him free: Then the Coroner cooked lunch for the official party, and afterwards washed up. Swags were rolled, and the return journey to Darwin began, through country where the only white settlers are peanut growers. The accused native and twelve native witnesses are on their way to Darwin in a truck for for the trial in the Supreme Court.