NEW GUINEA PROPHET

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4806, 5 July 1939, Page 6

NEW GUINEA PROPHET

MARRIAGE CUSTOMS CHALLENGED. “INSPIRED BY SPIRITS.” Sydney, June 20. A native, claiming to be inspired, led a revolt against the native marriage customs in New Ireland, part of the Mandated Territory of New Guinea, which so disorganised the social life of the community that the New Guinea Administration had to

intervene

In its annual report, the Administration says that this native assumed the role of religious prophet and urged the young men of the villages to select their own wives instead of accepting the wives selected by their parents.

The prophet claimed to have been inspired by a spirit. He was soon joined by a disciple, who also had been visited by spirits, by whom he was informed that those men who selected their own wives would shortly share in a shipload of cargo, even then being despatched from Rome by supernatural means. The young men of the villages, with many signs of approbation, flocked to the meetngis of the new cult. Soon it was found to be offering new attractions, one of which was an assurance that the gardens of the faithful would continue to flourish even though neglected by their owners. When the natives accepted this assurance and began to neglect their cultivations, the Administration had to step in. Officials had some difficulty in restoring village life to normal, and the prophet was told that his millenium had to be postponed.