The New Guinea Expedition.

Northern Advocate, 14 February 1912, Page 6

The New Guinea Expedition.

Mr D. Jennes, of Balliol College, Oxford (and late of Victoria College, Wellington), who left Wellington early in November last for Papua, as leader of the anthropological expedition to New Guinea, under the auspices of Oxford University, arrived at Papua in December, and went on to Ferguson Island, his destination. Preliminary journeys have been made along the coast with a view to the party making themselves acquainted with the native characteristics. The natives have been hospitable, and the statements made with, regard to their cannibalistic tendencies are believed to be very much exaggerated. Mr Jennes, in a letter to relatives in Wellington, says he will remain on the island for about a year, studying the origin of the various tribes. Very little is known of the Ferguson Islanders, who are believed by some to be an intermixture of Melanesian and Poly» nesian races. Later on, at the conclusion of their work on Ferguson Island, the party intends to proceed as far afield as Rossel Island where certain ethnological problems "of peculiar interest await solution.