IN PRIMITIVE PAPUA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19608, 9 April 1927, Page 15

IN PRIMITIVE PAPUA.

natives and their ways. GOOD EFFECT OF CLEMENCY. I RELEASE OF PRISONERS. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] SYDNEY. April 1. Illuminating sidelights on the character and beliefs of the natives of Papua are often contained in • the Administrator's annual reports to the Federal Parliament, human documents far removed from the ordinary prosaic documents of Government departments. The latest report of the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Hubert Murray, is no exception. In this Sir Hubert quotes an instance of how his clemency won over to friendliness a pre-viously-hostile tribe. Prisoners convicted of an assault on a •police patrol, he says,, were released and sent home to test the effect of clemency on the tribe. Mr. Rentoul, an assistantmagistrate, took the released men to their own territory, and found that they had been given up as dead. Portions of Mr. Rentoul's own dramatic report are quoted by Sir Hubert Murray as follows: " The prisoner Awari, after vainly hailing his people, disappeared, and I had given him up for lost,, when he returned late in the evening with all the Katapia people, who had run away at our coming, and with him came his in widow's weeds, and chief Deta, with over 50 people altogether. Their excitement at the unlooked-for 'resurrection' of Awari was intense. I informed them that His Excellency had decided to give Awari back to his people and that they must now become good friends of the Government, and also give up their quarrel with the Karuama people. The chief of the latter and some of his people being present, a reconciliation was brought about, and the Katapia people promised to reopen the tracks and renew dealings with the Karuama people. Meanwhile an excited crowd had closely inspected Awari, resplendent in his black-arrow rami. The spectacle of his chattering wife in attendance on him in full widow's weeds was distinctly amusing. 1 gathered that the people had fully believed that he had been killed and eaten by the Government long ago, as he had been captured in 'warfare.'

"On a rocky ridgcj midway between Katapia and Tavevi a great crowd of armed natives had collected from the latter village. In front of them crouched a little aged woman, the tears streaming down her fece and her eyes fixed on the faces of my party as they appeared one by one over the spur behind me. Suddenly she began to dance tremulously, her excitement growing moment by moment until it reached a state of almost frenzy. She proved to be the mother of the second prisoner, Turus, and on perceiving her son her excitement proved too much for her, and she collapsed, at his feet, while all his male relations gathered around them and wept copiously. "After the excitement had died down I addressed the people, through an interpreter, and on arrival at Tavevi the people could not do enough for us. A large quantity of cucumbers was presented to us. and also the usual pig. lam convinced'that the return: of these prisoners will have a good and, lasting effect on these somewhat primitive people."