MURDER HUNT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22114, 18 November 1933, Page 17

MURDER HUNT

tyEIRD ADVENTURES PAPUAN PATROL OFFICERS. \ • (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, November 9. Adventures as weird and blood-curd-ling as ever came out of the pages of fiction are contained in a report of two patrol officers who recently penetrated the wilds of Papua, along the Kuni* maipa Valley, in districts, rarely, or never, visited by white men. The report, which lias just been received by the Federal authorities at Canberra, tells a story of two months of almost incredible hardships, during which the two officers, Messrs Hides and O’Mally, and a handful of native police, pursued murderers throughout, the mountain country, and established the prestige of the white man among the tribes. Parts of the report told of savage and superstitious rites, and the wearing of “ homicidal emblems ” and the smoked hands of relatives as ornaments. The report ends on a characteristically hopeful and modest note: “There has been a remarkable extension of Government influence in this district since I was here four years ago,” says Mr Hides. “ But retaliatory , murders are still frequent though many arrests were made during the course of the patrol.” Let Mr Hides tell of some of his exploits in his own words: “We travelled all night over the spurs, and as dawn was breaking we dropped down to Garamala. We arrested all its inhabitants. Alas, the men we were looking for were not there, so we made a mad rush on towards the next village, Zazuau. But the valley was soon filled with the calls of warning. The information we picked up was quite unreliable. Two guides went out with a party of police, but as they were returning two natives followed them unseen, and they tried to kill the guides. One of the guides turned on the attackers just in time, and ho dealt one of them three terrific blows with an axe. I inserted 14 stitches in the wound, and gave the man a hot pannikin of coffee. The man turned out to be one of the murderers whom we were seeking.

“An aeroplane flew past while we were at the village. The natives said it was a bird. Their ancestors had told them about euch a thing, but they had seen it only recently. An old man then came to the camp seeking; his son’s release. He brought with him a headgear made of cowrie shells as a gift. There was a freshly-smoked human hand on a string round the old man neck—the hand of one of his dead sons whom he did not want to forget. Later two chiefs, Komi and Zamiari, were arrested. Zamiari went mad and threw himself into the fire in his hut, scattering firebrands and hot ashes in every direction and badly burning two of the native policemen. It was explained by the natives that he went mad at every full moon. Devils from the rock holes in the mountains got in his body, and he threw himself on the ground and ate dirt and stones.

“ Eventually it became clear that Golopui, the c>.icf of another tribe, who was suspected of many murders, was the controlling spirit of the whole district. He was arrested after a desperate struggle. He is a striking native, with a forceful personality. He seems to have very great influence with the natives.”