LAW IN NEW GUINEA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22835, 20 March 1936, Page 11

LAW IN NEW GUINEA

PAPUAN CRIME RARE ADMINISTRATOR’S RECORD (From Our Own Correspondent) SYDNEY. March 12. Sidelights of Uie administration of justice in Papua, which is accepted as a model for native control all over the world, were told by the LieutenantGovernor of Papua (Sir Hubert Murray), who has spent 32 years in Papua, and is now on his way to England on long leave. He painted a picture of Papua as an idyllic State in which crime is non-exist-ent among the white population and rare among the natives, who have attained an astonishingly high standard of civilisation and behaviour during his wise and sympathetic administration of that territory. “ The first consideration in attempting to control and civilise primitive peoples must be certainty of arrest and punishment for wvoMg-doers,” he said. " We are very fortunate in the type of white man wc have in Papua. As far as possible we leave the natives and their customs strictly to themselves. Practically, the only customs that wc find necessary to suppress rigidly arc sorcery, adultery, murder and assaults. Jf the oflenders are from remote villages wc shut them up in gaol for six months, lint they may go free in a few weeks. If wc notice a native pining in gaol even after a very short term wc send him back to his tribe immediately, If the wrong-doer is from a town and we know that he is well aware of ary law we punish him more severely. Despite talcs of natives enjoying gaol, prison is a very real punishment, and we very rarely find a second offender. . “ Natives do not resent punishment. This is sometimes illustrated amusingly when I am on inspection patrols in the mountains. Natives run up to me in a most friendly fashion and say; ‘Don’t you remember me? You gave me five years in Port Moresby Gaol.’ ” Outlining his judicial procedure, which has been adopted in other British Crown colonies. Sir Hubert Murray said that he hud abolished Crown prosecutors, counsel for defence, and juries from his court. “ f carry out all those duties ns well as that of judge, because F can create thereby a more confident atmosphere for the native prisoner. Even if a prisoner makes an admission that is not admissible under rules of evidence, and T am positive in my own mind that he is guilty

I will not convict him unless the charge is proved in legal form. It is embarrassing to let the man go. under those conditions, because he, no doubt, boasts of having tricked the Government, but that is far better than running the risk of convicting an innocent man. “My greatest trouble is to decide whether a native who pleads guilty, is really guilty, because often they will admit a crime they did not commit because they think that by doing eo they will please me. Once I sent to gaol an innocent man because he pleaded guilty, but when we found out he was innocent and ordered his release he would not go. He said that he wanted to finish his sentence until he had learnt carpentering. Another difficulty is to discover whether they have an adequate defence. One killer told me die clubbed a man to death because that man broke bis nose bone ornament. That was no excuse for killing, I told him. ‘lt was a good nose bone.' he replied. After a lot of questioning I found out that the blow which broke his nosobone also killed his sister, but it had not occurred to him to plead that as an excuse for the killing.” POOH-BATIS OF LAW AND MEDICINE. In the neighbouring Mandated Territory of New Guinea a similar system exists, and patrol officers are often called upon to he Pooh-balis of the law. Mr Jack Hepburn, a young Sydney solicitor recently readmitted to practice in Now South Wales, was for two years in New Guinea. He revealed the numerous capacities in which be was called to act while on patrol. On one occasion in the Scpik River district he instructed a police hoy to arrest a native; he directed the prosecution of the native before himself, he prosecuted the native, lie defended the.native, lie convicted the native, lie issued himself with a warrant to take the prisoner to himself as gaoler, he gave and took a receipt from himself as gaoler to himself ns a policeman, and he filed the receipt as a civil servant. But if New Guinea has the Pooh-bahs of the law, Australia lias at least one Pooh* bah of medicine. He is Dr Alan Vickers, head of the aerial medical services (or “ flying doctor ”) in Western Australia. In a report to the headquarters of the soi vices, he gave an account of a busy day he had recently. Dr Vickers srated that ho began bis day by flying 100 miles Mom Port Hedland to Marble Bar, an isolated mining settlement. He examined li patients and performed two, minor operations. As coroner for the district ho held an inquest on the body of_ a man found dead in a camp. Then, as chairman of the Licensing Court, he renewed the licences of five hotels. Finally, as mining warden, he reviewed several applications foe mining leases. His day’s work done, he flew back to Port Hedland.