SEVENTEEN YEARS IS NEW GUINEA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2850, 28 October 1908, Page 41

SEVENTEEN YEARS IS NEW GUINEA.

A MISSIONARY'S INTERESTING EXPERIENCES. On the 24th inst. a Times reporter sought and obtained an interview with the Rev. W. E. Bromilow, who, with his wife, is making a brief stay in .Dunedin. Mr Bromilow has been for many years carrying on mission work on Sanaa rai Island, which constitutes a part of- .New, Guinea. Having lived for so long on terms of the greatest intimacy with the islanders, Mr Bromilow was able to provide the pressroan with some very useful and very interesting information. Mr Bromilow said that since leaving New Guinea- ove^a year ago hs had been engaged in completing a translation of the New Testament into the *langnage of the natives, and is seeing it through the press. He was also seeing to a book that was being published by a. brother missionary from one of the outlying stations. At the pzesent time he is under engagement as a lecturer in connection with the Methodist Missions and the British and Foreign Bible Society. He had formerly been doing mission work in Fiji, but during the past 17 years had been in NewGuinea. THE NATIVES. -v The native of New Guinea is often'represented as one of the lowest and most treacherous types of mankind, said the reporter-. Do you think that correct? " Far from being one of the lowest, he is one of the smartest," said Mr Bromilow. " You can teach a Papuan anything. Of course, ho i« just emerging from a state of sava.gedom, and you cannot expect him to have tho application necessary for rapid and continued advancement. But he belongs to a rather fine type. Just to show how Papuans can be taught : We have been there 17 years, and there are native* jn our mission there now who are very gocd carpenters. Those who take up tho work make astonishingly eloquent preachers, and make use of very apt illustrations. 1 have seen Papuans acting as captains of vessels weighing up to 20 tons, and very efficient seamen they are. A captain told me in Sydney not long ago that he had had a good deal to do with Papuans, and he was astonished at their smartness as sailors. They are very clever people, indeed. "When we went to them they were xeally iiving under a civilisation of their own. They lived in villages, under a code of laws, and were proficient in a number of industries. For instance, they made splendid fishing nets, and were clever agriculturists. They grew great quantities of yams — which, when a crop is growing, look like hops, — taro and cocoaimts. Their land laws were simply perfect, and they have customs and laws which they follow out most rigorously. CANNIBALISM. " They were certainly cannibals when we went among them. Their policy was that if any man did them an injury, they were justified in taking vengeance upon another person of the same tribe. Their method of revenge was generally to kill and cat the person they got into thsir power. It was impossible to prevent this at once." Were y<ru not afraid of providing in your own person the subject for another "TBulletin cannibal feast? I M.r Bromilow laughed. " Well," he eaid, '• we did not know at once what they were going to do witb us. Seven years before oup^ arrival a recruiting vessel lied called there, and after a number of natives had been killed many of them were takeu away to work on the Queensland plantations. It was not likely they had forgotten that. What made it more difficult for us was the fact that they always hidetheir feelings. A native may be joyful, but he looks sad, and he may be very grave, and have all the appearance of gaiety. After a few days the beat went away, and we -Here left there clone among them. Just at this time a native woman died, and they thought we had killed her by sorcery, and resolved to kill us. But ono of the native chiefs told them they h/id -'better not; and they did not. My experience in Fiji served me well, for I was very careful not to break any of their forms of etiquette, and so bring their wrath down on me. They have very strict forms of etiquette, quite inconceivable to a white man, and are really the most perfect little gentlemen. After we had lived among them for a timo they began to trust us, and as tho years passed our influence on them became moro marked. We did not at once succeed in stamping out cannibalise. I have often been conducting a eervioe some where near the coast, and heard a conch shell being blown some distance inland, summoning the natives to a cannibal feaet. But the practice is becoming rarer us years pass by. HOW WE TEACH. " This is the plan on which we teach : We took with us a number of Fijians, Tongane, and Samoans, who were qualified to teach. Whenever a native ■village wanted one of those men to go and live among them, it meant that they wanted to live at peace. I always impressed upon them that we had come there to bo men of peace, and that, the first condition upon v\hicli we would consent to allow teachers to live in tho different villages wab that they mu-rt cease fighting-. They did not, when asking for a teacher, give us to understand that they a^ked for the Gospel. They simply wanted z/vorc pro^peroub conditions of peace and Lottoi- opportunities .for trading. Our toac">wrs, " when eettied among them, took c\LTy opportunity of giving- them the Gospel. CHALLENGED. " I ne\er had a challenge sent to me during all the years I was there, which shows that. I ha-d gained the confidence of the native--. But challenges to white men ■wero not uncommon. The magistrate in whose diotiict we were stayed at our house during his visits, and on one occasion he received a challenge from the nativeß. They offered to fight him and his native " boys," and they declared that they would kill him and throw his body into the sea tthcy did not like white man's flesh), and that they would eat his boys. Needless to gay, the challenge was nofc accepted. THE CONVERTS. "As our teachers began to gadn an influence on tho lives of me people, our coaverte began to come in, and wherever omr teachers were we had eood results. I had a letter from a high official in New Guinea just before I left, in which he referred to th« great difference between the people of

' the tribes where our teachers were ar.<T those where there were no teachers, and thanked me for my influence in establishing good government. The native who is taught to observe the Sabbath and be * Christian is amenable to law, whereas th< other has no scruples about the law, ana hae not learned not to 'throw a bomb ol shcot the magistrate.' There was a magistrate shot by the natives not long ago on the islands away to the westward. Betwesn. 19,000 and 20,000 people attend our services in our portion of the island. Nearly 4000 of these axe inner members of the Church, or under probation to become members. Then we have a Central' College Institution at Übuia Island (360 acres), and there we have 100 male and female studemts gathered from our district, who are bsing instructed in Scrip* ture, arithmetic, English, plantation work, etc., so that they may become teachers among their* fellow country msn. Then we have an orphanage there to which we send all children who have been rescued from starvation and neglect or from being buried alive with their dead mothers. My wife saved the first child sent to the inetitution, from being- buried alive. My sue* cessor on tbe station, is a New Zealaoder, the Rev. M. X. 1 Gilnsour. He is a very capable man, who makes himself master of all he undertakes, and is really one of the most capable men we have on out mission field. His wife also is a New ZeaJander. " New Guinea, as you doubtless know, i». i now under the Federal Government. The I governor of the country has to bo appointed* by the Federal Government, and the latter will have to shape the future policy of the. country. There are about 850 wjiifces in that portion of New Guinea. I hasve beet* very giad to learn that most of the members of Parliament in Australia are determined that the natives of New Guinea are not to be exploited. Certain of tho whites would like to have a Tight to force natives to sell their land, but Bishop Stonewig, the Rev. C. Wabie. of the London Missionary Society, and myself sent a strong protest to Australia against anything of tbe sort being permitted, and that protest was upheld. However, there are many cf the whites there who are very fine fellow* indeed, and who object strongly to the attempts of others to- get the natives under their thumb so that they may be exploited for mercenary ends. MALARIA AND PLANTING. Malaria is very bad in all those pjac-e* where the land cannot hs cleared and swamps drained. In one place they havo succeeded in abolishing the malaria mosquito altogether, and are not troubled with the fever. Planting ie an industry that J3 making great strides — rubber, sugar, tea, etc.-r-hut one of the very troublous questions thatwill crop up in the future is, where are tho planters to get sufficient labour. Many firms are taking up great areas of land in the islands, and one has now 5000 acres. Oar mission took up 1000 acres with the purpose of planting thereon and obtaining 1 , for carrying on our work. Numbers of- persons have aeked me whether I considered it worth while to go to New Guinea in order to make money. But I haya always advie&d them to get &ome definite ojigatyemont in New Guinea before they, go there. I have never been in New Zealand before. It is a magnificent country. You are justified in calling it ' God's own country.' I go south to Invereargili in a few daye, an<t from there return to the ncrth, where I will be for tomo little time."

At the Anglican Synod at Christchurch one of the speakers said, while referring to the pioneer work of Archdeacon Harpe-.-on the West Coast, that his name would 1 always be revered there because. *«■ an, old miner had once said, " His reverence is a good rider, a good swimmer, a real sportsman, and, if he could only bo converted, he would be a real good sort" Owing to the frequency oi recent German balloons coming to earth in France, generally with German officers on board, and the adverse comment thus aroused, the German Aeronautic Association, whose headquarters are at Strasburg, has issued a very satisfactory circular to its members, "calling on them to avoid crossing the frontier. '