WILD NEW GUINEA.

Otago Witness, Issue 3018, 17 January 1912, Page 100

WILD NEW GUINEA.

A BABEL OF TONGUES. One of the wildest parts of wild New Guinea is the. Gulf division, of which the taubada ’ (big man), as the natives term the Government Resident, is Mr J. P- lords Hen nelly, wlio, with his wife, «Jt present on furlough in Sydney. The natives of the Gulf have just emerged from cannibalism, and till a little while ago bore an unenviable reputation for fierceness and treachery; but they are now peaceful, law-abiding subjects, which speaks well for the administration of I\ir liennelly and other Government officials, cannibalism baling been put down, except perhaps in the more remote parts outside the sphere of Government influence.

Mr Hen nelly (sayß the Sydney Morning lie raid) has an extensive knowledge of the manners, customs, and habits of the natives, and has a happy knack of dealing with therni, and does mot subscribe to the belief that there are any hopelessly irreclaimable barbarians, as has been asserted of some that have very bad reputations.

"The great thing when you get in touch with them," he said, "ib to command their respect, and once this is achieved you can do anything with the natives. That applies to the very wildest of them."

i One of the greatest difficulties that has to be contended with in apua by /Government officials and missionaries in their intercourse with the natives is that there is no dominant language; the number of tongues even is unknown, and no mail can make himself understood throughoutthe possession. The extent to which the i difference of language exists may be gathered from the fact that in Mr Hennelly's district alone no less than six or even languages are spoken on the coast, besides perhaps as many more among the bush people. Most of the nativet around the white settlements speak "pidgen" English, the fewness of the words used and the ungrammatical structure of the sentenice according more nearly with the form of their own language. It, tabes almost as Lung to learn this curious jargon as it does to learn a native language. Giving an example of it, Mr Il&nnelly said that if a native wished to say that he required an order on a storekeeper 0> get goods he would expreis himself in the fol/lowing way:—'"More better you go make him paper ; behind I p'o show him along white man." Which means that if the written order were given he would take it to the store and present it. —Petroleum, Gold, and Coal. — Mr Hennelly spoke very optimistically of the prospects of Papua. He said that in his pa*t an important discovery of petroleum had recently been made by Messrs Lett and Ttonias nea,r the Vailala River. The oil was found oozing out on the bank of a creek, the waters of which were covered with an oily fiim. Petroleum had alio been found on the ■other side of the main range near the German boundary. The two discoveries wore made almost coincidentally, and would appear to indicate that there was a very huge deposit of oil in the possesion. It was rat.iier a singular thing that this petroleum had not been found before, as the natives had a name for it, clearly showing that they knew all about it. If the Vailala River deposits turned out to be as valuable as believed, there would Ik> no difficulty in getting labour, as it was the centre of one of the largest recruiting districts in Papua. At the present time a party of gold prospectors were on their way up the Vailala River, having been financed partly by private subscriptions from the miners on the Lakekamu field, and partly by a Government vote. The leader was Mr Frank Pryke, one of tho discoverers of the .Lakekamu field, and the expedition had started under good auspices. Gold had been previously found up the Vailala River, but not in payable quantities Prospectors, however, had hitherto t'onfined their attention to the main stream, but this time the tributaries would, no doubt, be explored. Coal had been found at Kemu, about 10 or 15 miles from Koroma Bay, but it was very debatable whether it had any commercial value. Other deptjt.Ls had been located on the upper readies of the Purari River, and the samples appeared i to Mr Hennelly to be a very fine quality of anthracite, the seams of which he had been informed ran up to 12ft. This discovery was made by Messrs Little and Mackay, who anticipated, if it were found tc be worth working, that they Would have no difficulty either with regard to labour or the transport of the product to the coast. —Timber Resources.— The timber resources of Papua had practically been unexploited. On cither side of the Purari and Vailala Rivers there were fine flats, extending for many i miles, covered with valuable forests, and j

J if timber millers were to devoto attention to these areas they would be well repaid. Amongst the varieties of timber to be found in this district were elema, ! which was suitable for butter boxes or j cabinet work, cedar, and melila (similar t'o teak), and sufficient could be exported /from there to keep many mills going in Sydney. So far scarcely anything "had | been done to develop the industry in the j Gulf division, with the exception of a i little work by the British New Guinea | Development Company, which had made j a shipment lately. This company and j three traders—Messrs Maweon, Macj donald, and Assman—were now dollecting copra and sago from the natives, the | sago being sent To Port Moresby for conj sumption by tbo native labourers, for j which it was eminently suitable. There was- a wid« field far enterprise in j this fertile but yet uncultivated domain j —Mr Hennelly alluded' 'only to his own part of Papua,—and it required only labour (which was available) and capital to utilise its undeveloped resources. Those who would go forth to redeem to usefulness a generous soil, to make the rich flats teem with sugar-cane, and the tropic wilderness to blossom like a garden, had before them the prospect of rich rewards. ?