IN THE WILDS OF PAPUA.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14571, 5 April 1918, Page 6

IN THE WILDS OF PAPUA.

ENCOUNTER WITH NATIVES. mblb*xukne;< March 23. The frightened natives disappeared into the bush ' \vhen Judge Murray, Lieutenant-Governor of Papua, 1 and a party recently paid a visit to the Strickland river and, Lake Murray m the comparatively unknown western division of Papua. When the natives saw that the white men. did not. intend to wage war on them they, graudally returned.' Some of the natives, however, were openly hostile. "One of theni," says Judge Murray m a report to the Home and Territories Department, "discharged two arrows at Sergeant Gegera, and another appeared to be on the. point of putting one into me, when ha was discouraged by shots which Mr. H. L. Murray (official secretary) fired over his head. "At a, later stage of the proceedings a little old man emerged from nowhere m particular, and nervously fingering his bow and arrow seemed determined to try the^ effect of a shot upon our cook, when the man^ over whose head Mr. Muiray had fired ran up andfStopped him. Evidently the shots had had more than a momentary effect. "It seemed, improbable after the shots that we could establish friendly relations with these people, but by degrees the constraint wore off, and harmony reigned m its place. Indeed, before we left we had them dancing and singing with the native police. "'Some of the western natives, Mr. Lyons, the resident magistrate, informed Judge Murray, used their own blood to paint their arrows. ."• The- . usual practice, however, was to use the sap of a tree. Among the native possessions was found a piece of stone, flakes of which the native police said were chipped off and used for shaving."