MADE BY AEROPLANE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 18956, 5 March 1936, Page 10

MADE BY AEROPLANE

NEW GUINEA TOWN CONDITIONS AT WAU MANY STRANGE SIGHTS SYDNEY, Feb. 23. In Wan,. New Guinea, beer costs 3s 66 a bottle—until recently it was 5s 6tl—yet a flight in an aeroplane means no more than a. taxi rule in-Sydney.

Many strange, sights meet the eye in Wau. For instance, half-a-dozen “boys” from the gaol may carry £12,000 worth of gold across the paddocks and through the streets, and never think of stealing even a penn’orth of it. Goldfield bandits are unknown.

Mr. Alex. C. Jones, representative in Wau of the Bank of New South Wales, who returned during the week after three years there, says this thriving centre, an hour and a-hal'f’s flight from Port Moresby, is “just great.” That’s how they reckon distance there. Three or four hundred miles mean nothing to the white residents of “The Territory.” Everything is measured by the time it takes an aeroplane to cover the distance, for planes are used for every trip.

And, says Mr. Jones, when a machine does crash—very infrequently, fortunately—the occupants “just walk out ol the "wreckage.” Wau has a coin which is absolutely valueless in any other part of the world. It is a native mark, which has a hole in the centre for the “boys”—every male black is a “boy”—to thread on string, and hang around his neck. In the township these marks are greatly prized by the natives, for if one saves 200, worth £lO, he enters the native millionaire class.

Shells are also quite an important part of the currency. The nomad blackfellow collects a- bagful before setting out on his trek inland, and with these he buys from the No. 1 “boy” in the tribes lie meets, his potatoes and other food. To the inland tribes, money means nothing —shells everything. Wau is controlled by tlie Government district officer, Mr. Nicholas Penglasc, and Inspector Steeples, who is in charge of four white police officers and a squad of trusted native constables. Even with beer at 3s 6d a bottle, quite a. lot of people get drunk on it, Mr. Jones declares. He has seen men under its. influence, remove their false teeth, or their glass eye, and fight until a padre (no longer there) came along and announced “drinks on the church” to stop the brawl.

Known as “the city of pretty wives, though not really' a city, Wau is thriving. New hotels have sprung up, and another picture theatre, is being vjauilt. The, wives were not found there, however —the white men come to Sydney, or drop in at Brisbane to find one. Frequently the bride follows later, and the whole township celebrates the marriage. Mr. Jones brought news of the birth of the first white twins born in the Territory—both boys, the sons of Mr. and (Mrs. Noel Owcrs, of Wau. A new road to Edic Creek, 11 miles away, has been built, and the main transport problem has thus been solved. But motor vehicles will never outdo the aeroplane; as many as ICO planes laud lake oil from a drome in a day. “The whites must show the black ‘boys’ that they are boss,” said Mr. Jones, who is the son of Inspector Jones, of the Phillip street police station. “H they thought they could overpower their masters, they would have no hesitation in assaulting them. Sometimes we have to knock them out.”

“Not so long ago, if a ‘hoy’ wandered off into the hills in the direction of Edic Creek, lie would be attacked, beaten and beheaded. One of his tribe then evened the score by doing exactly the same thing to the enemy; and thus each tribe believed the other was one up all the time, so that they were always looking for another victim. But that sort of thing has almost ceased around the civilised centres.

“Public bangings, which all ‘boys must witness, and whippings, have had a marked effect on the behaviour of the race.

Your personal servant is your devoted slave for months after witnessing one. He is thus taught neither to murder, attack a female, nor steal.” Mr. Jones told of trouble which threatened Wau at Christmas. Word reached the authorities that a number of natives were going to sweep on the town and “do big lella clean-up,” but the presence of the police “boys” on the route scared them off.

On a previous Christmas, the native “wireless” operators sent word to the tribes that the white men were going to give a “big eat day and sing-sing” to the kuku kuku—wild natives not settled in civilised centres.

A thousand boys and their “Marys” converged on the picnic ground; but with the first fireworks display they disappeared, screaming and yelling. It took hours of patient work to bring them back.

Annual sports meetings.are staged between Wan and Port Moresby, each district taking it in turn to visit the other. People flock to the gala in aeroplanes. “I’m proud to have been associated with the Territory,” Mr. Jones said. “Wau is being re-built—the huts are fast disappearing, and wooden houses with tin roofs are the new order. A beautiful hospital has been opened, and the womenfolk are settling down to a very happy life there.” Recreation? Wood-chopping contests, picture-shows twice a week, and dances —to which people go by aeroplane. “If there wer no planes?” He laughed. “Well, maybe there would be no Wau.”