LUST FOR GOLD.

Colonist, Volume LV, Issue 13644, 8 February 1913, Page 7

LUST FOR GOLD.

.Murder is very common in Papua, where 'European civilisation has licvcr penetrated, though life in tho settled districts fe probably salcr than in most parts of England or Australia, for murder to thes^ outside tribes is not a. crime at all; it is sometimes a duty, sometimes a necessary part of -isocial etiquette^ sometimes a relaxation, and always a pa-ssion. Simply lust for blood—we are told by-Colonel J. H. P. Murray •in his book' '-Papua, or British New' Guinea,-' which i« full of varied interest, is the/ only explanatioii which can b-o found for some murders, as, for instance, /whore' unprovoked i attacks .are made upon unoffending I 'villages^ and 'where ha.rm"esis' s^rangei-* faro w'aiit-ouly'slaughtered.,'. / '"'■'