POLITICIAN’S TASK

Taranaki Daily News, 16 August 1933, Page 4

POLITICIAN’S TASK

CROWNING A KING.

AMONG THE ABORIGINES.

When in North Queensland recently, the Home Secretary of Queensland, Mr. E. M. Hanlon, carried out the unusual task of crowning an aboriginal king. The Minister laughingly told the story, when he recalled that after inspecting the Mona Mona mission, in the Cairns district, he was asked to perform the crowning ceremony. This rite was repr dered necessary by the death of the old king, and, as he had not left any known sons/ it was agreed that his brother should become king of the tribe. The ceremony, it was explained by the Minister, involved hanging the customary brass chain and plate round the aboriginal neck. Amid much enthusiasm the crowning was carried out, and the Minister subsequently shook hands with King Peter of Kuranda. At the Yarrabah aboriginal station, Mr. Hanlon was met by a figure dressed in white, who brushed sundry small boys and aborigines generally from his path as the Minister entered the gateway. There was a delay of a moment or two as the white-robed figure placed a red sash round his shoulders, the words “King Peter of Yarrabah,” being plainly discernible. It was amusing, as the tour progressed, said the Minister, to find the king of the tribe ordering away in no uncertain terms those who got in the Ministerial pathway, as he conducted the Minister round the place.