AFFAIRS IN NEW GUINEA.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 3610, 27 April 1886, Page 4

AFFAIRS IN NEW GUINEA.

+■ __ The correspondent m New Guinea of the Sydney Morning Herald, writing from Port Moresby on March 6, snys: — " For tho last bix weeks 'this lias been a most melnncholy placo. Tho sickness- among the natives, to which I referred m. my lust, has increased rather than diminished. Upwards of 40 deaths have ocourred m Port Moresby alone, and some of the natives are now lying hopelessly ill. It is a chest diseaso and, to a non-profess-ional has all the appearance and symptoms of pleurisy. There is a good deal of romittent fever about. The sanitary condition of the village is of course bad ; but then it is always bo. There is nothing exceptionally offensive, and no decaying animal or vegetable refuse. Large quantities of dnmp, fermenting sago m the house have probably more tj do with the sickness. 1 Whatever be tho. cause, no such mortality haa been Inown since the epidemic of small-pox which raged'nboiit 18 or 20 years ago. In severalcases. husband and wife have both died- within a few hours of each other. In some families the mortality has been very great. It las been confined to adults, and the strongest, finest physiques have suffered most. The natives, aro quite dazed and bewildered. They are too frightened to wail over the dead. A shallow grave is hastily made, and m silence the dead body is buried ns soon ns the breath is out of it. All burials here are made m theßtreet, just opposite the house which the deceased formerly occupied. These numerous shallow graves m tlie midst of tho living urc another sourco of disease. Want of food hns aggravated the sicknes3. Many lives have been saved by the rice, which the mission has daily distributed to those most needing it. The long drought lias boon followed by copious rain, bat has come too Into to save the banana?, which the people depend on this timo of the year. Wo luiTe no direct news from Mr Forbes; no natives-will travel at such times as this. The heavy rains have also made tho river and streams diilicult to cross.