EVERYDAY NEW GUINEA.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, 17 July 1930, Page 16

EVERYDAY NEW GUINEA.

SOUTH SEA ROMANCE MOSTLY ILLUSION. Were one thoroughly to accept the considerable “colour” given the natives of New Guinea by Beatrice Grimshaw, and the Pacific Islanders by H. de Vere Stacpoole, a completely distorted view of peoples and things Pacifician would result. Beatrice Grimshaw and Stacpoole are only two of the novelists who have managed to build up an inaccurate, but selling, impression of Island life, it must be said. Their works are. indeed, on a higher level than the average story of the Pacific, bristling with rather blood-thirsty savages, embittered beach-combers, ruthless traders and. more often than not. a soulful young white man who finds romance under the palms with a young woman, who inevitably has the education of a European girl, though native. Those who know the Islands understand only too well that it is not wholly polite to linger beneath cocoanut palms; weighty nuts sometimes have an unfortunate habit of dropping on heads below. Romance in the South Seas is mostly sheer imagining on the part of a novelist seated comfortably by a fireside in wintry England. Yes, if one knows the Islands, bloodthirsty savages have an unromantic habit of becoming extremely simple people; hard and bitter traders and beachcombers are never met. Romance and Fact. South Sea romances do not fail to capture the attention of people in Great Britain, in America, or even in I Australia and New Zealand. Of these, | New Zealanders, knowing the Maori 1 Polynesians to be ordinary people, after all. are the most sceptical where Island romances are concerned. It is appropriate that a New Zealander should bring to the Dominion the true story of New Guinea. The lectures given in the Auckland University College by Mr W. R. McGregor, zoologist at the University and vice-president of the University Scientific Society, serve to dispel popular illusions regarding vast, remarkable and little known New Guinea. New Guinea presents an astounding field for research. It is significant that no complete work has been made on the customs and the histories of tribes, differing in language and practices to an amazing degree. Mr McGregor has described New Guinea’s i peoples extremely well in these words: | •• They have a fundamental similarity, but. on the surface, there is a bewildering diversity.” What is more. Mr McGregor can give this description of the New Guinea native as he is: “The Papuan or the I Melanesian of New Guinea is no devil- ! ish ghoul, with every form of license , attributed to him by conventional noi tion. From his own point of view, he is j law-abiding, and greatly occupied with domestic affairs. His ordinary community activities prevent him from being priest and magic ridden.”

Native Cults. Cults and spiritual beliefs of the natives are dealt with by Mr McGregor, but there should be realisation that the Papuan does not regard weird practices as magic. His spiritual beliefs are merely traditional and everyday affairs. In his final lecture. Mr McGregor will deal with native secret societies, diverse practices pertaining to death and burial, and what the association with Europeans means to th® natives.

Unlike the similarity of Polynesian languages, the languages of the Melanesian Islanders and of New Guinea present sharp differences in dialect. There may be a common language in a considerable tract of country and then widely-different dialects will be encountered in a short space of miles. These amazing differences have been noted in art, in music, architecture, village construction and community practices of the natives. As in the Solomon Islands, where there are about 50 languages. Pidgin English is becoming the speech of the coastal peoples of New Guinea, in inter-tribal communication. To find tribal life not affected by civilisation, it is necessary to go far beyond the trading centres In these days Fishing With Kites. A particularly interesting form of fishing recorded by Mr McGregor was angling by means of a kite. The natives who employed this form simply sat in their canoes, guiding the kites, from which the actual fishing line depended. The movements of the kites produced all the necessary “playing” for the fish. Mr McGregor was able to obtain interesting records of the practice of mutilating the body. Nose piercing for nose bones was confined to Papua and the grotesque slashing of the body to produce immense weals was customary among the Sepik River tribes particularly. Mr McGregor made observations also in New Guinea, where he accomplished extensive work. New Ireland, the Solomons and the Admiralty Islands. Interesting instances where Polynesian practices were predominant in the midst of the islands of the Melanesians. or Oceanic negroes, were in the Lord Howe Islands. Tikopia. Rennelf Island in the South Solomons, and in Bellona.