NEW GUINEA.

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18928, 24 April 1933, Page 2

NEW GUINEA.

STRANGE CUSTOMS. DARK MINDS OF NATIVE WARDS. INFANTICIDE AND STRANGULATION CANBERRA, April 12. Why the Federal Government Ingis.ted upon such high qualities In thfc 10 young men who it has selected from more than 2000 applicants lor cadetships in the New Guinea service, can be understood when one reads the marvellous documents which New Guinea patrol officers send periodically to Canberra. These men are continually making aew discovei'ies on this largely unknown Island, and only last week one report disclosed the discovery of two entirely new villages, in a remote part of the island, where suttee is demanded by widows as a woman s right; and infanticide, is. rife. Australia, so lately herself a colony, Is now, engaged in widely varied colonial problems, for in addition to New Guinea she has under her care Papua, Norfolk Island and Nauru and Ocean Islands. In the administration of these territories, which for the time, being are under the control of the Minister for Health and '■Repatriation (Mr Marr), many delicate problems arise, but none more delicate than in New Guinea, where -hundreds of the natives have never seen a white man. The direct administration is carried out by Brigadier-General T. Griffiths, who has just been appointed for a further term of tw'o years. It is the duty of the patrol officers, whose numbers will be increased after their ' three years’ apprenticeship by the 10 aew cadets, to explore the native villages,, learn their customs and varied dialects, and extend to a timid and suspicious people, always in fear of aggression from neighbouring tribes, the sphere of civilised influence.

Head Binding

Like the Northern Territory police, but faced with even more complicated problems, the patrol officers are away for months on their expeditions. Accompanied only by two or three police boys, the patrol officer sees no other white man on such tours, and his life . depends entirely on his resource and* taot. Some extraordinary customs have been revealed (n a recent report by Patrol Officer H. R. Niall of an expedition across New Britain. He found that in all the areas he visited it was the oustom to bind the heads of young infants, the process beginning about a week after birth. There are only a few natives with natural heads, and they are regarded as ugly. Mr Niall sees little hops of the fashion of elongated heads disappearing with the advance of civilisation. A He found that suttee was widely practised among the natives of the Passlsmanua and Lamogia areas, but could trace no definite case, except one in Gasmata, the natives being impressed with the fact that the practice was frowned upon by the white man. The process is to Strangle the widow, and generally she herself insists on her right to be killed, so ‘that her spirit may join that of her husband. Dipped In Blood. “On some occasions the men, being afraid of the consequences, have refused to strangle a woman, writes V Mr Niall. “Then It sometimes happens that the woman takes off her grass skirt and hands it to the men, telling them to put it on, and saying that they are only women and not real men. This so shames the men tha’t they reluctantly kill her according to 'the custom. “It is the duty of a woman s brother, or her nephews on the maternal side, to perform this ceremony of slow' strangulation. A native bark cloth is wrapped once around the woman’s neck and one man pulls on each end until she is choked, another man holding her in a kneeling position to prevent struggling.” Mr Niall says that until the oustom is abolished it Is difficult to see how the population can be increased, since many of the women are of childbearing age. Another barbarous custom is the destruction of one child when twins are born. Rescued by Native.

Explained the tribal customs that are responsible for many murders, Mr Niall says that In one area when a young man Is first given a pair of boar tusks, which are greatly prized as neck ornaments, he must first dip the tusks in .the blood of some person whom he or a near relative has just speared. Around the Yakas district Mr Niall found blowpipes were being used to propel arrows for killing birds. They are not used for fighting, nor do the natives Up the ends with poison. The only other place in the Southern Paoiflc where blowpipes are used is in a portion of the New Hebrides, where head-binding is also practised. Mr Niall owes his life' on this expedition to the fidelity of a native constable. He was thrown out of a canoe, which was smashed on a reef by heavy seas. . He A\as struggling In the undertow when the native dashed Into the boiling surf and rescued him. Had the breakers caught them and thrown them on the reef the fascinating report which Mr Niall has sent to Canberra would not have been written.