MAN WITH 121 “WIVES”

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20334, 26 October 1937, Page 9

MAN WITH 121 “WIVES”

BOUQHT FOR OWN PROTECTION CIRCUMVENTING TRIBAL LAW (From a Correspondent) Owner of 121 “wives,” whom he has bought at his mission at Bathurst Island, near Darwin, at an average cost of £2 a head, Monsignor Francis Gsell, the Roman Catholic administrator of the Northern Territory diocese, is at present in Sydney on leave. Monsignor Gsell, a grey-bearded, patriarchal figure, told t he story of bow lbs idea of buying aboriginal women lo protect them first occurred ( 0 i,j m . llis great frame shook with laughter whenever his many “wives” were mentioned. * “I’Ve been buying wives for the last 23 vears,” he said, “and I believe' I have more Ilian anyone else in the world to-day. My total up to a few weeks ago was I*l wives, but 21 have died, and since l came south to Sydney I’ve acquired yet another wife. How It Began “II was early in 1914 that I hegnn acquiring my wives. An old man came lo Ihe mission one day and demanded Ids wife, the wife being 10 vears old. A woman in the Territory is always married before she te born if her husband dies she is married by another man. Sometimes she is married even before her first husband is actually dead. This girl wife asked for my help, but 1 was powerless to oppose native law, and the. old jvian took her away. In four days she was back with a spear wound from her husband in the thigh, and few hours afterwards (he old man arrived with his tribe They demanded tho girl back. d. playing for lime, I lold them 1 would talk to them Ihe next morningl “That night Ihe thought came to me: Why nol buy her? It was a new idea: il might work. \nd so in Hie morning l spread out a heap of trade goods—knives, flour, tobacco—and pul my proposition lo ll.e irate husband. He was dazzled; he. took Hie bait, and in a few minutes 1 bought

my first wife. After that the smoke signals sent round the word that ‘Ngerenganl’—as I am known to the natives —was a wife buyer, and the applications were fairly plentiful. My 142 valves have cost me £2 each m goods.” Entirely Successful Monslgnor Gsell explained that, according to tribal law, even when he gave his wives away In marriage lo the boys on the island it was really only a loan, because If a boy died the wife reverted to himself again. His experiment In wife-buying had been entirely successful. It made the child free and prevented child marriage and polygamy—grave evils In the native system in the north, because most marriages were between old men and very young girls. lie explained this by saying that when a girl was horn she was already married. She was, however, given an “ampranua,” or son-in-law, the boy having the right of marriage over all the girl’s daughters, which meant that the hoy had to wait until Ills motherin law grew up, married, and had daughters before tie could marry. ‘‘l think people might like to hear about the latest methods of native divorce,” he added. “An old man might decide to divorce his wife — usually after she had run away and been brought hack about a dozen times. The wife is placed against a tree by the tribe, and the husband is given 10 spears. It is a case of trial by ordeal at 30 yards. If she survives -she is a divorced woman, but there is always someone willing to marry her after the tenth spear has been thrown unsuccessfully.”