ADVENTURES IN PAPUA

New Zealand Tablet, 14 August 1913, Page 15

ADVENTURES IN PAPUA

By Beatrice Grimshaw.

WITH THE CATHOLIC MISSION

(Reprint of A.C.T.S. Publication.)

Introduction. It is almost unnecessary, one might suppose, to describe Australia's own first-born colony to her; but as some may need the knowledge, we will offer it briefly. According to the fantastic notion of an old-time missionary, New Guinea, when one looks at it on the map of Oceania, suggests a duck perched on the end of the long peak of Queensland. It would, indeed, be a gigantic duck, for it measures more than two thousand miles from beak to tail; its spine is formed by a huge chain of mountains 9 to 13,000 feet in height, its arteries are rivers like the Fly, navigable for five hundred miles, and its thighs could contain three United Kingdoms. ' Without past history,' says another missionary, Father. Jullien, ' owning no legendary glories save the tales that connect New Guinea with the ancient Ophir, that mysterious, enchanted land whither Hiram's fleet went to find gold and treasure for the adornment for the gloriously shining throne of Solomon, New Guinea has no notable dates, no famous names to show, save the dates of the explorations that revealed her to the world, and the names of the great discoverers, George de Meneses, the Portuguese, 1524-1530, and the Spaniards, Ortis de Retes and Saaverda, 1528-1545.' Later on, other sailors, passing by on the high, seas, noted a few of its lofty peaks, and marked out, little by little, the shape of the land. But it was not till near the end of the nineteenth century that the great island began to attract attention, and to excite the desires of the greater powers. It occurred to them, quite suddenly, that the situation of New Guinea pointed to much influence in the political and commercial future of the Pacific, since it was placed at the junction of two great sea routes, one running from Panama to India, the other from Australia to the ports of the Far East. On this account, it seemed advisable to take possession without delay of a place that enjoyed such a valuable strategic position. Holland, by the simple right of neighborhood (her colonies adjoining New Guinea), had already taken possession of half the Papuan Continent, a share twelve times as large as herself. In 1884-6, England and Germany divided the rest, Germany taking the northeastern portion, which adjoins her colonies, and England taking the south-eas:ern part, next to Australia. It is with this last part that we have to do. When the Commonwealth became a nation, it wished, like every other self-respecting nation, to have its colony. The Mother country, always indulgent towards the stronger of her children, offered her powerful, daughter British New Guinea as a coming-of-age gift, and the emancipated daughter made haste to unbaptise her mother's present. British New Guinea thenceforward was called ' Papua '—a harsh, illsounding, unmelodious word, whose ugliness made old inhabitants shudder with disgust. To-day, however, it only troubles the geographical memories of the older people, and continues to offend the susceptibilities of scientific men. Papua, in spite of its ugly name, is a young colony with a future, _ and promises both honor and profit to Australia. It is a big new country, very rich and very beautiful. Read the descriptions that the author of this booklet has written; they are fine ' genre' paintings, made by an artist who has lived in the country she paints, and thus has learned to see correctly, and who, in describing what she has seen, uses a pen that can do the work of a brush—so vivid is the local color in her work, and so marked the realism. THE MISSION FIELD. In this great country, the influence of the Catholic Mission closely confined at each side by that wretched

piece of political Erastianism, called ' spheres of influence which one is astonished to see exercising its narrow tyranny among a free, proud people like the Englishextends principally over the Mekeo plain, which is the tract of country lying immediately behind Hall Sound. The Mission influence extends also far inland, into the rugged foothills of the huge Owen Stanley range, and passes over them to reach the mighty ramparts of the great Central Chain.The Mission headquarters are at Yule Island, a lovely island situated on the southern coast, about sixty miles from Port Moresby, the capital. It is framed by a wonderful amphitheatre of mountains which lifts itself in six gigantic steps up to the heights of the Great Central Chain, raising its magnificent circle of peaks far into the sky from end to end of the horizon. It overlooks the bay of Hall Sound, which lies outspread like a beautiful lake at its feet, and shields it so effectively against the storms of the north-west, and the persistent trade-wind of the south-east, that it may fairly claim to be the best harbor in New Guinea. It is large enough to float a squadron of men-of-war, calm enough to shelter a single dinghy. In truth, God has provided a wonderful and lovely cradle for His young Church in New Guinea. It was at this spot that a young priest of twentyfive landed one day—Father Henry Verius, of the Society of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. Growing impatient at the official delays which kept him waiting at Thursday Island, he had daringly loaded up a little fishing cutter, and made for New Guinea by himself, with a few Australian blacks, and a compass. Through the perilous labyrinth of the reefs that stud the coral sea he travelled, trusting his boat to the care of our Lady, whose picture he had fastened to the foot of the mast. The Blessed Virgin heard the simple prayer of this truly ingenuous soul. She took the rudder, and on the first of July, 1886, the vessel cast anchor on the south side of Yule Island, at the foot of the hill where Father Verius celebrated the first Mass said in New Guinea, three days later. This was the definite act of occupation of the Catholic Church. The massacre of Father Mazzuconi and his companions, in Woodlark, in 1855, had for a time turned away the stream of missionary effort to other shores. It was Leo XIII. who brought it back again. " ' - At his command, Mgr. Navarre, at the time Bishop of Melanesia, travelled from New Britain to Torres Strait, in order to reach New Guinea from that place. It was in pursuance of his orders that Father Verius, after his dangerous voyage, landed on Yule Island. He arrived there alone, destitute of everything save confidence and hope, and strong in his faith in the mission that he had received from the. Vicar of Christ, to plant the Church in New Guinea. He did indeed plant the Church of Jesus Christ there —at the price of what hardships, what labor, God alone can tell! We know this much, that he died in seven years, at the age of thirty-two, utterly worn out. He had just been consecrated Coadjutor-Bishop to Mgr. Navarre. .' '~-, The beginning was full of hardship, like the beginning of every mission. The first ten or fifteen years were mostly passed by the missionaries in exploring and clearing the country, in studying native character, customs, and languages, in building, and also— dying. During this short period of time, the venerable Head of the Mission saw the third of his staff fall by the way —twenty-eight missionaries, all in the fulness of youth and strength. In spite of these trials, ,or rather on account of them, the work of God , took root and flourished. In 1897, the mission had already three districts on the coast and in the plain. In 1900, a fourth district was opened in the Owen Stanley Range, from whence the light of the Gospel shone upon sixty-three villages. In 1905, further in the interior, a fifth district was brought under influence; and this present year of 1913 is seeing the commencement of a sixth district, in the Upper Vanapa, very high up among the lofty ramparts of the Central Chain. The apostolic work is carried on to-day in six different languages among a populace divided into forty-

five tribes, including 297 villages; These are scattered about a great extent • of wild and difficult country, almost: entirely devoid ; of civilisation, and extremely : hard to travel over. Forty-three missionaries, assisted by thirty-four nuns and a few catechists, carry on the work: of the mission in the twelve principal stations, and the twenty-three secondary stations, which are provided with twenty-nine churches, thirty-four schools, and seven orphanages. ' The visible results of the mission are modest enough, since we have only 6010 living baptised '. converts. It might be said" that the work of God advances slowly. It does; but it advances steadily, andmore important stillprudently. It is the number of Christians, not the number of Baptisms, that really matters. Christians are what we want; people who will be a permanent source of Christianity, and who will establish the Church in New Guinea. If, in order to be a Catholic, it were enough for the native to possess a summary sort of faith, a kind of morality very liberal as to conjugal laws, to keep Sunday after a fashion, to have a shirt on his back and a Bible under his arm, we might have three times our actual number of converts to-morrow. But the Catholic Church asks from the black, as well as from the white, a strong, clear, living faith, a morality that keeps body and soul alike controlled, a Christian conscience. She demands the practice of virtue, the frequenting of the Sacraments, confession made with faith, contrition, and honesty. For black as for white, the Christian life is, in its essence, a matter of energy and will. v Now, it is just in this quality of will that the inferiority of the New Guinea native is most clearly shown. Though physically superior to many colored races, though less savage, and perhaps less dangerous, than he is supposed to be, the Papuan stands very low on the ladder of humanity, by reason of his want of virility and character. He remains a child, a lazy and indifferent child, all his life. That will serve to explain, per 7 haps, the unavoidable slowness of mission work, the prudence and patience that are accessary in order to escape the ever-present danger of too hasty and too numerous Baptisms. The natives have to commence with a long period of trial as catechumens. A good number pass through satisfactorily. Many, especially among the old and the middle-aged, fail to do so. These we weed out; but we get them nearly all back again in the hour of death, when, very often and very clearly, we see the grace of God at work upon these poor creatures, helping them and holding them. Among the younger our work is much more gratifying, its fruits more visible. We have now, in many places, groups of neophytes who are truly Christian in heart and life. As to the great mass of othersjust like their white brothers — life does not always carry out the faith that they hold. Baptism has given faith to our natives; it has ennobled their souls and improved their moral condition; but it has not, all at once, destroyed the savagery of their nature, or wiped out the revolts of pagan atavism. Many have a tepid kind of faith, like numbers of their civilised brothers, but apostasy is an evil that we hardly know. And if their morals are weak, and their falls frequent, they know at least how to rise when fallen, and the sincerity of their confessions is a splendid proof of the divine benediction that rests upon our work. But it is over the schools above all that the missionary can feel his heart swell with pride. It is there that he does his hardest work, and from thence that his brightest hopes arise. All the stations, principal and secondary, have their schools, and the results obtained are good, although somewhat lessened and hampered by the bad influences of the village and heathen family life. Everywhere possible, the missionaries keep a parish school in their own place of residence, where they bring up, at their own expense, and under their sole control, any young children whom they can save from their heathen surroundings. There is no trouble, no sacrifice that the Fathers do not willingly take upon them-

selves in the interests of these parish schools, for the results have shown that they are the ■■ best possible nurseries of future Christians, and possibly of catechists. Divine grace acts freely here', and works wonders. Taking only the most important of these schools, two of them, at Yule Island, shelter ninety-one children, mostly of pure native race. All the teaching is given in English, by Australian Sisters, and native languages as well as ' pigeon-English are strictly forbidden. Thanks to this rule, the little Papuans soon speak English, fluently and correctly. This was one of the surprises that awaited the Federal Government party of travelling members on the occasion of their visit to our schools in 1911. • v ' • • When the course of primary instruction is completed, the scholars are sent to the coadjutor-Brothers, to learn whatever trade they wish, and when they know it, they are free to go and practise it in the white settlements of the territory, or else, if they wish," in the mission itself. In the latter case, they are employed at their own free will, and paid as ordinary workmen. Again, it is the Christian foundation that makes these schools so valuable. If you could watch these little souls day by day, as it is the privilege of their priests to do, if you could read their secrets and see what fineness, what grace, what moral courage are poured into them by a sound Christian education, by constant use of the Sacraments, by the daily visit of our Lord, you might indeed understand our indomitable faith in New Guinea's future Christianity, and also the grand, deep joy that binds. for ever the missionary to this country. This confidence and these joys are the supreme comfort of his life; they are also a splendid anticipation of the final recompense for the hardship of his lot. ■■/:' * A. DE BoiSMENU, Vic. Apost. of British New Guinea. Yule Island, February 11, 1913. (To be continued.)