NEW GUINEA.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16144, 23 February 1918, Page 3

NEW GUINEA.

9 A MINISTER'S IMPRESSIONS. The Rev. A. H. Scrivin, an exCanterbury representative Association footballer, who for two years was in chargo of the Methodist Church ot New Brighton, is at present with his ■wife in Christchurch on a holiday visit from New Guinea, where he has charge of tho mission station of Dobu, an island at the eastern end of the country. There he has been stationed for four years. He will return to New Guinea in May. In conversation. -with a "Press" reporter last evening, Mr Scrivin spoke enthusiastically of the mission work being performed among the natives, who, ho said, wore very adaptable and quick to learn. Conditions along the coast line were fairly quiet, and Europeans generally were left alone unless they molested the natives. Tribal conJflicis, however, still continued. Much of the interior of the country was a terra incognita. Mr Scrivin considered that the copra industry had good but the men appointed to take charge must not only know all about cocoanuts; they must also understand the control of natives. New Guinea was hardly a white man's country, and though tho medical precautions necessary were now better un-1 derstood than formerly, the climate was far too humid for the average white man to stand. He stated that j he had never been in German New Guinea, but the Papuans he had come across were keenly interested in chc war, and their sympathies were wholly with Great Britain. As an instance of the difference in administration of the two countries, he said the Germans had been allowed to inflict corporai punishment upon tho natives, whereas the British were not allowed to do so, their remedy being to report to ire authorities any offence by a native. "VVith reference to the suggestion which had been mado that the inhabitants of German colonies captured by the British, should be allowed io decide under what Government they should serve, Mr Scrivin pointed out that this was practically impossible in New Guinea, where the inhabitants of the German portion of the island bad not experienced the blessings of British rule, and the inhabitants of the British portion had not suffered under German government.