RACIAL DECAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1597, 14 November 1912, Page 5

RACIAL DECAY.

IN PAPUA AND MALAYSIA.. EVIL EFFECTS OF SOCIALISM. INTERVIEW WITH PROFESSOR JIAC-J.ULLAN-BKCnVN. A painful story of the decay of dar.kskinned island races is told by Professor Mncniillun Brown, of Clii'iEtchttrclj, who returned to Wellington yesterday by. fho Uliinafoa, after an extended tour through the islands of the Malay Arehipelago. In nearly every island that lie visited lie' found tho native race enfeebled, rivon by disease, and with no other prospect ahead than annihilation. Ifrom this condition of things Professor 'Brown extracts a political moral—tlint the application of Socialistic principles is fatal to a. race, and presages its extinction, "I oamo to the conclusion," Professor Brown told a Dominion reporter, who interviewed him yesterday, "that fro.rn.the economic point of view these Eastern islands and New Guinea represent tlie ideal of tlio Socialists. The people of these J islands are communists; tliey have unliW: ited food with scarcely any work If that is not the ideal of the Socialists I don't know what is. The* condition of the people of the islands is duo to Hie sago palm. Bv cutting down a tree, tatting out v the pith, extracting the fibre from it, find so on, they can prepare as much food ill ten days as will last them fur the whole year. Then they have the sugar palm, which is an unlimited distillery for them. They simply havo to inako an incision in the stem, and, catch the sap in a bucket as it exudes. One variety of 'this liquor is somewhat bitter, and resembles beer in taste. There is also a sweeter kind. Sometimes the fermented sap is distilled. Although they are thus enabled to secure food and drink with a minimum of exertion, Professor Brown went on to state, the islanders are ; in' a most unhappy plight. They are covered with eczema, nnd a great many other diseases have a complete hold upon them. '"Theyhave, perhaps, as little morality," 'he continued, "as any ' face 1 have ever seen. Under tlie old regime— not under the , Dutch-the men generally had to seek for a head before tliey could get a sweetheart to consent to "marry them. TVlici he had brought in a head the man did no other work at all. The Women prepared t,h& SaKo, and there was tea other work to do. As , Ipng as Hie Dutch let them engage in' warfare 'and head-hunting they remained fairly virile. Now that head-hunting and wnr'faro have been put down, they : loaf about and let the wqhieu prepare the sapo f.O'r them. The result is: that they will die put. lij Dutch Ne* Guinea, and hi the adjacent islands, few children Sfo to be seen about any village. Th 6 men spend most of their time in the "kaiwarjs" or bachelors' ift the old days from whicli woih«n were warned away by the sounding , of b.amboo truhvpets—and in these .places they indulge in the vices of Sodom and Gomorrah." Degraded Papuans. ' : Ptjto Dntfcli do not go into these ternpies/' said I'roffesspf Br.pwn,. in reply to a question, "but the missionaries know • what >s going <m, nnd occasionally.an explorer has to spend a night in a Icau wari.' The missionaries >ay that: the. estate of nlfnirs is as I ihavfi said.' One. missionary, who :know.s all Dutch New Guinea, told me that it is even .worse- jn the fotests. '■' There the average family .consists of one child. What 1 havo said applies to, Dutch New Guinea and .to a large extent to the islands of Hajmalieifa, Bbiirpi and Oeram. It is a realisation of, the ideal bf the Socialist • win? of .the Labour party. ily. owp impression .is thatif ever 'lie ' Socialistic .scheme were to e.omo into Australia and New-Zealand' we should be exactly like- the Papuan's before- a generation had passed;' Where : there.is. up stimulus to w&rk,'ho. work Js ,done, In tho SolbiiiPii Islands and Fiji nobody Will work, but :the outsider, be- ■ cause •whon be brings his,wage* in tjiey ; are distributed in two:;..mimifes- rigljt .t;oUnd tho village.: Scojajistis communities are bound tq come: to'some siiclt fate (is this. In the temperate starvation would undoubtedly .overwhelm them. "T'ho island's.. thomsehre'S}" ..Prpfessof Brown .stated, fare: ■lnn'griificeht, and t'fieir Mi is rich... Those of limestpno fp.fm>-' Kon are not So. rich, b.ut. thpstf which' treaT. a T?6l.qantc gaih are ..wonderfully : ; pro? [ific, and in sligh .places no : labour of cultivation-is tfeqUir.e.d.;" ' ■ ■ A Nqtablo Community. ■' One community which. Professor Brown visited offered strong : contrasts to most of those- which he''.cainp: acr.oss iri his j'ourlveyings.'Uliisi ■iwas'at .an ; islet, (iallod Kissa, wliich , : jies IG lniles north of '"Kmouf. Ki.ssa .is of. sfflall extent, and is only s! ; ghtly elevated abb.ye' the Water. Heie Professpf-.Brpwn was .'■introduced to a man named Kaffyn, who. Jules over tlie descendants'of eignt Dutch sbldferi who veto left on the "island in 1665J and forgotten by.the Dutch East JJudia Cojnpany. .The original duty , of the soldiers vasTto' garrison'the'foi'ts erected: on '{ho island; , : "Aftef 250 years," said Professor Brown, "tho di?scerfdants of these .soldiers , liave retained ..their virility ■ ivnd their fertility, Only within tho last'fifty have they inter'niarrjed with the .natives <>f neighbonring islands,, and; : that intermarriage has introduced : tlie only wealtnesies: they have—flight-chest affections and so forth liavo' no mental nHslad.ies« ' Jir. .I&ffyn is a fine'j. strapping, tall,. fe.H'oiv, ' with blue eyes a-jid fair haii\ The ..present goneftiti'on i≤ o.nly the- flftlifrom tho original Dutchmen who founded, the: .cpni. mu.nity. 0» the , 'other hand I.'fqund 'that most Chinese femiTi.es- iii the Archipelago were in their seventh or e.ighfli gencratibn after 150 years. They were.not by any so; loiig'Mved as , tlie .descondants of tho Dutchmen, The existence of- this ooriimunifcy proves that European. Tilc ?s can live aid multiply in the; tropics. T|ie one condition that,.h_as kepj them ■• so virile ; aiid ; sa fert'ite. is tjia-t they, have had to. work' hard fp.r a living- Their -island is the most barren 1 liave over seen. They fish, and make boats for , the inhabitants of other islands., The timber for. these boats has to bo brought from Wetta, a ■hundred miles'away. They raisp , coconuts and jifaut y sms . ant l taToS ? W th<> soil of their island is' 'poor, arid it'lies ift tho diry belt and gets little, rain. It is hard work under those circumstances to. keep' themselves alive,, and' that I consider is w.'hat has kept then* .true to their race. ' The one condition that has .preserved t-lieni is'the : one that our-idealist Socialist'friends wish., to got clear q£ljard competitive work ti> make a living. If the Socialists io succeed' ,iu.-. getting clear of it it means, absolute annihilation., either ill tho tropics or in the temperate, zone, it does not matter where*" Amongst the diseases to wM.ch tlie island, people are a prey, Professor Brpwn named leprosy, tuberculosis, elephantiasis, and eczeina, "I noticed, . when I tried to get dt their, ages/' lie. said, "that the old women were about thirty." Wotneiv of -that age wei'e ugly old crones, ami what we would consider decrepit old fellows' were .men only 40 yeajrs old. It ;Vas not the h.6at that did this* it was idleness. ' The Secret of flegeneration. Asked what fo would do if he were givpn a free ' haftd in governing the • islands ; threugh witfeU he lately jouffleyed, Prßfessor Brown replied . Without a mom.ont s hesitation: "I would Cut down every sflgo palm that was, every sugar palm, and everything that gave eithe*. intoxicating drinlc or ton easy food. Then I would reduce tho islanders to slavery for a generation, or two, and make them w.prlc. That this would regenerate then) is proved by the fact that Java, Bali, and Lornbok, islands which were under the sway of Imperial power for centuries, if not for ■ thousands of years, are tho only islands that contaitt workers., and they contain a fairly .prolific- population. 3axi is Overliwving with population, and the one secret of this continuance of the face is hard, compulsory wprk." In British' New Guinea, Professor Brown remarked, -the condition pf the people is. a little better than,.in tho neigh&oUTing Dutch territory. In the British areaihere are a certain mtmber of tlie'Alluvial flats on Which the sago palm'will grow, Iwit much of the country is mountainous. The hillmen have been epmp.ell«l to do some work to nuike si living, ni'id the. dwellej-s on the fertile alluvial Hats hiivo. in the past been, tuned up to a pitch of efficiensy by the necessity of 'lighting the hillmen, ■"There is some hope for this part pf the country," said professor Brown, in coijr elusion, "but if the authorities want to .make tho native race live tliey must either let them go back to hend-nunting and fighting or eut down their eago 'palnv; and mnko it an essential condition jkt tkx ehaiX woik.l