TRAGEDY OF A RAGE.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1867, 29 September 1913, Page 8

TRAGEDY OF A RAGE.

DOOM OF ISLANDERS. WHAT ARB THE CAUSES. The decrease in the native population throughout the island groups of tha Pacific furnishes a perplexing problem. The decrease, whether it had begun, as Bomo assert, before tho advent of tha white man or not, has certainly beeu most marked since, Tho subject opens up a vast and interesting field for speculation. Whatever the' cause or causes bo, it is a melancholy and appalling truth that tho appearance of tho white man in most of these now lands has sounded tho funeral-knell of tho children of the soil. Dr. Felix Speisor, who recently spent a couple of years in the Now Hebrides studying tho natives, has supplied his views on the question of tho decadence of the natives to the Association for the Protection of Native Races, whose headquarters aro in Sydney, and what ho says of the New Hebridcans applies roughly to all the other island pcopleß upon whom destiny has laid its fatal decree. There is something intensely pathetic in tho struggle of peoples like these against the inevitable, though they can hardly bo said to have made a fight at all against the forces making for their extinction. Tho conclusion he arrives at aro both novel and interesting, one patii to the salvation of tho people, according to his view, being the abolition of European clothes ana tho return to primitive lifo. "The fact that the Now Hebrideanß aro rapidly docreasing cannot- bo disputed," Dr, Spei« sor says. "This is to bo regretted from both humanitarian and commercial standpoints. The greatest effort Bhould bo ungrudgingly made to preserve the remnant of the people. It cannot bo denied that an internal decadence had set in before tho settlement of tho whito man in the group, for tho native customs and practices must always have tended toward this; but, on tho other hand, it is certain that an impetus was given to it by the arrival of the white one or two generations ago."

Dlseaso and Drink. At Borno Jongth Dr. Speiser discusses tho effect of introduced disease, and includes alcohol under this heading, as its actioa on the natives is that of a disease. " Tuberculosis, influenza, bronchitis, and pneumonia claim tho most victims. They aro carried by ships from anchorago to anchorage and from island to island, and a slight cough or cold hardly noticed on a vessel may, and frequently does, develop into a very destructive epidemio in islands sucli as these. Certain isolated islands are periodically swept by dangerous epidemics of bronchitis and influenza, upon the arrival of ships, and tho number of deaths is frequently, great. In Santa Cruz, for instance, ■w'here only ono white is at present tlod, tho. population is fast diminish-' inj? through colds brought by visiting' ships. It is estimated that in Graciosa Bay tho population is not half what it was seven years ago. It seems that after some years tile natives become loss liable to infection, or that an increased traffic makes tho outbreaks more endemic and l from time to time it again assumes an epidemic nature and quickly spreads from tho coast inland and' from island to island. Whole villages are attacked, so that hardly a native is unaffected, and many succumb; and a tendency to pneumonio troubles and consumption remains. These epidemics aro an importation, and are probably responsible for half the deaths in tho islands. Obviously, the restriction of these diseases would bo a great step in tho preservation of the natives." After dealing with other diseases' that'arc factors in the decrease, Dr. Spoisor touches' on tho effects of alcohol. "There is," ho writes, "no need to dwell on the evil effects of alcohol on_ tho natives. It kills directly through poisoning, and indirectly through sickness and quarrelling. It cannot be dollied that wholo districts, as,'for instance, in Atnbrym and Aoba, had been depopulated through tho grog traffic, and its baneful influence has been al< most as real as tuberculosis. It is a sourco of surprise and regret that legislation has failed to suppress the sale of alcohol in tho islands, and that the sale-still continues moro or ltas openly. Tho only men who have never tired fighting the sale of aloohol aro tho missionariesj for which they doservo tho thanks of every well-thinking man."' In prohibiting tho drinking of kava, the missionaries have, he considers, made a mistake, This beverage is drunk very modorately in 'the group, and it seemed to do little harm, except whore taken in excessive quantities.

European Clothes and Food. European clothes and food have contributed to the death roll. Wherever tho natives have given up their old diet and are living mostly on rice and moat, their health has become impaired. Dr. Speiser condemns: "A too-strong meat diet, and tho cessation from garden work, which deprives the people of wholesome occupations o,nd encourages idleness with its attendant evils. It would bo good, ho adds, if tho sale of European foods wore forbidden, oxcept in times of famine. . . . Tho wearing of clothes should certainly be discouraged. Traders find a profit in the Bale of clothing, and encourage its übos, and missionaries, except to some extent those of the Anglican Church, do not disapprove. Some even go so far as to make clothing a condition of baptism. . . . Everything should bo done to keep the people natural 1 and unaffoct-> ed, and to prevent a false modesty and artificiality. ' The people do not possess an unlimited supply of clothes to take the placo of wot, torn, and dirty garments, and they have not tho means of mending and cleaning foul clothes. Ono of tho most pathetic contrasts in tha islands is the lithe and glossy Bkin of the healthy native, and tho dirty overdressed Melanesian masquerading as a white man."

Summing up, he considers that the order of tho destructive agents at work are diseases of the respiratory organs, alcohol, infantile mortality, and European clothes and food. Ho also affirm? that one caußo of the diminution of the people is too close inter-breed-ing and affinity.

Influence of Whites. Dr. Speiser emphasises that tho native is jiot responsible for liis own disappearance, and discusses tho effect of extraneous oircumstances, and especially tho influenco of whites. Tho latter, he says, manifests itself principally in the loosening of tho social tics which formerly kept tho people uiider restraint. There had never been a definite prohibition of many of tho old customs of the natives, but contact with the white man had led to a steady depreciation of tho social organisation of tho people and a pitiable attempt to ape the white man. A native race soon became aware of the weakness of its civilisation, and naturally grow more dissatisfied the longer tho superior race refused to incorporate the inferior into its own system. The New Hebrides afforded ail extreme example of tardiness in incorporating tho weaker race, and a. consequent upheaval of former conditions with a lack of efficient substitutes to prosorvo order. Old customs were treated with scant respcct, and social institutions were degraded by the rudeness and ignorance of the white, and by his discouragement of native etiquette among his own "hoys." The natives wero convinced that their days wero numbered; mid thatithoy had iio, future as a race, and wero neither wanted lior needed. Consenucntlj; they had become discouraged and dispirited, and wore rapidly deteriorating. "Regular work is necessary to keep tho natives happy," Dr. Speiser concluded. "Thoy should bo encouraged," he says, "to return to their old modo of life.'*