GOING NORTH.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2204, 30 May 1908, Page 1

GOING NORTH.

GERMAN NEW GUINEA. AN INTERESTING DESCRIPTION. Under a cloudy sky, a strong southerly breezo follows us as wo push our way over a rough sea from our home in the land of sunshine, north to an island where sunshine is almost unbearable. Before wo see German New Guinea, (writes “Lois” in tlio Sydney “Herald”), the heat becomes oppressive, and when we reach Friediehsliohe and the port, Simpson Haven, wo wonder why white men live there at all —unless, indeed, Jiving is for them impossible in 'a more temperate climate. But the cocoanut is the attraction, the over-present coco-palm, which in one way or another satisfies nearly every want of tho native, and brings in so much money to the planter that no desire which money can assuage need remain unsatisfied. AVo hear of one man who went to New Guinea poor and of no account, and who in a very few years could travel to the old world and vie with millionaires. AVo talk with another who speaks almost with indifference of the thousands lie must lose through what he calls “this idiotic American business” ; next year will make up for it. Evidently one may become rich in theso tropical islands. But thoro are some things which money cannot buy, though one may lounge -all day in a verandah and leave work to those whose skins aro made“for sunlight. Fow of the whitedad liien look healthy. Plantations of coco-palms extend along miles of shore, and the trees grow down to the water’s edge. Hero and there the brown roofs of nativo houses! relieve the brilliant verdure, or a scarlet loin-cloth makes a bright spot on The lower shore, but for the most-part, the eye rests upon a mass of. green, such as wo never sec in Australia, ’except in a. hothouse: Tlio coco-palm .will grow, and pay without cultivation,. and. it receives very little,'but it will certainly produce before tho usual seven years, and bear moro fruit if well cared for. Labor is the difficulty. It is hard to make the black man see any advantage iii toil. Ho was never sentenced to gain his bread by the sweat of liis brow, nor taught that labor is prayer. Fish in the sea and fruit on the land supply his wants without much trouble to himself—why should ho work to make the white man rich? A\ r e heard only of one planter who

has no trouble with his “labor.” Ho keeps a fine drove of pigs, and every Saturday, along with their regular pay, he gives his men .a pig. Of sucli value, even in New Guinea, 'is a good dinner 1

As the ship nears the great wharf at Simpson Haven, a wharf that Would bo a fine structure in any port, a crowd—black with a dash of white— ; awaits us. Gome wear necklaces of sharks’ tooth, others have armlets of gaily-dyed fibre, many have rings in their' ears and rolls iu tlieir noses; an old straw hat is -a mark of distinction. Ornament is more important than clothing, and the piece of tur-key-red which covers their loins seems all they desire or need. The women wear a little more—a gay blouse or a shawl—and the soldiers, to make them truly military and somewhat German, wear the regulation peaked cap, with a red band, and when on duty carry rifles.- AA 7 o hear a little murmur of disapproval of the rifles. The white man is in a small minority, and the white man has hut a thin veneer. of civilisation over his inato savagery. . The whito population is made up mainly by officials and missionaries. There are five or six of each of these to one ordinary person, and a white woman is a rara avis indeed, anoro so by far than the bird of Paradise, for we saw a great many skins of tho latter, as ornaments and offered for ■sale, hut only two or three pure European women. One of these was a Russian. At a luncheon party to which wo were invited, the conversation was carried on in several different languages, and tlio nations represented' were, wo found, nearly as many as the guests themselves. England', Scotland, Germany, Russia, Italy, Sweden, America, and Australia each claimed one or more of tlio guests. Though. German is the official language, many residents speak English. They must learn something of it to speak to their employees, for there is no “pidgin” German. AA r o heard orders given iu “pidgin” English by men who know English no other way, and the half-caste wife of a German official regretted to us that her little hoy, a bright, dusky little fellow, was learning to talk English “like- the natives.” The tone was contemptuous. The broad-roofed bungalows, under the waving palms, and tlio gay gardens of tlm little settlements in New Guinea, are .attractive, but they offer many problems to those who look below the surface. AVo were glad when wo saw the fast of them, tind. started to go farther north to the islands of Magellan, the long known and settled Philippines.