NEW GUINEA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 20 October 1942, Page 6

NEW GUINEA

MUCH ANNEXED COUNTRY

FLAG- HOISTING CEREMONIES The great island nf New Guinea. lying so close to the Australian shore. has recently become specially familiar through its sudden projection into the Pacific war zone. Its first discovery by Europeans, however, dates back to almost the beginning of the sixteenth The credit of the achievement lies with Portuguese navigators, possibly Abreu and Serram, in the year 1511. but more probably with Don Jorge de Menezes*. a Portuguese colonial governor, who in a voyage from the Spice Islands in 1526 was forced by monsoonal storms and cress currents to take shelter under the lee of a small island lying off the most northerly point of New Guinea, and now known as the Cape of Good Hope. Only six years before, Henry VIII and Francis I. King of France, had held their famous meeting at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in France. “Gold” was indeed a magic word in those days, alluring adventurous souls on many a long and perilous voyage, it was an emissary of the French King’s imperial rival, the newlyelected Emperor Charles of Spain, Alvaro de Saavedra, who came next to the island in 1528. Coasting for 250 leagues along its northern shores, and finding there traces of gold, he named it ”IsJa del Oro." the "Island of Gold.” Ten years later another Spaniard. Grivalja, visited the coast, and to one of its islands gave the name “Isla de la Crespos.” the island of the frizzy-headed people. To-day that part of New Guinea which is a territory of the Australian Commonwealth is known as Papua, a corruption of the Malay "pua pua,” which signifies crisp, curly hair. Strangely enough, it is thought that the name New Guinea was given by another Spaniard, de Retez, to a part of northern Queensland, which he had reached after cruising around the island. H e it was who first charted continuation of it. It was not until 1608 that Luiss Valz de Torres discovered the eastern entrance of the strait which bears his name, and explored the southern coast of the island. He is was who first charted the now famous Milne Bay. and at several points took -possession of the island for the King of Spain. From that time onward, however. Spain seems to have taken no interest in its possession, and its explorers gave place to the Dutch, of whom the most noted voyagers were Schouten in 1616. and Tasfnan i.x 1643. These in turn were followed by the English—by Dampier in 1700 and Cook in 1770. SUCCESSIVE CLAIMANTS The history of the annexation of the island by various Powers, following the abortive addition of it to the Spanish Empire, is interesting. As early as 1793 the British East India Company occupied an island in Geelvink Bay. on the northern coast, but m deference to the Dutch, who claimed suzerainty over the Malay Sultans who had taken parts of the mainland of New Guinea under their sway, the British troops were withdrawn. In 1848 the Dutch proclaimed their sovereignty over the western part of the island, parts of which the Japanese claim to have occupied. About that time Britain’s navy was showing much ‘interest in the southeastern coast of the island, and explorations were made by Captain F. B. Blackwood in H.M.S. Flv in 1842; by Lieut. C. B. Yule a little later, and by Captain Owen Stanley in 1849. Each of these expeditions left its mark on the geographical nomenclature of New Guinea—in the Fly river. Yule Island and the famous Owen Stanley Range. It was not until 1873 that Captain John Moresby discovered the harbour which he named after his father, and which afterwards became the site of the administrative capital of Papua. Lieut. Yule took possession of the southern portion of the island in 1846. but this action was never ratified by the British Crown, nor acted upon in any way. In 1873 Captain Moresby hoisted the British flag on Hayter Island, and annexed the large islands off the east coast, but again action was not ratified by the British Government. Thus it was that for nearly 40 years after the Dutch annexation of the nortlj-western portion of the island all the other valuable territory lay unclaimed. The advent of traders and missionaries to New Guinea, however. and particularly the discovery of gold there in 1877, quickly attracted ihe attention of other Powers. Australia in particular began to show a lively interest, in this unclaimed rich territory so close to its own shores. The British Government, however, was Strangely averse from adding it to its colonial possessions, partly for fear of offending Germany, and partly for economic reasons. AUSTRALIA’S BOLD STEP It became evident to some Australian statesmen that Germany was preparing to play her own game in the Pacific. In 1883, therefore, Sir Thomas Mcll wraith. Premier of Queensland, took the bold step of sending Mr Chester, police magistrate at Thursday Island, to New Guinea to take possession of all its territory east of the 141st meridian in the name of the Queen. So once more the British flag was hoisted, this time on 4th April, 1883. Had this act been ratified by the British Government there would have been no German New Guinea, but again the annexation was disavowed by the authorities in England. So vigorous, however, were the protests of all the Australian Governments that at last, in the following year, the Imperial Government was induced to proclaim a protectorate over the south-eastern area of the island. In the meantime Bismarck had notified the British Government of his intention to make annexations on the northern side of the island, and he did so on 16th November, 1884, ten days after the British annexation. Boundaries were fixed by agreement later in the year, and thus it was that a quarter of New Guinea and the large islands adjoining were included in the German Empire until the last war. when they came into British possession. They were subsequently passed on to Australia under the mandate of the League of Nations, Even this official annexation of British New Guinea was not effected without a dual hoisting of the flag, for by some misc inception of instructions the ceremony wo* first solemnly performed by the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Romily, before the arrival of Commander James Erskine, wif.o was commissioned to proclaim the protectorate, and who on his arrival decided to ignore the previous ceremony. FULL DRESS AFFAIR On 6th November. 1884, for the third time the Union Jack was hoisted upon the same flagpole on which it had previously been hoisted by Mr Chester and Mr Romily. The veteran missionary, Dr. W. G. Lawes, thus comments upon it: —"Flag hoisting must seem to the natives to be a white man’s amtisement. The function of the 4th was the tenth at which I had been present in New

Guinea. It is getting monotonous.” It is possible that not even in this present war has Port Moresby witnessed such an impressive naval display as was shown on that day, when there were no less than five men-of-war present. We can only wonder what impression was made upon the native mind by the stately array of uniforms demanded in the general order of the day directing that the dress for officers should be "a cocked hat, undress coat and epaulettes; the dress for seamen white frocks and hats, and for mariens white tunics and helmets.” If the flag hoisting had lost its novelty for the natives by repetition, its last occasion must have provided some astonishing new features. It is interesting to note that an Australian, Lieut. Gaunt, flag lieutenant of the Nelson, performed the actual hoisting of the flag. Subsequently the protectorate was explained to the natives at various other places along the south coast and in the Louisade Archipelago. Still another ceremony, however, of a somewhat similar nature remained to be performed. After four years of administration of the territory as a British protectorate complete annexation was decided upon by the British Government, and on 4th September, 1888, Dr. (afterwards Sir William MacGregor, Ihe Admin- j istrator of the territory, assembled j a notable gathering of Europeans and j natives at Government House. Port j Moresby, and read to them the pro- j clamation declaring the protected ter- 1 ritory to be from that time a British j possession. He also read the Royal } Letters Patent. This time the Royal i. Standard was hoisted on the flagpole and duly saluted by H.M.S. Opal with 21 guns. The final development in the occupation of British New Guinea took place on Ist September, 1906, when the Papua Act, passed by the Commonwealth Government the previous year, came into force, and British New Guinea became the territory of Papua, under the control of the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia.