SOLOMON ISLANDERS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 251, 14 June 1932, Page 3

SOLOMON ISLANDERS

CIVILISATION NOT A REAL SAFEGUARD AGAINST TROUBLE. PERIL IN EVERYDAY LIFE. Though civilisation is making headway in the Solomon Islands there still remains an ever-present risk of trouble. The native population is just on 100,000 and of this- number 45,000 live on Malaita Island — Malaita the danger spot. Thns there is an element of peril ing the every day life of Mr J. C. Barley, a Deputy Commissioner for the Western Pacific, who is stationed in the British Solomon group, with his headquarters at Tulagi. Nevertheless he enjoys his work, aceepting its responsibilities cheerfully and, as he put it when interviewed by The Dominion, "hoping for the best." Mr. Barley was a passenger in the Zealandia, which arrived at Wellington recently from Sydney. He intends to spend the remainder of his fulongh in New Zealand, and will visit Christchurch in the hope of recapturing the atmosphere of his native England. Succeeded Murdered Man. Appointed to his present position in 1927, after the infamous Solomon Island massacre, Mr. Barley succeeded the late Mr. W. R. Bell, District Commissioner, who was described after his murder at the hands of rebellious natives as a "a stern disciplinarian natives as "a stern disciplnaran and martyr to duty." In October, 1927, Mr. Bell, a cadet named Lillies, and about 20 native police visited Sinarago, on the northwest coast of the island of Malaita, in a vessel named the Auki. Part of Mr. Bell's duties consisted of doing the rounds of the various villages and dealing with malefactors and tax evaders. He was a man without fear and the only weapon he carried on these expeditions was a short military cane. At Sinarago the party was attacked and massacred, the victims including most of the crew of the Auki. The only survivors were the boatswain of the vessel and four wounded police officers. "This was the first occasion on which Government officers had been attacked and killed," said Mr. Barley. "They were cut to pieces." Planter's Assistant Killed. About the same time another outrage occurred. !In revenge for a beating, a native attacked Mr. J. L. Comeron, a planter's assistant. After being knocked unconscious with a stone, Mr. Cameron was dispatched with a tomahawk. A punitive expedition set out in pursuit of the murderer, who eventually committed suicide by tying a rope about his neclc, fastening the other end to the thwart of a dinghy he had stolen, and l?aping into a crocodile-infested creek. Even this did not bring the period of bloodshed to an end. A Chinese was captured hy a tribe of natives and killed as a sacrifice. Conditions are much quieter now," said Mr. Barley, "but we are faced with the possibility of that sort of thing the whole time. In the interior the natives are still uncivilised, and although head-hunting and systematic murder have been put down, the tribes have to be handlsd carefully." Hope of Finding Gold. The British Solomon Islands are administered by the Colonial Office through its representatives in Fiji, but the territory is self-supporting, and because of the low ruling prices for its principal product, copra, it is feeling the pinch of depression. The principal hope of prosperity comes from the presence of gold in the group. "Prospeeting has now been going on for some time," said Mr. Barley, "and it is felt that there is a great future for the islands if gold can be found in payable quantites. So far the prospectors have had little suceess, but they are still hoping. The conditions and difficulties are much the same as in New Guinea, where goldmining is being carried on so successfully."