NEW GUINEA.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 3, Issue 107, 18 October 1879, Page 2

NEW GUINEA.

Tho following letter has been addressed to the S.M. Herald by Mr. J. L Hanran :

Sir,—ln the many lectures and letters that have been published concerning New Guinea, no one has ventured to express an opinion of the dark future of that almost unknown country. If I presume to trespass on the columns of your journal with a few line on the subject, I assure you it is .with reluctance, knowing my inability, and that it is a subject for the pen of an able and intelligent writer. At the same time, I miglit have an advantage of abler men on this occasion, as 1 have been in the Northern territories of South Australia and Queensland, as well in New Guinea, and very closely observed and studied the difference in the obstacles that nature has placed before the pioneers of these countries. I was one of the party that went to New Guinea in the Colonist last year. The discovery of payable gold at the Northern territory in 1872 was a signal for the onward march of civilisation to that country, and it is well known that a gold-field is the best and most attractive means of populating new countries; but we should bear in mind that it is agricultural and other reproductive works that retain u population and become the foundation of prosperity. Tropical countries, especially in such high latitudes as that of Port Darwin, are not a home for the white man, and will never be | blessed with a pleasant proprietary ; but it it is not the tierce rays of a tropical sun that keeps the capitalist who might bring with him Asiatic or some such labour as is suitable for that climate from speculating in the broad acres of that country. It is the extreme seasons of drought that periodically perish all vegetation and leave the virgin si 1 of that beautiful country so repulsive to tlugiaxier and tho planter, l'almerston. which is built on an eminence, and commanding a splendid view of the beautiful bay of Port Darwin, will never be laid at either side of Torres Straits. In the year following payable gold was discovered in North Queensland. I think it was in December, 1873, one of the A.S.N. Co.'s steamers sailed up the Endeavour River with about 400 goldminers, and then hail to make fast to a tree, not far from where Captain Cook beached his old vessel for re pars, and from which circumstance that river derived its name about 100 years ago. Many of us who landed on that memorable dav wore men of experience and men who had been in California, in 1849, and in Victoria in 1852, could not have seen tho beautiful sample of coarse gold-fields without being animated with the cheering prospect of standing on the foundation of another •San l'Yaucisco or another Melbourne. If Cooktown has turned out to be neither, it is not because it was not founded by intelligent and enterprising merchants and bankers who exported hundreds of thousand ounces of gold from and imported huudreds of thousand tons of merchandize into that rich and very extensive gold-field. It is because the resources of that country are not sufficient to induce people to settle on tho lands who would initiate and fertilize reproductive works and open up the deep rich gold and other mines supposed to be in that country. Therefore, it is evident that although Australia has a vast extent of territory in which there is some of the richest land in the worl I that the bold majesty of nature has imposed on us tho necessity of having to go to foreign countries to purchase the greater part of our tropical produce. At the Island of New Guinea, which is only about 300 miles from the country I have described, the obstacles t-> be contended with are different altogether. We landed at New Guinea on or about the Ist of May (which iB supposed to bo 'the commencement of the dry season in Northern Australia), and from that time until tho last of the prospectors left the island, which 1 think was in Outobor following, they had too much rain. And I observed at"tho quarterly changes of the moon, so much of it sometimes that we had to camp on the hanks of the flooded river, in that country, I think it will become, a rich field for' the planter. The virgin soil of that country producing such rich vegetation spontaneously, and other tropical plants that are grown by tho natives, are inducements that will attract, the attention of men who will initiate and fertilise tho growth of riee, sugar, and other tropical produce in that country. The planter may have dry seasons to contend with in New Guinea, but when we consider that, (unlike Northern Australia when the river bods aro nearly dry during a great part of the year) the rivers are always ru lining, and scarcely fordahlo at anytime, and that it. is tho damp, sultry climate and heavy atmosphere that causes mi much ague and fever in that country, there is not much cause for apprehending that great evil. The greatest difficulty tho plantar will have to contend with'in that country is It; finding labour to turn over the'virgin soil at first. The South Sea Islander, or thu negro who works in the rice ami sugar-fields of Louisiana, may bo suitable; the New Guinea nntlvo certainly

would. But it is very seFdera we se* the aboriginal performing the servile work of Lis native country although I have seen th« ■'New Ouinea.'women buljivHting a field underpeat disadvantages, £t night wits of a full rooop. I have seen them go into the field to pull up the long grass, in the followind manner. Each of them had a pole about sis feet loos, and pointed at one end. They stand in & row along the furrow, and drive tb# pol» 10 or 12 inches in the ground. At a signal given by one of them they all bent' on the pole together, by which they turn over the soil. People who work under such disadvantages, if they had agricultural implements and paid for their labour, should not be despised. And, with all our exhibition of art and eivllization, hero Is a people within 100 miles of the land wo live in working in such darkness. There might be some hopes of the New Guinoa natives becoming submissive to law and order, when we cousider that they are somewhat industrious and virtuous, and that on one occasion only five of our party went through some inland villages of 800 inhabitants, who had never seen a white man before, and, guided by the natives themselves, without being molested i» a sign that they now khow to be grateful when treated justly. It is surprising what a remarkable difference there is between these people and the natives wo meet on our way to and from the Palmer gold-fields. Nature has favoured the Papua with some tendency to civilization, whilst the Australian aboriginals are endowed with qualities, every one of which tend only.to their own extermination.

If the natives who dwell along tlja coast aro more savage ami unfriendly than the inland tribes, I think it is because flic crows of some of the lishing boats who have intercourse with them are people of mixed races, and perhaps only half civilized themselves, and sometimes, in the absence of their couimandfr iiave not the sagacity to realize the danger they are exposed to if they do not encourage friendship and be responsible to each other for any unjust act that would make these people their i nemies.

As mere is no considerable number of subjects who belong to any of the foreign nations in New Guinea at present, I sup[ioko we do not expect any of them to annex that island ; but if the French Belgian colonists who are on way thither have the moans to go inland and build a sanatorium en some h'gi and good locality, have they not tiia right to hoist whatever flag they please? New Guinea is well known jo lie auriferous, and 1 know of no country with such indications as we found theto without payable gold being discovered in some part of it. Therefore, if not i-ery probable, it is not impossible, for these enterprising foreigners to find payable gold there, in the event of whhjh thousands of people would ilock to th»t country. Other resources, which I haVfl already described, are sure to attract tlie planter, and there will not bo majiv plantations in New Guinea before some one of the nations will unfurl its fl»g there. England having so many tropic»l oountries might be careless in doing so ; and the Australian colonies, in their disunited form of government, are helpless at present. But tlie federation of the Australian colonies is only a question of time, and when that time comes 1 hope New Guinea will be the Cuba of Australia, and that the federal flag at this great country will be floating over the Havana of Torres Straits. Hopilig I have not trespassed too much, I am, Sir, your very humble servant, Sydney, Sept. 3.