Flor de Papua

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 904, 22 February 1930, Page 18

Flor de Papua

Curiosities in New Guinea

AR into the heart of the mountainous jungle of the New Guinea back country, white men, penetrating for the first time, have discovered a race

oi natives who smoke cigars and grow sugar cane. How did they acquire the tobacco \ habit, and whence came the sugar i cane? These are among the fascinating mysteries of New Guinea, which all investigations so far have left unfathomed. Relics found there which demonstrate beyond doubt the existence of a previous civilisation are described by the Government Anthropologist, Mr. E. W. Chinnery, who is at present in Canberra, preparing reports on the results of his investigations, which will be published for the League of Nations. He has been 21 years in New Guinea and Papua, both as district officer and anthropologist. Cigar smoking natives were found by Mr. Chinnery even at the head of the Warria River, which divides the Mandated Territory from Papua. His task was to open this country, establish friendly relations with the natives not already visited, and persuade them to give up their fierce tribal wars. He brought all the warring chiefs together and succeeded in persuading them to exchange such symbols of peace as pig’s tusks (worn as facial ornaments), strings of dog’s teeth, and locally grown tobacco. The “mystery” tobacco he describes as of excellent quality. The natives dry it over smoke and then make it into huge cigars as thick as a man’s arm. One method of smoking is to puff through a bamboo tube inserted in a hole made in the side of the cigar.

discovering racial origin and move ments in this region.” Like Egyptian Relics

As the result of that trip prospectors and missionaries have been enabled to establish themselves among these mountain tribesmen, and recently the discovery of minerals, assay of which has disclosed silver-lead, copper and a percentage of gold, has been reported. The area m which this discovery has been made is from 6,000 to 10,000 feet above sea-level. The discoveries of relics of the relatively civilised immigrants who, thousands of years ago, must have found their way to New Guinea, include huge stone pestles and mortars, very similar to those used by the ancient Egyptians, fragments of old pottery and circles of standing stones. The remnants of the culture they Implanted remain in such practices as betel chewing, ancestor worship and cremation.

“If we can find out the source of this tobacco and sugar cane,” said Mr. Chinnery, “we will have made a definite step forward in the task of