Life in Papua

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20492, 7 May 1938, Page 15 (Supplement)

Life in Papua

(Sir Hubert Murray’s Report.)

LITE IS NEVER DULL in Papua. While Australia may be thinking of it in terms of the oil that may be won by big interests which recently “discovered” its possibilities, there is another side to this fascinating country which a handful of white men are gradually opening up and introducing to the touch of the white civilisation. Papua possesses opportunities for the archaeologist, the historian, the anthropologist and the psychologist, and just how much they exist is made clear in the annual report, recently released, of the Lieut.Govemor (Sir Hubert Murray), which is one of the moat interesting official documents submitted annually to the Commonwealth Government. . The following are among the many interesting features of the report. The most important expedition in peaceful penetration for the year was carried out bv Mr Ivan Champion, Assistant Resident Magistrate, and Mr Adamson, patrol officer, in the uncontrolled area between the Bamu and the Purari rivers. This expedition must be regarded as among the most Remarkable Feats of Exploration tn that part of the world, and was particularly noteworthy in that it was not involved in any hostile collision with natives. During one period of the expedition, it took 27 carriers working in relays five months to travel 90 miles. At another stage beri-beri attacked police and carriers, and the position was becoming desperate through lack of green food when the expedition stumbled upon a settlement of shy plateau dwellers and obtained food. Picture this spectacle in the heart of wild tropical bush country, where natives are “uncivilised”:— “We reached the Augu River and a guide took us north east, climbing all day up the steep limestone range with a grade of one in two. Late in the afternoon we looked down a thousand feet of the Wage River winding through green gardens laid out in squares, and little groups of houses with their casuarina parks and green lawns.” Papuans live in terror of the “tree alligator,” or Si-e, and a reputation attaches to the man who has seen one and lived. Ahuia-ova, a well-known native of Port Moresby, has seen three. In his accounts of meeting them, Ahuia-ova adds a Touch of Realism which makes his story authoritative by stating that he killed one, cut it open and extracted oil, which he sold to a former Treasurer for four shillings. Stories persist throughout the Territory of the existence of tailed men. One native Sir Hubert met was emphatic that they existed. He was positive that he had seen one, and when asked why he was so positive he said simply: “ Because I ate him.” Charming people, the Papuans. Sometimes. The Papuans have an ingenious method of hunting wild pigs, which have five toes

Interesting Features :: Peaceful Penetration

instead of trotters just to be different from some Australian pigs. To catch them the natives simply drive them into a patch of scrub with plenty of vines, and the vines become tangled in the pigs’ toes and they become soon hopelessly tangled up. Little is known of the habits or manners of life of the Papuan Kukukuku, who so far have not been visited by anthropologist or missionary, but it appeared on the second visit of Mr Healy, Resident Magistrate, that Child Marriage Was Common. The wife of a village constable, who accompanied her husband when he reported to Mr Healy, was no more than 11 years old, and Mr Healy was told others were younger. “Apparently, however,” states the report, “the husbands treat them as children until they are fully developed.” The Village Councillor system, initiated as an experiment, i 3 proving itself, particularly in the matter of tax collection civilisation is certainly coming to the Papuans. In the Abau district, when explaining the reason to a native for imposing a tax on his goods, a Councillor said: “London made a big war—and the money was to give the poor and orphans in London some money to buy food and clothing with.” Two instances of Councillors’ advice to the Resident Magistrate seemed to Sir Mubert Murray “to be encouraging.’’ Their proposal was that two new laws should be made; one was that If two or more women were found gossiping together they should be immediately arrested and put in gaol for two months. We already have a regulation which punishes the spreading of lying report, but this, they said, only provided punishment after the people had made the ‘bad talk’; the proposed law would prevent it altogether, and prevention was better than cure.” A Feature of Criminal Cases in Papua is the readiness with which natives plead guilty to charges of which they are completely innocent. “ Doubtless it is sometimes done in order to shield a friend either from affection or in obedience to the opinion of the village people who, for some reason, do not wish the real culprit to go to gaol. “ It has been suggested that the reason is that the accused does not want to disappoint the judge who, he thinks, wants a conviction, but such exquisite courtesy is surely extremely rare.” Papuans are conscientious to extremes over payment of taxes. Sir Hubert, in his report, tells of a Papuan boy who lay dying after being mangled by a shark who worried for the last 15 minutes of his life because he had no money to pay his tax. Sir Hubert, who happened to be on the scene, told the lad not to worry, but to relax. The boy then smiled and closed his eye=. He gave a sigh of content as ho realised that the debt had been remitted, and died.