Depopulation.

Sir Hubert Murray Discusses Pacific Problem.

From Our Own Correspondent

Pt. Moresby, Dec. 15.

DURING the year interest has been re vived in the depopulation of the na tive races of the Pacific. The sub ject has been under discussion by medi cal men and anthropologists as far back as 1874, when Dr. Litton Forbes, Medi cal Officer to the Fijian Government,

first attributed the fall of population to psychological factors.

In 1893 a commission was appointed to inquire into the decrease of the Fijians, which was then already causing some anxiety. In the report at the time the Commissioners were satisfied that the decrease had begun in Fiji and in the Pacific generally before the arrival of Europeans, but they stated that vari ous causes since then had hastened the decrease.

Sir Hubert Murray, Lieutenant-Gov ernor of Papua, as President of the Aus tralian Association for the Advancement of Science, in an address on Depopula tion at the meeting of the Association in August at the Sydney University, said; “With us in Papua there is no evi dence of depopulation in general, though we were hit very hard by the recent in fluenza epidemic; but there are un doubtedly certain parts of the Territory notably in the Eastern Division and the South Eastern Division, where the popu lation is declining. Innumerable explana tions have been given of this decline, and an interesting attempt at a solution was made by the native staff of the Anglican Mission, and is reported in our annual report of 1925-6. They mentioned four main causes: 1. A general shortage of food, which was aggra vated by— 2. A desire to make the most of such food as there was by way of a display of feasts. 3. The opinion, which was general among the women, that their children were killed by evil spirits, and that it was therefore useless to bear them. 4. A strong public opinion that there was some thing disgraceful in having a large family.

“It is interesting to see that all these causes are quite independent of white settlement, and that the first two are those which are operative in our own civilisation—that is the economic fear and the desire for display.

“This expression of the opinion by the Mission staff must carry weight, for it seems probable that these men, living in the native community, know at least as much of their countrymen and coun trywomen as strangers and foreigners could know, coming in from outside. But the curious thing about the opinions ex pressed is that they lay special stress upon causes which have probably al

ways been in operation and can hardly be a satisfactory explanation of the sud den decrease which we think we have now before us.”

Sir Hubert Murray expressed his opinion that the question of food, both quantity and quality, is of the first im portance in relation to maintaining the standard of population, but, as far as he gathered, anthropologists argue that the native loses heart when his old habits are abolished and his old life comes to an end. and that he, consequently, suc cumbs to the first illness that attacks him.

Medical men argue that the loss of heart is an effect, not a cause of the ill health; and that the ill-health is prob ably caused or accentuated by a defi ciency in the food supply and that the abolition of native custom has compara tively little to do with it.

Dr. Cilento, in his paper on the West ern Islands of New Guinea, states that one finds native communities who have abandoned their old life altogether and yet flourish amazingly. Sir Hubert Mur ray remarks on the interesting experi ment, tried in Dutch New Guinea, where a clean sweep has been made of the na tive culture of one tribe and an Euro peanised culture established in its place.

“Still,” writes Sir Hubert Murray, ‘‘I am convinced from experience that the psychological factor is an important one and I can well understand the feelings of the old chief of Spanish Guinea, who told Mgr. Leroy, ‘The whites have taken our beliefs from us and given us nothing in their place. That is why we are go ing to die.’

“Speaking as an Administrator, I sup pose all one can do is to accept the opinion that there may be some lack of food rich in vitamins, which once formed part of the natives’ ordinary diet; that the abolition of native custom may well be a cause of inertia and despair; and that all sorts of diseases, especially, per haps, malaria, find a suitable home in the native’s enfeebled frame. The reme dies which we can and, I think for the most part, do apply, are; 1. Introduction of new foods as rich in vitamines as those which have been discarded. 2. The preservation of native custom or the substitution of something in its place. 3. The extension of the activities of the Medical Department as far as possible among the native population.

It is thought by many settlers who have had long and considerable experi ence in Papua among the different tribes of the Territory, that some tribes, less virile, must inevitably die out with the advance of civilisation, but that others of a more tenacious nature will stand and that the natural increase, to quote Sir Hubert Murray, “will be more than sufficient to make up the loss.”

Mr. F. E. Williams, Anthropologist to the Papuan Government in relation to Depopulation, has written the following reports and articles this year: 1. Depopulation in the Suau district. 2. Depopulation and Administration (read at the Scientific Conference at the Sydney Univer sity, August, 1932). 3 Practical Education in Relation to Depopula tion, and food scarcity, with a suggested remedy, namely, establishments for training natives in agriculture and in new and better methods in the care of their gardens and in the storage of their foods.

Mr. Williams has recently returned from the Morehead River, to the West of Papua, where he has been studying the native life and customs of the tribes west of the Fly River.