Tropicalities

A VERY well-known South Seas trader —Mr. Henry Dexter, of Milne Bay, Papua, and formerly of Malaya—is talking of retiring soon, and returning to his boyhood home in England. He is 68 but, if he approaches his father’s record —the old gentleman died recently, aged 92—he will have many years to spend yachting on the Solent. Mr. Dexter, with “authors’ ” and tourists’ ridiculous stories of Islands’ life fresh in his memory, writes humorously of his im pending visit to Sydney.

“It might be a good idea if I were to pose, appropriately dressed, as a kind of Trader Horn,” he says. “How about a long, pointed beard, two 6-guns, big scrub knife in belt, bottle showing out of pocket? I am sure I could draw on my imagination sufficiently to stir an audience—they wouldn’t be interested in the true story of our humdrum existence here.”

But Mr. Dexter has had his adventures, like other old-timers. There was, for example, a notable occurrence on the Brown River in 1910, when Mr. Dexter went off the end of a bamboo raft into a swirling current —the reason for his haste being a 20-feet crocodile, which was hospitably mounting the raft at the other end. * * * ANEW GUINEA district officer has reported to the Administration concerning the use of shell-money (strings of shells) among the natives.

It appears that this form of currency is used freely—it was estimated that there was £250,000 worth of shell currency in the Kokopo district, near Rabaul. It is not used for trading between the Europeans and natives. There, trading is carried on mainly with shillings (“marks”, in Pidgin) and trade tobacco. Sticks of black, sticky tobacco are practically the only currency recognised in the native market in Rabaul.

The idea of supplying the natives of New Guinea with a very cheap metal coinage, to take the place of the strings of shells, has been considered many times, but nothing has come of it. Like “the colonel’s lady and Judy O’Grady,” the New Guinea native and the highest product of British or American civilisation have the same feeling of staunch conservatism under their skins, when it comes to any interference with their customary tokens of value. * * * THE following tribute to Papuan patrol officers appeared in a Melbourne newspaper recently: “What the white patrol officer supported by eight trained natives wearing official shirts and sulus, but otherwise naked, has done for Papua can also be done among our Australian aboriginals.

Papua is now safe to whites and this has been brought about by the tact, kindness, firmness and sympathetic treatment to Papuan tribes by the white patrol officer knowing his job. He has the instincts of a gentleman with unruly tribes; he sifts the causes of troubles, arrests the culprits to bring them before a magistrate, and explains that murder, fighting, cannibalism and the killing of children at birth are not permissible under the white man’s code. This is done through native interpreters, as the patrol penetrates the hinterland. A patrol of this nature by a gentleman supported by our own aboriginal police could work wonders in North Australia. With power

given to a patrol officer to arrest whites and bring them to justice for the abuse of native women, then the aboriginal problem would be almost solved.” * * * A CORRESPONDENT in Tanna, New Hebrides, vouches for this one: A native couple quarrelled violently concerning a lady with lime-washed hair. They agreed upon a divorce, and settled down in houses about one hundred yards apart.

Soon afterwards, the lady was discovered, back again, in her husband’s house.

Our inquisitive friend wanted to know why she had abandoned the status of a divorcee.

She explained that “Harry” had called several times at her house; and finally urged that it was “more better she come back —plenty too many fleas in her house!” * ° * WE do not wish to cast aspersions on innocent people; but we fear that some residents of the goldfields districts of New Guinea have “taking ways.” We have received recently, from subscribers in Salamaua, Wau and thereabouts, some half-dozen different complaints about non-receipt of current issues of the P.I.M. All wrapped copies, before being posted in Sydney, are checked over with our mailing lists; and this fact, and the further fact that complaints of non-receipt come only from the N.G. goldfield districts, naturally create the obvious suspicion. We are gratified to know that the P.I.M. is in keen demand; but we beg the gentlemen who lack the property-sense to remember that every time they “pinch” a news paper, we have to deal with an irate subscriber. * ° * THE average person will tell you that it is impossible for a European— particularly a European woman —to remain many years in the tropics without a break: but a well-known woman, Mrs. Edith Svensen, of Koromuruki Island, in the British Solomon Islands, gives notable proof to the contrary.

Mrs. Svensen and her husband have lived continuously on isolated Koro muruki since 1920 —60 miles from the nearest post-office—and they appear well and happy. Mrs. Svensen writes to the Editor in whimsical vein.

“The world seems to have moved very fast since 1920,” she says; “and it is hard to follow fashion developments

from the newspapers. I try hard to visualise modern women, with their beach pyjamas, and cigarettes and cocktail parties. There seems to be also a keen demand for equality with men. Some of those who want equality should have an experience of life on this island —I do not think the idea would last long!

"I am afraid I must be completely cut of date —I have not seen an aeroplane, nor have I heard the talkies, and I have only read about radio.”