Bush Kanakas

Their Tendency to Murder

Letter to the Editor.

In an article from your own correspondent at Port Moresby recently, comparison was made be tween the patrols of Officer Hides and subsequent patrols from this (the Mandated) side of the Territory.

Up until a few months after Officer Hides passed through, these natives were peaceable enough to the few who came in contact with them. Baum had spent a long period among them, trading for native foods and at times employing them as carriers. It was stated here by many—on what authority I do not know—that it was after the patrol of Officer Hides that all the trouble started. It would be justice to Officer Hides for your correspondent to give an account of his trip and his dealings with the natives encountered.

My opinion is that these natives are naturally murderers, as on three occasions I have been in close contact with tribes at the time they were raided by them.

An ambush, then slaughter, and an arm or a leg severed from one or two of them, or a young native carried away to be eaten. “Marys”—whom other tribes carry away as spoils of war —they murder, like all the rest.

It was on account of their bloody raids that the fertile and game-ridden Bulolo and Watut valleys were deserted, when discovered by Park, as all the other tribes had been killed out or driven to the topmost cold and barren peaks of the coastal ranges.

When Baum went amongst them it was only the novelty of a “white man” that saved him for a period. Then their natural instincts predominated, as their curiosity was satisfied, and he was treated like all other outsiders, and killed.

But to draw comparisons between the patrols is foolish, as one was just an expedition to a given point, whereas the others have all been punitive, with the apprehension of natives as their main object. This necessitates a “clash” on every patrol.

The best way to civilize raw natives, from my observations, is through the mission boys. It is the

custom of the mission to send native helpers into new country, and they take up their residence with the bush kanakas and explain to them the rights and wrongs, according to the white man’s law.

Otherwise, they are ignorant of such things, and what may be right, according to their custom, often lands them in unexpected trouble with the Gov ernment —and it is the unexpected punishmnet that antagonises them. Unless they have a civi lized boy stationed with them to teach them, their only way to learn the new law is by trial and error.

To conclude, my only two experiences of trouble with natives have been caused by the rape, or attempted rape of kanaka Marys by the police boys of a previous patrol. But in both instances the boys were out of the jurisdiction of their patrol officer. Also, in both cases, no action was taken against the offenders, although I assured the kanakas in one instance that such would be done.

I am, etc.,

Lacca.

Salamaua,