Insolent Natives

N.G. Goldfields Cases

THERE has been a certain amount of murmuring among residents of the goldfields area in New Guinea owing to what is described as the growing insol ence and unreliability of native labourers.

We are informed that in the Wau dis trict, within the past three or four months, there have been at least half a dozen cases—none of very serious charac ter —of assaults on European women by natives. If this is a fact, it indicates a condition of affairs that most urgently requires the attention of the authorities.

The whole question of the punishment of native servants demands revision. Owing to the stupidity and ponderousness of the law which governs industrial relations in New Guinea, boys escape far too easily from punishment for these offences.

By way of contrast, we may mention the case of Mr. George Chester, who had occasion recently to report to the authori ties that one of his native labourers had died while he was on the job, out in the Morobe district. There was evidence that the boy had been injured by his master, who did not deny that he had been obliged to punish him severely. As a result of the incident, the Administra tion sent a magistrate out into the wilds to investigate the matter and it is re ported that Mr. Chester has been taken to Rabaul on a charge of murder.

We know nothing about the merits of the case; and we cannot say positively that the report is correct. We can only hope that we are not going to have a re petition of the Larkin case, which still stands to the discredit of the Territory.

But we do say most emphatically that the whole basis of the law as applied in these cases is wrong and ridiculous. In our view, it is a much more serious thing that white women resident in New Guinea should be menaced by insolent “coons” than that a carrier or labourer should be injured by an employer upon whom de volves the responsibility for maintaining discipline. It would be a better thing for the future of New Guinea if the Adminis tration were less concerned with the be haviour of whites towards blacks, and gave more attention to the behaviour of blacks towards whites.