Wahgis
p. 51 · Read in the full issue
Missionaries and the Wahgis A Reply from the Field
Gentle sarcasm, at the expense of the rival missionary expeditions which were hurrying into the newly discovered Purari country, Central New Guinea, was indulged in several months ago by our Salamaua correspondent. The following amusing reply was written, during July, by one of the Catholic missionaries who had gone down into the new country from Sek (Alexishafen, Madang).
Letter to the Editor.
THE poor old New Guinea Government take another one on the chin. They should have known better than to permit those dumb, old whiskered guys from Sek to cast curious eyes on the sacred “sikin” of the Sultan of the Wahgi—with, by the way, his 10 wives.
The missionaries are not to blame.
They are dumb, anyway. They just na turally figured that if the jolly old Gov ernment thought it worth while to spend hundreds and hundreds of pounds inves tigating the Wahgi-Mt. Hagen area, then they might have a look-see, too. Especi ally by request.
Your correspondent at Salamaua sees red and waxes eloquent. Let said corre spondent look at this red rag—and take a stiff one and a chaser.
The New Guinea Goldfields exploring party, headed by Mr. “Mick” Leahy, dis covered the Wahgi Valley in February, 1933. From a low divide, 7600 feet above sea level, at the foot of Mt. Erigvanna, Mick, his brother Dan, and Charles Mar shall, licensed surveyor for N.G.G. Ltd., gazed for the first time upon the hitherto unsighted Wahgi Valley.
Long before that historic find, Sek (Madang) missionaries in the Bismarcks already knew a dozen roads over the range into the valley. At Bundi, the missionary discovered hundreds of women who had been taken from the Wahgi Val ley. Every third one at Bundi and Guyebi spoke Arava, the Middle Wahgi language.
Repeatedly, these people asked the mis sionaries to go over the range to the old homes of their women.
From Bundi to Koru, in the Wahgi Valley, seemed a long trek, and Bismarck conditions were still unsettled. However, on November 11, 1933, three Sek mission aries crossed the range at 10,000 feet, dropped down into the head of the Chimbu river, reached the Chimbu- Wahgi junction and went on up the valley.
It was not different to being “at home.”
Everywhere a welcome; everywhere friends met —and a great old time was had by all.
This was actually the first missionary expedition up the Wahgi Valley, a quite natural development of the Bismarck work among people with the same cus toms, some gardens, same houses, and almost the same language.
But the Government ought to have known better than to allow poachers on their private reserves; for at this time Mr. Taylor, A.D.O., who had accompanied the N.G.G. exploring party, had been in the Mt. Hagen district six months, and had just left for the coast on long leave.
There has been no fighting here be tween rival missionary parties. The banks of the muddy Wahgi are no suit able place to hurl hymn books. They might get dirty that way. So, for the
information of your Salamaua correspon dent, we report that all parties in or out of the area are still unwounded.
Who’s to blame for the “deplorable race?” Let’s all pass the buck. We say again that Salamaua’s eloquent “imagin itis,” translated into the P.I.M. June issue, is just another case of the Government taking it on the chin.
Yours for “humanity and common sense.”
“Hagen.”
Wahgi district,