Old Man New Guinea

By Gordon Thomas.

EVERY now and then Old Man New Guinea stirs from his lethargy and strikes, and the sound reaches round the world in a tragic echo.

From its mysterious hinterland there comes a voice saying: “You can pene trate my vastness; you can take away my distances with aeroplanes, and you can become familiar with my people; but I am still New Guinea, with my sacred, customs, which are as old as the Cross and none the less sacred to my people because you term them pagan.”

And when we hear the voice of Old Man New Guinea and see him strike we suddenly realise the truthfulness of it all.

Because of our own modern powers of penetration, and our self-satisfied western slant on things primitive, we underesti mate the power and ignore the feelings; of the Old Man. We are liable, too, to forget that New Guinea, under its skin, is still New Guinea —despite our aero planes zooming over its jungles, our re frigerating plants standing in homes in. its valleys, and the wireless sets bringing to-day’s news to our ears.

The Old Man has his customs and his prejudices, as deep-rooted as our own; his ethics are as worthy of recognition as ours. When he objects to their dese cration by the White strangers he feels, perfectly justified in meting out justice and retaliation in his own methods. The trouble is, his methods are not our methods; A wrong is committed by the Whites and the Old Man deals with the offence collectively: not individually. The

white tribe has been responsible, not so much the individual White, and hence so many innocents have had to pay the penalty.

Puffed up with altruistic principles wished upon us by the terms of Mandate, we proclaim the policy of freedom of conscience, and yet, when Old Man New Guinea indicates his opposition to the introduction of the White man’s creed within his boundaries, such opposition is not only ignored, but defied, and the Old Man s most valued property destroyed.

The recent Mount Hagen tragedy is a most regrettable incident. Other innocents have been called upon to pay the

penalty of an error of judgment.

Fortunately, now, the Administration has adopted the policy that an uncon trolled area is an uncontrolled area, and no one is permitted to enter there, save properly organised government patrols whose duty it will be to establish peace ful relations with the children of Old Man New Guinea, paying proper deference to tribal customs and due regard to native property.

With all our twentieth century know ledge we must remember that the Old Man is still a primitive, and must be treated as such; his evolution—not his revolution—is in our hands and may not be abused with impunity.