Tropiclities

A MAN who was in the service of the New Guinea Expropriation Board, just after the war, informs us that there diamonds awaiting discovery in northern New Guinea. He was on terms of close friendship with a German mis sionary, and the latter showed him a tobacco-box full of uncut diamonds, which he had personally picked out of a blue clay deposit among the mountains in a then unexplored part of New Guinea. Some of the stones were sent to Sydney and tested, and they were true diamonds. Two German missionaries, it is believed, knew the secret of the loca tion of the diamond deposit, and there was an agreement that the Mission of the Sacred Heart should benefit from any •commercial exploitation of the discovery, but nothing further has been heard of the matter for fifteen years. ♦ * * WE have received from an esteemed friend in Queensland a letter enclos ing 6/-, “for which please post me the Pacific Highland Monthly for 12 months.”

The editor of this journal is still wondering whether this was merely a typist’s phonetic error, or whether it represents a cunning .and unpleasant reflection upon his Scottish ancestors. ♦ * * SIXTY years ago Commodore James Goodenough, visiting the then untamed islands of the New Hebrides, wrote: “It is remarkable that, just in proportion to the amount of people who have been taken away as labourers, so are the natives inclined to assault Europeans. Where white men are least known, tl\e people are most friendly.”

This sentence was read to the Royal Geographical Society in London on Decem ber 10, Admiral Sir William Good enough, son of the late Commodore. ♦ * ♦

Captain Charles P. Mckenzie, De

scribed as a British sportsman and explorer, recently arrived in San Francisco from Tahiti with a collection of anthro pological relics which, it is understood, he Is to present to museums in the United States and Great Britain. In the collection were two fragmentary skulls with filed teeth. In the rear of a cave, he says, he found “rows of skulls, stacked on shelves of earth like jars of fruit in a country cellar.” Captain McKenzie was the first white man ever to enter that particular cave.

However, one of the most interesting discoveries he made was a skull that had been trepanned by ancient Tahitian sur geons. The bone had been replaced by a piece of polished coconut shell with a skill, he said, that rivalled the surgery of old Egypt.

The celebrated missionary, Rev. W. Ellis, author of “Polynesian Researches,” who was at Bora Bora in 1820, heard of similar operations. “They have cleared away the skin and coverings,” he said, with refer ence to people injured in battle, “and, having removed the fractured piece of bone, have carefully fitted in a piece of cocoa-nut shell, and replaced the covering and skin: on the healing of which, the man has recovered.” Ellis also heard of another operation which, he confessed, he could hardly believe. He was told that on some occasions when the brain was injured as well as the bone, the damaged portion ha£ been removed and replaced with brains from a newly-killed pig. “They persist in

stating this was done,” he said, “and add that the persons always became furious with madness and died.” Polynesian sur gery certainly had its limitations.

Interference with ancient burial places is most strongly resented by Polynesians who, naturally enough, regard it as dese cration. Whether Captain McKenzie’s in vestigations were carried out with the permission of the French Government is not known. The natives firmly believe that he will meet with misfortune or bad luck as a result of interfering with the skulls of the dead. For a similar reason, many years ago, the numerous skulls at Tapu tapuatea, on the island of Raiatea, the most sacred of all marae in Polynesia, were collected by the natives and carried off to secret hiding places. The Maoris in New Zealand are continually protesting against the desecration of urupa, or burial grounds.

As an incentive, the vandal in New Zea land has always before him the possibility of finding some cherished piece of green

stone.

E.R.

THIS statement, made in the House of Commons by the Colonial Secretary on February 12, clears away some misgiv ings and misapprehensions: “The British Government has not considered, and is not considering, the handing over of any of the British colo nies or territories held under mandate.”

After Sir Samuel Hoare’s Geneva speech, in which he said that Britain must recognise that other nations were entitled to colonies and sources of raw materials, representations were made to Britain by Dominions which hold man dates —and especially South Africa, Aus tralia, and New Zealand. The foregoing statement evidently is the outcome. * ♦ * THE breaking of nearly four years of depression in the Islands has been marked by the receipt of some valuable orders in Sydney shipbuilding yards. One

of the first things bought by the Islands planter, when money begins to flow again, is a new boat. Most of the leading ship builders are getting Islands business. A 45ft. vessel, with a Diesel engine, for use in connection with Guinea Airways busi ness at Lae and Salamaua, is on the stocks at Lars Halvorsen’s yard. ♦ * ♦ MANY Australians do not realise th© importance of Australia’s mandat© in New Guinea. You have only to look at the map to realise how important its geographical situation is in relation to Australia. See how New Guinea and its adjacent islands are spread out northward of the Australian continent —how they stand between Australia and the Far East. In my position I cannot say as much as I should like about the subject, but, take my word for it, New Guinea is a vital spot in Pacific affairs, and will be even more so. Watch for developments within the next 20 years.”

Thus Mr. E. W. P. Chinnery, head of District Services in New Guinea, in a newspaper “interview.” It is a great pity that other public officials, in promin ent positions, have not the courage to put into words the things that we all are thinking. Yet it is likely that Mr. Chin nery, instead of being thanked, will be sat upon by some heavy-breathing poli tician.