Thriving Wau

Beer is Costly, But Life is Good in “Township of Pretty Wives”

WAU, the main centre oh the rich Morobe goldfields, New Guinea, is thriving, and residents find life very agreeable (even with beer at 3/6 a bottle!), according to Mr. Alec. C. Jones, who recently arrived in Sydney after spending three years with the Bank of New South Wales at Wau.

“The township is being re-built,” Mr, Jones said, “and the huts were fast dis appearing. Wooden houses with iron roofs are the new order. A beautiful hos pital has been opened, new hotels have sprung up, and a fine picture theatre has been erected.”

On the field, Wau is known as the "township of pretty wives,” he said. The wives were not found there, however — the white men come to Sydney, or drop in at Brisbane to find one. Frequently the bride follows later, and the whole township celebrates the marriage. Mr.

Jones brought news of the birth of the first white twins born in the Territory —both boys, the sons of Mr. and Mrs.

Noel Owers, of Wau.

A new road to Edie Creek, 11 miles away, has just been built, and the main transport problem has thus been solved.

But Mr. Jones believes that motor vehicles will never outdo the aeroplane; as many as 100 ’planes land and take off from a ’drome in a day. Residents think no

more of a flight in an aeroplane than a taxi ride in Sydney, he added.

Many strange sights meet the eye in Wau. For instance, half-a-dozen “boys” from the gaol may carry £12,000 worth of gold across the paddocks and through the streets, and never think of stealing even a penn’orth of it. Goldfield bandits are unknown.

Wau has a cojn which is absolutely valueless in any other part of the world, remarked Mr. Jones. It is the native “mark,” which has a hole in the centre for the “boys” to thread on string, and hand around their neck. In the town ship these “marks” are greatly prized by the natives, for if one saves 200, worth £lO, he enters the native millionaire class.

Shells are also quite an important part of the currency. The nomad native col lects a bagful before setting out on his trek inland, and with these he buys from the “No. 1 boy” in the tribes he meets, his potatoes and other foqd. To the in land tribes, money means nothing—shells everything, “Not so long ago, if a ‘boy’ wandered off into the hills in the direction of Edie Creek, he would be attacked, beaten and beheaded,” declared Mr. Jones. “One of his tribe then evened the score by doing exactly the same thing to the enemy. Thus each tribe believed the other was one up all the time, so that they were always looking for another victim. But that sort of thing has ceased around the civilised centres.

“Public hangings, which all ‘boys’ must witness, and whippings, have had a marked effect on the behaviour of the race,” he concluded. “One’s personal ser vant is a devoted slave for months after witnessing a public punishment. He is thus taught neither to murder, attack a female, nor steal.”