Suggest Previous High Culture

Ancient Relics

Suggest Previous High Culture in Papua

From Our Own Correspondent

Pt. Moresby, Sept. 8.

A STONE pestle and mortar have re cently been unearthed under many feet of ground on the Lakekamu goldfield.

Stone clubs of unusual design, and a skeleton that crumbled to dust on an at tempt being made to remove it from its position, many feet below the surface, have also been found.

Relics of a former occupation in the territory are continually coming to light.

Stone pestles and mortars have been dis covered for years past in various parts of the country by prospectors and miners.

On the Gira goldfields long ago a stone figure of a bird with the head and neck of a snake was dug up from a depth of 20ft. An obsidian battle axe and a peculiar shaped alabaster club were also uncovered on the Yodda field, 70ft. below the surface.

These unique relics and “the upper por tion of a man’s body cut in hard stone, 20 inches in height,” with features re sembling those of an African negro, found not far from Buna Bay, suggest that at some time, long years ago, the country harboured men who worked in stone.

Explanations have been put forth that these relics were either left behind by some former occupation or that they are evidence of the retrogression of the Papuan from some higher civilisation.

The natives in whose districts these relics have been found can offer no explanation as to their use or where they originally came from, nor do they show any signs of ever having attempted to make any thing resembling them.

Right Rev. John Hubert Dickinson, M.A., Assistant Bishop of Melanesia, arrived in Sydney by the Macdhui on September 25 on his way to England, via South Africa.

Mr. Dwight Long, that adventurous young American navigator, writes to the Editor from Singapore, which he appears to have reached early in September. Mr.

Long navigated his tiny ketch Idle Hour from U.S.A. across the Pacific to Auck land via various Pacific island groups; thence to Sydney; thence via the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Straits to the Dutch East Indies. He says that he ex pects to be in Singapore until November, in Ceylon until December and thence he is going, via Aden and the Suez Canal, to London to see the Coronation of Edward

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