Rapid Progress
p. 54 · Read in the full issue
Pacification of New Guineas Outlying Areas
From a Special Correspondent WAU, Apr. 27.
The policy of peaceful penetration of * outlying areas adopted by the New Guinea Administration has proved ex ceedingly successful. Especially is this so in the remote valleys of the Upper Mark ham, Ramu, Bena Bena, and Chimbu regions.
To those acquainted with the difficul ties of maintaining law and order in these vast areas between tribes whose principal diversions were warfare and raiding, it is astonishing to learn of the
rapid progress with which these primi tive people have accepted the new con ditions under Government control, with out antagonism, or resentment.
The attitude of the various tribes has become more peaceful, not only in rela tion to the Government but towards one another. In some instances the suspen sion of hostilities has led to voluntary disarmament.
One factor that has had a great deal to do with the Government’s success in this direction was the early establish ment of bridal paths linking up all the principal villages, base camps, and Police Posts. At the end of last year the Direc tor of District Services and Native Af fairs (Mr. Chinnery) visited these out lying regions by means of the bridal paths. Accompanied by the Officer in Charge of the Ramu District, he was cordially received by all the chief men, and ceremoniously conducted into each village. The people greeted him with native ritual and display, including dramatic plays symbolic of their im proved conditions.
The work of pacification and consoli dation in these “uncontrolled” areas is steadily going on all the time. Even now in the Otibanda district, control is being extended into the watershed of the Lake kamu and Tauri Rivers, which have their outlet far south in the Papuan Gulf.