Pacific

Lies About The

Dwight Long Presents a Beauty!

Writing from England, Mr. Henry Dexter, lately a trader in Eastern Papua, is out spoken on the subject of people who publish absurd stories about the Pacific;— YESTERDAY, I was reading Dwight Long’s book on his voyage round the world in the “Idle Hour”, and when we reached Port Moresby, I was astounded to find this:— “New Guinea was not left entirely out of the conflict (he is speaking of the Great War) for the savages of Papua were given a pound sterling by the authorities for every German head they brought in.

“Naturally, such an inducement for easy money was hard to control after the armistice was signed, but by then most of the Germans had left the Northern Territories which are now under Aus tralian Mandate.”

This is not only a monstrous lie, which damns the book as quite useless as a work of reference, but it also is a most mis chievous statement. There are Germans who, in their present mood, might be lieve the fantastic story.

In another book the late Vicar of Mid hurst, Sussex, has recorded under the title of “The Happy Traveller” an ac count of tramps in many countries. This is what he tells us of Port Moresby:— “Port Moresby has no harbour. Ships have to lie some miles off the coast. The town has no laid-out streets, the bunga lows being erected in clearings in the jungle. Should you go inland, you will be quite safe if, when approaching a village, you adopt a fearless air, raise your arms in the air, and shout ‘kai-kai’. ‘Kai-kai’ means peace.”

It is all imagination, of course; but the statement that Port Moresby has no har bour is priceless.

There is little doubt that many of the most amusing things written by casual visitors are the result of a “leg-pull”.

There was the lady who had a narrow escape from a rhinoceros on Woodlark Island.

While there is little objection to a mild "leg-pull”, I think it too bad when car ried too far. One old gentleman, who poses as a great authority on the Pacific, claimed that he had “discovered” a village that had never been seen before by a European. The village was well-known to us—we had employed boys who came from it, for years—but the old chap was so de lighted with his “discovery” that it would have been rather a shame to queer his pitch.

Then you have the kind of “journalist” ■who spends a few days, say, in Samarai, and then tells us what we should, or should not do. One of this type, a woman, spent five days on the island, during which time she made the acquaintance of a man she calls the “Pessimist”, and who (she says) seemed to know more •than anyone else about Papua, and the Mandated Territory. “In Papua”, she writes, “sugar costs 1/4 lb., and yet It grows in the native gardens.” As a mat ter of fact sugar can be bought cheaper in Samarai than in Sydney. The “Pessi mist” told her of a European (K) who was serving a sentence for shooting a white man at Misima. “The landlady of the hotel”, she writes, “said that if the trial proceeded she would close her hotel, and there would be no food, and no

drinks. The landlady said the fellow at Misima only got what he deserved.” Any way the Magistrate suggested that K should take a month’s imprisonment, and K agreed. She adds: “No wonder Samarai is called the ‘Hell of the Pacific’.”

This is the first time I’ve heard of Samarai being called anything of the kind, but if the dear lady believed the above story I do not wonder at her think ing it a queer place.