Memories Of Papua

EXTRACTS from a letter received from Mr. Henry Dexter, England—form erly of Milne Bay, Papua: “Whom do you think I ran against the other day? No other than Jack McLaren!

We had both been broadcasting, hence the meeting. I last heard of his being in the neighbourhood of Cape York.

“I think the ears of some of the old timers must have been pretty hot about that time. McLaren was frightfully out of date as regards Papuan affairs. He sup posed that there was a second pub at Port Moresby; was McCrann still there?

What had become of Captain Griffin, Mr.

Brammell, Algernon Storrey, and a host of others. Answers to the many questions ran into some hours of explanation.

“The long yarn brought home to me how soon one forgets tragedy. One of those about whom he questioned me had shot himself in a Japanese hotel in Singa pore. Another fell off his verandah, and broke his neck; another met with his death in precisely the same way.

“Still another —Dick Roche —disappeared in Dutch New Guinea. I last heard of Dick when I was running up the coast of Java in 1925; he was then going strong.

AS I have ample spare time I’ve been reading every available book dealing with the Pacific. But how often books published as factual contain the most utter rubbish.

“I would like though to meet the lady who wrote this: T found my dream island.

It is Abau. Only one European couple live on it, the Resident Magistrate and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Flint. The palm fringed island is surrounded by peacock waters, and through these to a well-kept jetty the launch carried the visitors. From the glistening white beach, up a white pebbled path that corkscrewed to the top of the hill the party made its way. And there on the top they found a hostess and a home more like Rose Bay than the tropics. In the evening a surprise awaited the party. They were bidden to a dinner on the silver sands. A cable had been carried from the launch, and to the beach electric lights had been run. So there, with the booming of the Pacific for an orchestra, with hibiscus gleaming pink and red in a low bowl, and waited on by Papuan boys, the little group of Sydney ites ate an unforgettable meal.’

“That brought back memories of a happy time on Abau. A number of pris oners had to be usefully employed— grading paths, plainting nuts, bananas, maize; building a wharf. I too enjoyed my time on Abau.”

Hon H. H. Page, who has been Govern ment Secretary in New Guinea since 1923, arrived in Australia, with Mrs. Page, from Rabaul at the end of October, on furlough.

Dr. lan Hogbin, who is a well-known Australian anthropologist, is the author of a new book which was published by Rutledges, in London, on October 15. It is entitled “Experiments in Civilisation”, and it examines in a new and interesting way the effects of the impact of European civilisation upon primitive people, as dis closed by his researches in recent years in the Solomon Islands. This is Dr. Hog bin’s second book—his first was entitled “Law and Order in Polynesia 1 ”.