Embarrassments
pp. 57-58 · Read in the full issue
A District Magistrate's Embarrassments in New Guinea
LETTERS written to his wife by Mr.
Eustace Woodman, when he was a patrol officer in New Guinea, and which were read in the Divorce Court in Sydney, were given prominence in the Sydney newspapers early in June. Mr.
Woodman is now a high ranking officer (Colonel) in the AIF, and he is seeking a divorce. He was a well-known mem ber of the District Service in New Guinea up to the time that he enlisted, a year ago.
In one letter, Colonel Woodman de scribed how he had arrested a white man on a charge of having murdered a native.
When he returned to the station there was no other officer to whom he could hand over the prisoner.
“I had to bring him into the house,” he wrote. “Can you imagine such a thing happening anywhere else; having the man in the house, treating him as a guest, and then as a magistrate having to record a finding of murder against him?
“Then, as soon as the case was fin ished, I had to commit another white man for trial on a charge of rape against a native woman. The second fellow was formerly a student with me at St. Peter’s College, Adelaide. I travelled with him on the boat, and he has been to my home several times for meals.”
Colonel Woodman sought a divorce on the ground of desertion. He said that, after his wife had told him she had grown to hate everyone in New Guinea, he agreed to her going South for a holi day. She left in February, 1932, and had not returned. While he was on leave, in 1933, he and his wife lived together at Coogee, but she refused to return to New Guinea. In 1937, his wife had written to him, stating that she still loved him, but that she would not return to New Guinea. The application is part heard.
Mr. F. W. Eggleston, of Melbourne, who was chairman of the Commission which inquired into a plan for the amalgamation of the administrations of the Australian Pacific Territories of Papua and New Guinea, some two years ago, was awarded a knighthood < KB) in the King’s Birthday honours.
Miss D. Henderson is at present in Australia on furlough. She is a worker for the SSE Mission, and is stationed at
the Girls’ School on South Malaita, Solo mon Islands.
Mr. R. Jacomb, road overseer in the Fiji Public Works Department, was in New Zealand in May spending part of his two months’ leave.