Thirty-five Years a South Seas Storm Centre

The Story Of Rabaul

FOR a description of Rabaul’s scenic pharms we should have Mr. Fitz patrick, of travelogue fame, to detail the beauties that are to be seen on entering Blanche Bay, with its semi circle of green hills; the high plateau to the west, with coconut palms silhouetted along the skyline; and to the east and north the cone-like mounts of the Mother and her two Daughters.

At the head of the bay lies Simpson Harbour —a huge horse-shoe, and one of the finest harbours in the world. The bay derived its name from the British warship HMS Blanche, and the harbour from its commander, Captain Simpson, who did valuable survey work in these waters during the early 70’s.

Rabaul, or Simpsonhaven, as it was called in the early days, was by no means the first capital of New Guinea; it was, in fact, the fifth.

The first German capital was estab lished in the late 70’s or early 80’s on Karawara Island, in the Duke of York Group. For the island of New Britain at that time was too wild and the natives were, if reports of the pioneers are cor rect, the fiercest cannibals in the Pacific.

Of this first capital now only a few con crete blocks remain, covered with vines.

The second site to be selected was at Finschhaven, and after only a short period it was moved to Frederichswilhelmshaven (or Madang), the centre of the agricul tural development and exploration of the Neu Guinea Compagnie, which had a charter from the German Government to administer the Bismarck Archipelago and North-east New Guinea.

From Madang the capital was moved to Herbertshohe (better known by its native name of Kokopo), for in the middle 80’s trading and planting activities had been started there by the famous “Queen” Emma, who had arrived from Samoa. Madang also an exceed ingly unhealthy area.

It was not until as late as 1905 that Rabaul, or Simpsonhaven, was selected as the capital. The open roadstead at Kokopo was found to be unsuitable for shipping and, as an inducement to the NDL to erect a wharf and supply a re gular shipping service, the German Government agreed to allow the NDL freehold rights of the new township, which at that time was a swampy waste, lying between the hills and the shores of the bay. In fact, Rabaul in Blanche Bay dialect means “the swamp.”

In 1905, building operations commenced on the big jetty that later jutted out from the end of Namanula Street. The town was carefully planned, surveyed, trees planted along the roadways, and residen tial sites prepared beneath the shade of Mount Mother on the Namanula Ridge.

Pioneer Personalities

BUT let us leave the NDL constructors at their work of creating their Garden City of the Pacific for a few moments and take a look at the back ground of the town.

I maintain that every town or city, hamlet or metropolis, is something more than streets and shops and rows of houses. It reflects the individuality of its people. It grows or prospers accord ing to the interest and the affection shown by the inhabitants. There is a subtle “Something” which greets the visitor. You may call it background or atmosphere—or what you like. It is some thing more than the bricks and weather board and galvanised iron. If you have

dynamic, colourful citizens, you will find a clean, progressive town.

So let me tell yotf something of those pioneer personalities that formed the background of Rabaul in the early 1900’s.

'THIS is the first of three articles which tell the story of Rabaul—a town which began as a swamp and ended as a pile of rubble, completing its life cycle in 35 years.

The articles are based on a talk given by Mr. Gordon Thomas to the Pacific Islands Society on January 30. Mr. Thomas went to Rabaul in 1911, when the town was one year old; he left it in September, 1945, having spent his four last years there as a prisoner in Japanese hands.

The most colourful of them all was Mrs. E. E. Forsyth, better known as Queen Emma, who hailed from Samoa, and brought with her a retinue of sisters, nieces and ladies-in-waiting. She took* up land around Ralum, Matanatar and Malapao—later to be known as the Kokopo district. Her trading schooners travelled as far as Buka, the Mortlocks and the Tasmans —500 miles away. She established trading stations far and wide, and later built herself a very fine re sidence at Gunantambu, which in the local native dialect means “sacred place.”

Here she entertained on a lavish scale and in truly tropical fashion. Her hospitality was known throughout the Pacific, and Men-of-war of several nations always anchored whenever they were pass ing, well knowing the welcome* they would be accorded.

She gathered about her a cosmopolitan staff of workers: Danes, Englishmen, Swedes, Australians and a few Germans; all hard-workers, hard-drinkers. Many of them were the rolling-stones, the wan

derers, the adventurers of the Pacific. A brother-in-law of hers was Parkinson, whose name has gone down in anthro pological history as the writer of “Thirty Years in the South Seas” —a classic on the native life of New Guinea which has never been surpassed.

As an example of these “good old days” when fortunes were made and lost, the story is told of a good-looking English man, employed by Queen Emma, as a bookkeeper. One evening during a par ticularly happy period, Queen Emma developed a match-making mood, and, glancing at one of her Samoan girls and then at .the Englishman, said: “Charlie! Why don’t you marry Tessie? If you do I’ll give you the So and-so group of islands,” —naming a very productive atoll some hundreds of miles distant.

“Right!” said Charlie. “Here’s ten pfenning. Now you put that in writing.”

She did.

Next morning—when this sort of trans action is usually forgotten—Charlie dis covered the receipt for the ten pfenning 'ind the undertaking signed by Mrs.

Forsyth; he reminded her of it, and she laughingly fulfilled her promise and the one-time bookkeeper became a wealthy planter. (Continued on Next Page)

AN outstanding character of even earlier days was George Brown, the Methodist missionary. It was he who did much to pacify the cannibals of the Duke of York Group and natives on the Gazelle Peninsula. He it was who first stepped ashore on Vulcan Island in Blanche Bay, when that isle made its first appearance following a night of full-scale eruption in 187& It was through his efforts, also, that many of the survivors of the ill-fated Marquis de Ray expedition were rescued trom the south coast of New Ireland.

ND there was Peter Hansen, King of the French Islands, better known as the Witu Group. He made a fortune trading there for the Neu Guinea Compagnie, and spent it every time he made a visit to Sydney. History relates how, attired in top-hat and frock coat, he used to invite the entire Tivoli chorus out to supper, where champagne flowed lavishly.

He had a misunderstanding with some of his Witu Islanders one day and they burned his steamer; he managed to escape, however, owing to the faithfulness of his native wife—to whom, mcidentally, he was later legally married.

HERE was August Englehardt. Tall, with uncut hair and beard, a graduate of Bonn University, he styled himself a sun-worshipper and lived on coconuts at his home, on Kabakon Island, in the Duke of York Group, He used to advertise for disciples. Some Thase . w . l }° did not die, went away and to ° k P TTpw!SS 2,0 K g ‘ i , .. wore no clothes when by himself, and donned only a loin-cloth when m‘all°ri e »V ° alled for him to sit in the sun all day.

He would sometimes have a real beano and open tins of German sausage, pumpermckle, washing them down with bottles of Rhine wine. One of his stipulations to his intending disciples was that no one was allowed *to bring

with him, or her, more than one rooster The crowing used to get on his nerves rpHE Governor of those times was Dr 1 Hahl. In the days when the NGC ran the country he was the Judge, He made a point of learning the Blanche Bay dialect and tWfe natives called him “Patuan”—their highest term of respect, He was a very just man and did all he could to eradicate the sectional jealousies which are more rife in an island com munity than anywhere else in the world, Another outstanding character of the later Years was Heinrich Rudolph Wahlen. A man endowed with a keen business sense and long vision. From a clerk in one of the smaller companies he became the owner of the Western Islands: Maron, Ninigo, Matty and Aua Islands, where the waters were filled with trocas and tortoiseshell, and where on the top of Maron Island he built the biggest house in the Territory, and in stalled electric light in the rooms and deer in the park, It was these people who were taming the cannibals of New Britain, teaching them the spiritual and material ways of the white man, who formed the back ground of Rabaul during the years before its establishment as the capital; it was their influence which was felt through out the land, fTIHERE were also the Government X officials. They wielded, for the most part, a leavening’ influence, They were young men of good families who had passed through \n intensive £ rair V ng in Germany for the Colonial Service. Included in the curriculum was the Pidgin-English language, which they learned as distinct from English proper lV hose da y s u had a vocabulary of only 300 words. The clerical staff of the NGC were also highly-trained men, and the plantation managers were picked for their knowledge of tropical agriculture attained theoretically in Germany, or from experience in Africa and South America.

Rabaul the Capital

THE administrative offices of the Gov ernment were transferred to Rabaul in 1910. The NGC executive offices followed at the same time, and Queen Emma also opened a branch store there, but keeping her headquarters at Ralum.

The “Long-handle Company” or the DHPG remained at Mioko in the Duke of York Group, where it supervised the recruiting of labour for its plantations in Samoa.

To the north of the town a separate area had been allotted to the Chinese community, where the dwellings of artisans were erected and small native trading stores were opened. The Botanic Gardens were also situated in the northern area of the town, and here plants, trees and shrubs from every tropical country were planted out

artistically.

MY first arrival in Rabaul was in May, 1911. I travelled on the NDL liner Coblenz, whose terminal port was Hong Kong, after calling at Maron and Yap.

Rabaul’s European population was only a few hundred then, and the whole Territory had less than 700 Europeans, mainly Government officials and mis sionaries.

The town was a conglomerate mix ture of East and West: The Germans, attired in starched, white clothes and pith helmets: Chinese and Malay clerks, similarly attired, but keeping obse quiously off the foothpaths when a European approached; red lava-lava-ed natives padded along silently in the middle of the road.

There was an occasional horse and sulky, driven by a native boy, with a European woman, seated beside him, holding a parasol against the tropic heat; or bullock-carts, drawn by slowly moving zebus, swayed from side to side of the roadway. Narrow gauge rails led from the NDL wfrarf to the NGC store and up the centre of Namanula Street to the police compound. It was before the day of the motor car.

The town’s rendezvous was the Bis marcker Hof Hotel, located where later Gascoigne’s auction mart was estab lished. It was essentially a beer garden.

I don’t think they catered for accom modation.

On my first night in Rabaul I slept at Louri’s pub—a small rest-house which has long ago been forgotten. It was later used as the headquarters of a mis sionary society.

It was here that I had my first ex perience of Rabaul social life. During the night I was suddenly awakened by an irate husband rushing through my room, holding a revolver, seeking for a departing Government official whose attentions to his wife he did not ap preciate.

The official made good his escape into the folds of the tropic night.

I was only 21 at the time and wondered what sort of a country I had come to, and whether chasing lovers with a re volver, at night, was a usual practice.

A further instalment will appear in March.

Captain E. C. Vider, formerly skipper of Administration vessels under the old New Guinea Administration, is return ing to a similar position under the Papua-New Guinea Provisional Govern ment. Since 1942, he has been engaged mostly in running small boats for the Army in the South-West Pacific area.