"Red Rubber" In The
pp. 21-22 · Read in the full issue
Belgian Congo
JUST before the outbreak of World War 11, I received a letter from a cousin of mine, Edgar Canisius, son of Dr. Can isius, one-time Consul-General for the USA in Apia, Samoa.
Canisius had retired from the employ of the Congo Free State, and he con firmed the terrible stories told about the condition of the natives—especially in the portions termed the State Domain, where strangers are seldom admitted.
Canisius, who accompanied Major Lothair (commander of the Belgian troops in the Congo) on his earlier ex pedition after rubber, says 900 natives were killed in six weeks during that ex pedition; while a smaller expedition, com manded by a Belgian Lieutenant, killed 300 natives in three weeks.
Canisius further declared that the so cahed punitive expeditions are in reality rubber-squeezing raids, conducted with such iniquitous methods that the natives are in a constant state of revolt. The natives are practically forced to work the rubber at the muzzle of rifles, and they receive 2 cents per pound for what is sold at 75 cents at Antwerp.
Thousands of natives had fled to the bush, where they lived like wild animals.
Along the jungle paths the bodies of those who had died of starvation were frequent sights. H Edgar Canisius was in New Britain in 1888 and then was employed by Mrs. For sayth, otherwise known as “Queen Emma"
F. T. Goedicke-Van Asten, Tonga.
A Tahitian aristocrat, Arii-Paea fS so £ of the lat€ Hinoi, died at his home m Pirae on July 25 SL W^in ei S ployed in , the p ost Office, and T' J ell kn S >wn an d esteemed. He left a widow and 14 adult children.
L e ? nce Brault, a well-known SJJJSeJ 1 la .wyor and a former mayor of Papeete sailed recently by the “Wairata”
tojoinhisfamily in Oaklands, California,
he was Consul for Norway in Charon~ a positlon now held b Y M. Robert
Mr. G. T. Roscoe, principal of the Charters Towers State High and Intermediate School (Qld.), has been ap-
pointed inspector-in-charge of the gen eral division of the Education Depart ment of Papua-New Guinea
Mr. and Mrs. Allen Innes left Sydney in August for a six months’ holiday in Fiji and New Zealand. This well-known island couple met in Fiji when they were youngsters. Later they became even better known in Papua and the Morobe district of New Guinea. They will spend the next few months in Fiji and will then go on to New Zealand for the summer.
The death occurred recently of Madame Aumai Berniere, widow of the late Mon sieur Berniere, formerly a highly re
spected official of Papeete. Madame Berniere was Mademoiselle Donat, and was born and reared in Tahiti.
Miss Ela Gofton, of Lae (NG), re cently spent three months in South Queensland.
Colour-conscious? The curiosity of many Brisbaneites was aroused recently at the sight of one of their young blonde flappers being escorted in the city by two “Fuzzy-Wuzzies”, from New Guinea.