Early Days In

Papua

Monckton's Two Patrols

SOME more early Papua history is con tributed by Mr. D. H. Osborne, of Samarai: Captain C. A. W. Monckton was not the firse white man to penetrate inland in Eastern Papua miners and bird collectors had been inland, years earlier.

Three white men lived with the natives on the Chirima for several months about the time of Mr. Green’s murder at the Government Station, Tamata..

Monckton was at first engaged in min ing on Woodlark. Later, he was ap pointed to the Government Service, and opened a station at Tufi. He did good work in bringing the coastal natives under Government control, and he stamped out tribal warfare among the villages.

There is a strip, maybe 50 miles wide, along the coast which is inhabited. Then there is a strip, of 50 miles width, or more, that is uninhabited. One can travel for days, there, without seeing any trace of human beings.

Several thousand feet up in the moun tains, you will find the mountain people.

Hundreds of square miles of Papua are without a native. No doubt, at some time, Papua had a much larger native popula tion. One can travel for days through jungle where the timber is all small.

You will find a few acres of big trees, or a strip of big trees, a chain or so wide, that had been a boundary line between two tribes. The reason why so few big trees can be seen in this Papuan jungle is that the trees once had been cleared, for village gardens. Big timber takes a long time to grow.

PAPUA was once inhabited by a dif ferent race to Fuzzy-Wuzzy that is indicated by the different articles dug up by miners.

On the Aikora, Jack Murphy dug up a stone flying lizard. It had been carved out of stone, and had four legs, two wings, a head and a tail. Monckton sent it to the British Museum; also, a battle-axe Jimmy Judge found on the Yodda. The lizard was 30 feet under-ground, in a

terrace some distance above the present water-course.

Peter Buce found a pestle; it would have taken a strong man to handle it.

A big mortar, cut out of solid stone, was found on the Aikora. It was too large for Monckton to move it may have been used for cleaning grain.

Davy James dug up a pestle on the Lakekamu a couple of feet long, and about six inches in diameter. That in dicates that these natives were spread over large areas of the country.

Any person who wishes to find out how much of Papua is populated can do so by taking a plane and spending a few hours in the air. I would compare it to an ordinary envelope, with a postage stamp on it; the stamp would represent the occupied land.

MONCKTON did two long patrols. One was when he and Rev. Percy Money ascended Mount Albert Edward.

Before setting out on the latter trip, he made two base camps. One was at my camp, about 20 miles from Tamata; the other was on the Aikora, at some miners’ camp, four days’ march further inland.

Mr. Money was a member of the Angli can Mission, Papua.

They woulc| have liked a miner to have joined them, but it was not convenient for any one to go. They invited me, but my boots were worn out no others in the store at Tamata.

They were about a month on the moun tain trip, and they camped a night with me on their return. They had the skin of an uncommon duck, shot on one of the lakes, and the skin of a kuskus, with heavy fur. They had a few specimens of plants. Money was a draughtsman, and had sketched some of the mountain peaks.

Monckton’s second big patrol was from Tamata to the Waria River, up the river, over the divide, and down the Lakekamu to the coast, near Port Moresby. He re turned over the Gap, to Buna.

Billy Little was his partner when he left Tamata I don’t know if Little crossed the range, or not.

When Monckton arrived in Moresby, the Commonwealth Government had taken over Papua. Captain Barton had been graned leave, and Sir Hubert Mur ray was acting-Governor.

Monckton was a New Zealander, and disliked Australians. He resigned from the service and returned to his native land. He was popular with the miners, and wrote to several of them afterwards.

He joined the NZ Forces in World War I, and it is repotted that he died after returning from active service.