Native Policy

He Laid the Foundations of a Better

Some of the Achievements of Sir William MacGregor, from material collected by Alice Allen Innes.

IN this period when Governments are so complacently producing what they claim as new native policies, it is as well to remember that there is nothing particularly new in any of them; and that the basis of the current plans for native health, education and general ad vancement were laid by a former genera tion of humanitarians—and not by the theorists and politicians of to-day.

Of these outstanding men of the past, Sir William MacGregor is particularly worthy of note, for his service to native peoples was not confined to one territory.

Many writers have referred to his career and his wide and varied interests, but a comprehensive story of his life has yet to be written. Mr. L. Austin, in the 1927 edition of the “Australian Encyclopedia,” has, with brevity and clarity, gathered the following informative facts, which are worth quoting: “Sir William MacGregor was born in 1846, at Towie in Aberdeenshire, and was the eldest son of John MacGregor, a farm labourer. He received part of his early education at Strathdon manse and after wards at a small school at Tillyduke.

From 1865 to 1867 he attended the Aber deen Grammar School, then entered King’s College and took his Arts degree.

Later he changed to Medicine (MB and CM, 1872; Watson Gold Medal, LRCP, Edin., 1872; MD, Cambridge, 1874). He also studied in Berlin, Florence, and Paris.”

Like Cecil Rhodes, this wide-visioned empire-builder undertook his long and distinguished colonial career for his health’s sake, in the first place. Chest weakness developed when he was on the staff of the Glasgow Infirmary and later, at Aberdeen, it gave him further cause for alarm. So in 1873, he became Assis tant Medical Officer at Seychelles, Then in 1874 he was sent to Mauritius as surgeon of Port Louis Hospital; and, from 1875 to 1888 he was Chief Medical Officer in Fiji. In Fiji he also acted as Receiver-General, Commissioner for Lands, High Commissioner and Consul- General for Western Pacific. Colonial Secretary and Auditor—surely as unique a record of public service as ever made by one man. Furthermore, he was no mere figurehead in any capacity, for he was so keen a student that to each branch of the service he could bring knowledge and wisdom.

The native risings in the mountains of Viti Levu, in 1876, were suppressed with firmness and dignity which left no ran cour but built up mutual respect between Fijian and European which developed with later years. In 1877, the Fiji Native Regulations Board came into wider powers under his leadership.

The story of the measles epidemic in Fiji, and how Dr. MacGregor (as he then was), trained the first Native Medical Practitioner, and laid the foundations of the Suva Medical School, must be well known to all Pacific Islands readers.

However, the story of his winning the Albert and Clark Medal is not so well known to the present generation.

When, about 1874, the “Syria” was wrecked some twelve hours’ sail from Suva, one can imagine the panic there must have been amongst the large coolie passenger list. Dr. MacGregor not only hastily organised relief but went himself with the rescue party.

It is told that he was almost god-like

in his great physical strength and deter mination, dragging one woman by her hair, held in his teeth while he pulled a man in each hand, so bringing them out of the swirling waters into safety. He crawled along the broken mast and saved other helpless and, no doubt, hysterical Indians. One wonders that the descen dants of those Indians, in Fiji, have never built a memorial to their benefactor.

It was in 1879 that the Colonial Office needed this versatile genius to report on financial conditions in Tonga, and in this task also, he was most successful.

The wisdom and forbearance of his Fiji Administration has become a byword, his plans and ambitions to develop the native races, coupled with the remarkable programme (for that time) for a native medical network, led to Dr. MacGregor becoming Administrator of British New Guinea in 1888.

IN 1895 he was appointed Lieutenant- Governor of Papua. In Papua (as British New Guinea was later known) he himself considered that his best work was the establishment of the native Police Force, and system of village constabu lary.

Sir William introduced specified dis tricts for various missions, to prevent overlapping and confusion of denomina tions—but that wise rule faded into the limbo of lost causes, to leave, in Papua, some heritage of bitterness and sectarianism.

He pioneered native training for the Government Service; the land regulations ensuring native rights; the regulations forbidding the sale of liquor or drugs to natives—-in short, he laid the foundations of a native policy which endures to this day. It was taken up loyally, and added

to, and . splendidly developed, by Sir Hubert Murray.

Sir William went forward on a long and distinguished career until he retired in 1914. He died in his native Aberdeen in 1919. (Continued on Next Page)

FROM his lengthy handwritten reports, it is now possible and opportune to read and realise the grip of detail and wide vision that he had in those pioneering days. In rebuilding and replanning our territories in the South- West Pacific we may cull much of value from him.

The reoorts, reprinted were prenared by Sir WUliam for the Governor of Queensland in July, 1889, and cover visits of inspection to the goldmining islands of St. Aignan and Sudest, and

the district of Aroma, east of Port Moresby. sir William wrote: ppttl p of

ttj® ScchkS

spent in V? L w2? P S S f^ a^rS.c P °vt lb if work The schoone? “Markm”was at anchor at usuaf’ * ancnor at me usual ancnorage. .A small native village of some eight or nine houses, fully inhabited, stood at this anchorage when I was at the same spot in the latter part of last year; their houses are still there, but the natives have left them, with the exception of a few who Unger ’ employed more or less by the Europeans living there or passing through to and from the gold diggings in the island. There are fpur or five small stores ° n he , I 1 1?,., thls v J la « e i all u , nsub ; s? n ’ P r a /“y ° f

totrl?tfV“me“rV native

own- received forjheir on this point needs fuller inquiry, on the spot. At these stores provisions can be purchased at moderate prices, and some of them sell the ordinary and betterknown medicines such as fever mixtures, tC The nearest mining camp was on a creek about three miles from the anchorage, and to this I first proceeded. The men’s tents extended over a large area— in fact the miners are so widely distrib uted that it is difficult to say where a camp begins or ends. About 60 or 70 miners’ tents came under observation; but it is believed by the Resident Magistrate and by th e Customs officer at Samarai that there are altogether nearly 400 mi ners 0 n the island, at present. It was impossible to visit all these, or even to learn where many of them were at work, but/1 was able to see enough to

form an opinion with regard to the points that formed the object of my in spection.

The bed of the main creek and of most of its branches have already been searched and washed for gold, and now the men are scattered about looking for new ground ’ or sinking small pits and shaf , ts into the lower terraces near the creek, or are digging into the banks of the creek from its bed. The creeks them selves are practically exhausted, but gold has been found on some of the terraces which may be sufficiently rich to pay working. Traces of gold may be found almost anywhere over this part of the island, but no gold-bearing reef has been reported. jt would thus appear that the future 1 of this field is chiefly dependent on the results that may be obtained from working on the terraces or the

h^fafdU-’

fe™? epochs been the fed of the creek.

While O Cr SS S o ™ first time, not a few men were believed to be making considerably more than wages, as rough gold was found some times m several f ounces.

So Ij are 0 ipriS

Xn4t nothin* “ ar6 domg aimosu nouung.

But it has to be remembered that men that are doing well on gold are very reti cent, while those that are indolent or unfortunate are, generally speaking, the reverse. i saw a great many dishes of stuff washed, none without “colours” of gold, but none yielding more than from 2 gr. to 4 gr., and the best only where there was but a small quantity of the deposit worth washing, and below sometimes 8 ft. or

10 ft. of earth and boulders. Generally speaking, it seems to be very hard work to make 2 pennyweights a day in what is considered the best ground.

There has been a large amount of sickness, mainly fever, during the wet season. Pour men died in the Main Creek camp, and many left, ill, for Cook town. There has been little dysentery, if any, and now the sanitary conditions may be said to be satisfactory, there be ing cases of fever still, but few of them severe. Taking into consideration the fact that the men are nearly always working in water, and that their food is not as nutritious as such a climate would require, the health of the camp is sur prisingly good.

Among the miners themselves there are no disputes or quarrels. The great majority of them are miners from Queens land, many of them having been so em ployed for a large number of years, so that they are well acquainted with the unwritten rules of the mining camp. I have great satisfaction in being able to say that I found them, without exception, both here and at Sudest, civil and re spectful, and that I was greatly pleased to see that the large majority of them are composed of respectable, honest,

hard-working men.

Of course in this, as in all other com munities, there are a few men of inferior or bad character, but they do not influence the conduct of the solid majority of good men. Drunkenness may be said to be unknown on the fields.

Friendly relations exist between the natives and the miners. The natives carry the miners’ stores from the an chorage, and they bring, also, native food for sale. There are some complaints of thefts committed by natives, but it was remarked to me by miners, both here and at Sudest, that if any theft was com mitted by a white man it was, of course, put down to a native. There is no doubt whatever that the miners have had much assistance from the natives.

A DAY or two before leaving Port Moresby I received a letter from a miner then on St, Aignan, signing himself J. J. Brown, in which he ex pressed his regret that he had had to shoot three natives of the island in order to protect himself. This matter has not yet been judicially investigated, and It would therefore be premature to form any opinion with regard to Mr. Brown’s posi tion in it. It may be mentioned, however, that according to his own account, one of the three natives was running away when fired at twice, being missed the first time. Mr. Brown naively states that he would have spared him had it not been that he had only three cartridges left. Brown seems to have thought noth ing more of the matter. He did not re port it to the resident magistrate, but went away with a prospecting party to the island of Normanby.

Several miners at St. Aignan, who are trustworthy men, informed me that Brown had given them an account of the affair corresponding in general outline to what he had written to me, but added that they had made inquiry of the natives and they all denied that anyone had been shot.

Up to the present the only evidence against Brown is that found in his own statements. Strict investigation will, however, be made, and it need not be doubted that eventually the truth of the matter will be arrived at, and the case dealt with judicially in a regular and im partial manner.

ON July 7, the steamer went to Sudest, and on the following day I visited two of the mining camps on that Island. I saw between eighty and ninety miners’ tents there, but the number of miners on the island is nearly 300. Near

the ordinary anchorage there are four or five stores at which provisions can be ob tained at fair prices. One or two of the buildings are of iron, and are fairly sub stantial.

Here, as at St. Aignan, the creeks are nearly worked out, and gold is being looked for in the banks of the large creeks or in blind gullies. There still remain certain spots in the large creeks that are not exhausted because some capital and much labour would be re quired to divert the water and pump out the pools, and the prospect is not deemed sufficiently encouraging to justify t)iis ex cept in a few cases.

The two islands—Sudest and St. Aig nan—have yielded results so nearly even that there has for some months been a considerable number of men coming and going between the two places. But at present things are certainly duller and more unpromising at Sudest than at St.

Aignan. There are very few men at Sud est making more than wages, and a con siderable number hardly earning enough to pay for food. The mining population of each place is already too great, but the men say they are compelled to stay here because things are so dull at Croydon (Qld.) and elsewhere.

MY impression is that there will be no great decrease of numbers here un til something more attractive turns up in Queensland.

At present almost every miner inquires eagerly what is the news from the pros pecting party at Normanby, their anxiety showing apprehension that the present fields are nearly worked out.

At Sudest also there were some com plaints of stealing by natives, but how far this may be well-founded it would not be safe to say. It is very extraordinary that there are so few thefts committed in view of the many opportunities afforded to natives to possess themselves of tempjißg articles in camps so inefficiently guarded.

On the whole, the relations existing be tween the miners and the natives are friendly. A few natives work daily for the miners, and in many ways the former have been of great assistance to the latter. The miners, as a body, are as quiet and peaceable here as at St. Aignan, and the sanitary condition is much the same as on that island. Neither at Sudpst nor at St. Aignan have the operations of the miners encroached on native gardens, and no instance has come to my know ledge of natives on Sudest having to aban don their houses as in the example mentioned at St. Aignan.

It seems tolerably certain that even if no new discovery, such as gold-bearing reefs, is made, these goldfields will linger on for a period greater than the present financial year, and I deem closer super vision of them indispensable.

As the principal creeks are worked out the men become scattered, so that they will soon be distributed in small parties all over the two islands in question, which will afford greater temptation and oppor tunity to natives to steal, and, it may be, attack solitary individuals. The probabi lity of unjust treatment of natives will also become greater.

I CANNOT but see that the Government has lost ground with the natives since I was here in the latter part of last year: no natives have on this occasion come to visit either Mr. Hely or myself, showing that they have not yet learned to look to the Government for protection or assistance.

I see only one way of putting things on a satisfactory footing—to have a Govern ment officer stationed permanently at Sudest and the same at St. Aignan. Were this done, it may be presumed that all miners at work would take out miners’ rights, which I am informed less than half do at present, so that there would be some return of the additional ex penditure required.

Mr. Hely might, for some time, make St. Aignan his headquarters, so that only one additional officer would be required as assistant to him, and this assistant should be stationed at Sudest.

July 19, 1889.

IWAS able to pay a visit on July 18 to Aroma, a district so large and im portant that a special report of this inspection seems to be called for.

(Continued on Page 54)

The population of Aroma is estimated at about 4,000 native people, who live all closely together and seem to act as one community—circumstances which render Aroma the most powerful people on the coast east of Port Moresby, They are, moreover, notorious for independence of character, and have among them Koa pena, perhaps the most influential chief in British New Guinea. I had a strong wish to pay a visit to Aroma before I left the possession to proceed to Austra lia, as the district has been of doubtful loyalty, and several messages reached me . that I should be attacked if I went there.

It is therefore very satisfactory to be able to state that I had every reason to be pleased with my reception and the immediate results of my inspection, for which I am no doubt indebted to some ex tent to the tact and forethought of the Rev. Mr. Pearse, of Kerepuni, who had come from his station to meet me .at Aroma, but had to return before my ar rival there.

The t eac h ers of the London Missionary Society, accompanied by Koapena, came on board the “Merrie England” soon after W e dropped anchor, and after breakfast i went ashore with them. We went first

to the mission establishment at the land ing place, where I was carried ashore by Koapena himself, and then I heard the scholars read and sing.

About 50 children were present, half a dozen of whom read the New Testament in the Hula and Kalo language—they do not possess books printed in the Aroma tongue. Here I had presented to me Koapena’s eldest son, his wife, and daughters.

I then went about three miles along the beach to Koapena’s large village, and after calling on the mission establishment there, which is about 200 yards from the native village and surrounded by a fence, we proceeded to Koapena’s house.

The village is a very large one, in a sandy hollow about 300 yards from the beach, from which it is separated by sand-dunes about 50 feet or 60 feet high, on one of which stands the church. There are about 334 houses, built on posts about 6 feet or 8 feet off the ground, with wide open ends as in the houses on Good enough Island. They are built closely together, so that a fire would be readily communicated from one to another. 11TE went from Koapena’s house to the ▼ T church and school, where about 150 adults and children assembled, and I heard the pupils read and sing. We then returned and had lunch with Koa pena in his own house, and received from him and his son some presents of native craftsmanship. Hundreds of people came round about us and accompanied us all day, behaving in the most friendly man ner, none carrying arms of any kind, and the most curious of all being the women and children—the latter in swarms.

I have proposed to Koapena that his eldest son, a fine young man of 25 or 26, shall come and live with me for about six months after my return from Aus tralia, in order that he may be able to understand something of the Government and of the ways of Europeans. Koapena warmly approved of this proposal, from which it is expected that considerable advantage will be derived in many ways.

The population of Aroma is a healthy one, practically free from leprosy, ele phantiasis, and dysentery; but, unfor tunately, largely affected by that loath some species of ringworm, Tinea des quamans. Food is abundant. They have yams, sweet potatoes, and bananas in plenty and they possess large areas of coconut trees, for which the district is specially suitable.

The London Missionary Society is strongly represented here by four or five native teachers, but at few places have they had greater difficulties to contend with.

WHEREVER a Papuan community is large and powerful it is insolent, and Aroma has, in proportion to its great power and its numbers, tried the patience and the courage of those men and women who have laboured disin terestedly for the good of those people, often at the risk of their lives.

The London Missionary Society has now, however, a footing at Aroma, which I consider firm: but although many hun dreds of children and adults go to school and chutrch, difficulty and danger in missionary work are not yet extinct in this district.

Koanena is and has been consistently a protector of the missionaries, for.which I warmly thanked him, but he steadfastly remains a heathen himself. Many people who have experience of Papuans and are acquainted with Aroma have expressed to me the opinion that the Aroma natives would resist the Government, and that it whuld be a difficult task to subdue them.

I have, however, strong hopes that with tact and patience Aroma may be brought under Government influence

and control without resort to force, and if Koapena’s son comes to live near me for six. months, as arranged, my hope of obtaining control over Aroma in a peace ful manner will be much strengthened.

I did not land a large party at Aroma, as it was not desirable that the natives should think I was in any way intimi dated by the threats some of them have uttered. But three or four of my men carried rifles —although I had none my self —that they might see we are always on our guard, whether among friends or otherwise, and cannot be surprised in the sandhills, as they boasted we could be.

It should never be forgotten that Aroma, like every other district here, has a deep respect for power, and an insolent contempt for the want of it.

EDITORIAL NOTE: And in that last sentence Sir William MacGregor said something that is as true to-day as it was when he wrote it, 60 years ago. It ap plies to all peoples—not alone to Papua.