New Ireland’s 1914 Disaster

“It is sometimes stated by high officials that there has been a marked decline in native population in New Ireland” writes Mr. O. L. Schultze of Kavieng, New Guinea. “It is true that, compared with the figures of the German time, the population of New Ireland to-day is not what it ought to be. But that is not due to social causes. It is the direct result of a most disastrous drought, which lasted for 8 months in New Ireland in 1914. It caused enormous damage to food crops, with the result that a large section of the native popula tion simply died from starvation.

“There seems to be no official re cords of the disaster. The German administration ceased in 1914, and administrative records were not kept again until 1921, when the Australian Civil Administration began to func tion. There are only few and frag mentary records of what happened in the Territory of New Guinea dur the seven years of military occupa tion. There seems to be no official record, accessible in the usual way, regarding the 1914 drought.”

Mr. H. McGrath, headmaster of the Boys’ Grammar School, Suva, Fiji, is spending long leave in the United Kingdom.