The Editans' Maillag

fzner's NG Discoveries

re Just Fables

seems that the Leahy brothers Jim Taylor of New Guinea indeed, the first whites to upon the New Guinea High 1s although there has been a on circulating for years (and ’ has repeated it several times) the real discoverer was a Her m Detzner, who was supposed ave got as far west as Mt. Hagen ng the First World War. i old letter written by a leran Missionary, now dead, that just found its way into PlM’s is, puts quite a different com ion on the whole thing and 7S Detzner up as something of loney. le old story was that Detzner, German official stationed at 3be at the time of the outbreak he First World War, took to bush rather than surrender to Australians and that for four s he wandered around trying nd his way into neutral Dutch itory and that during those ierings he discovered what to are known as the New Guinea ern and Western Highlands, hen he finally got back to Ger y after the war, Detzner wrote >ook (Four Years Among tibals) about his so-called riences and on the strength of ! was honoured by the German graphic Society which awarded the Nachtigal Medal (named • a well-known traveller and >rer who, in 1884, raised the nan flag in Togo Land and the eroons in West Africa), e old letter from our missionary :ten 16 years ago) says that ner borrowed his adventures :ly from reports of pre-World I Lutheran missionaries, Dr. ;ser and the Rev. Mr. Pilhofer, that during his four years in wilderness he depended largely the assistance of Lutheran ionaries. The letter continues; know where Captain Detzner during those four years. I id the place and it was not very •te from civilisation and at that there were no cannibals any e near him. believe he did climb the waged (a southern branch of at the base of Huon nsula), perhaps in company of Keysser, who had been there *e. Whatever provisions he drew the Lutheran Mission he d to pay for, even when the ieds of his book would have en -1 him to do so. i his book he followed the 1 of the time, and had a little against the Mission. . . The

whole book is so much fiction, and cannot be taken as a reliable record of anything. . . I do not know whether Detzner was deprived of the honour bestowed upon him by the German Geographic Society, but he certainly was dropped by them.”

When Humphrey Berkeley

Purchased a Stone

THE late, and in some quarters quite unlamented, Humphrey Berkeley, who has been appearing in “PIM” pages since last August, just won’t lie down. A member of “PIM” staff who has been in Fiji for the last couple of months writes this note from Suva: Since I have been here I have kept looking around to see if he left his mark anywhere. But not a sign did I see till today when I went to the Fiji Museum in the Botanical Gardens. There, on the wall of the lobby, is a notice that gives the history of the 4 ft high weather beaten stone that stands at the right of the entrance to the Museum. The notice says: “TUI NA VOTO—Sacred Stone from Ovalau. This stone stood at Levuka, where the Anglican Church now stands. It was named Tui Na Voto, from the god believed to in habit it. Tui Na Voto was the god of the Delaiqereqere tribe at Levuka. His priest would lean against the stone when consulting the oracle. Purchased by Humphrey Berkeley, Esq., 1906.”

And Mr. Charles Wagner, of South Queensland, writes to say that Berkeley had not one son, but two. He says: The younger was always called “Sparrow” by his comrades in Fiji, and he became a lawyer, like his father; but when last I heard of him he had achieved fame, in Lon don, as a playwright, or creative artist of some kind. I knew him well, and would very much like to have later news of him.

The elder brother was a different type—and a very good chap. I re member that he starred asi the British Naval Officer in The Geisha, when we put it on in Suva.

One night, at rehearsal, our Chief Justice, Mr. Major (afterwards Sir Charles Major) who was stage manager, told the girl who was co starring with young Berkeley that,

to play the part projrelyjfre jftwM

5£ fiST. bit* I higher. ?lh.'«

simps’* called* MoUie° Seymour

Incidentally, I beUeve that “Molhe still occupies one of the Quarters what used to be our Cable Quarters

—and I hope she still is well and kicking.

It Was Wrong Treatment

For Sipuma

Papuan old-timer, J. Nixonwest wood, now living in England, has a few things to add to Mrs. Jan Croft’s article, back in October, on the late Wally Maidment, of Daru, (See also Magazine Section this issue).

He says that the first Mrs. Maid ment did not die from blackwater fever but directly as the result of the wrong treatment given her for sipuma. (Sipuma is described as a scaly skin disease that covers the whole body and apparently is a relative of tinea, or what in the New Guinea territory is called grilli).

Mrs. Maidment, says Mr. Nixon west wood, asked her neighbour what was a good thing for the complaint and he, not knowing that she in tended to try it on herself, sug gested a concoction of acid and kerosene. She applied it from head to toe, and as a result spent weeks in agony while the whole settlement suffered in sympathy.

Finally she was carried on board the Mindoro on a stretcher and taken by Wally to Thursday Island, where she was transhipped on a vessel to Sydney. By this time she was so thin and weak that she died within a few days of reaching there.

Mr. Nixon west wood says that Wally’s business at that time, as well as acting as agent for some of the Fly River traders, was connected with the Mawatta, Ture Ture and Darnley islands of Torres Strait.

When pearling vessels from those islands put into Daru to shelter, Wally got a fair amount of the trade that was offering.

You Should Say Santo,

Not Santos or Luganville

In December “PIM” we asked if one called the New Hebrides’ second settlement Santo, Santos or Lugan ville—all versions have some use.

Captain Brett Hilder, master of the Burns Philp vessels “Malaita” and (currently) “Tulagi”, who is in and out of that port more often than most, says it is certainly “Santo”, and supplies these details: Luganville is the name coined in 1889 for the agency at Santo, of the Compagnie Caledonienne des Nouvelles-Hebrides on the first occasion it was visited from Noumea, by the SS Tanais, of the Messageries Maritimes Line.

The Captain’s name was Armand Lugan, in the last year of his long service in the New Caledonian trade.

The ship was of 2,400 tons, and carried some influential passengers, who wished to honour the Captain by naming the settlement, the bay and a nearby river after him.

There are two rivers flowing into

he Segond Channel, one on each

i of Luganville, but today they r the names Rene and Sarakata. anville Bay is still on the charts, re the CFNH have their head rters, and about two miles away le French Government Agency, >ital and RC Mission, on the marked Luganville. le French Government has been ;he habit of referring to the ement as Luganville, and Burns, p have also used the name for y years. During and since the however, the port and settle t have been more often known ianto, and this is likely to re i in use. le township of Santo is growing nd the new wharf, and Lugan has become an outer suburb, he main stores and government rtments are being moved to the ity of the wharf, away from old Luganville sites, and the Dlidated township is unlikely to lything else but Santo in future, e American “Santos” was never al, and was used only by the formed majority, and not by ; in authority. It was mis ily transplanted from some in Latin America, and idn’t be taken seriously.