On Patrol in New Guinea

ONE of the latest patrol posts to be established in primitive i administered areas of Papua-New Guinea is at Nipa in the Ner Valley, west of Mendi in the Southern Highlands. Assistant Disti Officer J. Jordan has been at work on a station and airstrip in i valley, but while this has been going on the valley natives have be busily fighting each other—which is one of the normal activities in tl area. Some of the locals who are helping to build the station occasions excuse themselves while they take time out to have a fight with o of the nearby enemy groups. On one occasion Mr. Jordan, out on pat with native police, walked into the middle of a fight between sevet hundred tribesmen, but decided wisely not to intervene. One of i warriors, Mr. Jordan noted, had his right wrist, with which he dn the bow string and arrow, encased in an Australian beer can with i ends knocked out to give his wrist support. The beer can presumaj had been carried back or traded from more civilised parts.

Work is now going on in the area to explain to the tribesmen tl there are better things to do than to fire arrows at each other.

The photographs on this page were taken on a patrol which established a station in New Guinea's Nembi Valley. Above the patrol on the m[?] and the new station at Nipa, where an airstrip is partly constructed, seen from a distance. Below, the patrol fords a river—but there are o[?] ways of getting across such as by a shakey vine bridge made by the locals. —Photos by J. Jo[?]

The two women on the left have smeared their bodies with clay as a sign of mourning. In the background is the ceremonial dance house.