Sepik Trader

A Brett Milder Profile

Sepik Trader Of The Old School

Chu Leong, of the Sepik, is one of the oldest traders in New Guinea, and his reputation as an honest trader dates back to the German days.

BORN in Canton in 1888, Chu Sai Leong went to Rabaul in 1913, and worked for Ah Chok. In 1914 he went to the Aitape district, shoot ing Birds of Paradise, and he later became a shipbuilder at Madang. In 1922 he took charge of the schooner New Witu, and spent two years trading around Manus in this 52-foot vessel for a Chinese owner. He then bought a 26-foot cutter and went shelling along the coasts between Madang and Aitape.

In 1928 he entered the Sepik as a trader, set up three stores and built a 45-foot vessel for himself, naming her the Winon. He ran a most regular and reliable service between Madang, Bogia, Angoram and the Upper Sepik, and claims to have reached 450 miles up that salubrious river. He took oil search parties into the uncontrolled areas of the Upper Sepik.

Before the Japanese invasion Chu Leong decided to cut his vessel in half to make her 60 feet in length.

The story that he cut her in half to stop the Japs using her is a good story, but untrue.

The vessel had been requisitioned by the Government and he was very lucky to keep just ahead of the Japs as they occupied various points along the coast. He gave great assistance to ANGAU patrols in 1943, and went with Jim Taylor to the Ramu, and then returned to the Sepik. His next trip was a walk over the mountains to Bena Bena, where he was taken by plane to Port Moresby and on to Sydney.

His time in Australia was spent

partly in a factory at Waterloo, and partly running a restaurant in Oxford Street, Sydney. Then he joined the American small ships’ unit running to New Guinea.

Returning to the Territory after the war, Chu Leong bought an RAAF bomb scow from Disposals very cheaply, then found that it was full of petrol, which he was able to sell for more than he paid for the scow. He claimed £4,000 war damage compensation and completed the re fitting of the Winon, which still runs him between Madang and the Sepik.

Told as an example of his in genuity is the story of how he was a passenger in the Jaboru when it broke down at the mouth of the Sepik with flat batteries. While Bill Mason set off to Angoram for more batteries, Chu Leong got the engines going again by using a system of ropes to turn the crankshaft, and arrived at Angoram shortly after Mason.

In 1960 he visited Hongkong to see his married son, who had never been to New Guinea, and whom Chu Leong had not seen since 1913. He has had four sons and a daughter by a native wife on the Sepik, and one of these sons was killed during the war.

The children are Catholics, but Chu Leong remains faithful to his an cestors and to Confucius. He looks fit and well for all his 73 years, and while he has given up smoking, he takes a little brandy—for medicinal purposes—and this should preserve him for many Christmases to come. —Brett Hilder.