Coconut Casanova

Bush. Justice For A Coconut Casanova

The first shots fired by Australian troops in World War I echoed through the quiet coconut groves around Kokopo, some 20 miles from Rabaul.

MILITARY administration, of what was then German New Guinea, was to last for seven years. The men of the Australian invading force—known ever after wards as the “Coconut Lancers”— were allotted the various duties previously carried out by the official and unofficial residents of the Territory.

When civil administration was resumed in 1921, all the Govern ment departments of the New Guinea Administration were staffed by ex-servicemen, including many of the original “Coconut Lancers”.

The Crown Law Department at Rabaul was directed by qualified legal men, but the Courts of Petty Sessions, scattered through out the various far-flung districts, were in charge of officers of the Department of Native Affairs, many of whom had no previous legal training. Consequently, justice was rough, but honest.

It was difficult to bring law and order to a people divided into hundreds of tribal groups and speaking as many different languages—in an area where head-hunting was a ceremony, and murder, rape and arson were a way of life.

The language of the courts was pidgin English, and evidence was taken through interpreters.

Where the qualified legal man would be bogged down by the rules governing the profession, the amateurs were unhampered by such impedimenta, and they were able to build a bridge between the

A Tale Of The Time Before

By J. M. Bourke

normal Australian sense of “fair go”, and the law of the jungle.

Their decisions were seldom, if ever, questioned, and in the cir cumstances, it is doubtful if any one could have balanced the scales more evenly.

Here is an example of the way they dispensed justice:— A certain native preacher, a well-known philanderer, had been concentrating his amorous atten tions so insistently on the young girls in the villages of his district that eventually a displaced suitor threatened to beat him up.

The Coconut Casanova decided that attack was the best method of defence, so he approached the European missionary and com plained of the unwelcome atten tions of a certain young lady.

The missionary decided that the dusky Delilah should be arraigned before the highest legal authority in the district, and when the case was heard, he conducted the case for the plaintiff.

When he explained to the Dis trict Officer that his native preacher was being lured from the path of virtue by the defending hussy, he said: “Ah! Major, only last week, my boy was lured into the bush by this hussy, and he fell. And Major, only but yesterday he was lured into the jungle by this hussy, and he fell again.”

The court was hushed; there was no reply in defence. The de fendant, with downcast eyes, trembled in hei flimsy grass skirt before the bar of Justice.

Then the District Officer turned a glassy eye on the plaintiff and said: “Six bloody moons—six bloody moons hard labour before he falls and breaks his neck.”