Be Claiming

Will The Tolais

Vunapope Next?

From a Rabaul Correspondent Some of the Tolai people of this z area, who are always dredging around b in the history of land titles, are in- dined to daim that they are the real \i owners of the land at Kokopo on n which the famous Vunapope Mission n now stands. It is understood they y have approached the mission about it. .1 NO one seems to know what they y are basing their claim on, but ti they are arguing that they never t were paid for the land and never t surrendered title to it. Some of the a missionaries are apparently concerned b about the Tolai claims.

Some of the old-timers around b Rabaul say that the original Catholic o Mission was built on the land where 3 the Kokopo Club now stands. That If mission station was destroyed by fire; ;s and one old-timer says it was zi rumoured at the time that Captain n Kolbe (spouse of the famous “Queen n Emma”) incited the natives to com- -r mit arson there because he (Kolbe) (; did not like missions anyway.

Queen Emma's Gift

Although “Queen Emma” was in ni no sense a person devoted to religous zl activities, she had some good friends si among the missionaries; and, to help ql the Roman Catholics to re-establish rb their mission, she gave to them thesr land on which they built Vunapope. .3( In the days before she marriedbt Captain Kolbe, when she still waszs Mrs. Forsayth, Emma acquired muchrlc valuable land in the area adjoininggn Kokopo. She bought it from thesri Tolais at prices which seem ridiculouseu today. She was a careful businesses woman, and she always protectedba her titles by getting some sort ofto receipt from the Tolais, and register-n ing the purchase—usually in Sydney,ys at the consulate which seemed to bead concerned.

As a result, when the Germansm challenged Emma’s land claims aftensi they annexed New Guinea, Emmasrc was able to defend her titles suc-ol cessfully and remained in possession.nc Since the Australians took over imi New Guinea, all land titles have beem* examined and re-examined; and,bc following the Varzin test case ofk> 1964, the High Court of Australia now has made it much more difficultly for wild cat claims to get very farnf