Taming of the islands

Out To The Past

THE early missionaries of the London Missionary Society are remembered in the Pacific for their role in the taming of the islands. Little , however , has been told of the Pacific Islanders , who having been converted themselves , wished to convert others. Here is their story , from the pages of Pacific Islands Monthly , July 1958.

WITHOUT the pioneering work

of such men as James Chal mers, C.W. Abel, James Gil mour, John Kemp-Welch, W.G. Lawes and others equally well known, the diffi culties of pacifying the Papuan natives would have been far more difficult than it was.

Through these pioneers of Christian religion and education, magistrates, pat rol officers, miners, traders and others were able to take advantage of the spade work already done. Following these stal warts were the Revs B.T. Butcher, E.

Pryce-Jones, Gabel Beharrel (who later went to Niue), W.N. Lawrence, C.F. Rich and E. Baxter Riley. However, none, or few, of their achievements could have been realised without the help of the Pacific Islanders, who having been con verted themselves, wished to convert others.

The first missionaries had reached Tahiti in the year 1797, so that by 1870, some of the converts were willing to help in civilising the untouched Papuans.

When the suggestion was made known to the Niue natives they greeted the news with great joy and the volunteers were far in excess of the numbers re

quired.

As however, the natives of the Loyalty Islands (of the New Caledonian group) had been asked first, it was from Lifu that the first eight native missionaries went to New Guinea. When the first meeting was called on that island practi cally very able bodied man and woman volunteered. The eight chosen left for their new work, and as soon as the news reached the native preachers of such places as Samoa, Rarotonga and Niue, they all offered their services. The Niueans were so anxious to be in the forefront of this movement that they had a ketch built, called it the Niue and presented it to the Society. This boat was still doing good service in Papua in 1914.

The great difficulty of doing a job of mission work in New Guinea was the lack of suitable land on to which to establish stations. The mainland was un healthy, and the natives wild and hostile to all aliens, irrespective of colour.

The Lifueans sailed from their home on April 30, 1871, in charge of two veteran European Missionaries, the Rev S. MacFarlane and the Rev. Murray.

Their vessel was the Surprise, and after a most strenuous voyage, she reached Darnley Island in the Torres Strait on July 1. Darnley Island is almost due south of Goaribari Island, Papua, and distant hardly more than 100 sea miles, but although the progress of the mis sionary work was good beyond all ex pectations, Goaribari Island was still heathen, 30 years later, in 1901.

It was decided to make Darnley Island the first settlement and eight teachers with their wives and children were land ed on the beach to start their task. The workers radiated from the new head quarters and worked on the nearby is lands of Dauan and Baibai, all arrange ments being concluded in a most satis factory manner. But they were still not established on any island or part of New Guinea, and both McFarlane and Mur ray were anxious to extend their sphere of operations. The services of evangelists from Samoa, Rarotonga and Niue were enlisted and the success attained by these

Polynesians was really outstanding.

These Polynesians were left entirely on their own, but practically civilised the whole of the coast of Papua from the Dutch boundary to East Cape. They suf fered many casualties, their actual losses in the early stages of their pioneering work being 122. Some died of malaria, some from dystentry; others were drowned, poisoned by the arrows of un friendly tribes; killed by the same natives with stone clubs. Others die from natural causes, but nothing held them back.

By 1894, 23 years after the first land ing, there were still only seven European LMS missionaries in the Papuan field, whilst there were 106 native ordained missionaries, 35 native preachers, 1150 church members, 27 Sunday schools, 105 day schools, with 6860 scholars. The acceptance of Christianity by the Sa moans and other Pacific Islands peoples, enabled the Mission to extend its pacify ing influence in a most successful man ner without the necessity of calling on too many Europeans.

James Chalmers’ became a legendary figure in Papua. His attitude towards all natives was one of exceeding kindness and understanding. The success which attended all his efforts was remarkable, but he was over-venturesome, and this in the end proved his undoing. He refused

to believe that he could not go on to the island of Goaribari without meeting any thing but kindness from the natives, but he and his companion, a new-chum named Tomkins, were clubbed to death

at Dopima.

Robin, the native skipper of the Niue, had pleaded with Chalmers to wait a few days before venturing on to the Island, beause the Goaribarians were making very “big feast” and would not tolerate any stranger in their midst at that time.

Chalmers took no heed but as soon as he and Tomkins were cleared of the Niue, Robin took what was left of his crew and heaved up the anchor, so that, if Tamate sensed danger and turned back, with the sails ready, they could sail out to sea without delay.

With the anchor almost on deck, Robin watched the progress of the two men, and saw that, as soon as Tomkins landed, he was clubbed and that Tamate being so close behind him, was unable to retreat and suffered the same fate. This put much fear into the skipper, and not having anything with which to beat off any marauders, he had the sails unfurled and with a good South-east wind, he managed to get well away before the dug-out canoes could get anywhere near him. He sailed into Daru and made his report to the Government Official who was there at the time.

There was much violent discussion ab out this awful crime, and then officers of the Territorial Government, raw and not

understanding the native psychology

made a mess of their efforts to bring the culprits to Moresby; or to bring about a proper understanding of the crime by the natives of the island.

Other outstanding early missionaries

included the Rev C.F. Rich, of Fife Bay, who with Mrs Rich, did splendid work in the area from Samarai to the west of his station; and "the Rev C.W. Abel of Kwa to, where the men were taught boat building, carpentry work and all trades which fitted them for the average job to be done in NG.

Most of the other white missionaries were to a certain extent successful, but could not be called outstanding. Some of them were quite satisfied to carry on where their former incumbent had left off; whilst others just did the routine job and called it a day. □