Show BRITISH NEW GUINEA queer characteristics of tho darls skinned natives ahey are so strone la their family and friendly attachments they will not eo separated tet they are cruel at a recent meeting of the royal geographical society in london sir william macgregor administrator of british new guinea read a paper on try and its people in alie course of his paper he eaid that the colony now called british new guinea was formally annexed to the queens dominions by the first administrator september 4 1888 the natives probably numbered from to the majority were of a or dark bronze color but it varied from a brown that might be called black to a yellowish brown the darkest people were confined to the gulf and fly estuary inland tribes at the british german boundary at the center of the island were of a light bronze the augeri the tribes 00 the morehead at beroe on the upper gurari and those nea r bovio kovio mount yule were much the same color as the dark brown of port moresby in temper they were cheerful full of fun and generally so contented as to oner a refreshing contrast to the more complaining an excellent characteristic of the papuan was that he was not quarrelsome nor violently passionate suicide was very rare among them compared with fillans for example and as far less frequent than among the line islanders when it did take place it was as a rule the outcome of one of the strongest and best characteristics of the race affection occasionally a woman would climb a tall cocoanut coco anut tree and kill herself by jumping down because she bad become convinced that she could never again meet among men a husband so good as the one she had lost this family affection was PO strong as to bo not infrequently an impediment to the employment of men anway from their own districts it was not often eliat a man cared to remain longer than one year in the constabulary because he was separated from his family and friends the london missionary society found it difficult to get the wives of native teachers to live in strange villages for the same reason the strong feeling of al lection that the papuan felt for his relations and neighbors did not however prevent him from doing to others what appeared terribly cruel things it must not however be forgotten that in certain circumstances murder was according to their code of ethice virtue a moral duty A homicide could sometimes be paid for in property but the more natural and more common method was to have blood for blood little that was positive could be said about alie religious belief of people apparently they all without exception believed that juan was compounded of a body and a spirit and at death did not return in waking up a sleeper they proceeded to rouse him by degrees that the spirit might have time to return and take its place there were four mission bodies at work in alie colony by mutual understanding they occupied distinct districts the oldest was the london missionary society which commenced operations erat ions in that part of the world some three und twenty years ago they occupied the coast line from the dutch boundary to east cape with the exception of ilavae island and the district which was being worked by the boman catholic mission of the sacred heart in british new guinea however were needed many more missionaries sion aries and teachers there were probably hundreds of thousands of natives there who had never heard of the gospel of the charity of the christian religion or of morality they had no old religion to break down to make room for the gospel there was a government that was only too glad to facilitate mission work where this was possible the force of teachers at present at work there the money now bein spent in new guinea by our mission bodies would never reach the whole of our own heathen in that colony |