THE NATIVES AND THEIR WAYS.
INTERVIEW WITH FATHER MERG.
The news of the massacre of the German missionaries in New Britain came as an especial shock to the Rev. Father Merg, of the congregation of the Sacred Heart at Randwick. Twice within recent years, Father Merg visited the Island missionary stations, some of which have now been rendered desolate, and nothing, he says, has surprised him more than this sudden outbreak on the part of apparently friendly natives. He can only explain it by the old theory of racial antipathy. The blacks probably desire to rid themselves and their country of the whites.
Though only four degrees south of the equator, Father Merg found life in New Britain extremely pleasant. The country is picturesque. A veil of mystery hangs over all but the northernmost corner of it. There, a handful of German planters and missionaries trade and teach. The volcanic soil is admirably adapted for agriculture. Plantations thrive on every hand. Bananas constitute the staple article of diet. Cocoanuts abound; and sweet potatoes and vegetables of various kinds add variety to the
PAPUAN'S MENU.
Father Merg foresees a great future for New Britain— but not as a white man's country. Even now, he says, it stands ahead of many better known islands in the Pacific.
As for the natives, they are neither so ugly nor so stupid as our Australian aboriginals. This is not saying much for them. Outside the mission stations, they are innocent of clothes, and of the virtues of cleanliness. When their long, tangled hair becomes too troublesome to be longer endured, they shave it completely off with a piece of glass, or a strip of bamboo, fashioned like a razor. They daub their heads and bodies with paints of various colours, wear ornaments in nose and ears, and in their natural state have a cold-blooded way of cuting up a human being into portions, and selling them as we sell meat in the shambles.
Long prior to the permanent settlement of whites in the country these chocolate-coloured Papuans acquired the art of smoking. A clergy man thus describes a smoking party at Baining, where the massacres occurred the other day: — "The natives sat in a circle, and
PASSED THE CIGAR
round. The cigar was almost as thick as a man's wrist, and fully a foot long. When smoking a man held it to his mouth with both hands, while another man sat before him, holding a fire stick at the other end. The smoker continued drawing in the smoke for at least a minute, and then, passing the cigar to his neighbour, he emitted the smoke through mouth and nostrils until he was enveloped in a cloud of it."
These Papuans do not settle in regular villages. Their huts are scattered about, each standing within its own enclosure. A prudent father, when a son is born, plants a number of cocoanut trees, which in seven or eight years form a large portion of the boy's living. As soon as children can do anything they are given small plantations of their own. Men and women share the work of the plantations between them, unless they are fortunate enough to possess slaves.
At the bottom of the late trouble, thinks Father Merg, lies the slave question. The missionaries did their best to put down the slave traffic. Some of the murderers were slaves, whom the missions had freed. Not only are slaves regularly sold, but the hardier mountaineers frequently raid the coastal districts, and help themselves to as many as they want gratuitously. This raises bad blood between the "highlanders" and the "lowlanders," but it seems that on occasion they can sink their differences, and make common cause against the white man. The murdered missionaries, so far as Father Merg knew them, or of them, were men of exceeding kindness. Beyond the racial question, he can conceive of no reason why their lives should have been so ruthlessly cut short.
Evening News (Sydney, NSW ), Tuesday 13 September 1904 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article113290445
Massacre of German R.C. Missionaries.
A shocking massacre of German Roman Catholic Missionaries by the natives is reported from New Britain, thirty miles west of Herbertshohe, in the Baininger Mountains of German New Guinea. Slavery among the natives is a common custom, and the Missionaries free the slaves and cattle which are settled on their Mission Stations. The practice is not appreciated by the natives, and on August 13th S Paul's, Nachamarmap, and Marienbur Mission Stations were attacked. All the Missionaries were killed, and goods valued at £3000 were stolen. The attack was made at nine o'clock in the morning, when the Evangelists were at their daily labours, and entirely unprepared. Father Mathias, the head of St. Paul's Station, who came to New Guinea eleven years ago was murdered by a freed slave named Tomari, who had been treated with the greatest kindness and implicitly trusted. Tomari borrowed a gun from Father Mathias, ostensibly to shoot pigeons. Climbing a tree he shot the missionary through a window. Brother Joseph Bley, was carpentering and heard the shot. Running out, he was shot down. Brother Edward Plarsheart was killed with a hatchet from behind, and Brother Schellekens was similarly killed. Sister Anna was shot by Tomari, who forced open the door of a room she took refuge in.
Sisters Sofia and Agatha were killed, after having just tended the sick natives. Sister Angela was clubbed the same day at Nacharmap Station. Father Heinrich Rutlar was murdered and decapitated. An attack was premeditated upon Marienbar, but fortunately the brethren were away on the beach. A troop of thirty police was despatched to the scene. Sixteen of the murderers were captured and shot. They composed freed slaves and tribesmen. Twenty others implicated in the murders were caught. The police are scouring the country. A plot to murder all the whites in the district was discovered in July, and frustrated.
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article129107733
HOW IT WAS CAUSED.
MORE MISSIONARIES WANTED.
There are conflicting statements in Brisbane as to the motive of Tomari for shooting Father Rascher, at New Britain. One gentleman has attributed the act to revenge aroused in consequence of the church declining to permit the 'boy' to put away his wife, of whom he was tired, and to secure another, who possessed stronger personal attractions. He took the case into his own hands, and put his wife away, according to the rites of his tribe. As a punishment for this act, he was flogged. Thereupon, he threatened to shoot the padre, and fulfilled his threat, thus giving the signal for the massacre which followed. Father H. Linekens, provincial of the Order of the Sacred Heart of Jesu, and who is returning from the island, was interviewed in Brisbane. He denied that Tomari had threatened vengeance because of having been flogged for putting away his wife and taking another. He attributed the trouble to a great extent to the fact that the natives resented interference with their slave owning system. The services of the slaves whom they captured, were utilised to cultivate their plantations, and the missionaries and Germans had secured their freedom. The liberated serfs were then given land, and were permitted to marry and establish homes for themselves. It was believed that the coast natives generally objected to their 'rights' being taken from them. They have also complained of the practice of flogging natives for various offences. Father Linekens believes that the main cause of hostile feeling is connected with the slave trade. Father Linekens states that a cable has been sent to Germany for more missionaries to replace those who were murdered, and as soon as the punitive measures have been completed the work of the mission stations will be resumed.
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