Some Experiences of a New Guinea Resident Magistrate

by C. A. W. Monckton

In relation to sharks and alligators, L. G. D. Acland—who afterwards got his arm chewed off by a tiger in India—Wilfred Walker, author of “Wanderings among South Sea Savages,” and myself, once got a bad shock at Cape Vogel. Both men were my guests, and at the time we were camped on the edge of a tidal creek, all of us occupying the same tent, at the door of which sat a sentry. The sentry had thrown out a strong cotton line, with an enormous hook at the end baited with a sucking pig, with the idea of catching a shark, and had tied his line to the upright pole of our tent; without warning, the whole tent vibrated violently, and the sentry, seizing the line, began to haul it in. Cursing him for disturbing our rest, we lay down and prepared for sleep again, when suddenly the sentry fell backwards into the tent, closely followed by the head of an alligator. Hastily we scurried under the canvas at the back of the tent, swearing hard; the alarm awoke the police who, running up, fired at the alligator, which promptly shuffled into the water, and went off carrying our line and tent pole with it.

The Rev. W. J. Holmes, of the London Mission, once told me an alligator story about one of his Mission boys; a story which the local natives confirmed as true. Holmes sent off one of his Mission boys to borrow some dozen six-inch wire nails from a trader, who lived some miles away; the boy was shortly to be married to a village girl, and she accompanied him on his message. On their homeward way it was necessary for them to ford a shallow river; the boy walked first, when suddenly, hearing a shriek, he turned round to find that an alligator had seized his sweetheart by the leg. Hastily running back, the boy grabbed his lady-love by one arm and, inserting his hand behind her leg, jambed his packet of nails down the reptile’s throat, thus forcing it to open its mouth and release the girl, whom he then dragged to the shore. The only remark the boy made about the incident, when he returned to Holmes, was to regret that the alligator had “stolen the missionary’s nails.”

From Goodenough, the Siai ran rapidly to Samarai, on the way landing our carriers at Taupota. Here I took the opportunity of visiting the Mission and its school for native children; to my amazement, I was received by the children all rising and singing the National Anthem. Standing with my escort at the salute, I waited until the end, and then explained to the Rev. —— Clark of the Anglican Mission, who was in charge, that ordinary people like myself should not be received in that manner, that they should only pay such compliments to the Queen’s representative, the Governor. “That’s all right,” said Mr. Clark; “but I have been rehearsing my children for months to receive the Governor, and he has never come, so, in order to avoid disappointing the children, I thought I would try it on you.” The main portion of the school consisted of girls under the care of two ladies of the Anglican Mission, and my embarrassment was great when the good ladies displayed for my judgment the articles made by their pupils; the garments were all of them white, and I did not know what the devil to say or do. At last I threw myself utterly upon the mercy of the ladies, and begged them to select the articles and girls I was to commend; having done this I departed, vowing to myself, that in the future, the inspection of missionary schools was a duty I should delegate to the Assistant R.M.

Leaving Taupota, I called at Wedau to inquire into the murder of a mother-in-law, that Moreton had told me about; I found the culprit safe in the custody of the village constable, and also that the calling of evidence was hardly necessary, as he made confession in this way. “Two years ago I married my wife, then my father-in-law died and my wife’s mother came to live with us. At early morning she got up and talked, when I came home at night, she talked; she talked, and talked, and talked, and at last I got my knife and cut her throat. What have I got to pay?” “Six months’ hard labour,” I replied, “when the Judge comes along; and many a white man would be glad to get rid of a talking mother-in-law at the price!”

On our arrival at Samarai I landed my prisoners, also Butterworth and his men, held a Court, and got everything in order for the Judge; two days latter the Merrie England came in, and the Governor was pleased to approve of what I had done. Then his Excellency pointed out that there was still a murder in Goodenough Bay undealt with by me—Goodenough Bay is in the mainland of New Guinea, and entirely distinct from Goodenough Island—and that it behoved me to get to work and clean that up. Sir William’s method of praise was always to pile on more work. Upon going into the matter I found that it was not one murder, but two, I had to deal with; one at Radava, and the other at Boianai.

There was no anchorage opposite either village, accordingly the Siai sailed up the coast and hove-to at night opposite Radava. Landing two boats’ crews just before dawn, we entered the first house and, seizing the inhabitants, asked the names of the murderers, which were at once given. I then detailed two men to go to each of the guilty men’s houses, the police being guided by the men and women we had picked out of the first house; Poruma and I then went on to the house of the chief, whom I also intended to arrest; my whistle was to be the signal to burst into the houses and secure the men. Just as Poruma and I walked, or rather sneaked, up to the chief’s house, we saw a man emerge and enter another house; whereupon I told Poruma to follow and catch him when I whistled. Then, looking in at a deep window in the chief’s house, I saw a man sleeping by the fire and—first blowing my whistle—leapt through the window and seized him; he fought like a wild cat, and together we rolled through the fire, my cotton clothes catching alight and burning me badly; I was still struggling with the man when Poruma and Warapas arrived and pulled us apart. Then I found that—with the exception of the chief—we had got all the men we wanted, and that the man I had been struggling with was the village lunatic.

It had been necessary for me to take the village by night surprise, otherwise the people would have taken one of two courses: either bolted into the bush of the rough mountains or resisted arrest. At Boianai they did bolt, having got tidings of the coming of the Siai; but here I was able to bring a peaceful method to bear, that resulted in the surrender of the guilty men. The Boianai natives have a very well-designed scheme of irrigation, and go in for a most intensive system of cultivation of their somewhat limited area of rich flat land. A portion of the irrigation scheme consisted of a wooden aqueduct, carrying water at a high level over a small river. Their main crops were of taro, a vegetable requiring a large amount of moisture in the soil.

Finding my birds at Boianai had flown, I seized the aqueduct and diverted the water from their gardens; then I told the people, that when they surrendered the men I wanted, their gardens should again have water, but until then, none. I thereupon sat down in the Siai and awaited developments, leaving most of my men camped at the aqueduct under Warapas. Upon the evening of the second day, I took my gun and went off on shore to shoot pigeons; Poruma, Sione, and Giorgi being at the time asleep in the forecastle. As the dingey returned alongside the Siai, pulled by the cook and a village constable, they clumsily contrived to bump her violently; the row woke up Sione, who, finding out that I had gone off alone, promptly sent Giorgi and Poruma after me—a very fortunate thing for me as it proved. I, meanwhile, had wandered down a path to seek for pigeons; Poruma and Giorgi, after some little time, discovered the track I was on and followed. As I peered into a tree, I suddenly heard a yell and a crashing blow behind me; turning round I saw Poruma and Giorgi astride of a fallen man. Whilst I had been stalking pigeons, they had discovered him stalking me, armed with a horrible-looking spear; whereupon they had stalked him, and cracked him on the skull, just as he poised his spear to launch it into my back. After Poruma and Giorgi had handcuffed the man, and I had examined his broken head and reproached Giorgi for cracking the stock of a good rifle, Poruma remarked, “It was a little hard that he could not have a few minutes’ sleep without some foolishness being done.” I got one home on to Poruma by telling him that it was the monotony of his cooking and the vileness of his curries that had sent me off in search of game.

Poruma then asked the prisoner why he had tried to spear me, to which he replied, that he had just been examining his garden and was annoyed at finding that the leaves of his taro were beginning to wilt, from lack of water: while so engaged, he had been seen by the watching police, who had chased him over the rough river-bed for a long distance; then, while lurking in the scrub, he had caught sight of me and thought that the opportunity was too good to lose. After a little more conversation, our new acquaintance resigned himself to his fate, and volunteered—as a sort of propitiatory measure—to take us to where pigeons were plentiful; he proved better than his word, for as well as pigeons, he showed me the haunts of wild duck, and I got a good bag.

Later, Judge Winter gave this gentleman six months for his attempt at bagging an R.M.; after serving which he enlisted upon the Siai, and then returned to his village as village constable—and a very good village constable he made.