Some Experiences of a New Guinea Resident Magistrate

by C. A. W. Monckton

Moreton was frightfully distressed when he learnt the full extent of the mischief done. “What am I to do, Monckton?” he asked; “it is dreadful to think that these things have occurred in my Division.” “If it were my Division,” I answered, “I should arrest every one, however remotely concerned, Government official, boat boy or miner, and send them for trial to the Central Court; but as such a measure might appear too drastic a one, and you would bear sole responsibility for it, up sticks and away for Port Moresby and Sir Francis Winter is still my advice. You have to go half-way there, in any case, to arrest Wolff at Cloudy Bay. In the meantime, I will hie me back to my own Division and work.” “For the Lord’s sake, don’t leave me now, laddie,” said Moreton, using the old name by which he had called me when first I came to the Possession; “I would not leave you in the lurch.” “All right, I will stick by you, old man,” I said; “but we must sail at once to Sir Francis, report, and get his authority for me to remain with you until this matter is cleared up.”

That night we sailed for Port Moresby in the Siai, reaching there after a prolonged passage. Sir Francis Winter instructed me to remain with Moreton, and that we were jointly to investigate every criminal charge brought by either the Mission or others against any person, but not to bother about vague assertions or rumours unsubstantiated by some concrete evidence.

On our way back from Port Moresby to Samarai, we arrested Wolff at Cloudy Bay: Moreton was rather bad at the time from malaria, and asked me to do it; he also asked me to effect the arrest personally and not to use the police, as the miners objected to being arrested by natives. Accordingly I went ashore; and, leaving the police in the boat, I walked up to Whitten Brothers’ store, which was crowded with newly arrived Australian diggers, strangers to me. Robert Whitten was in charge of the store, and I went to him at once. “Hello, stormy petrel!” he said, as soon as he saw me. “There is no trouble here, what do you want?” “I want a man named Wolff,” I answered; “point him out, if here; or tell me where he is.” “There is your man,” said Whitten, pointing to a black-bearded Russian Finn with a villainous countenance, and plainly more than half drunk. I went up to Wolff, while the whole crowd of diggers watched me. “Your name is Stephen Wolff?” I asked. “Yes,” he said, “and what the hell has it to do with you?” “Oh, nothing to do with me personally,” I said; “but I happen to have a warrant for your arrest upon charges of wilful murder, and sundry other felonies.” “Where?” asked Wolff. “Milne Bay,” I answered; “you must come with me.” He broke into a storm of blasphemy and abuse of Moreton, Symons, and the Government, and swore that he would not come; several sympathizers among the miners also murmured.

I let Wolff blow off steam; then I said very quietly, “Stephen Wolff, in the King’s name I command you to yield yourself.” Wolff still cursed and raved. “Stephen Wolff, twice in the King’s name.” Wolff made a grab at a bottle to throw at me. I slipped my hand inside my jacket, grasped and cocked my revolver, while Robert Whitten and a miner grabbed Wolff. “Wolff, I mean to have you alive or dead; I don’t care which. For the third and last time, in the King’s name, chuck up your hands, quick!” Wolff was a wise man, he surrendered promptly, the urging of Whitten and the miners being hardly necessary; but he had gone very near to dying in his boots.

We got back to Samarai to find our troubles only beginning. Lindsay and Morley, who were awaiting trial in gaol, had made up their minds that their present predicament was due to the Mission and Vaughan; accordingly, in order to get even with Vaughan, they made a sworn confession that they, with him, had outraged certain native women, while they were in his employment on the Musa River. Rape at that time was a capital offence in New Guinea. Moreton and I had perforce to investigate this charge; but could find no evidence to its truth, other than the unsupported testimony of the men already under commitment for murder, whose motive for charging Vaughan was only too evident. We finished our cases; and the defendants were all lodged in gaol pending the return of the Governor and the sitting of the Central Court.

Unfortunately the hullaballoo and scandal over the whole affair had thoroughly alarmed the Milne Bay natives. The trial of Vaughan, whom they regarded as partly responsible for the bringing to justice of the miscreants by whom they had been maltreated, finally convinced them that no one who stood on their side was safe, and accordingly they prepared to skip for the bush; which, if they succeeded in doing, would deprive us of all or most of our witnesses. Something had to be done to reassure them, and that something at once. Moreton and I discussed the matter and decided that an officer with police should be stationed there. It was now imperatively necessary that I should return for a time to my own Division; accordingly I volunteered to lend Moreton, Yaldwyn and six good constabulary, until such time as the Merrie England and the Governor returned; assuring him that Yaldwyn’s happy disposition made him a general favourite among natives, and that he was the very man to undo the harm that Symons’ unhappy associations with the Milne Bay outrages had caused.

Moreton gratefully accepted my offer: therefore, on my return to Cape Nelson, I instructed Yaldwyn to proceed to Milne Bay with a detail of the North-Eastern detachment of constabulary. “I don’t want you to do any work, Yaldwyn,” I told him, “I want you to sit down quietly in Milne Bay and smooth down the natives. Do nothing there, and above all things avoid any row or fuss with the Mission; Moreton has got a peck of trouble already, and it does not need adding to.” The next event was the arrival of the Merrie England at Cape Nelson with Sir George and Sir Francis on board, and the first thing I was told was, that they were going to take me to Samarai to hear—amongst other cases—a charge laid by a missionary against Yaldwyn of outraging a native girl attached to the Mission. I was simply flabbergasted. “I can’t understand this at all,” I told Sir Francis, “Yaldwyn is the last man in the Service to do anything brutal or unkind; why, I can’t even order a recalcitrant private half an hour’s pack drill without his trying to beg him off! There is something damned fishy about this business.” “That is exactly what I think,” said Sir Francis, “and that is why I want you to take the case.”

HONBLE. M. H. MORETON, R.M. MR. MANNING, P.S.
SIR GEORGE LE HUNTE, K.C.B. SIR FRANCIS WINTER, C.J.

The Merrie England brought me Mr. A. E. Oelrichs to take Yaldwyn’s place as Assistant R.M. He was a very competent man, and remained with me up to the time I left the country for good and all; he had, however, one decided drawback in my eyes, and that was his enormous size; he was an elephant of a man, weighing, when in fine trim, nineteen stone, and plainly only suited for Station or boat work. “What on earth did you bring me that giant for?” I asked Captain Barton; “you know what patrol work here is like, and this means that I shall have to do the lot.” “He was due for promotion,” said Barton, “and so I suggested to the Governor that he should be sent here.” “In order to get him out of your own Division,” I suggested; “thank you, Barton!” Barton was taking the Resident Magistrateship of the Central Division. Oelrichs, however, turned out a good, loyal assistant, a good drill instructor and disciplinarian, and very competent generally.