The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-26 00:00:00

ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY, Jan. 24

-- -
J. Lubbock, Esq., F.R.S., president, in the chair.
A paper " On Civilisation in North Celebes," by
Mr. Wallace, was read. The author described
briefly the physical aspects of North Celebes and
the general character and appearance of its inhabi-
tants. The main topic was the Dutch system of
employing the chiefs as cultivators of coffee, and
the improvement in civilisation, which, under this
system, had been made by the natives. They go
out (he said) cheerfully to their labour along with
their relations and neighbours ; they have no task-
master over them, and they work pretty much as
they like, under the general direction of their chief
and the European " controlleurs." Thirty years
ago the country was a wilderness, the people naked
savages, garnishing their rude houses with human
heads. Now it is a garden worthy of its sweet
native name of " Minahosa," good roads and paths
traverse it in every direction, some of the finest
coffee plantations in the world surround the
villages, interspersed with extensive rice fields, more

than sufficient for the support of the population.
The people are now the most industrious, peaceable,
and civilised in the whole archipelago. They are
the best clothed, the best housed, the best fed, and
the best educated ; and these results are attribut-
able in a great measure to the system of govern-
ment now adopted by the Dutch in their Eastern
possessions. Now, there is not merely an
analogy, there is in many respects an identity
of relation, between master and pupil, or
parent and child, on the one hand, and an uncivilised
race and its civilised rulers on the other. We know,
or think we know, that the education and industry
and the common usages of the civilised man are
superior to those of savage life, and as he becomes
acquainted with them the savage himself admits this.
Competition and free trade are excellent things of
themselves, and produce excellent results, but we do
not think of turning out boys and girls at 12 years
old to get their own living and education by free
competition. It appears to the author, however,
that it was doing an equally unwise and unjust
thing when, having obtained power over a country
inhabited by a savage people, we exposed them at
once to the full tide of competition with our highly
elaborated civilisation, and expect them to thrive
under it. Who can doubt but that the New Zea-
landers were capable of improvement and civilisation
under some system, which, treating them for a while
as children should have educated and protected them ?
Instead of that, we have brought them into direct
contact with English wealth and energy, vigorously
developing itself for its own ends, and the result
must inevitably be sooner or later the extermination
of the native race. In Ceylon and in India we have
English capital largely invested in coffee and indigo
culture ; but can we point to any corresponding im-
provement in the moral or social condition of the
natives ? In Java and in North Celebes, on the
other hand, the population is steadily increasing,
and has greatly improved in material and moral con-
dition. The people get wealthy, and the Govern-
ment obtains a large revenue without direct taxes,
and at the same time is carrying on the education of
the whole race towards a higher state of society.
The system which produces such results the author
believed to be a good one, and he thinks that we
should hesitate in applying the principles of free
competition to the relations between ourselves and
savage races, if we ever expect them to advance in
civilisation, or even to maintain their existence upon
the earth.
A long and animated discussion follovied, in which
Mr. Craufurd vigorously opposed the Dutch system
. .

Mr. LAING, also, while admitting its success

Java and Celebes, did not considei it of general
applicability, nor so good in the main as our own
system of free intercourse.
Professor Huxley, Mr. F. Galton, and the Presi-
dent more or less supported the views of Mr. Wal-
lace.

The Ice Accident at Leeds.

Yesterday Mr. Blackburn, the Leeds coroner, held an
inquest on the body of Miss Mary Jano Bulwer, aged 16,
daughter of Mr. G. Bulmer, surgeon, and on that of Mr. W.
Lyndon Smith, aged 28, of the firm of W. Smith, Son, and
Co., woollen merchants, Leeds, who were drowned on
Monday evening by the breaking of the ice at a large pond
on the estate or a gentleman named Cooper, at Gledhow,
near Leeds. The pond is 500 yards long by 100 wide,
and it is a place at which Mr. Cooper freely allows skating
except on Sundays. About 150 persons were skating on
this frozen pond on Monday afternoon, but by five o'clock
the number had become much less. The deceased young
lady went there with some companions of her own sex,
and an assistant to her father, Mr. Sam Haigh. A
chair was upon the brink of the pond, and a medical
student named George Broughton first pushed Miss
Bulmer's sister about the ice in it, and then pushed
Miss Bulmer herself in it a short time, when the ice broke
at about 10 or 12 yards from the side where the water is
14 or 16 feet deep. The ice there was only an inch thick,
while in other parts of the pond it was much stronger. It
appeared from the evidence at;the inquest that, besides the
deceased lady and gentleman, five other gentlemen risked
their lives and behaved in a most praiseworthy and gallant
manner in attempting to save those who unhappily after
all were lost. Those persons were Mr. Sam Haigh and
Mr. G. Broughton, medical students or assistants ; Mr.
James Broughton, professor of music ; Mr. Naylor, son of
a member of the well known woollen firm ; Messrs. B. Gott
and Sons, and Mr. Osmond Rhodes. The middle of the
pond was very much cracked, and some of the skaters
avoided it, but Mr. G. Broughton, who propelled the de-
ceased young lady in a chair, had frequently gone over the
same spot, and ho considered it was one of the safest places,
The deceased gentleman, Mr. W. L. Smith, was in the
middle of the pond when a shout of danger arose, and on
reaching the place where Miss Bulmer had fallen in he tried
to rescue her, and while doing so the ice broke under him.
His head could be seen above the water, but he was lost
because the ice kept breaking whenever he attempted to
get out. Mr. G. Broughton fell over head into the water
at the time that Miss Bulmer disappeared, but his brother
got him out with a stick. Mr. James Broughton's evi-
dence was very important and painfully interesting. He
said he was far away from the fatal spot when he per-
ceived that something had happened, as all the 20 or 30
persons on the ice a minute or two before had disap-
peared. He shouted for his brother, but got no answer.
He saw five or six people standing and not doing anything.
He skated up to the place, and the ice had closed up again,
but soon a hand appeared out of the water, and he reached
his stick to it, but the ice gave way and ho fell in. He
went over head, and with his stick tried three times to get
on the ice, but he could not. He then managed by some
means to get out—he did not know how—and he felt some
one had hold of the other end of his stick. It was his
brother, and he got him out, but he was nearly lost, for he
was unconscious for some time after. He did not think he
saw anything of Miss Bulmer, but there was a surging in
the water. Nor did he see anything of Mr. L. Smith.
There were persons on the bank, but they made no effort
at a rescue. If they had made an effort this lady and gen-
tleman might have been saved. At all events, if ropes and
ice-poles had been at hand they would certainly have been
saved. He should have gone into the water a second time,
but he was so fatigued with getting his brother out.
When a cord was brought from the lodge, near the
residence of the proprietor of the estate, Mr. Naylor and
Mr. N. Rhodes stripped and went in. Mr. Naylor
thought he had seized one of the bodies, but it turned out
to be only a coat. It was thought by some of the wit-
nesses at the inquest that everything was done which could
be done prudently to render assistance, for the ice at the
side where the bodies had gone down was in such a state
that it would have been very dangerous to go upon it. The
Coroner remarked that people might be very desirous to save
life, but it was not expected that they should prejudice their
own safety. An hour and a half at least transpired before the
bodies ;were recovered, and Mr. Carter, a surgeon, who was
then present, thought it was too late to attempt resuscita-
tion. A police-sergeant living in the neighbourhood de-
posed that the ice was weak at that particular place, because
it was near that part of the bank where the water from some
very high ground runs into the pond, and there is adlswoaaa
dyke close by. He considered that the ice on this poadn
been
not safe the day after the accident, though there tors
eon_
another night's frost, and yet people in large num up
the
tinued to skate there. The Coroner, in summing.
such unfor-
facts of this distressing case, said
to blame. If people would go on the
ice
eere to blame. He
tunate results took place, they alone
no
precipitancy
lear there had been
thought it was quite c
Mr G. Broughton, for he had
in opainnidonuoone was
or rashness on the part of
sot, and when he took Mies
skated over the treacherous
•ovAidejudiTmdurainligSuthge-
ld
whatever might be the
Bested that ropes andhie)co
Balmer there he risked luloe'rsuoner
said,
skating season ; but
the owner of the estate, he was sure
duty of Mr. J. Cooper, life too.
to discharge it ;but providing
would be snore ready
no one
could scarcely be considered the duty of a
c's
whs ponu
such apparatuhs
freely
allowed his neighbours the opport
gentleman w o
• in
`a fadourite recreation. -u-
-nity of indulging The jury re-
turnederdict of accidental death." Mr. Rickards, sub-
a v
tor of factories, and uncle of Miss Bulmer, expressed
sub-
inspector
the sincere condolence of Miss Bulmer's family with Mrs.
Lyndon Smith, the widow of the deceased gentleman—con-
dolence which was all the more sincere because he had lost
his life in attempting to save his (Mr. Rickards's) niece.
Also he expressed his deeply grateful sense of the noble
efforts used by the other gentleman before-named.