Arizona silver belt., 1895-12-21
BRITISH NEW GUINEA.
Queer Characteristics of the Dark
 Skinned Natives.
They Arc So Strong In Their Family and Friendly Attachments They Wili Not Bo Separated, Tot They
 Are Cruel,

graphical society m London DIT Nllllam Aiacgrcgur, administrator of British New Guinea. read paper on that coun- try and it's people, In the course of his paper he said that the colony now called
 British New Guinea was formally an- nexed to the queens dominions by the first administrator September 1, 1888.
 The natives probably numbered from 3OO. .000 to 40O,O0 The majority were of rich or dark bronze color, but it varied from a brown, that might be called black, toa 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 q light bronze; the Tugcri, the tribes on the Morehcad, at Biroc on the Upper Purari, and those near Kovio (Nlount Yule) were much .he same color as the dark brown of Port Moresby.
 In temper they were cheerful, full of fun, and generally so contented as to offer a refreshing contrast to the more complaining Britisher. An excellent characteristic of the Papuan was that he was not quarrelsome nor violently passionate Suicide was very rare among them, compared with Fijians, for example, and was 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-atfec- ton. Occasionally Q woman would climb a tall cocoanut tree and kill her self by jumping down because she had become convinced that she could never again meet among men with q husband so good as the one she had lost This family affection was so strong as to be not iufrcquently an impeachment to the employment of men away from their own districts. It was not often that q man cared to remain longer than one wear in the constabulary because he was separated from his family and friends.
 The London Missionary society found # difficult to get the wives of native teachers to live in strange villages for the same reason. The strong feeling of affection that the Papuan felt for his relations and neigbbors did not, how ever, prevent hiln from doing to others what appeared terribly cruel things, It must not, however, be forgotten that in certain circumstances cruel murder was, according to their code of ethicc, a conspicuous virtue, a moral duty, A homicide could sometimes be paid for in property, but the more natural and
 more couuon method was to have blood for blood Little that was pos tive could be said about the religious belief of thcs people. Apparently they all, without exception, believed that man was compounded of a body and a spirit, and at death did not return. Hence, in waking upa sleeper, theypro- ,ecded Co rouse him by degrees, that the spirit might have time 10 return and take iis place
 There were four mission bodies at work in tine colony. By mutual under standing they occupied distinct dis ticts. The oldest was the London Mis- sonary society. which commenced op- ,rations in that part of the world some threc-aud-tweEty years ago. They oc- nupied the coast line from the British Dutch boundary to East Cape, with the exception of Ravao island and the Me I.oe district, which was being worked hy the Roman Catholic Mission of the Sacred Heart In British New Guinea, however, were needed many more mis- s'oparics and teachers. There were probably hundreds of thousands of na- tives there who had never heard of the Gospel, of the charity of the Christian religion. or of morality. They had no old religion to brcaG down to make room for the Gospel; there was gov crument that was only too glad to facil- itate mission work where this was pos sible. The force of teachers at present at worl; there, the money now being spent in New Guinea by our mission bodies, would never reach the whole of our own heathen in that colony.