The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-19

Wilhelmsland they have what might be called apartment houses, built upon poles. ! These are of enormous size. The frame work is of poles, with mats of woven leaves or grass fastened to them. The mats are so arranged that they may be raised or lowered to keep out the. mos quitoes. Other tribes build their houses in trees in order to defend themselves the
 more easily in times of danger.
 The natives of New Guinea like to fight as well as the Huns. I met a
 missionary who had spent his life in the island He told me of system of | vendetta among certain tribes which
 goes on for ages. He said that canni-
 taiism exists in some localities, and | tEat it is common in the Bismarck archipelago. He spoke of the natives as natural beer drinkers and as using a beer made by chewing the root of | the kava plant and fermenting the | spittle soaked mixture. Laid away, it l soon becomes intoxicating and is then
 used in ceremonial feasts. In British New Guinea, over the way, it is against the law to sell intoxicating liquors. I have before me a report of one of 1 our consuls describing the queer cus- l toms of the Bismarck archipelago. This
 man says the inhabitants are princi- pally Papuans. The men are frequently
  dark brown complexion, have thick, black curly hair, large flat roses and symmetrical bodies. In the Island of
 New Britain, which the Germans know as Neu Pommern, the natives have custom of confining the girls in cages from the ages of 6 or years until they are married. The cages are made of the sprouts of the palm tree. They are sometimes built inside the houses. The girls are never allowed to leave the cages except once day. when they are taken out to be washed. The girls are said to thrive under these condi- | tions. They grow as fat as the penne1-
 up geese used for making pate de fois
 gras. They mature early and are ready 1 for marriage at Il or 2 years of age.
 A girl who is not married at 15 or 16 1 is an old maid
 1 The island of Neu Pommern is the principal one of the Bismarck archi
 pelago. II is $50 miles long and about
 15 miles wide. It is more or less roll ing. The natives are among the wild i est of the South seas. Both women | and men go naked and cannibalism is
 said to be common. Most of their eat l ables are consumed in the raw state, l although pork and human meat arc | cooked. The people live in small huts | of a beehive shape, surrounded by
 bamboo fences, and the young unmar.
 ried men have clubhouses, where they | live together. The girls are confined 1 in the cages.
 l Both New Guinea and the Bismarck
 archipelago have been exploited by the | Germans. They have been increasing | their cocoanut plantations and the ex- l port of cocoa and dried cocoanut meat has now reached a value of one or two million dollars a year. Tn 1912 phos- plates to the amount of more than a IoI1 ! of the bird of paradise valued at more than s100,000 were sent to Germany. The imports then amounted to more
 than three or four million dollars, all
 from Germany, and the trade was in creaSing.
 As soon as the war broke out, the Australian navy sent its vessels north
 ward to capture New Guinea They landed men in Neu Pommern and put the wireless station there out of com mission. They took the town of Her bertshohe, notwithstanding the Ger mans had network of mines along the shore and. had built trenches from which they fought the Australians. The Germans had also native soldiers hid den in the jungle, and these fired on the invading party. Within less than week, however, the various settle
 ments were captured, and the Aus
 tralians took possession of New Guinea and the other islands about. It looks
 now as though they had come to stay.
 They have begun to reorganize the ad-
 ministration, and are building roads
 throughout the territory. They have
 taken over the little fleet that belonged
 to Germany, and have their officials moving about from island to island, keeping order. l understand that trade is already increasing and that the gov
 ernment revenues are rising. At the
 time that the Australians came in, the German authorities mdae a wholesale
 distribution of the public moneys. They
 destroyed much of the property and
 attempted to wreck the colony. Not
 withstanding the change in ownership,
 the German settlers have concluded to
 stay They are buying and selling and increasing their holdings.
 The development of the Bismarck archipelago and German New Guinea was largely due to an American girl This was Emma E. Coe, the daughter of James M. Coe, a former American consul to the Samoan Islands. Coe mar ried a Samoan princess and Emma was the result of the marriage. She was born in Samoa and married an English | man, named Forsythe. After her hus- AMERICANS KEPT
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