Evening star., 1935-04-14
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

~ UT on earth's last and wild
est frontier Is stationed a
~ olic University men.
Their main street" Is the
equator. They have only to venture
a few miles from their front doors
to be in country where white men
never before have been. Cannibalism
still Is common.
The leader of this group of mis-
sionaries, the Right Rev. Thomas
Wade. bishop of the Northern Solo
mons. has just returned to America
for visit after 13 years at the remote
post and after a week in Washington
he already is homesick for Episcopal
Mansion at Kaeta on the Island of
Bougainville-Kaeta being the chief
white settlement and consisting of his
houoSe and the house Of a government
agent. He is staying at the Marist
College here.
Civilization has passed very lightly
over the wild Solomons, former Ger
man possessions inundated to Aus
tralia after the World War. 1t is
represented almost entirely by Bishop
Wade and his clergy, a few doctors
and nurses. and some government
police agents. 1t has been left to the
PolyneSian. Melanesian and Papuan
natives, who have continued to live
in their own way. Much of the high
mountain country never has been
visited by white men. It is inhabited
by native tribes who are chiefly in
evidence by cannibalistic raids toward
the coast. There is very little in the
Solomons to call for white settle
ment and explorations up to date
have failed to locate any gold-the
discovery of which is making such
revolutionary changes in the nearby
Australian mandate of New Guinea.
So far as Bishop Wade and the
Australian officials are concerned, they
hope civilization" will keep away for
a long time, for they find the Solomon
Islanders among the earth's happiest
people, in spite Of the occasional
danger of being converted into soup.
DR.. Wade came back to his homeland
to find it in the depths of economic
depression and there was a note of
nostalgia in his voice as he recalled
the dancing, singing, carefree, halt
naked, child-Ike black men he had
left behind in the jungles, men to
whom economic conditions have nc
meaning. The bishop, with his priests
doctors and nurses, is bringing to
them some of the blessings of medi-
cine and sanitation. They are max
ing progress towards eliminating can
nibalisn, wife trading and wife slavery
But they are reluctant to make over
the Solomon Islanders in the pattern
OF white men, to become heirs to the
miseries of civilization.
WiIds to Be Explored.
It is a herculean task they have
undertaken. Much Of Bishop Wade's
diocese is still unknown country. Just
now the Rev. Albert Lebel, one of the
Catholic University men, is getting
ready to enter for the first time two
great tracts of mountain country
where white men never have been
All travelling is by boat or by the
narrow footpaths through the brush
made by the native tribesmen. The
bishop himself Is almost continually
on the move. Up to year ago he
travelled by airplane, but the plane
was wrecked and has not been re-
placed. Landing places are small and
far between in the jungle.
Perhaps Bishop Wade's most disa-
greeable problem is that of cannibal-
ism. The Solomons are the tradi-
tional land of man-eating, but he
says the practice now is confined
largely to the mountaineers with
whom the missionaries have not come
in contact. 1t arose, he believes. quite
naturally. Long since the islands
were stripped of almost all edible
game. About the only wild animals
today are domestic pigs which have
escaped from captivity. So he be-
lieves the eating of human beings
arose from a normal meat hunger.
1t has been kept alive by the medi-
cine men who have woven RATIONAL
istic rituals about it to overcome the
natural disinclination. But there is
very little difficulty in inducing a ma
tive to give up the practice. He
doesn't like to do it anyway. He had
much rather eat pork, if the medicine
men would let him alone.