[Distributed to the Council and C. 452 (g), M.166 (g). 1925. VI. the Members of the League.] G e n e v a , August 1st, 1925. REPORTS OF MANDATORY POWERS submilled to the Council of the League of Nations in Accordance with Article 22 of the Covenant and considered by the Permanent Mandates Commission at its Sixth Session (June-July 1925). IV COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA REPORT TO THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE TERRITORY OF NEW GUINEA FROM July 1st, 1923, to June 30th, 1924 SOCIÉTÉ DES NATIONS — LEAGUE OF NATIONS G E N È V E --- 1925 GENEVA NOTES BY THE SECRETARIAT OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS This edition of the reports submitted to the Council of the League of Nations by the mandatory Powers under Article 22 of the Covenant is published in execu­ tion of the following resolution adopted by the Assembly on September 22nd, 1924, at its Fifth Session : “ The Fifth Assembly . requests that the reports of the mandatory Powers should be distributed to the States Members of the League of Nations and placed at the disposal of the public who may desire to purchase them. ” The reports have generally been reproduced as received by the Secretariat. In certain cases, however, it has been decided to omit in this new edition certain legislative and other texts appearing as annexes, and maps and photographs contained in the original edition published by the mandatory Power. Such omissions are indicated by notes by the Secretariat. The annual report to the League of Nations on the administration of the Territory of New Guinea from July 1st, 1923, to June 30th, 1924, was received by the Secretariat on June 2nd 1925, and examined by the Permanent Mandates Commission on July 1st, 1925, in the presence of the accredited representative of the Australian Government, the Hon. Sir Joseph Cook, G.C. M.G., High Commissioner in London for the Government of Australia. (See Minutes of the Sixth Session, pages 84-92.) The observations of the Commission on this report are contained in document A.14.1925.VI, pages 9-10. The references in this report to pages in previous reports refer to the original edition published by the mandatory Power, which the Secretariat has not yet been able to have reprinted. Government House, Melbourne, 21st April, 1925. The Secretary-General of the League of Nations, Geneva. Sir, In compliance with Article 6 of the Mandate, I have the honour, on behalf of the Govern­ ment of the Commonwealth of Australia, to make the following Report to the Council of the League of Nations with regard to the Territory of New Guinea for the financial year which commenced on 1st July, 1923, and ended on 30th June, 1924. I have the honour to be, Sir, Your most obedient servant, (Signed) F o r s t e r , Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia. d. N. 650. 10/25 — lmp. Réunies, Chambéry. CONTENTS Page. lRT I. — Notes on the Natives . ........................................ 5 II. — The Administration . ............................ 12 III. — Law and Justice 13 IV. — Native Affairs ............................ 14 V. — Native Education ............................ 16 VI. — Public Health . ............................ 19 » VII. — Commerce ............................ 30 „ VIII. — Agriculture ............................ 31 IX. — Lands, Mining and Forestry . ............................ 37 X. — Public Finance ............................ 37 XI. — Public Works . ............................ 40 „ XII — Work of District Officers ............................ 40 „ XIII. — Miscellaneous . ............................ 48 „ XIV — Answers to League’s Questionnaire ............................ 51 PPENDIX A. — Statistics 55 ,, B. — Vocabularies of Native Languages'. ,, C. — Ordinances, Regulations, and a Selection of Proclamations and Notices made and published from 1st January, 1924, to 30th June, 1924 k I n d e x . \ Note by the Secretarial of the League of Nations. —- These appendices have not been reproduced in the present edition. Tb original edition of the Report also contained 13 photographs which are not reproduced in the present edition. REPORT FOR 1923-1924 § 1. Introductory. — The commendatory references of the Chairman of the Permanent Mandates Commission to the manner in which the Report for the year 1922-1923 was prepared have been noted with appreciation. The general arrangement of the information embodied in the Report now being presented conforms to that of the 1922-1923 Report. PART I. — NOTES ON THE NATIVES. § 2. Appointment of Government Anthropologist. — During the year 1923-1924 a Govern­ ment Anthropologist was appointed to the Service of the Territory, and. in view of the fact that the notes on the Natives which have appeared in previous reports relate mainly to the stocks speaking Melanesian languages, he has, in the course of his first report, included a general description of some of the customs of the natives speaking Papuan languages. § 3. Report of Government Anthropologist. — The report of the Government Anthropologist is as follows : — “ It has already been pointed out that the present inhabitants of the Territory present an extraordinary mixture of physical type, language and culture. The principal racial ele­ ments of the mainland appear to be Negrito, Papuan and Melanesian. On the larger islands, such as New Britain and Bougainville, the Papuan and Melanesian groups are widely distri­ buted in relatively small communities, but the Negrito element has not been definitely located, although people of short stature have been seen in the Baining Mountains, New Britain. Among the islands to the West of the Admiralty Group there are definite indications of influ­ ence from the East Indian Archipelago and, perhaps, Micronesia, and in some of the Eastern Islands Polynesian influences are indicated. Negritoes. “ Haddon 1 points out that New Guinea, in very early times, was probably inhabited by two varieties of woolly haired peoples—the Pigmy Ulotrichi (Negritoes ) and the taller Ulotrichi (now called Papuans). In speaking generally of Negritoes, he says : 1 The Negritoes are collectors and hunters, and never cultivate the soil unless they have been modified by contact with more advanced peoples. ’ “ The Negrito representatives of to-day live usually in the mountain regions and, until brought under control, are constantly at war with one another. Their habitations are gene­ rally clustered on almost inaccessible peaks and spurs in a setting of dense jungle, precipitous gorges and dangerous mountain rivers. In Dutch New Guinea, Wollaston 2 found and de­ scribed the Tapiro, a Pygmy people with an average stature of 144.7 cm. Burrows3 met six mountain men in the bush between the Fly and Strickland Rivers, Papua. Their average height was 4 ft. 10 in. to 4 ft. 11 in., and the largest chest measured 34 inches. Negrito-Papuan mixtures have been found in various parts of the Owen Stanley Range. 1 Chinnery 5 found groups of short people, extending from the watershed of the Lakekamu (Mount Chapman) to the watershed of the Waria. Schultze6 collected evidence of a Pygmy element in the moun­ tains at the headwaters of the Sepik. Kai. “ For many interesting details of the life of a Pygmy-Papuan stock (that of the Kai inhabitants of the Rawlinson and Sattelberg Ranges, north of the Huon Gulf) we are mdebted to Keysser. In referring to the religion of these people, Haddon 8 says : — ‘ The Kai are a people of mixed Pygmy and Papuan descent, who speak a Pa­ puan language and inhabit the Rawlinson and Sattelberg Ranges, north of the Huon Gulf. They may be regarded as very primitive, and, as they have been carefully s Hatjrlon, A. C-. “ The Wanderings of Peoples, 1912 .” a ^ Gaston, A. F. R., “ Pygmies and Papuans, London, 1912. ” « ?,V.[,r.0WS> S. D., Annual Report, Papua, 1914-1915, page 10. ihrnnoi ■ R- W-) “ The Mafulu Mountain People of British New Guinea. 1912. ” Chinnery, E. W. P., Journal Royal An- s rul-ca^ Institute, Vol XLIX, July-December 1919, page 280. The Geographical Journal, June 1920, page 445. e ginnery, E. W. P., Annual Report, Papua, 1916-1917. schm o ,^e°nard Schultze, Jena, Forschungen Im Innern of der Insel, New Guinea. Erganzungsheft, Nr. 11. Mill. Aus. den Deut- i ^ychutzgebielen, Berlin, 1914, page '69. s ^ysser, C., “ Aus dem Leben der Kalleute. ” Neuhauss Deutsch New Guinea, Berlin, 1911. Vol. iii, page I. Haddon, A. C., “ New Guinea. ” “ Hastings Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, ” page 347. — 6 — investigated by Keysser, they form a good basis for comparison with other peoples A long hut, which tapers away behind, is built for the circumcision festival in the jungle, and no woman may go near it. It represents Ngosa (grandfather), a monster who swallows the novice. In it are kept bull-roarers, which are employed in the ceremony ; only the old men have access to them. The Kai are very re lig io u s their whole thought and conduct being influenced by animism. Everything has à soul-stuff completely permeating it ; a shaving of wood has the soul-stuff of the tree • a stone, that of the parent rock ; so also a man’s nails, hair, etc., that of a m a n A man’s glance, voice, and even his name also contain his soul-stuff ; thus the n a m e s of people long dead are still potent in charms. The powers or qualities of a person or thing belong also to his soul-stuff, and may be transmitted by contact w i t h or without the agency of words of charming — e.g., yam or taro stones with w h ic h shoots are touched before planting out, or the bone of the forearm of a dead hunter. The soul-stuff can be isolated or withdrawn. There is a mutual attraction b e t w e e n allied soul-stuffs ; thus a white leaf of the size and form of the egg of a m e g a p o d will guide the Kai in his search for eggs in the bush.