. The new New Guinea. at he lives without clothes, he is liableto bad colds. He suffers from some skin disease,usually repulsive, in three or four cases out of ten;he gets tumours and cancers, and dies of them, justas if he were a City grocer, and he can even show yousome very pretty cases of hypochondria and hysteriaif you like to look for them. Such is primitive man, in almost all uncivilisedcountries. Such he is in Papua ; and it is from thissimplicity of existence that the plantation owner lureshim away, to corrupt him with the complexities ofcivilisation, give him good wages and regular m
. The new New Guinea. at he lives without clothes, he is liableto bad colds. He suffers from some skin disease,usually repulsive, in three or four cases out of ten;he gets tumours and cancers, and dies of them, justas if he were a City grocer, and he can even show yousome very pretty cases of hypochondria and hysteriaif you like to look for them. Such is primitive man, in almost all uncivilisedcountries. Such he is in Papua ; and it is from thissimplicity of existence that the plantation owner lureshim away, to corrupt him with the complexities ofcivilisation, give him good wages and regular meals,provide him with a blanket and mosquito-net for thenight, and a calico loin-cloth for the day, teach him towash himself and keep his hands off other peoplesgoods, and give him the habit of regular and steadywork. If the planter is not a missionary, and one of thebest kind, then the name of missionary has no mean-ing. As a matter of sober fact, he does a good dealmore reclaiming and improving than all the missions. iiiK \ ;ALrv To face page ii3. MICAWBERS EXAMPLE 119 put together. In so doing he has benefited himselfas well as the native. So has the missionary. But hegets all the credit, and the planter gets none. If this is a digression, it is a necessary one. Therearc very many good people, at home and in Australia,who are quite certain that the native is wronged bythose who wish to develop his mind and changehis ways of living. I hope, by showing the real factsof the case, gathered on the spot, to convince them oftheir mistake. Returning to the question of the supply of labour,there were, and still are, different opinions on thatpoint. I heard every variety while in Port laughed at the idea of any possible were convinced that most of the plantationswould be held up for want of boys in less than ayear. Others did not know. Others again weresure that they, or their special friends, would neverwant, because they had the invaluable kna
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublisherphila, bookyear1911
