lomas_the early contact period in northern ni

7/25/2019 Lomas_The Early Contact Period in Northern NI

1/22

The merican Society for Ethnohistory

The Early Contact Period in Northern New Ireland (Papua New Guinea): From Wild Frontierto Plantation EconomyAuthor(s): Peter LomasSource: Ethnohistory, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Winter, 1981), pp. 1-21Published by: Duke University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/481575.

Accessed: 21/01/2015 08:58

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at.http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Duke University Pressand The American Society for Ethnohistoryare collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,

preserve and extend access toEthnohistory.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 128.176.254.22 on Wed, 21 Jan 2015 08:58:58 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=dukehttp://www.jstor.org/stable/481575?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/481575?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=duke


2/22

THE

EARLY CONTACT

PERIOD

IN

NORTHERN NEW IRELAND

(PAPUA

NEW

GUINEA):

FROM WILD FRONTIER

TO PLANTATION ECONOMY

Peter

Lomas

Simon Fraser

University

ABSTRACT

Tnis

paper

examines the

period during

which

Europeans

established

themselves in

northernmostNew

Ireland

Papua

New

Guinea)

using

accountsof

early

visitors to

the

area. In the

late 19th

century

he

region

was notorious or the

ferocity

of the

indigenous

population

and

yet

northernNew Irelanders

were

soon

in

high

demandas laborand

after

1900

the

area was

rapidly

incorporated

nto the

plantation conomy

of

GermanNew

Guinea.

Cryptic

references o

indigenous

social

structure

n

early

visitors' accounts

are

considered in the

light

of current ocial

organization.

The

exploration

and

colonizationof the Pacific

islands

by Europeans

as

long

been

and remains

a

subject

of interest

to

scholars

of

many disciplines.

Melanesia,

the last

frontier n

the

area,

has been

examined

rom

a

historical

point

of view

by anthropologists

and

others

(e.g.,

Belshaw

1954;

Whittaker

1968)

and

in

more recent

years

the

early

contact

period

in

former German

New

Guinea has received attention

rom

English

speaking

writers

(Rowley

1958;

Biskup

1968;

Sack

1968;

Moses

1968;

Moses

and

Kennedy

1977).

It

is

understandable

hat

the

Blanche

Bay

area of New Britain

(Neupommem),

the

center

of

European

mission,

commercial,

andadministrative

ctivity

in

the

early

years

of contact n the

Bismarck

Archipelago,

hould

have inviteda detailed

examination of the relationsbetweenexpatriates ndindigenes n one limited ocation,

using

both

documentary

and oral

history

sources

(Salisbury

1962a,

1970).

This

area,

from

Kokopo

to

Matupi,

was

the home

base for

the handfulof

commercial

nterprises

responsible

for

opening up

much of the rest

of the

archipelago

o

commercial

activity

between

the

late 1870s and

the turn

of the

century.

It

was a

jumping

off

point

for

the

adventurers,

missionaries

and later

administrators

esponsible

or the

establishment

f

the

plantation

economy

of

the

former

German

colony

(cf.,

Reed

1943).

One

area in

which

traders

sought

to find

a

foothold

was

northernNew Ireland

Neumecklenburg),

where,

for

some two

decades

prior

to

the

establishmentof

German

administrative

control,

outstationsof

the

Blanche

Bay

firms of

Forsaythe

and

Hernsheim

managed

o

generateand control a lively trade n nativeproduced opra

(Blum

1900:61).

Although

accounts of

the

area in the

writings

of visitors

to

or residents n

northernNew Ireland

between

1880 and

1910 are

frequentlycryptic,

it is

possible

to

summarize these

impressions

and

offer a

tentative

picture

of

general

conditions

prevailing

here

during

hat

ETHNOHISTORY

28/1

(Winter 1981)

1

This content downloaded from 128.176.254.22 on Wed, 21 Jan 2015 08:58:58 AMAll use subject toJSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


3/22

2

PETER

LOMAS

period,

as

this

paper

attempts

to

do.

Until the

end of the

19th

century

northern

New

Ireland

enjoyed

a

reputation

of

being

the home of

a hostile and

ferocious

population

practicingcannibalismand frequentlyslaughteringhe isolated traderswho were bold

enough

to seek

to establish

posts

amongst

hem.

Yet

long

before 1910 slanders rom

his

area

were

amongst

the

most

sought

after aborers

n

the

plantations

hroughout

German

New

Guinea,

and the

region

was

shortly

hereafter

major

plantation

enter tself.

The

transition

rom

wild

frontier o

a

thriving

opra

producing

conomy

n

which ocal

people

were

very

much

involved

occurred n a

matter

of

some two

anda half

decades.

Undoubtedly

the

most

widely

known

anthropological

ccount of a New

Ireland

society

is

Powdermaker's

Life

in

Lesu

(

1933

reprinted

1971).

In

her

preface

she

notes

that

in this

part

of the

world it

is

difficultto

apply

an

historical

point

of

view,

because

there is

so

very

little

real

historical

nformation

1971:21).

Although

he follows this

remarkwith a reference to

German

writerson

New

Ireland he

discusses neither

heir

ethnographic

materialnor

their

references o

the

larger

ocioeconomic

ramework

within

which

very

marked

changes

had

occurred

during

the

lifetime of her

older

informants.

Other

ethnographic

writings

in

English

at that

time do

take

some

account of the

encapsulation

of

the

indigenous

population

n

the

European

dominated

conomy

of

the

islands in the

inter-war

period,

and

although

hey

recognize

hat he

old customs

hadbeen

irreversibly

undermined

hrough

contact,

they

do

not

spell

out the

natureof

the

impact

(Groves

1933a,

1933b,

1934,

1936;

Chinnery

1929).

More

recent ield

workers

n

New

Ireland focus

on

certain

imited

aspects

of

indigenous

culture,

as

they

survived nto

the

post-PacificWarperiod,anddo notconcern hemselveswithconditions hatprevailedat

the

time of

contact

(Lewis

1969;

Billings

1971).

Of

these

contributors

nly

Lewis

appears

o

have

consulted

he

German

material.

There

are,

in

fact,

no

complete

ethnographic

ccountsof

northern

New

Irelandat

the

time of

contact

or

shortly

hereafter,

lthough

ieldwork

was

undertaken

n

north-central

New

Irelandand

on

Tabar

Island

by

Walden

in

1907/9

as

a

memberof

the

German

Marine

Expedition

headed

by

Kraemer

cf.,

Kraemer

1925).

Although

Walden's

work

was

primarily

in

the

Fissoa-Medina

area,

he

also

visited

the

northernmost

art

of

the

island

and

makes a

few

references to

differences in

custom

between the

two

regions.

Regrettably,

however,

he

never

published

his

material

as he

died

in

the war of

1914/18

and, apartfroma brieftalkgiven in Cologne in 1910(Walden1911), he neveroffered

any

analysis

of

his

field

data. This

was

undertaken

much

later

by

Nevermann,

but

the

report

is

incomplete

(Walden

and

Nevermann

1940).

The

richest

sourceof

information

on

aboriginal

ife

and

culture s

Parkinson's

Dreissig

Jahre

nder

Suedsee

(1907),

which

offers

observations

by

a

man

long

familiarwith

the

area

during

he first

two

and

a half

decades of

contact. One

drawback

with

Parkinson'swork

s

thathe

tends o

make

general

observations

and it

is

frequently

not clear

to

which

part

of

the

northern

ne-third f

the

island

he

is

referring.

However,

since

most

European

activity

was

concentratedn

the

northernmost

rea,

where

the bulkof

the

trading

posts

were

maintained

rior

o

1900,

it is

possible

to

make the

assumption

hathis

observations

would

have

been

made

primarily

n

this

region.

The

question

also

arises

as to

which

period

Parkinson

s

referring.

Some

comments,

notably

those

dealing

with

cannibalism,

evidently

refer to

the

two

decades

before

Boluminski,

he

German

administrator,

acified

he

area,

whereas ther

references

appear

to

be to

the

post

contact

period.

Parkinson

died,

however,

only

six

years

after

pacification

was

commenced

and

although

most

recent

observations

may

have

been



4/22

The

Early

Contact

Period

in

NorthernNewIreland

3

important

in

determining

the comments he

made,

his earlier

experiences

must have

contributed

significantly

to his

assessment

of the

local

people. Apart

rom

Boluminski

(1904) few other writers make explicit ethnographic bservations.The othersources

used

here refer

primarily

to

expatriate

activities and

to the

interactionbetween

the

handful

of

Europeans

and the

indigenous

population.

The

major

radingpost

in

the

area,

on

Nusa

Island,

off

the northern nd of New

Ireland,

was a

stopping-off

place

for a

few

visitors

during

the

twenty years

that

it was in

operation

and

some

of

these

left

brief

references

to

trade and

local conditions.After

1900,

when Boluminski

establishedhis

headquarters

on

the main

island and

pacification rapidly

transformed

onditions

in

northernmostNew

Ireland,

the number

of

visitors

increased,

as

do

the

reports

on

the

area.

This

paper

focusses on

northernmostNew

Ireland,

some reference

being

made

to

adjacent

areas.

Fieldwork n the area

n

the late 1960s

did not

produce

irst

hand

accounts

of

either

the

pre-contact

or

early

Boluminski

periods, althoughmany

older

men

could

recall

employment

histories

on

German

ships, plantations

and

in

households.

Early

attemptsby

the

Weslyan

(laterMethodist)

missionaries o establish

a foothold

n

the area

were

also often

recalled

by

articulate

older

villagers,

but the decades

prior

to the

establishmentof Pax

Germanica

were

regarded

with

some ambivalence.For some

they

were

classified as the 'darkera'

(taim

bilong

tudak),

a

timeof

insecurity,

annibalism

nd

powerful

leaders.

For others

they

were

thought

of as a time when life

was

better

and

richer,

the eraof

the ancestors

taim

bilong

ol

tumbuna),

and a few

outstanding

eaders

were on occasionrecalled, ncluding ome whosuccessfully esistedGermanpacification

for

a

brief

period.

As

access to andcontrol

over landwas

very

much

an

important

ssue

in

the late

1960s

many

stories

were

circulating

bout

he

way

in

which andwas

acquired y

the first

Europeans

n

the

area,

at

Nusa,

on

the

main

sland

opposite

where

Kavieng

now

stands

and

at

Kapleman,

where a

trading

post

was

maintained,

n and

off,

for

many

years

before 1900.

In

public

memory

hese

early

transactions

were classified

as

trickery,

but

n

general

people living

in

the late

1960swho

recalled

he

German ra

werenotbitter

n their

assessment of conditions

then. This

may

be

contrasted

with what seems to have been a

prevailing

attitude

amongst

expatriate

ettlers

on

New

Irelandafter 1914 who

appear

o

have

believed thatthe German

period

wasoneof

harshness nd

regimentation.Although

northernNew Irelandwas

very

rapidlypacified,

some

groups

of

villagers

in the south

resisted

longer

and as

late as

1913

therewas

an

attackon anAdministration

atrol

with

loss

of

life

(Kraemer-Bannow

916:viii).

The

reputation

hatNew

Irelanders ad

amongst

Whites

for

ferocity

and

treachery

during

the last

decades of the

19th

century

evidently

stemmed

from

the

bad relations

between

islandersand

Europeans enerated

by early

contacts

n

connectionwiththe

labor

trade.

Hahl,

sometime Governorof

the

German

colony,

claims

thateven beforevessels

seeking

workers

for

plantations

n

other

parts

of

the

South

Pacific

arrived,

here was

general

dislike and

suspicion

of

Whitesas a result

of contacts with

whalers

to South

America, and possibly sandalwoodtraders,often roughandviolent towards he local

population,

who

had also

put

ashoreon

occasion from

the

1850s on

for

food and water

(Hahl

1937:47;

Schnee

1904:55;

Finsch

1914:290).2

The demand or

labor

on

plantations

in

Queensland,

Fiji

and

Samoa

gave

rise

to

the

notorious

blackbirding

ctivities

of

recruiters

hroughout

Melanesia,

and

by

the

late

1870s

and

early

1880s vessels

seeking

new

sources

of

manpower

were

active in

the

New

Ireland rea.The

labor rade

peaked

n



5/22

4 PETERLOMAS

this

area

in

the

early

1880s,

according

o one observer

Schnee 1904:56),

and

Romilly

(1886)

claims that

by

this time the recruiters ad taken

away

2000

of

the

best men.

One

Germany company, the Deutsche Handels und PlantagenGesellschaftder Suedsee,

concentrated

on

recruitment

n

the Bismarck

Archipelago

for

plantations

n

Samoa,

employing

two vessels for this

trade.

According

to

Blum

(1900:6),

in

1883 some

700

islandersfrom

New BritainandNew Ireland

were

taken

o Samoa. In

the

same

year

over

double

thatnumber

were

recruited or work n

Fiji

and

Queensland,

t

is

claimed.

In

1884

the German Administration

prohibited

urtherrecruitment

or these latter

points,

but

illegal

and

sometimes forcible abduction

continued,

from the

New Irelandarea

and

elsewhere

(cf.,

Paul

1907:31).Wawn,

who

acted

as

a

sometime

Queensland

Government

agent

on

recruiting

vessels

sailing

out of

Brisbane,

admitted hat

kidnapping

id

occur

(1893:13).

In

Queensland

two sailors

were

imprisoned

or

the forcible recruitment

f

villagers

from

Tabar

Island,

off the north coast

of

New

Ireland

(Schnee

1904:59).

Rannie,

in

the area in

the

mid-1880s,

notes that there was

considerable

ecruitment

n

offshore

islands,

although

he claims that

few

Queensland

essels visitedthe main sland

(1912:261).

He notes

that

herewere few

New

Irelanders

n

plantations

n

Australia,

but

he describes an

incident

nvolving

the

repatriation

f a

Nusa

woman

(1921:271).

Wawn

(1893:283, 295)

makes

reference

to

recruitment

n

New Ireland

or

the

Queensland

plantations,

but

he

appears

o be

referring

o the

southern

part

of the island. The

early

impact

of

this

recruitment s

hard

o

assess. Paul

(1907)

notes thatwhenhe came ashore

on New

Ireland

villagers

fled before

him,

and

he ascribed his to a fearof

recruiters,

whereasRannieclaims thatpotential ecruitshad o beturned wayafter1884,when hey

were

placed

underGerman

protection

1912:263).

Schnee

reports

hat here

were

some

attacks

on

recruiters

n

New

Irelandand on

Tabar,

with resultantoss of

life

(1904:124).

Writing

of

the offshoreislands

(e.g.,

Tabar)

Rannie

notes

that

alreadyby

the

mid

1880s

recruitment

had made its

mark

on

local cultures.

In

1891

Queensland

legislated against

the

labor tradeand recruitment or that

destination

ceased,

but

as

plantations

penedup

in

the 1880s

in

the Blanche

Bay

area

of

New

Britain

and,

somewhat

ater,

on

the north oast

of

New

Guinea,

ncreasing

umbers

of recruits

were

sought.

Islanders

were also still

being

taken o

Samoa.

In the

labor orces

employed

by

the

plantation

owners men from

New

Ireland,

Buka

and

Bougainville

featuredprominently Sapper1910:115).IntheBlancheBay areaNew Irelanderswere

employed

on

the

new

plantations

eing

established

by

the Christianmissionsas well as

in

various other

capacities

(Schnee 1904:132).

Men from

northernNew Irelandwere

especially sought

as labor

because

they

were

allegedly quick

to

learn

skills

(Parkinson

1907:262),

and

because of their

cheerful,

carefree and more industrious

manner

(Reichs

Marine

Amt

1912:117).

Blum

(1900:134)

notes that

between 1887

and

1898

over

3,500

laborerswere

shipped

o the

northcoast of

New Guinea rom the

Bismarck

Archipelago,

many

of

whom

musthave come from

northernNew Ireland.

After

1900,

as

plantations

were

establishedaround

Kavieng,

local laborwas

highly

valuedas

a

willing

workforce

by expatriate mployers(Paul

1907:35;

Kraemer-Bannow

916:260).

The

heavy

recruitment

nvolved

a

large

percentage

of

village

populations

and

Boluminski wrote in

1904 that

he

associationof northernNew

Irelanderswith

expatriate

plantations

for

almost

fifteen

years

had

left

its

mark

n the form

of

diseases

introduced

and

sickness

and

death

on

the

labor ine

leading

o

population

ecline

(

1904:134).

Schnee

notes that

venereal disease was

widespread

n

northern

New

Ireland

by

the

turnof the



6/22

The

Early

Contact Period

in Northern

New Ireland

5

century

and

he associated

this with the

recruitment

f local

people

for workelsewhere

(1904:45, 133).

Sapper

(1910:97)

also makes reference

to diseases

introduced

as a

consequence of recruitmentand claims that venereal diseases were not presentin

southern

New

Ireland,

with the

implication

hat

heavier

nvolvement

f

northerners ith

the

expatriate

economy

was a direct

cause

of

the disease.

He also

mentions

dysentery,

and Pfeil

(1899:71)

notes that

an

epidemic

of

this

disease in 1881 was

responsible

or

many

deaths.

Hahl

(1937:47)

thinks that the diseases

in

northernNew

Ireland hat

contributed

o

the

obvious

population

decline were

introduced

here

hrough

he

earliest

contacts

with

Whites,

that s thewhalers.

New Irelanders

were also taken

into the

police

force

established

by

the

Germans,

and

Lemusmus,

on the

west

coast,

was

for

a time

a

favorite

area

or

recruitment

Schnee

1904:129;

Reed

1943:141),

as

was

Djaul

Island

off

the

coast

(Hahl

1937:41,

64).

One

former

policeman

from

north-central

New

Ireland

absconded

from the

headquarters

barracksnear

Kokopo

with several firearms

n

a

stolen cutterand

set

himself

up

as a

mercenary

in

his home area

in

the 1890s.

He

eluded

a

punitive

expedition

mounted

against

him

and was

finally captured

by

Boluminski

many years

later

(Hahl

1937:38;

Boluminski

1904:132-133).

This

heavy

involvement

of

northern

New Irelanders

n

the

larger

socioeconomic

system being

established

by

the

expatriates

ven

prior

o

pacification

of

their

homeland

evidently

contributed

o the

ease

with

which Boluminski's

iny

police

troop eight

men)

succeeded

in

bringing

intervillage

hostilities to an end

in

the

Nusa-Kapsu

area

in

1900-01. Hahl(1937:158)notesthat herewasscarcelyavillage n whichyoungmenhad

not

seen

service with

Europeans,

and

this,

he

feels,

made

them inclinedto

accept

the

imposed

peace.

In

addition

o

introduced

diseases and trade

goods,

this

early period

of

contact also

brought

about

the

establishment

of

pidgin

English

(now

termed

Neo-

Melanesian)

as

the

lingua ranca throughout

he area

(cf.,

Boluminski

1904:130).

One

visitor noted that

by

1897 this

language

was

extensively

used

(around

he

trading

posts)

and dated from

pre-Germanexperience

of the

islanders on

plantations

n

Fiji

and

Queensland

(Cayley-Webster

1898:290).

If

opportunities

for

employment

outside their home area

allowed the more

adventurousor the more

gullible

of the inhabitants

f northernNew Ireland

o

experience

the

ways

of the Whiteintruders,twasthe

tradingposts

whichchannelled

mported

tems

in

a

steady

flow into the

village

economies.

Starting

n

1880

resident

expatriate

raders

provided

a

range

of

commodities,

including

metal

tools,

calico

cloth,

tobacco

and

mnatches,

n

exchange

for local

produce,primarily

oconutsor

village

sun-dried

opra,

but

including

also beche-de-mer

trepang

r sea

cucumber,

a

delicacy

nthe

Orient)

and

trochas shell.

They

also

quickly

came to makeuse of local shell 'monies'for

purchases

f

copra,

and

by

the

1890s

were

importing

uch shell

money

from northern

New Hanover

for

use

in

the

Nusa-Kapsu

area

(Finsch

1914:41).

As shell

money

was

and s an essential

ingredient

n

any

major nter-group

ransactionn the

villages,

andas

wealth n termsof

suppliesof tapsoka(as it is generally ermed n theliterature)wasa sinequanon of Big

Man

status,

this flow

evidently

had an

impact

on local

village politics,

as

is discussed

below.

In

addition o these items traders

lso introduced ed

glass

beads,

accepted

at first

but later

rejected

as

payment

for

copra

(Finsch

1914:279,

292),

and

possibly

some

firearms.



7/22

6

PETER

LOMAS

The first

trading

post

was

established

at

Nusa

in 1880 and t was maintained

lmost

continuously

until Boluminski founded

Kavieng

in

1900,

at

which time the centerof

commercialactivityshiftedto the main slandandcommunications, itherto xclusively

by

water,

began

to

rely

heavily

also

on

the network

of

roads

being

built

by

the

German

Administration

n the northof New Ireland.

Nusa served

as

a

centerof

trading ctivity

or

the whole

New

Hanover/northern

ew Ireland

area

and was a

regular

port

of call for

vessels. Nusa Island shelters a natural

deepwater

harbor n an

areawhere hidden

coral

reefs

present

a

major

hazard

to

shipping

and

it

was

evidently

more

easily

defended

against

attack han other sites selected

on

the main slandfor

trading

posts.

Unlike most

of

the

other

stations

n the

region

t was

plundered

nd

temporarily

bandoned

nly

once,

in

1883 or

1884,

the traders

escaping

by

boat

to

Kapsu

(Finsch

1891:123;

Schnee

1904:80).

The island

was

owned

by

the

Hernsheim

Company,

based

n the Blanche

Bay

area,

and

this fir-mdominated rade

n

northernNew

Ireland,

maintaining

numberof

posts along

the coast or on

atolls

between

the

main

sland

and

New Hanover.

By

1881 there were some ten such stations and

the

number

luctuatedover

the

succeeding

two decades. The

majority

were

owned

by

Hernsheim,

but some were

operated

by

the other

major

company

based n

the Blanche

Bay

area,

Forsaythe's,

and

he

rest

were

run

by independent

adventurers

Blum 1900:152).

One of

the

posts

was

operatedby

a

survivorof the

Marquis

de

Rays expedition

and

settlement

n

southernNew

Ireland. Two small

coconut

plantations

were startedbefore the end of the

century

on

islands

controlled

by

traders,

one

on

Kung,

off the northwest oastof New

Hanover,

he

other on tiny Nusaum Islandin the Nusa Channel Blum 1900;Schnee 1904:70).The

remaining

posts

were at

Kapsu,Kapleman

nd

Putput

n

the

north

oast,

at Kabienon the

west

coast

andon

Kaboteron sland

n

the NusaChannel

Schnee 1904:80).

By

the end of

the

century

herewere additional

posts

elsewhere.

They

were staffed

by

adventurersrom

Europe

and

elsewhere,

including,

at

various

times, Germans,

Englishmen,

Australians

or

Americans,

Japanese,

Chinese,

Malays,

a Frenchman

nd a

Mexican,

supported

y

workers recruited rom the

Solomon Islands

primarily

Bukaand

Bougainville)

Schnee

1904;

Cayley-Webster

1898:279, 281;

Rannie

1912:274).

These

traders,

eeking

wealth

or

oblivion in the

south

seas,

were the

regular

victims of attacks

by

the

local

populace,

and

over

a

period

of

some fourteen

years

from 1881

eleven

Whites,

at

least two Asians

and an unknown numberof Solomon Islanderswere killedduringassaultson trading

posts

or

coastal vessels

(Schnee 1904).

Coconuts

or

sundried

opra

could

be

acquiredby

the traders

y bartering ny

of the

trade

goods

they

offered.

In

the

early

years

a

piece

of

tobaccowouldfetch

forty

nutsanda

strip

of

iron,

probably

of the

type

still

imported

n

the

1960s

o makemachetes or

garden

work,

would

bring

100 nuts at new

stations at

Nusa,

Putput

or Kaboteron

Finsch

1914:292-293).

In 1885

Finsch

observed the

exchange

of

small

quantities

of

copra,

estimated

at

fifteen to

twenty-five

pounds,

for a

thimble full of

glass

beads

-

but

a

decade

later these beads had

become worthless

1914:279, 292).

By

that ime a

stick of

tobacco fetched

only

fifteen

coconutsand a small

(five inch)

knife 100.Shell

money

was

evidently

in

demandanda

variety

of

types

were

accepted

at Nusa

during

he

early

years

of

trading

here,

but laterseveralof

these

disappeared

rom

circulation

Finsch

1914:38

f).

Finsch

speculates

on

where

these

were

in

use,

noting

hat

one

type

seemedto

come from

the east-central

areaof New

Ireland,

whilst

another

apparently

ad a

west

coast

point

of

origin.

The

most

widely

used

variety

was

the

reddish-white

apsoka,

which,

as mentioned



8/22

The

Early

Contact

Period

in

Northern

New Ireland

7

above,

was

imported

o Nusa

probably

rom

Kung

off New Hanover or use

by

the

trader

in the

early

1890s.

A 650 mm

length

of

tapsoka

would

purchase

120

pounds

of

copra.

Such a stringof tapsokahadan equivalentvalueof threemarks n German urrencyat

thattime.

By

the late 1890sGerman

urrency

was

being

ncreasingly

sed

throughout

he

Bismarck

Archipelago,

and

in

1902 the

Administration

rohibited

he continued

use of

shell monies in transactions etween

Whites

and

natives.

It

is

not

possible

to estimate the

volume

of

copra

traded

by indigenes

n the

area

during

the

period

under

consideration.

By

all accounts coconut

palms

flourished n

northern

New

Ireland

at

this time

as

they

do

today.

Rannie,

in

the area

in

the

1880s,

claims

that

from

Kapleman

o Nusa the coastwas lined

with

palms

(1912:274).

Parkinson

( 1907:255)

describesthe areaas well

populated

nd

with

heavy

stands

of

coconut

palms,

the

harvest

of which was

sold

to

traders.

Theremusthave

been

enoughcopra

available o

make it worthwhile for the

companies

to maintain

posts

in the area. The

only

non-

indigenous

copra

would have come fromthe two small

plantations

mentioned

bove,

and

it is uncertainwhen the

palms

there

started

o

bear,

as seven to nine

years

are

required

or

maturationbefore nuts

can

be

harvested.

Blum

reports

hatthe

total

copraexports

rom

the

entire German

erritory nly

reached

2,500

tons towards he end of the

1890s,

and

he

notes that a decline in

volume

by

some

seventy

tons

from 1896

to

1897 was

largely

ascribable to

internalconflict

in northern

New

Ireland

1900:156).

Hahl

(1937:29)

and

Boluminski

both refer to warfareat this

time,

and

in

1896

it

involvedthe

people

of the

Mangai

area.

After

a

trading

post

had

been attacked ome

White residentscalled

for

a

punitiveexpedition romtheGermanheadquarterstKokopo odestroynativeplantations

and shoot a few

villagers.

The

expedition

was

mounted

but

failed

to make contact

with

those involved in

the

attack. A

year

earlierKabien

andthen

Kapleman

ad

been

the sites

of attackson

tradersand

a

subsequentpunitive

expedition

Hahl 1937:69-70).

Neither

of

these sets of

incidents

would

have

totallydisrupted

rade

n

the

area,

although hey might

have cut

off

supplies

of

copra

from the

areasaffectedon west andeast coasts for a time.

Even if

Blum's

figures

are

accepted Salisbury

1970:113,

ootnote laims

he is

inaccurate),

the

seventy

tons

clearly

representsonly

part

of the Nusa area's total

production.3

t

is

possible

that northernNew Ireland's

share of the

copra

tradedeclined

in

the 1890s

as

expatriate

operatedplantations

stablished

n the

Blanche

Bay

area

were then

starting

o

bear.

How

the

supply

of

imported

tems affected

village

life can

only

be

speculatedupon.

For

some

twenty years prior

o the establishment f GermanAdministrativeontrol

here

must have

been a

steady

trickleof

metal

goods,

cloth and

other

tems into

the

hands

of

villagers.

Steel and iron

implements rapidly replaced

stone and

shell,

but Finsch

observed

a

man

using

a shell axe to constructa canoe in 1885 on Nusalik

Island,

immediately

adjacent

o the

tradingpost

at

Nusa,

despite

the

readyavailability

f steel

axes

(Finsch

1914:125).

Parkinson

notes that shell

and

pigs'

tusks

were

still

used for

carving

at

this

time. Both Parkinson

1907:287)

andFinsch

(1914:245,

note)

report

hat

stone axes hadalreadydisappearedromnorthernNew Ireland ythe 1880s,although n

ornamental

one,

thought

to have

been

a

ceremonial

object,

was

found

at

Kapsu

by

a

European.

Matches and

tobacco were

probably

egarded

s consumer uxuriesand

here

is

little evidence

that cloth was

greatly

used

before

the

end

of

the

century.

Early

visitors

indicate

thatthe traditional irtual

otal

absence

of

apparel

ontinued or some time after

the

traders

stablished hemselves

Cayley-Webster

898:290).

Later,

after

1900,

western



9/22

8

PETER

LOMAS

clothing

was

adopted

by

some

villagers,

occasionally

n

excessive

fashion

c.f.,

Parkinson

1907:271).

By

the end

of the

19th

century

t

appears

hat he

steady

rickle

of

trade

goods

had become a flood. Boluminskireports hatvillagerswerebeingswamped n imported

items

as

competition

between

expatriate

raders or

copra

drovethe

price up

300

percent

in

a

matterof

five or six

years

(1904:134).

He

refersto

goods

receivedon credit rom

a

certain

Australian raderand

notes that

slanders

ould obtainall

they

needed rom

copra

sales and

were thus

disinclinedto allow

themselves

to

be

recruited or workelsewhere.

This

observationdoes not concur

with

the

evidence that northern

New Irelanders

were

being

recruited n

recordnumbersa

few

years

after

pacification.

Firearms

are mentioned in

several

accounts

(e.g.,

Blum

1900:26;

Boluminski

1904:13

1).

It is

possible

that

hese

items

may

have

been

originally

uppliedby

recruiters,

as

Blum

suggests

that

English

traders

offered them

to the New

Ireland

natives,

already

renowned for

their

savagery

(1900).

Romilly

too makes

reference o muskets

received from

recruiters

1886:39).

It

would

seem

unlikely

hat

rading

posts

wouldoffer

firearms or

copra

as

the factors

were

only

too

well

awareof the

ferocity

of

their

rading

partners

and could

easily

obtain

the local

produce

for

tobacco

and metal

implements.

Parkinson

tatesthat

severalof

the

early

attackson

Whites,

for

whichNew

Ireland

arned

an unenviable

reputation

mongst

raders,

were

undertakenn

order o

acquire

irearms,

which could

be

used

against

less

well

equipped

neighboring

populations

r in defence

against

punitive

expeditions

(1907:283).

Hahl

describes the havoc

wrought

n

central

New

Ireland

by

the

runaway

policeman-turned-mercenary

ith

the arms

he took with

him (1937:36-37). Not only didhe terrorizehis fellow villagers,slaughteringhosewith

whom he

quarrelled,

but

he also

threatened

Europeans

and

succeeded

in

interrupting

local

commercial

activity

at a

post

in

Fissoa in

the

mid or late

1890s

(Hahl 1937;

Boluminski

1904:132).

This

he

managed

o do

with

only

five

stolen

weapons

and an

ample

supply

of

ammunition.

His

training

n

the

police

force

undoubtedly

quipped

him

with the

skill

necessary

to

protect

his

weapons

from

rust

and

general

deterioration.

Romilly

(1886)

claimed

that firearms

oon

became

useless in

the wet

tropical

limate

n

the

hands

of those who

did not

know how

to look

after

hem and

he thus

discounted heir

importance

or

the

local

people.

In

a

major

battlehe

witnessed n

the

early

1880s there

were

apparently

no

firearms

employed.

Their

use

evidently

becamemore

common

ater

and Boluminski made a point of collecting firearmsand ammunitionas

part

of his

pacification

campaign

after

1900

(1904:131).

It

seems

possible

that

the

introduction f

valued

exotic

commodities

obtained rom

traders or

recruiters

nto the

exchanges

between

villagers

may

have,

initially

at

least,

affected

the

position

of

local

leaders.

Recruiters

egularly

dealt

with ocal

Big

Men

when

seeking

plantation

aborers

and

it

appears

hatsuch

leadersalso

actedas

brokers

between

fellow

villagers

and the

trading

posts

(Wawn

1893;

Romilly

1886:41;

Finsch

1914:40,

citing

Romilly).

Furthermore

he

flow

of shell

money

from

copra

saleswould

enhance

the

influence of

the

major

recipients.

Finsch

notes that

wealthand

'chieftainship'

were

closely linkedand thepowerof one leaderatKapsuvisitedbyRomilly ntheearly1880s

was

evidently

bolstered

by

his role

as broker

betweenhis

village,

and

several

others,

and

the

White

traders.If

local

leaders

were

ableto

monopolize

he

inflow

of

trade

goods

they

may

have

enhanced

theircontrol

over

fellow

villagers

during

he

earlyyears

of

contact,

as

is

suggested

in

the

account of

the

Kapsu

leader and

also of

the

musket

wielding

mercenary

of

Medina a

decade

and a half

later.

Boluminski

(1904:127)

does

note,



10/22

The

Early

ContactPeriod

in

Northern

New Ireland

9

however,

that

by

the end

of

the

century

eaders had but little

power,

possibly

because

access to

trade

goods

other than firearms

was then much easier

and

they

were more

widely distributed mongst hepopulation.

Writing

of

New

Irelanders,

a man with

many years

of

experience

of Melanesians

notes in the

1890s that

they

are

a

fine,

warlike and treacherous

ace

and

inveterate

cannibals

(Wawn 1893:283).

Whether

heir

capacity

or warfarewas

greatly

ncreased

by

the

provision

of

firearms

or

other

imported

weaponry,

such as steel

axes,

as

it

apparently

was elsewhere

in

Melanesia

(e.g.,

Salisbury

1962b)

s

questionable.

nter-

community

warfare

appears

to have

been endemic

in

the northern

part

of the island

throughout

he

early

contact

period,

and

in

the

1890s,

when

assaultson Whites led to

punitive

expeditions

from

Kokopo,

the

regular

intervention

by gunboats

and

police

troops

did

little to eliminate hese conflicts

Schnee 1904:119;

Blum

1900:28;

Boluminski

1904:127;

Hahl

1937:29, 37, 69, 104;

Kraemer-Bannow

916:vii).

Boluminski

notes,

however,

that there was

no

larger

unified

group

which

could

pose

a

major

threat o

Europeans.

Romilly, visiting

he Hernsheim

ost

at

Kapsu

n

1883,

witnessed

major

onfronta-

tion between two

large

groups

of

warriors,

stimated

by

him

to have numbered

1000and

1500

respectively

(1886:46-47).

He observed

that

the

Big

Man

of

Kapsu,

a

certain

Nanati,

normally

had a

following

on

hand

of

some 500

men,

but

on this occasion

drew

n

an additional

housand,

ncluding

allies,

to

participate

n a

meeting

at the

request

of the

Europeans.

The

size

of

this force

must

surely

be

exaggered,

for,

even

with the denser

populationsallegedly residentin northernNew Irelandat thattime, such numbersof

males of warrior

age

would

imply village

populations

f considerable

magnitude,many

times those

usual

during

this

century.4

Furthermore,

iven

the tactics available

o

Big

Men

to

control their

followers,

Nanati would

likely

have encountered

difficulty

in

maintaining

a hold

over such a force

(cf.,

Sahlins

1963).

Even

allowing

or

inaccuracy

n

the

part

of the

observer,

the

size of the

groups

arrayed gainst

each othermusthave

been

impressive.

If

Nanati

did,

as

Romilly

claims,

control

villages

along

a fifteen-mile tretch

of

coast,

then his stature

must have been

exceptional

n thearea.Theobserverdoes

not

give

the

names

of

the

villages

included n his

domain,

but t is

likely

that

hey

wouldhave

been

communities to

the

southeast,

as

the

Kapsu-Avelus

area is in the transition one

from

Tigak speakers

(to the

north)

o those

speaking

a

slightly

differentdialect

(Kara).

Romilly's

mentionof

Nanati's

'tribe',

which the leadercould order o attend he

meeting

with the

Englishman,

probably

refers to allied

communitieswithin the dialect

group.

Some

eighteen

years

later

Boluminski

reports

on conflict

between a

village

in this area

(Avelus)

and

one to

the northwest n the

Tigak speaking

region

(Putput),

and it

may

be

inferred

that there was

some

longstanding

hostility

between these areas.

Furthermore,

Romilly

describes the

enemy

force as

coming

round he

point, possiblyreferring

o

Kapsu

Point

to the

north

of the

Avelus-Kapsu

area,

and

if this

is

so

it

is

likely

that

the

invaders

were

Tigak speakers

either

from

the

north

(Kapleman-Putput)

r the islands

beyond Nusa. Nanati's force succeededin drivingoff the invadersandin the process

captured

the

corpses

of six

fallen

enemies,

which

were

consumed

n a cannibal

east.

How

much

Nanati's

allegedly lively

participation

n

trade

with the Whites contributed

towards

his

considerable tature n

the

area s

unknowable,

but

it seems

highly probable

that

his

dealings

in

shell

money

were an

important

actor.

His

force made

no use

of



11/22

10

PETERLOMAS

firearms,

relying primarily

on

spears,

indicating

that

imported

weaponry

was not a

significant

factor.

Support or the contention hat Nanati's situationwas unusualandpossiblydueto

the

position

the

man

held

in

the trade

with

Whites

comes from

Boluminski

who

notes

that

in

general larger

alliances between

indigenes

for the

purpose

of

warfarewere

not

established

(1904:128).

He

goes

on to

suggest

that numbersof

fellow

clansmen

were

the

usual

socio-politicalgrouping.

As the matrilineal

lans

were,

thenas

now,

dispersed,

this

would

imply

a

local clan

segment

or

hamlet

group,

evidently

boosted

by

affines

and

nonconsanguinealcognates;

such a unit

would,

even

with

the

larger

populations

n

the

area

eighty

years

ago,

rarely

exceed

a few

score.

The

favored tactic

in

warfarewas ambushor assault

by

small

numbers ather han

major

confrontations f the

type

described

by Romilly

(Boluminski1904).

Small

groups

of

fighting

men

raided

their

neighbors,

either

by

land

or sea.

Romilly

and Parkinson

mention

that

villages

were

usually

located

slightly

inland

from the

beach,

in

orderto

minimize the

danger

of anunheralded

ttack,

despite

he

fact

that

he littoralwas and

s a

favored

location for house construction

ecause

of the cool

breezes

off the

water.

As

indicated,

the

European rading

posts

and some vessels were also

regularly

attacked

by

indigenes

during

he

19th

century.

The

factors,

solated

along

with a handful

of

Solomon Islanders n

their

outstations,

were

frequently

killed andthe northern

art

of

New Irelandwas

notorious or the

danger

hat

raders

an,

the area

beingregarded

s

one

of

the

most

hostile

in

Melanesia

in the

late

19th

century e.g.,

Rannie

1912:261).

The

recordindicatesthatbetween 1881and 1895therewere thirteenmajorassaultson posts

with

heavy

loss to

the

occupants

(Schnee 1904:80).

Kapsu

post

was

destroyed

wice

during

the

1880s,

with the loss of life of

thetraders.

Putput

tationwas

also

attacked

t

least

twice,

with the

loss

of

life of the factor each time. Other

attacks occurredat

Kaboteron

sland,

at

Kabien

and

at Nusa

itself,

which

was

briefly

abandoned

n

the

early

1880s as

the

factor

fled

to

Kapsu.

Attackson coastalvessels

occurred

rom

time to time

and

islanders rom

Selapiu

were notorious or their

piracy

n

the

waters

betweennorthern

New Ireland

and New

Hanover.

Using

sail-equipped

anoes

they

raided

villages

and

attacked

trading

vessels,

retreating

nto

their

island

stronghold,protectedby

reefs

and

mangroves

when

pursued

Hahl 1937:39-41).

The peopleof Kabienalsoenjoyedareputationorattacksonvessels, andwhenthe

Whites in

northern

New Ireland

complained

o

GovernorHahlthat

hey

were

disrupting

trade,

he led a

punitive

expedition against

them,

only

to discover

that

they

had

slipped

away

to

Kapleman

on the east coast

(where,

incidentally,

another

Asian]

traderwas

murderedabout the same

time)

(Hahl

1937:69-70).

This

recordof violence not with-

standing,

Schnee

(1904:119)

claimed that

by

the late

1890s therewere a dozen or

more

White

traders n

northern

New Irelandand

adjacent

sles,

enjoyinggood relationships

with

the

native

people,

and

it is

clear

from

Romilly's

account

of his visit to

Kapsu

a

decade

and a

half

earlier,

that

traders

periodically

had

the

respect

of

some local leaders.

Cannibalism was

allegedly rampant

n

New Ireland and

adjacent

areas in

the

precontact

period.

Even

though

heearliest

Europeans

n the Blanche

Bay

areaencountered

this

custom

there and

some Pacific

Islanders n the

employ

of

the

Weslyan

mission fell

victim

to

local

villagers,

New Ireland

was notorious

amongst

Whites

n

the islands or its

widespread

cannibalism

e.g.,

Brown

1908:160;

Powell

1883:247).

Romilly's

account

of his

visit

to

Kapsu

n

1883offers a

graphicdescription

f the

preparations

or a cannibal



12/22

The

Early

Contact Period

in

NorthernNew Ireland 11

feast he

witnessed,

featuring

the fallen

of the defeated invaders

(1886:53-58

cf.,

Parkinson

1907:263-264).

Parkinsondescribes

how,

off

the

coast

of

New

Hanover,

he

encountereda returning aidingpartyand,on headingoff one of thecanoes,discovered

in the vessel

abandoned

by

the

crew,

the

corpses

of

three

young

people

allegedlybeing

taken

to

provide

fora cannibal east

(1907).

Boluminski

eports

hat

one of his first

asks

as

Administrator

on New

Ireland

was to undertakea

punitive expeditionagainst

the

people

of

Putput,

where

nine

people

from Avelus

had

recently

been eaten

(1904:131).

It

appears

that

although

he administration

eplored

acts of

cannibalism,

t

may

also

have

contributedto

them. Hahl

(1937:37-39)

reports

that

when

he

attacked

the

Medina

mercenariesandtheir followers in the

1890s,

he

landed

at Lemusmus

on

the

west

coast

and crossed over to

move down

the

east

coast,

assisted

by

spear

bearing

ocal

villagers,

possibly

from

the Lemusmus

area,

where some of the

police

he used

evidently

had

their

home. After the rout of Medina

villagers

in

which the

mercenary

eader

escaped,

Boluminski

withdrew,

but he claims that his erstwhile allies

slipped

back to take

the

corpses

of

the fallen for a cannibalfeast. Both Boluminski

1904:127)

and Parkinson

(1907)

refer to

the

custom

of

invitees

to cannibalfeasts

making

countergifts

of

shell

money

to

the

host(s),

and

it

is

noted that

a

warrior ould

in

this

way

increasehis wealth

and

standing.

Parkinson

adds

that

although

an

already

established

Big

Mancould

claim

the

choicest

parts

of

the

victims,

the

countergift

was

mandatory.

Procedure

ssociated

with such

feasts was

evidently

similar to that usual

in

other ceremonies

when

pigs

were/are

consumed,

namely

thatvalued

parts

of the animal

e.g.,

the

head)

are

given

to

men of standing,but all invitees areexpectedto makecountergiftsn shellmoneyto the

sponsors

of

the feast.

AlthoughEuropeans

illed

were sometimesdismembered

nd

parts

of

theirbodies

kept by

islanders,

hey

were,

according

o

Parkinson,

oteaten

1907:266).

Parkinson

also

implies

that,

in some areasat

least,

consumption

f

victims

was associated

with

the belief

that the consumersdrew some

strength

rom the deceased. He notes

that

informantsadvisedhim

thatWhitesdid not taste

good,

but hatone

local

leader

not

from

the New

Ireland

area,

however)

feared

he

spirits

of slain

andeaten

Whites.

Villagers

n

northernNew

Ireland

n

the 1960s made referenceto the

precontact

period

in

various

ways,

as

indicated

above,

and several

myths

made

explicit

reference o

cannibalism.

There are

clearly

anomalies

n

the

reputation

f northernNew

Ireland

amongst

he

Whites who madetheirhome inthe BismarckArchipelagonthese lateyearsof the 19th

century.

On

the one

hand

the

indigenes

are

depicted

as

violent, treacherous,

given

to

cannibalism and to

unprovoked

attack.

On the

other,

observers

omment hat

hey

were

much

sought

after

as

plantation

abor

and

even

policemen,

becauseof theease

with

which

they

mastered

required

skills.

Increasingly

arge

numbers

of

islanders,

both men

and

women,

were

being

recruited

or work

outside

New Irelandas the

century

came to an

end,

and

their

contribution o

building up

the

expatriate

ontrolledcoconut

plantation

economy

of

German

New Guinea was

obviously

not

inconsiderable.

Possibly

hundreds

of

Tungak, Tigak,

Kara.

and Nalik

speakers

from the

villages

of New

Hanover

and

northernNew

Ireland,

saw

service in

places

as

far afield as

Samoa,Fiji, Queensland,

Bougainville,

and the Blanche

Bay

areaand the northcoast of New Guinea.

They

were

taken

from

a

total

population

of

probably

ess than

20,000

during

hose

decades.5On

their return

hey brought

with them

not

only

more rade

goods already

eadily

available

n

the

area,

but

also

knowledge

of other

lifestyles

and a

linguafranca,

increasingly

understood

throughout

he

islands

and

later

also

on the mainlandof New

Guinea.



13/22

12

PETER OMAS

Villagers

in

the

area

were

already heavily

involved

in trade

by

the

1890s, and,

as

observers of the time

note,

were

among

the native

populations

most

strongly

nfluenced

by foreignways (Walden1911:29).

After the turnof the

century

hesituation

n

northern

New

Ireland

hangedabruptly.

Boluminski,

in

the New Guinea

region

since

1899,

foundeda

police post

on

the

site

of

Kavieng

in

1900

and

within four

years

had

succeeded n

pacifying

not

only

the

northern

part

of

the island

but much

of the

south

o

beyond

Namatanai

s well

(Boluminski

1904;

Hahl

1937:105, 158-159,

172;

Kraemer-Bannow

916:vi-viii).

Hahlattributes

is success

in

part

to

the

lengthy

association between local

villagers

and the

expatriate

nclaves,

suggesting

that the natives

welcomed the

imposition

of

Pax Germanica.

Although

he

various accounts of

northern

New

Irelanders

uggest

that

they

were

receptive

to

new

ideas and

lifestyles,

they

are

also

characterized

as

clinging

to

old

customs

(e.g.,

Parkinson

1907:269).

Boluminski's initial acts included

convincing

local

populations

that

henceforth

he,

as

representative

f the German

Crown,

was the

lawgiver

n the

area.

He also

very quickly persuaded

or

forced,

depending

on

the

interpretationlaced

on his

tactics,

local

villagers

to

construct,

underhis

direction,

he Kaiser

Wilhelm

Strasse,

the

main

east coast

road,

which was

laid out with

great

alacrity

cf.,

Gibson

1961:82,

who

suggests

he

was

harsh and that

natives died

working

on

the

road).

He also established

plantations,

a

botanical

garden

and a

wharf,

encouragingexpatriates

o settle

in the

region

around he new administration

enter. GovernorHahl

clearly thoughthighly

of

him,

and his role in

changing

northernNew

Ireland

was

unequalled.

He

died

in

Kavieng

in 1913 and his gravestonestill stands near the waterfronthe developed(cf., Hilder

1950:36).

Following

Boluminski

came,

in

1905,

the

Weslyan

(Methodist)

mission,

staffed

primarilyby

Fijians,

but headed

by

an

(Australian?)

xpatriate

and with some

Tolai converts

providing

assistance

(Paul

1907:36,

216).

The Methodists elected

Omo

village,

about a

mile from

Kavieng,

as their

first

headquarters,

nd it

was here that

a

number

of

Tigak

speakers

were

trained n the

Tolai

language

or

service

as

preachers.

Informants

n

the

area

in

the 1960s recalledthe

experiences

of kin in the service of the

mission,

which

rapidly

sought

to

expand

to

Djaul

Island

and New

Hanover,

as well

as

down

the

east coast road. The Omo stationwas not the first

footholdof the Methodist

n

New

Ireland,

as

George

Brown,

working

out of

Makada

on the Duke of York Islands

(Neu Lauenberg)had established one on the west coast as early as 1875. After the

Methodists came

the

Roman

Catholics,

also fromtheir

headquarters

n the Blanche

Bay

area,

but,

apparently y agreement,

hey

did

not seek

converts nthe northwestern

art

of

the

island where

theMethodistswere

already

stablished. nstruction

ffered

by

the local

missionary

included some

limited

teaching

of

reading

and

writing

skills,

using

the

scriptures,

and also some arithmetic

Gibson 1961:85).

At

this time therewas little

intereston the

part

of

the

German

Administration

n

providing

ducation o the

indigenes,

and the

mission

was

paid

500

marks

a

year

to

offer

some German

Gibson

1961:87).

Walden

(1911:29)

suggests

that

mission

activity

was

not

pronounced

n

northernNew

Irelandduring he first decade of thiscentury,an observationwhich echoes thatof Paul

on

the

situation

n

1906

(1911:223).

Parkinson

1907:269)

notes that he

Christianity

f

converted

indigenes

consisted

mostly

in

superficial

observances.Gibsonasserts hat he

Methodist

missionaries

olerated

raditional

mortuary

eremonies,

whilstRoman

Catholics

did not

(1961:83).

Traditional estivities

were

evidently

still

being organized

n

northern

New

Ireland

during

the

first

decade of this

century.

Kraemer-Bannow

1916:259)



14/22

The

Early

Contact Period

in Northern

New

Ireland

13

mentions

masks and

dance

practices

in

the

north

in a

community

she terms

Solangit

(Kulangit?)

and in

a

neighboring village, possibly

Omo, which,

despite

the

early

association with the Methodistmission(orperhapsbecauseof it, if Gibson s correct),

appears

o have

preserved

raditional

rts.

In

the

1960sdance eams romOmo

performed

widely

in

northernNew

Ireland

cf.,

Billings

1971:353,

who witnessed hemat

Mangai),

and

this

community

was

locally

renowned

amongstvillagers

or its traditionalism.

Other

visitors

after

1905

also observed festivities connected

with

traditional

rituals,

and

northernNew

Irelanderswere

characterizedas

being

much

given

to

song

and dance

(Kraemer

1925:72;

Walden and Neverman

1940;

Parkinson

1907).

Boluminski

notes

that

singsing

(festivities)

are the

nightmare

of

every

European

employer,

whether

planter,

recruiter r

trader

1904:130)

and

villagers

used

every

opportunity

s an

excuse

for such

activities.

Major

events,

the

mortuary

ceremonies,

then as

now,

required

months of

preparation.

By

the

end of the

period

of German

ontrol

October

1914),

however,

he

cumulative

impact

of

recruiters,administrators,

he

planters

and the

missionaries

haderodedmuch

of

the traditional culture. Recruitmentcontinued

during

the first

decade,

despite

Boluminski's

lament that local

villagers, swampedby

trade

goods

on

credit,

could

no

longer

be

tempted by

would-be

employers

(1904:134).

However

plantations

were

expandingvery

rapidly

n the

Kavieng

area

cf.,

Firth

1977:15-16).

Reynolds

1972:850)

gives

a

figure

of

3,725

acres

already

under

palmsby

1905,

while over

11,000

moreacres

had

been

acquired by expatriates

and

were

awaiting clearing

and

planting.

These

plantations mployed, it is claimed,551 laborers,of whomthemajoritywouldhave been

local

men.

Kraemer-Bannow

1916:256)

notes that he road rom

Kapsu

o

Kavieng

was

largely

lined with

plantations

by

1908/9,

and

although

not all the

palms

she

saw would

have been on

expatriate-owned

and,

the observationnevertheless

ndicates

he

speed

with which

the

copra

ndustry

was

expanding.

Nusa Island

tself

was

by

this

time covered

in

palms

(Kramer-Bannow

1916:258),

and

it remainedan

expatriate

wned

plantation

until

the

1970s,

first

in the handsof the

original

owners,

the Hemsheim

Company,

and

then

Bums

Philp (except

for a

few

years

during

he Pacific

War).

In the

mid 1970s the

island was

returned o the

original

landowners.

Rowley,

drawing

on official German

reports,

notes that

New Hanover and New

Ireland

seem to

have

remained he most

heavily

recruitedof all

areas,

providing,

in

1912/13, 2,446

new

recruits,

or

almost

thirty percent

of

all recruits or

the

year.

Shortly

after his

the

areawas

closed to

seekers

after labor

by

the

Australian

Military

Administration

Rowley

1958:110-111,

120).

An

official

report

notes

that n

1911 one-third

of

all

males oversixteenwere

employedaway

from their

villages

(Hoffman

1913).

Population

declinehad

been remarked

pon by

several

observersbeforethe end of

the first

decade

(Parkinson 907:268;

Sapper

1910:97; f.,

Scragg

1954).

Some

observers

ascribedthis

to introduced

iseases,

as indicated

bove,

whilstothersblamed ecruitment

or

marriage

restrictions

mposed

by

custom

(Parkinson1907;

Sapper

1910:99).

In the

1960s villagers also claimed thatin formertimes populationshad been muchgreater.

There

was,

moreover,

a marked ex

imbalance.Parkinson

uggests

hat herewere

only

half as

many

females

as

males,

whilst

Sapper

1910:101)

offers

figures

which

suggest

that this

impressionistic

assessment s

probably

not far

from

correct.The

demographic

factors, together

with

heavy

absenteeism rom

villages,

speeded

up

what

was

probably

inevitable

by

1905.

Twenty-four years

later

Chinnery

noted

that even

the

mortuary



15/22

14 PETER

LOMAS

ceremonies,

one of

the last

remaining ragments

f

aboriginal

ulture,

were

on

the brink

of

following

most

other features nto oblivion

(1929:6).

He

was,

in

fact,

mistaken

cf.,

Lomas n.d.).

Some

informationon the

aboriginal

culture of northernNew Irelanders

may

be

gleaned

from the

various

sourcescited in this

paper.

As

indicated arlier

residents

of

the

villages

in

the late 1960s

appearedrelatively

uninterested

n

the

pre-contact

or

early

contact

periods,

and

although

t

is

possible

o

extract ome data

rom

anecdotes

especially

those

connectedwith

land

controlwhich s

often

legitimatedby

reference o

sequences

of

earlier

controllers),

the overall

picture

obtained

s

very incomplete.Possibly

additional

fieldwork

may

retrieve

more facts.

The

literature,

on which this

paper

relies,

refers

primarily

to conditions as observed

after the

European

presence

had

alreadybegun

to

distort raditional

ctivities.

Early

references,

uch

as

that

of

Romilly,

were

o sociocultural

systems

which

had

already

begun

to

adjust

o the

demand

or

labor

and

copra,

and

to

the

supply

of

trade

goods.

Later

descriptions,

such

as

those of Parkinson

nd

Walden,

are

sometimes

ambiguous

as to which

period

is

being

discussed. Materialculture eatures

prominently

n

the detailed

reporting

f some of

the Germanobservers

e.g.,

Parkinson

1907:641-652;

Finsch

1914),

possibly

lomas_the early contact period in northern ni

Documents