256 NEWS [march 1899 



The following interesting bits of information concerning British New Guinea 

 were given by Sir William Macgregor, the recent Administrator, to a representa- 

 tive of Reuter's Agency : — 



" It is not a country in which a man can produce wheat or turnips. It is 

 adapted above all things for growing rubber, and for tea, coffee, tobacco, and 

 cotton. Cotton and tobacco are indigenous. The tobacco is of very fine 

 quality and ought to prove a valuable export. Probably the two principal 

 exports will be rubber and gold. There is a great field for rubber plantation, 

 and there are several kinds of indigenous rubber of high quality. Cocoa-nuts 

 grow luxuriantly all over the colony. Water transport is supplied by many 

 rivers, and we have good anchorages and harbours along the coast-line. Rail- 

 ways are not likely to be very much required on account of our excellent 

 waterways. 



" The greater portion of the 400 Europeans in the place are engaged in 

 mining, the remainder devoting their energies to general trading. The produce 

 in which they deal is principally collected by the natives, and includes copra, 

 sandalwood, pearls, and a number of other things. A considerable portion of 

 the natives are employed in trading, and many are engaged by the European 

 merchants. 



" The natives are now quite settled over large areas of country, sufficiently 

 so to make agricultural settlement under Europeans quite safe. In the remote 

 districts there are, however, hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of tribes who 

 have never seen or heard of Europeans. Since the great cannibal raid of two 

 years ago, when all the war canoes were captured, cannibalism has been practi- 

 cally unknown in British New Guinea, although there may, of course, be an 

 isolated case here and there. 



" The prisons are the best schools for the natives. After the murder of Mr. 

 Green, the magistrate, six natives more or less implicated in the affair were 

 captured and put in prison. After a time they were made warders, and were 

 subsequently given positions as constables among their own tribe, their first 

 duty being to arrest the man who was chiefly responsible for the murder, whom 

 we had previously been unable to find. As a result, the culprit was very soon 

 brought in, and when I left all the ringleaders had been captured. This has 

 been the general principle adopted by the Administration — in fact, it is the only 

 possible one. 



" The young people are left to the missions, who conduct their education, 

 but the training of the grown-up people is, as I have pointed out, principally in 

 the hands of the police and the gaols. 



" The climate is much better than is generally supposed. During ten years 

 I was only incapacitated from fever for about six days. This form of fever is very 

 amenable to proper treatment, and proper treatment is simple. I believe that 

 New Guinea will eventually be considered a healthy tropical colony. The 

 average temperature for the year at Port Moresby is 82^ deg., the highest 

 reading recorded during four years being 97 deg., and the lowest 65 deg. At an 

 altitude of 4000 ft. to 5000 ft. the climate is very agreeable. One very im- 

 portant fact is that we have no hurricanes." 



In view of the extensive use of petroleum products for insecticidal purposes, 

 it is interesting to note Mr. L. O. Howard's evidence {Scientific American, Feb. 4) 

 that the maggots of a species of Psilopa seem to live comfortably in crude 

 petroleum pools. They breathe by well-protected anal stigmata which are 

 periodically protruded above the surface. 



Di. C. Vi^uier has invented a tow-net suited for rapid pelagic work, e.g. on 

 board a steamship. The points of his invention are the extension of the filter- 

 ing surface by plaiting the silk, the more rapid passage of water through the 

 apparatus, and an increase of solidity. It is described and figured in the 

 "Notes et Revue " of the Arch. zool. exper. vol. vi. pp. vi.-xi. 



