CORAL REEFS OF TORRES STRAITS 2.31 



restore that self respect and interest in life which the too sudden intro- 

 duction of civilization has in large measure crushed out among them. 

 Interesting and hopeful results are heing achieved by this sociological, 

 rather than purely religious, enterprise. The natives must first learn 

 how to earn a living before they can make any real advance in the 

 development of a moral and social standard to which they can hold as 

 things of their own initiation. At present a mere semblance of civiliza- 

 tion has been forced upon them from outside, but a race to survive 

 must be the father of its own ideals. 



After leaving the Murray Islands, Mr. Potts and the leader of the 

 expedition went to Port Moresby, Papua, where His Excellency, the 

 Honorable John H. P. Murray, the governor, was so kind as to invite 

 us to be his guests at Government House during the entire period of 

 our visit. 



The English deserve the greatest credit for the altruistic govern- 

 ment which is being administered to benefit and uplift the native popu- 

 lation. " Fair play for the Papuan " is the watch- word of the colony. 



Malaria is still the dreaded pestilence of Papua, and for generations 

 yet to come many noble English lives must be extinguished by its 

 ravages, but- despite the dull heat, the certainty of ennervating illness, 

 and the vast areas yet unknown to any save the savage in the stone age, 

 this little band of high-minded men has not lost heart but year by year 

 intertribal wars, cannibalism and sorcery are becoming things of the 

 past, and the natives are slowly but willingly acquiring their first lessons 

 in civilization. 



Without detracting from the honor due the missionary who leaves 

 home and friends and seeks the degraded places of the earth, let us 

 not forget the equally altruistic civil servant whose hardships and 

 dangers and devotion to duty we are all too apt to belittle or overlook, 

 yet whose service though less conspicuous than that of his religious co- 

 worker is equally significant for the raising of England's standard of 

 freedom before the eyes of the whole earth. 



