MY FIRST EXPEDITION TO NEW GUINEA 51 



food from his garden if he has cleared the ground, and 

 kept wild pigs away by a fence or by guarding the 

 garden. If he has tobacco, either he or his fellow- 

 villagers must have worked for it. If he wants meat 

 he must hunt for it. If he wants a house he must 

 build it, and native houses require continual repairs 

 if they are to be kept dry and in reasonable repair, 

 or reasonably comfortable even from the natives' 

 point of view. As in every other place there will 

 always be a certain proportion of the population idle 

 at any one moment ; and if Europeans visit at all 

 unfrequented villages the entire village not unusually 

 stays at home to see them, and of course the visitor 

 finds them all ' doing nothing.' If, however, a native 

 ' goes to work ' he is more certain of regular food and 

 perhaps of better quarters. On the other hand, he 

 is entering on the unknown and may find himself at 

 the mercy of an unsympathetic ' boss,' whom he can 

 neither understand, nor who can understand him. 

 In any case there is the loss of the sense of freedom 

 which a village native must feel. The dysentery 

 epidemics have also carried off some hundreds of 

 natives, and this cannot but discourage the others 

 from going to work. Another aspect of the question 

 is perhaps sometimes lost sight of. The recognised 

 cost of feeding and clothing a native amounts to about 

 7 a year. This includes only actual food consumed, 

 1 Ib. only of meat per week, one blanket, and four 

 sulus; it does not allow for the cost of a house or of 



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