NEW GUINEA AND THE TAl'UANS 407 



work, and some of these are of designs which would be 

 creditable to a pupil in a school of art. The carving of 

 the caryatid piles of their temples is less good, and 

 probably intentionally grotesque. 



In the islands of the great Australian Archipelago 

 which we have hitherto considered, the tribes and nations 

 inhabiting them have been, as we have seen, for the most 

 part monarchical in their form of government. "We find 

 in Java, Brunei, and elsewhere, sultans and princes of 

 more or less power, with a court and nobles. In all, or 

 almost all, there have been, if not rajas or kinglets, at 

 least greater or lesser chiefs to whom the people render 

 some sort of obedience. But in New Guinea we find a 

 totally different state of affairs. Throughout the length 

 and breadth of the island, so far as is known, no system 

 other than that of the most primitive form of socialism 

 exists. Chiefs are unknown. Certain individuals by 

 force of character, or by virtue of their known prowess 

 in war, have more influence than others in their tribe, 

 but this influence seems to be at best but slight, and 

 each person is obedient to himself alone or to some 

 unwritten code of public opinion. It is this fact perhaps 

 more than any other which has so greatly hindered not 

 only the civilisation of the people, but our knowledge of 

 the country. Each handful of people has always lived 

 in a state of perpetual warfare with its neighbours. The 

 Dutch, in their annexations in the Malayan islands, had 

 but to gain this or that Eaja by di])lomacy or force, and 

 no further question presented itself. In New Guinea 

 European administration is attended by far greater 

 difficulties, since the equal distribution of authority — or 

 rather the want of any authority — renders agreement 

 upon any subject no very feasible matter. It is to this 

 system that is due the formation of innumerable offset 



