custom among them, he said, for mothers to J e,-our their young children when they die. For such inhuman creatures one cannot but lmve a feeling of intense lo11thing; and it would seem hopeless to expect much good from people so ttba,ndoned. I made him call a summons to hi s friends at the

village ; and three or fuur young men answered it. To these I spok e by the aiel of A.N.C. Uria, telling them t hat I was 11bout to set the prisoner free, so tlmt he might spertk t o the others, saying that I had fought with them yesterday in

retaliation for their arrows, and that, although I had intended to no more to-day, I would not make peace until the

skull was delivered to me. I repeated my orfer to exchange the other prisoners, save lake, for those three others who were demanded by the Lieutenant-Governor, who otherwise would be taken 2-way. They said Em11 had Mr. Tomkins' skull, having taken i t across the river am! hidden it in the bush opposite. I bade them

houses ; but, if they retain e< l the skull, similar forbearance might not be shown next time. I returnee! to the ship, and waited; and ttt length two ccwoes came off; and t he 1:at.iYcs in them spoke to the prisoners. I told the latter to say that I was waiting for the skull; and t hose in the canoes replier! that the Turotere peopl e had sa id that they would not give it

up. Two skulls were tendered insteuJ, which they placed in a canoe to drift alongside. These sknlls, the pr·isoners said, were those of bushmen killed in the fight; and I made it clear that I would not accept them as an equivalent. No gootl purpose seemed to me to be served by waiting longer; and the

"Merrie England " steamed away." That is the first account which Mr. Robinson gave of the occurrences which are the subject of the inquiry. Shortly after that disquieting rumours got about. Statements

were made in the papers that an unprovoked and wanton attack on unarmed natives had been made by an armed force; and that it was in the nature of an unprovoked treacherous attack. The Government then decided, in order not only to dispel these rumours, but also in justice

to Mr. Robinson, to grant a Commission, and appointed Your Honor as the Commissioner. On h earing of this Commission, Mr. Robinson, who had, I may say, been very seriously ill from Malarial fever; and who, no doubt, was ttbsolutely over-wrought n,nd borne down by the anxiety of this, committed suicide. But, before doing so, he left two statements, which I propose now to read. They will complete the docum entary evidence which I lay before the Commission. The first of these sbttements is dated 18th Juno, 1904, and is

Government Honse, British New Guine:L, 18th June, 1904. Your Excellency,-Referring to the desp11tch from His Ex­ cellency the Govemor-General, dated the 19 th M.a.y la st, t1ntl to the enclosures, having r eference to the alfray ar Goaribari on 6th .March last, I have the honour to supplement the report of the matter cont>Lined in my despatch, No. 15, dated 23rd March last, by the fo llowing details :

In the first pl&ce , according to the information origin11lly obtained from the boy Kemeri , who was c11ptured by the Government party which visited Goaribari after the massacre of the missionaries, a! though the plan of the massacre was laid at Dopima Village and was executed there, word was sent to

the other villages to come and assist, and the natives of those villages did assist, and participated in the cannibal feast which followed ; and they were all prirnct facie guilty of the massacre. Kemeri, it may be mentioned, was not to be seen on the occasion of my visit, hi s absence being explained by

the statement that he was aw11y fishing; but I saw the box, given him when he wa,s libemted, in the large "dubu " at Dopima, which is not his village; and t here is so me probability that he was despatched, as it was feared he might bE, for

having given information to the Government. 'Vith regard to the manner of the arrests, t he object of my visit was to capture the ring-leaders, viz., lake, Ema, Mnru­ roa, [lnd and to obt11in possession of the late Mr.

42

26 July, 1904.

Tomkins' skull. I did not expect to be 11ble to capture all

four; but I intended to capture lake, who killed Mr. Chal­ mers, and who was one of Mr. Tomkins' aggressors, if I

possibly could, and five or six others. .i\'ly reasons for captur­ ing so many were: (Firstly), as above stated, all these natives were concerned in the offence; (Secondly), uncivilized natives, when taken into captivity, are liable to fret aud die, and they arc also liable to sickness in ga,ol (there is usua.lly an epidemic of dysentery in the gaol at l'ort Moresby annually); and, if lake alone were taken and by any chance died, nothing could convince his fellows t hat he had not been put to death by the Government, and the difficulty of subsequent communication with them would be increased. On the other hand, my ide11 was that the system of village co nstables, which has proved so Stlccessful in other parts of the Possession in the subjection of savage tribes, should in course of time be applied to Goaribari ; a nd t hat by and by some of the captives could be appointed village const11bles, and thus the beginning of some kind of orcle<' 11nd authority be created among th ese people. It would in my opinion be unwise to make lake, tl.u man who actually killed Mr. Chalmers, a village constrtble.

The entmnce to Goarihari, which is low-lying mangrove 11nd s1tgo swamp, is by a very narrow and difficult channel, bese t with st1nd-ba,nko, which run a distance of seven miles sea wards; and at that distance the approach of a vessel could easily be seen by

the natives. The objections to the altern11tive course which was suggested, viz., that of appronching the place at night in boats, were stroug, and were these. Quite apart from the consideration of the large fi ghting population occupying these villages, it would have been impossible to have landed 11t and surrounded the large village of lJopima, for instrtnce, ttt dawn, without alarming the naLivcs. The shore is fri nge

children won!

four men would be remote. It would have been equally hope· to have attempted to catch any of these natives by chasing

them on the water; they have long light canoes which they paddle, standing up, at a swift pace; and I myself have seen a canoe of this kind pass with ease the large laun ch towing two lvhaleboats; and Si r George Le Hunte, with a large force, only succeeded in catching one boy. It will thus be apparent that the task of capturing four out of some hundreds of savages was a difficult one. I did not ruake up my mind definitely until I had seen the place ; and, after consult.ations with Mr. Jiear, I considered all these things carefully before I concluded that the course which was adopted was the only feasible one. It was necessary in the first instance to identify those whom it was desired to capture; and I have already expl11ined in my despatch in what manner this was done in the case of lake and :Ema on the first da.y. This was not an easy matter, owing to the superstitious objection each native has to pronouncing his own na1ne.

On the following mnrning, on awaking, I learnt that the canoes were all round the ship ; and on going on deck I

r ecog ni sed bkc alongside the launch in a, canoe, the launch being moored to the port side of the ship. He showed a disin­ clination to ventu re nearer, but like the others was keenly desi ro us of obtainiug a tomahawk. I returned to my cabin, and harl not quite finished dressing when Mr. Jiear ct1me to me, and informed me that lake was on board with some others, and that he thought that the opportunity should be seized of securing him 11t once, without wai tin g for Ema and the other two. I gavG the authority, and ad vised Mr. Jiear to secure si x: or seYcn of the others, as I had pre,·iously concluded to do. :tvlr. Jiear said t,o me "I understand I 11m in charge of this m11tter. " I said ''Yes, I leave the whole arrangements in your hands." As he was going, I s11id ' ' You know there are a good many natives around us, and they may shoot arrows:

you had better m11k e your arrangements carefully . Let it be known on board what is about to be done, and h11ve police detailtd to make the arrests." It is not a fact that I "under­ took to supervise the capture of anyone else I wished, •· while Mr. Jiear co ncentrated his attention upon the two murderers. As 11 matter of fact, lake was t he only one of the four

principal offenders who was on board. Nevertheless, I wish t-o make it clear I take the full responsibility for the course pursued. Mr. Jiear, I have learnt, gave the signal for all the arrests. He was quick in doing so: and the first intimation I had that he was acting upon my instruct ions was when, less than a minute after he had left me, three natives rushed through the passage in the companion-way. I at once came out of my cabin on dec k ; and so I saw several natives in the act of jumping overboard, m noes paddling off in alarm, and

t hat the arrests were being made in various parts of the ship. There was, of course, a great deal of struggling and excitement on board. I went on to the foredeck, 11nd was superintending the securing of bke by Mr. Jiear, Captain H arvey .being

Opening Address.

occupied with lake's companion. I stoorl there a short while, when suddenly a shut rang out from t,he after part of tne ship, which was quickly followed by others. At the sound of the first shot I look ed aft, and saw a medley of canoes with excited natives in them, with bows and arrows, preparing to shoot. At that moment Captain H ar vey was in difficu lties w1th the pnsoner which he wn, s assisting to capture. The constable who had seized him in the first instanee basing no handcuffs, and having gone aft for them, I directed someone, !don't r emember whom, to go to his assistnnce; n,nd I waited

t1ll I saw that a beln,ying pin, with which the nati1·e was stnvmg: to strike Captain Harvey, was removed. I t hen tried to take m the situation at n, gln, nce. The larger number of the canoes had gone astern with the tide by this time. The after pa:t of the ship was packed with t he crew, police, and

pnsoners; and my view was inte rrupted by the deck-eahins. The firing at this time was gcneml; and it is rliJficult to

descnbe theexcitement an d confusion wh ic h pre1·ailed. I, of course ,. lJcforehanu the po.3sil.ilit.y of the native"

::Lttaclnng t he sh1p; hnt, after I had seen the canoes making off at outset, the mn,ttee " ·as not in my neinLl, which was

occup1ed wit,h the arrests on the foredeck. Moreover, my ex peri­ ence of the natives of the other \\'estern riYcrs, "·hoinvariably seemed anxioue to get out of ont's way if Lhey cxpocte:l trouble, did not prepare me fo1· the return of these t o sh oot arrows, as t hey did when they s:tw the attention of those on board was occupied with the prisoners. I was on my way aft on the starboard side, when t\l·o constables came q ni ck ly to

me, and directed mv attention to some canoes a n arrow from which had n on rly hit Captain Harvey. I looked up, and

scemg the starboard bow opposite to where Captain Hurvey had been en!!aged 111 the struggle with the prisoner, I turned and fired two shots in quick s uccession. \Vhat the effects of these two shots were I am unable to say, as tho nati1·es took to t he _water quickly. I subsequently tired three or fou r other shots m the direction of some other canoEs. The3e were mndom shots in the air, and took no effect. All this

happened, as it were, in a moment. and in less time thnn it takes to tell it. Botwezn the first shot fired on board and the last, three minutes, or four at the outside, did not elapse. ! ascertained afterwards that the ti ght was begun by a flight of a rrows from t he canoes, and arrows "·e re being fitted to bows for a second flight when one of the Darn detachment fired the first. He tired without waiting for orders ; and he was

J both by common sense and the general order to police

111 dmng so. Arrows were then beina shot on both sides of

t he ship: and t ho other police who not occupied with the joined in the tiring. There were some hundreds of

natives surrounding the shp; and, if they hn,d been allowed to shoot arrows with impunity, of those on board would

certain ly have been injured, and probably killed. While I was awuy visiting the l'illages after the fight, a Jist of nat ives kllled, to the number of eight, w:ts obbined by Capta.in Harvey from the prisoners, who got it from the natives who came off to visit them, an

return; and this agreed in tho main with t he opinion given me shortly after the encounter hy Mr. Bruce, who was aft, and, as he told me, had a good opportunity of seeing the effect of the finng of the police.

Fortunately, in this instance. the nati,·o pclice, with few exceptiOns, are notoriously bad shots, especially when exciteol; and when the firing became hot the nativesquicldy took to the water. This no doubt created an exaggerated impression in some minds of the loss infli cted . It may transpire that more than

the number mentioned by me were killed. I coukl give no opinion myself, as I did noc sec the effect of any of the firing astern. \Vhen I dirl go to t he stern of t he ,·esse! the fighting had ceased, a nd I saw only a number of canoes and some natives

in the water. On the subject of the shooting of the poli ce, Mr. Bruce should be able to recall an incident in the Fly Ri ver, where tho oldest member of the constabulary missed a stationary pig at ten paces, after having taken deliberate aim ; and Sir !;corge Le Hunte once reported n,n exactly similar inci< l ent. The police are not practised in rifle shooting, atlviserlly,

·when I ca n1 e to British New Guinea, a little more than a yea r· ago, to tn,ke up the appointment of Chief .J udi cial Officer, I did not contemplate ever being called upon to perform a duty of t his kind. Your Excellency is aware how I have stri1·en to the

utmost of my n,b ility to cn,rry on the work of administration nf this Possession, to which. n,lmost immediately after my arnval, I was unexpectedly call ed, in addition to the work of my

proper office ; which. owing to a long 1·acancy, was five or six months in urrear. I have not spared myself in t h is endc.wonr, a nrl that in a position full of novel diffi culties and anxieties, and under unfamiliar conditions and surroundings. Apart from this unhappy episode, t hanks to much kind :tssistance from officers in the service, I th ink that Your Excellency will find that the work has not suffered to any ex tent in my hanch.

I am very sensible that, unlike yonrself, I am not crtnipped, either by training or experience, for duties such as the one which was required of me at H haYe been

109

26 July, 1904.

better for me if I had been less zealous in endeavouring to carry out what I conceived to be imposed upon me as a duty (I mean the taking of prisoners); and I regret exceedingly t hat I e1·er attempted it. The policy of the Government in the past, however, as I understa nd it, has been' to insist upon t he imprison ment of native offenders, in spite of difficulties, both as a punishment to t hem and as an example to other s. What

the difficulties are can only be realised when one rem em hers that or fifteen European officers, ::LRsisted by a fo rce

of 130 native constabul"ry, are charger! with the duty of subduing and governing a population of 350,000 natives, some of whom, like t he Goaribari, are of the lowest and most savage type of o:tn 11ibal to be found a nywhere in the world.

One is always wise after the event; and it is clear to me that it was n, graYe error of judgment on my part to have attempted a ny anests on board the " :Merrie England," and in not fore­ seeing that, in the event of any ti'Ouble occurring with the

natin:s, there would be bound to he co nsiderable excitement an

remainerl coo l and collected; but there a re fe w who cau remain mmlfectccl by the excitement a nd confu sion which naturally prevail under circumstances such as! have attempe

nothing can rectify. I have now given to Your Excellency :ts full an account of thie affmy as I can : and I have only to repeat that no blame can rightly be attributa ble to anyone in connection with it save myself only. I was primarily in authority, and as I am

solely responsible for the which was fo llowed, I am

ulso responsible for the consequences of it. 1 have, &c., (Signed) CHRIS. S. ROBINSON.

48. Then, next clay, he supplements that by saying (1·eading .from E.xhibit No. 7) :-Government House, Bl'itish New Guinea, 19th ,Tune, 1904. Your Excellency.-In the draft of my report to you of yester­

day's date, I Ind. included u traverse of certain statements made hy ?>Jr. ,Jiear a.nr! Mr. Abel, having reference chiefly to alleged con ve rs::Ltions they respectively state they had with me touching the Go,.ribari affray. The r eal f,tcts which I have stated, I beli eve accurately, are, u nhappy anrl unfortunate enough, without exaggeration or mi srepresentation of any kind; and upon reflection I hesitater! as to whether und.er all tho circnmsta n"os it was \\·orth while to deal with them s pecifically , especi'l.lly as so many other dic.torted statements

hn,1·e been circulated in the press and otherwi, e. These state­ ments rlo not lose anything in repetition ; aPd I realise that after all this lapse of time it wou ld be a hopeless task for me to attempt to overtake them ; and here let me state that

information of the statements which have been published, or rather infol'mati on of but some of them only, did not reacb me here until the mi

tlmt I learnt of the many semational stfttements which harl appcarecl in the newspapers, and tha t the matter was to be the snhiect of in quiry by a Hoyal Commission. i\11-. Abel, I Jflay add, had several opportunities of mentioning the matter

to me during tho few weeks I spent at n,ncl, in fact,

he called at the resicl ency one day when I was there, shortly before his d cpnrture, but gave me no hint of hi s intentions; nor dirl he at any time advert to the subject. I wish he had done so. With regard to Mr. statements, I think I have already

at a native in the \l·ut er. On the subject of his alleged con versation "ith me, I ha,·e retailed that, oh one occasion, after luncheon on the " J\l errio England" at Samarai, he and 1 were speaking of Mr. Cha lmers and of his death at Goaribari. I n,m not able to recall the d etails ,,f the conversation, nor any specific words of mine, as 1\lr. Abel professes to be ahle sc­ g lihly t.o do; but I know that I ha1·e n e1·er held t he opinion

which he declares I expressed, nor did 1 ever m:tke any state­ ment which could properly be so construed. There is no one wbom I revere and :tel mire more than Sir George L e Hunte It would be impossible fo r anyone cognizant of the facts as I "·as t o haYe expressed myself in those terms. I must

emphatically deny that I have expressed myself in thi3 way to 111 r . Abel, or to anyone else ; and or all the untruthful and vin­

d ictive which have been made me on thia

4t

H. Jiear.

and other matters-and between the Paiwa inciden t , referred to later, the Thursday I sland wharf episo de, and this, I have had my share of them--none ha\' c been more pa inful or more intolerable t han this. I hM·e no w ish to display any feeling

towards Mr. Abel ; bnt I venture to t hi nk that tinally he will be forced to admit, to himself tt t any rate, t hat in an excess of zeal, and in the light of r ecent events, h e h::ts attributed to me words and expressions which I, at all events, have the satiSfaction of knowing I ne1·cr uttered. . . . .

.Mr. Jiear's statementconttti:1s much of mi srepresentation and several untruths. I rlo not p ropose t o traverse hi s st at ement of eonversations wi th me in full detail h ere ; bnt I give my own stat ement of what w;t s mid between us, which I r ecollect p erfectly well. vVh en the fray " ·as over, Mr. :1 iear came to me and asked me if I hall gi ,-en the order to fi re. I replied that I had g ive n no orders, bu t that I supposed someone d id , ancl t hat the natives ha(l bee n ti ,·in g arrows, :m el t hat t he firin g was jListilicd. I also said "I have bee n firing myself; I fi red three >h ots at those ca noes," indicat ing t h em. I a lso informed him of Capta in Harvey's escape. an d l ment ioned t hat t he first shots

were fired from aft, while I was on t he fo re-deck look ing on :tt t he arrests there. Mr. Jiear then said "Oh, well, if they fired arrows they desel'\'ed all t hey got ; and if you a re

satisfied tlmt the fi ring was justifi ed I have nothing fmther to say. " I replied t here were a ''great many shots fired from astern. I hope t here were not many killed." Mr. Jiear then said " I was astounded when t he firing began, as I was in

charge, and I had not given fLny order s to fi re." I was about to remark upon the absurdity of this st atement, seeing that he was wrestling on the fore-deck with l ak e w hen the first arr ows were shot ; but I refrn ined, and merely r eplied

that I was satisfied that the fi ring was n ecessary. I may

say h ere that when .i\Jr. J iear took charge of the arrests

I had no idea that he intended p erson ally to seize and

wrestle with Iake; nor was it necessary or desirable tha t he should do so. Mr. Jiear's statements that I said "I do not think t here was anyone killed. I only fired t hree shots ; I

t oo k n o part in it ; I killed no one," and so on, are qui te

untrue; and so is the infere nce left to be drawn. M r . J'iear neY er a dopted the t one his st at ement would imply in his convers,•tion with rn o : in fact, we said very little t o one

fL tiOther on t he subjec t then or a t any other time. From the morning of the a ffray until now he has never acl\·erted to the s ubj ect ; and no doubt he r ealised thu.o t he affair had bee n ill­ managed, just as I did. for the stat ements which he

attributes to me above, they a re so palpably inconsistent with my actions and words, a nd particularly to my statement made t o him wh en he first sp oke to me, " I ha ve been firing myself, " that I dismiss t hem without further comment. I heard no conversation between l\fr' . J iear, Mr . Bruce , and Mr. J ewell. The la tter did n ot at any t im e express indigna­ tion to me or refuse t o a ccompany me in my boat, n or give expression to me to any of the statements alleged ; nor had I an y idea t hat he h ad clo ne so. I have never h ad ""Y

unple:tsantness with a ny on e of them; and :Mr. J ewell has been staying with me up to tho date of Y our Excellen cy's return, a few days :tgo. A wee k or t en days ago, how­

ever, from something I h eard, I questioned Mr. J ewell,

and he then informed me t hat he was not in sympathy wi t h the fi ring, and that it had bee n co nt inued too long ; and I too think now that it was. He added t hat he could not r ecollect what he had said in his excitement at the time. I asked him if he ha d expressed any opinions as to the number killed ; and he said he had t o M r. Bruce and Mr. Jiear, but withd rew it almost immediately . H e has since stated to me t hat other of his s tatements made u nder intense excitement, particul a rl y with regard t o my shots and t heir results, h e would as k to withdraw, and that h e

I have, &c.,

(Signed) C. S. ROBINSON.

-1 !). The statement he refers to there is that he expressed

26 July, 1904.

53. Q. How long have you held that posit ion? A. About t wo ye:.trs a nd nine part icular position.

54. Q. Were you on board the " .Merrie E ngland " wh en the Act ing Administrator wen t to Goaribari in March l<1st? A. I was. 55. Q. You arrived a, t Goaribari on Saturday afternoo n, the 5th of March, did you not? A. N o, in t he forenoon.

56. Q. ·when yo u arrived, wh at was t he first t hing you saw? Did you see th e nati"e canoes conveying t he women and children away across the channel ? A. Yes, I did. 5 7. Q. Just tell us what you saw? A. \Ve saw a good nu mber of native canoes of various sizes, large and small, conveying wo men and children on to t he mainland from Goaribar i Island, and from another point of the mainland which is pop ulated rath er tbickly, o ve r to another point of t he mainland, to the oppos ite sid e of t ho river. We t hen saw canoes returning.

58. Q. Was that a usual thing for the natives in that pa rt of the P ossession ? A. Yes. 59. Q. I mean, did t hat, in a ny way, indica te to your mind that t he natives look ed upon t his visit of the

" Merrie E ngland " as an offensive expedi tion 1 A . No. I a m quite used to seeing that sort of thing . I have

frequently seen it before. N ot at that particular spot ; though I ha ,·e seen t hem at that particular spot on one occasion before. B ut in other parts it is quite a usual thing.

60. Q. First of all, what was your position on the

"Merrie England " at this particular time ? vVere you, in any way, in charge? A . Y es; I had been ask ed by the Acting Administrator to

62. Q. Tell me what was said bet ween you and Mr. Robinson when he asked you 1 Jl. He said to me wh en we arri vecl at Daru, " vVo are going to make an extensive tour rou nd your .Division ; and I would like you to take charge of the party, as 1 have not been wes t before, and I do not know mu ch about th e people of the west . As you have been there so mu ch, I would be very glad if you would take charge of t he par ty, and direct its movements."

63. Q. Yes; wh at did you say? A. I said, "Very

well "; and I did so. · 64. Q. Th at was six weeks before you got to Goaribari 1 A. Yes, about that. 65. Q. vVas anything sai1l in t lJ e meantime? A. Yes; about t hree or four days before we reached there, , or perhaps a week before, I asked him if he would relieve me of the position of being in charge of th e party ; and h e said he wo uld prefer I should go on as I was, as he did n ot k now anything about Goa ribari, and there was no one else on board who had been there before, with the

exception, of course, of the "Merrie England " people. 66. Q. A nd you consented ? A. Y es . 67. Q. So t hat you were actually in charge of t he party when they anived at Goaribari on the 5th March-on the Stt turday morning. A. Yes. an opinion t o Mr. A bel that t he policy of Sir George L e

Hunte was a very weak one, and that h e meant to mend mat ters wh en h e got an opportunity. 50. That, Y our Honot·, is the last statement of Mr.

68. Q. You arrived t here on Saturday morning-I suppose you saw t hese canoes as yo n were com in g up the channel ? A . I t hink th<.:. t we were at anchor before W E'

R obinson before he committed sui cide; and th at is the las t doc ument ary evidence. I propose now to call the witnesses we ha,ve present, and I h and yo u a list of t he witnesses. I want tirst of all to call M r. J ica,r.

ARMY HENH.Y JIEAB. was sworn, and exami11 cd as under :-[j 1. BY lVIR. INN E S : (J. ·w ha t is your name ? A . A rmy H emy Jiear.

52 Q. \Vha.t is your pos ition? A . Besid ent Magistrate of the W estern Di of British New Guinea.

saw the canoes . 69. Q. vVhat hap pened next that is, the

Saturday morning? A. A good many canoes came up the ship, some r igh t up alongside, others

h o,·ering arou nd in the vici nity. 70. Q. Y ou say a goo d n umber --you mean ? A. Probably a h undred; perhaps more, pe l'll

/ '!.. Q. How many natives 11·ou ld those canoes hold­ h ow many '"C' re there at the time ? A. P robably GOO, approximately. 73 Q That was on

Some wo uld hold ten, the ·.· morning 1

others wuulJ only h old A. Yes. c:te. I

Witness-A. H . Jiear.

think there were approximately 600 per3ons, all males, principally adult males. 7 4. Q. Is it the usual thing for only adult males to come out on these occasions 1 A. Yes, quite usual. Women and children would not come to a large vessel like the "Merrie England." There are places where they would bring women off, but not young children under any circumstances.

. 75 . Q. When they came round-about 600 of them, yo u say-did any come on board 7 A. I do not think any came on board until the afternoon. 76. Q. Before the afternoon, did any trading go on 7 A. Y es; from the canoes up to the ship there was trading

77 . Q. In an ordinary and friendly manner 7 A . Y es; for weapons and native ornaments. There are certain articles which are not allowed to be t raded for. 78. Q. On the Saturday, were the.'e natives-male natives- armed 1 A. Y es.

79. By HIS HONOR: Q. Y ou don't say with what arms they were supplied 7 A. Bows and arrows. 80. By Th'IH. INNES: Q. Had t hey gauntlets on7 A. Y es. 8 1. By HIS HO.r OR : ir. Jiear, kindly describe the bows and arrows, t he range, and the general details.

82. By MR. INNES: Q. Just describe as accurately as you can how they were armed 7 A. They had t heir

gauntlets on in almost every case of an adult male. 1'he gauntlets are used to protect the left arm from the effect of the blow of the bow-string. They also had their bows and some arrows in their canoes. Some carried them in

their hands. The men who were paddling would have theirs in the bottom of the canoe. H3 . Q. W ere they trading these arrows 7 A. Yes. 8±. Q. Were they trading on that particular day 7

A. Yes . 85. Q. What is about the range of these arrows 1 A. I have made some scientific tests at various times. They vary considerably in different parts of \Vestern New Guinea. I have not made any accurate scientific tests at

Goaribari itself; but I have where the t ribes use similar weapons. The range of the ordinary fighting fLITOw would be up to about 60 yards point-blank range. It would be just as effective, but in a different ma nner, up to 200 yards. If they knew that there was a n object which t hey

wanted to bit a t that distance, they would fire with a very high trajectory, and they would take t heir chance of one of the arrows hitting it. 86. Q. Do you know whether these ar ro ws are poisoned or A . I think not. I have not yflt found a poisoned

arrow in that part of New Guinea. Of cou r se, t hey are very often very dirty ancl filthy, and might perhaps cause blood-poisoning. 87. BY HIS HONOR: Q. \Vhat length of arro w do

they use? A. They vary from 2 ft. 6 in. to 5 ft. 6 in. The bow varies in length also. I have seen bows as lon g as 6 ft. 9 in. Of course you will get them from 18 inches long, which are given young lads to learn with, and which are also used in the initiation customs of the natives.

88. BY MR. INNES : Q. vVhat would be the length of the bow an adult native of Goaribari would A. About 4 ft. 9 in. to 5 ft. 6 in. usually. 89. Q. Those were the descript ion of bows you saw t hat morning 1 A. Y es, most of them would be that. I do

not remember seeing anything special in their weapons that day. 90. BY HIS HONOR: Q. Do they carry their bows A. Yes, always strung, unless it is being carried for

some special purpose. I do not think they move from their house on any occasion without arms. 91. BY MR. I :rNES : Q. vVere the arrows sheathed, or were they .tl. I saw a good many loose, and I saw

a good many put up in sheaths. They are sections of bamboo hollowed out with one end of the section left in, and the other end is filled with a so r t of stopper made of ti-tree bark

G

45

Ill

26 July, 1904.

92. Q. They were trading this morning for those arms 7 A. Yes. 93. Q. Had they any other anus 1 A. Yes; occasion:tlly you would see a stone club, but not often at Goaribari. The coa.st natives have not got very many.

94. Q. They depend almost entirely upon their bows and arrows 1 A. Yes. 95 . Q. Did you, on t hat morning, make any inquiries as to where the ringleaders in the Chalmers massacre were : or make any inquiries on t he subject. of the massacre at _ all ? A. I knew four of the men who were wanted. I

had seen them previously. 06. Q. You were with Sir George Le Hunte on his 1902 ex pedition 7 A. Yes; I had seen these four men pre­ viously; and, as I did not see them about in the crowd, I questioned some of the other natives as to their where, a bouts. They t old me the villages to which they belonged, and also told me t hey were abou t . That was about

mid-day. The same thing occurred during the afternoon. These inquiries take a long time to find out. 97. Q. Can you speak the language at all? A . Not the Goaribari. I can speak K iwai.

91:1. Q. Can you communicate with these natives at all 1

A. With some of t hem, but not all. They (some of them) understand the Kiwai. They speak a sort of "pidgin" Kiwai which is understood. 99. Q. You knew of course that Kemeri was there ; did you ask about him at all ? A. Yes; I inquired as to

where be was. 100. Q. Didyoufind outwherehewas? A . Yes. Well, we heard several stories. 101. Q. As a matter of fact, you never saw him 1 A. No. They told us he was in three different places ; so that we came to the conclusion they were telling us falsehoods, as far as he was concerned.

102. Q. You say you knew these four men that were the ringleaders, and the four men whom Sir George Le H unte had demanded . Did you see any of them 7 A. I two

of them during the afternoon. I saw Iake, the man who actually kill ed Chalmers; and I saw a man named Ema, who killed Tomkins. They were really the two principal oflenders.

103. Q. \Vhere were they when you saw them? A. In canoes round the ship. 'rt1at was on Saturday afternoon. 10·i. Q. Did you have any communication with them 1 A. Yes; I was talking to E m a for some time; first of all from the landing of the "Merrie England" and afterwards

I was in his C< moe with him. 105. Q. What happened 1 A . I was making some in­ quiries as to the whereabouts of the other man, because it. had been decided t hat these men had to be arrested under any ci rcumstances, it did not matter where they were; and, seeing t hat I ake was there present also, I thought it advisable to arres t these two men if t hey could be got together. But, while I was talkin g to Ema, I ake moved off and went away ; and I then thought it wou ld be better

to put off the matter of the a rrest, because if we only got one man we should frighten the others. So I just sat abo ut to him, and makin g various inquiries from

him ; and a li ttle later on Judge Robinson spoke to me fr om the ship, and told me that he th ought t hat I had better come back to the" Merrie England." He did not think it was safe to be in a native canoe with a known murderer ; and at the same time he sent a poli ceman out with a pair of leg-irons to me. He said "If yon can ge t the man, perhaps it would be as well to get him." H e also sent a 1·evol ver to me, and told me I had better keep some arms- he did not think it was safe for me to be

there unarmed. 106. Q. But, as a matter of fact, you made no attempt to arrest him 1 A. No. 107. Q. You said it was decided to capture these men. By whom 1 A . l\Iyself and the A<.:ting Administrato r, l\ir. Robinson.

Witness-A. H. Jiear.

108. Q. When was that? A. The night previous to our arrival at Goaribari. 109. Q. You had had a talk with Mr. Robinson 1

A. Yes, we had had several talks on the way up from Daru to Goaribari. llO. Q. And you say it had been decided that these two men should be arrested? A. Yes; and also the other two, if possible.

Ill. Q. Did anything else happen that afternoon? A. No; there was a good deal of trading with native

weapons and ornaments during the afternoon, until pretty late ; and I think there were a few native skulls brought along and traded for; and I ordered them· to be sent away, because we do not allow t rading in native skulls.

112. Q. About what time did the natives leave the "Merrie England " that day ? A. I suppose they would all be well away before sundown. I did not see any there after sundown ; that is the usual thing.

113. Q. Everything · was perfectly ordinary, friendly trading with the natives; and nothing of an extraordinary occurrence happened at all? A. No; excepting t he in­ quiries that were made.

114. Q.You sawiake there t oo? A. Yes; Iakewent away though ; he did not stay very long that afternoon . 115. Q. "YVell now, we come to the next morning. I want you to tell me, as exactly as you can, what happened next morning, Sunday. During the night was there any

unusual occunence in the villages t hat you noticed 1 A. No; there was nothing unusual in the villages that I knew of. 116. Q. You heard no warlike sounds? A. No; it was very quiet that night. It was said by some person on

board the "Merrie England,"- I really do not know who said it-t.hat there were a lot of lights moving about in the village; b ut that is quite a common thing. It did strike me as being unusual.

11 7. Q. How long experience have you had of that district 1 A. Upwards of five years now- not in

Goaribari ; but in that district. 11 8. Q. Well, now, on the Sunday morning? A. I was up myself at daylight on Sunday morning- that would be about a quarter to five . The canoes were coming off then to the ship-stragglers coming along. There were a good many came off; I suppose there would be as many as, or more than, on t.he previous afternoon. .

11 9. Q. So that there would be more than 600 around the vessel? A. There might not have been more; but I think there were more. At any rate, there were a great number of natives.

120. Q. Did they come off in a straggling way, or with a combined movement ? A. They came along in a strag­ gling formation. They came from all parts of the district. We were right in the centre of a cluster of villages.

121. Q. Were the natives dressed any differently from what they were on the previous day in the way of arms or war paint? A. No; they were not in what I k now as

fighting costume. They, of course, wore a lot of ornaments; but the Goaribari natives always do, and are always very highly painted, or decorated. They did not have what I know to be fighting dress. That is a very peculiar h'lad­ dress, and certain peculiar shell ornaments, which arc only worn on fighting or special occasions. I did not see any of these.

122. Q. ·were they any different frqm their appearance on the previous dn,y? 11. No, I think not. I did not

notice anything pec uliar about their dress. 123. Q. From anythin g you saw in t heir appearrmce did you form th e op inion that they had com o out with an intention to a ttack the vessel ? il. N o ; I did not. Qu iLe

the opposite conclusion to tha t. 12 4. Q. vVhy 1 A. Because they were there; and I saw them offering curios for trading purposes; a-nd thei r arms were just as usual. Their arrows were in their sheaths. I also saw a good many bundles of arrows tied up.

46

26 July, 1904,

125. Q. Would they have these arrows tied up in this way if they had any intention of fi ghting ? A. No; they would not.. They would have had them done up in a.

different manner entirely. 126. Q. You are of opinion that there was no attack intended at all ? A. Yes. 127. BY HIS HONOR: Q. When the arrows are done up in bark, am I to understand they are not easy to extract? Jl. Y es ; they are not for immediate use. They neYer· carry arrows like that if they are likely to be fighting or hunting.

128 . Q. )fore like arrows for trade 1 A . Yes. 129. BY MH. INNES: Q. vVas any trading done with arrows that morning 1 A. Yes ; I believe there was. I . saw a little of it; but not very much. I spoke to Judge Robinson, and told him I thought it would be a good thing if an order were given t hat no trading should be begun that morning.

130. Q. Had you had any conversation with Judge Robinson t hat night? Jl. Yes. 131. Q. What was it? A. He said-of course he had already said it, bnt he said it again- he thought it would

be a good t hing if we got from eight to a dozen natives and took them away to Port Moresby as hostages, and for educative purposes ; and that, if we were not able to arrest those four offenders, we should then have some natives

whom we could keep and detain on that account; so that, in his opinion, we should be likely to get the real offenders later on by returning these people. 132. Q. Did you agree to that? Had you any alternative scheme to suggest? A. Yes; I said I did not altogether disagree with the plan of getting hostages; but I did with the methods he proposed to adopt to detain them.

133. Q. What did you suggest 1 A. I suggested that wB should get these men at the villages if we could not get t he other men. 134. Q. The "Merrie England" party should land and detain them 1 A. The Administrator's party. The "Merrie England " party is a different party altogether.

13 5. Q. He did not agree with that; and, eventually, you say, a decision was arrived at, that hostages sh<;mld be detained when they callle aboard the next day 1 A. J us t so.

13G. Q. You say these natives came round the ship on the Sunday morning. Now, I want you to t ell me what happened? A. A good many natives came aboard the ship ; there were proba,bly 20, perhaps more, perhaps less. I saw lake alongside the ship, ::;tanding on the steam launch. I tried to persude him to come on board the

" Merrie England "; and I also sent a man to see if he

could get Ema. 137. Q. Did you see him in the canoes around the ship 1 A. No. I had dec ided to supervise the arrest of these two men myself, with my own orderly. We got l ake on the ship ; and when he came on board my orderly arrested him.

138. Q. Did you t ell Judge Robinson that you were going personally to arrest these men ? A . I t old him I would a ttend to the arrest of them. l3D. (] . You S< ty lake came on board? A . He did not come right on board. H e was sittin g on t he rail. I spoke to one of the natives. I called out to him in English asking if he saw the other man; and he said he had seen him, buL he had gone away again. The Judge came along close to me at the time ; and he said " I think you had better wait fL little longer ; we might get the other men." I waited

probably fiv e minu tes ;. and I made further inquiries as to wh ere Emtt was; and they t old me he had gone right :t\\'ay to th e Yil!itgc. Then I told my orderly to arres t hke. H e got hold of him ; and was proceeding to hand­ cuff him ; but he struggled so violently that I had to assist him myself. H e kicked and bit a good deal, and struggled; and we were t hrown on to t he deck. I was underneath. H e was lying on top of me, and my orderly

Witness-A. H. Jiear.

top of him ; and we were there for some quarter of an

hour or more-probably more. 140. Q. While you were struggling_ did you hear any­ thing ? A. Yes ; I beard a lot of shouting, and talking, and rifle shots.

141. BY HIS HONOR : Q. When did you l1 ear the rifle shots ? A . I should say about five minutes after we began our struggle. I know we had not got ou r ma n

either handcuffed or leg-ironed. I t hink it was some few minutes after we started to struggle that I heard the fir st shot. 142. Q. ·where did that first shot appear to come from? A. I could not say, your Honor. I was rather interested at the time.

143. BY MR. INNES: Q. ·whereabouts in t he ship was this struggle taking place? A. On the foredeck. 144. Q. vVas the shot aft? A. The first shot that I

heard was followed so soon after by quite a fusillade that I would not like to say. 145. Q. Can you say whether it was forward or aft? A. I would not like to say.

146. BY HIS HONOR : Q. The struggle was on the starboard side? A. It was on the port side. 147. Q. You heard the rifle fire. You say it was

followed by a fu sillade 7 A. Y es . .

148. Q. Did the firing go on the whole time you were struggling? A . It was cont inued right up to within a minute or two of the t im e I got up ; and after I got up I heard about a dozen shots.

149. BY Mil. INNES: Q. In your opinion t he fi ring con­ tinued for about a quarter of an hour? A. Yes, about that. 150. Q. You got up; and what happened then after securing lake? A. I walked a little along, to where I saw the native policeman with one of those men who had been captured and detained; and I saw one of t he crew of the

"Merrie England" standing over h im with a rille in his hand, club fashion. I caught hold of him by t he sh oulder, and pulled him back, and asked him. why he struck a native when he was pinioned. I t old him to go to his

quarters; and that it was no business of his to be inter­ fering with these men. I then went along aft; or, rather, I came round to the otherside of the ship. I sa w the

Judge standing ther e, just alongside the alley-way. I saw him there with his rifle in his hand; or, rather, he had it leaning over. His h and was on the barrel ; and he

moved it down towards the stock as if it was hot. I said, "Did you order the firing " ? He said " No I did not."

H e said " I was standing near yo u all the time." I

then said, "Have there been any natives killed 1" He said "I do not think so ; I did not see any." 151. Q. Did be say anything about firing himself 7 A. Y es. He said "I was standing near you all the time; and

I only fired three shots; but I did not kill anyone," or "I did not hit anybody "-I am not quite sure whether he said "kill " or "hit." 152. Q. Did he say anything about. how the firing commenced- what the provocation was? A. Yes; he

mentioned that the natives h ad been firing arrows. 153. Q. Befor e the firing commenced 1 vVell, I took him to mean that. 154. Q. Did you ask him whether there was any

justification for the firing ? A. Y es. 155. Q. What did he say to that? A. He said "Yes,

they were firing arrows." 156. Q. As a matter of fact I understand there is a

standing order-do you know of it-that if th e constabulary see any native firing an arrow they are to use their rifles? A. Y es ; I do know that. 157. Q. Or if they see a native preparing to fire? A.

Y es. In the west, with me, it is a general order that, if a native is seen putting an arrow into the bo w, he is to be injured in some way to prevent him from injuring others. 158. BY HIS HONOR : Q. I s he to be fired at at

once ; or is a shot to be fired over his head to begin d.. W ell Your Honor, a lot depends upon the circum-

113

26 July, 1904.

stances : there are some people whom we can fire over ; and it would be just as effec tive. In those places my police know they are not to fire at a man, but to fire over.: but in most mtses the man's instructions are to fire at him

to kill him. It is a very bad plan, in most cases, to fire at a native and not to kill him. .

159. BY MR. I NNES : Q. On board the " Merrie

England" what was the constabulary force? A. Thirty­ nine, I believe, all told. 160. Q. W hat did they consist of? A . The Command­ ant, Mr. Bruce, t hree or four non-commissioned native officers, and the rest common

161. Q. vVere all under the Commandant, Mr. Bruce 1 A. I had seven men of the Darn detachment there, who would be directly under my control; but they were ·all really under the Commandant's control, more or less.

Still, on this occasion, they wouJd be under my orders. The Commandant is Commandant in British New Guinea. It is customary for the Magistrate to have some of his own men, because they know the localities; and they act as his own boat's crew.

162. Q. ·what is your men's shooting efficiency? A. Fairly effective at short range. Up to 200 yards they are reasomtbly good shots. 163. Q. Are they armed with modern rifles 1 A. I do

not think yo u would call them modern. It is a Lee-Enfield carbine; it is an effec tive ·weapon up to 500 yards. 164-. Q. Had you any conversation with Mr. Robinson t hen? You have told us that he said that there was a

_justification fo r the fi ring. Did you say you agreed with him, or anything like that? A. I said " Are you sure,

Sir, that the firing was necessary 7" and he said "Yes ; I am sure it was necessary." I said " Very well, Sir; if you are satisfied, I am." Of course there had been some other things taken place in the meantime. I had spoken to other people ; and other people had said several things to me.

165. HIS HONOR : I understand these gentlemen arc to be called as witnesses 1 166. MR. INNES: Yes. 167 . HIS HONOR: That part of Mr. Jiear's evidence might be reserved till later on.

16 8. Mn. INNES : Q. I don't want you to give us

any convers:Ltion. I just want you to tell us what you saw. You say after you got up you heard about twelve shots fired ? A. Yes ; about that; probably less. 169. Q. 'l'he firing stopped very shortly after you got up 1 A. Yes.

170. Q. Did you see the result of those shots? A.

No; I saw no result, as a matter of fact, except empty canoes . I saw no bodies, nor anyone killed. I do not

know that the empty canoes were a result of the firing. 171. BY H IS HONOR: Q. The natives wo uld never leave their canoes h anging about empty and unmoored unless they had special reasons 7 A. There would be some :special reason.

172. "BY Mu. INNES : Q. But, if they were shot at, they would dive out? A . Yes. 17 3. B Y H IS H ONOR: Q. But, otherwise, would thero be anything to acco unt for an empty cano e 1 A. That is what occurred to my mind at the time. A native will

never desert his canoe except under special circumstances; because they take a long time to make, and they only havo nati,·e tools in their district. 17 4. Q. They are quite as much at home in the water as on the land? A. I would not like to say that; but

· they arc good swimmers. Sharks are not common ; but crocodiles are Ycry common. l7G. Q. Crocodiles or alli gators? A . Crocodiles. 17 G. Q. )· .. re t he natives afraid of them ? A. Yes; very

much. 177. BY :Jin. : Q. It would require a man to be

a good deal afraid before h e wo uld leave his canoe? A. Y es. H e would be either Yery )Iluch afraid ; or thcra \YOuld be something ve ry spec i

Wit ness-A. H. Jiear.

178. Q. At any rate, all you saw was empty canoes? A. Yes. 179. BY HIS HONOR : Q. The rest of the canoes, that were not empty, bad t hey cleared out? A. I saw some from a quar ter of a mile to a mile away from the ship, and some natives pulling their canoes up on t he shore, and other natives struggling through the mud, getting home to their village.

180. BY MR. INNES: Q. Was that after the firing had ceased 1 A. Yes; they were all making away as rapidly as possible. 181. Q. Did you ever fi nd out from questions who fir ed that first shot 1 A. I do not know that it was the fi rst

shot; but the Corporal of the Daru detachment of police, a man under my direct control, told me that he saw a man standing on the boom of the "Merrie England" about to fire an arrow at Captain Harvey,

182. BY HIS HOKOR: Q. By "the boom, " do you mean--1 A. The boom t hat was extended for the

purpose of mooring the boats. 183. Q. 'l'hat was extended from tho rail? A. Yes, it goes out from the rail on the starboard sid e. 184. BY MR. INNES : Q. I you questioned

various other comtables of the Darn detachment; and they told you they had seen the natives shooting 'I A . They told me they had seen the corporal shoot; and that is why they fired.

185 . Q. Did not they say they saw the natives fire ? A. 'l'hey said they saw the corporal shoot; and then they saw the natives firing arrows. 186. Q. Did you see any natives firing arrows 1 A. No.

187. Q. Have you any idea of the number of arrows fired 1 A. No. I picked up four arrow h eads on the

foredeck. 188. Q. Do you know if Yes ; I heard that one was and I think one was found chart-room.

any others were found 1 A. found in the engineer's cabin ; on the bridge deck, near the

189 . Q. If an arrow was would t he arrow be found 1 might pass over.

fired and struck the vessel, A. Not necessarily ; they

190. Q. But, supposing they struck, would they be found? A. Yes ; they should be found there. I think

six were found. I found fo ur myself; or, rather, had them br ought to me, and the place was shown to me. 191 . Q. Supposing a flight of arrows was fired, would you see it while you were struggling 1 A. No. I did not know any arrows were being fired, though one came within a foot of me, or, rather, of my orderly.

19 2. Q. All this occurred before breakfast 1 A, Y es, between seven and eight. 19 3. Q. And you say in about a quarter of an hour's time all the canoes had left the boat; and were makin" off home1 A. Yes.

0

19 4. Q. W hat happened after that 1 A. I sen t down for my glasses, and went on to the bridge deck, and

co unted the canoes that were floating about empty. 19 5. Q. How many did you count? A . I have quite forgotten; but I believe it was from twenty to thirty. 196. BY HIS HONOR: Q. Of various sizes, I snppose?

A. -Y es ; they vary considerably, from six feet long to fifty. 197. Q. Among the canoes you counted, were there any very large ones ? A. There were several of the largest size, and several of the smallest.

198. BY MR. INNES : Q. How many natives will the largest size carry? A . As many as thirty in some of them ; but that is rare. ·

199. Q. But of those you saw 1 A. I daresay two of them I saw would carry thirty each; if th·Jy were filled . I certainly d1d not see any canoe \\'ith thirty in it that morning round the ship.

200. Q. The canoes are capable of holding from thirty c'!own to one? A. Y es.

4 0. .....

26 July, 1904.

201. Q. That is, of the thirty empty ones you saw 1 A . Y es.

202. Q. Are those large canoes war canoes 1 A. I do not know them as war canoes. I have heard them so

described by people who do not know anything about it. 203. Q. \Vhat else occ urred that morning ? What happened after you saw these natives dispersing in this way ? A. \Ve went off in two parties to t he differen t

villages, and visited several of them. 204. Q. vVho are "we " ? A. Myself and Mr. J ewell in one boat ; and the A cting Administrator, Mr. Robinson, and Mr. Bruce, the Commandant of the Constabulary, in another.

205. 0. Was it a customary thing for you and Mr. J ewell to go together 1 A. H e used to accompany Mr. Robinson usually. 206. Q. Had he, on any other occasion, accompanied you 1 A. No. The custom was for him to accompany the A cting Administrator.

207 . Q. Did you see Mr. Jewell shortly after the firing had ceased 1 A. Yes ; I saw him almost simultaneously with seeing the Judge, within a second or so afterwards. 208. Q. In what state or condition was Mr. J ewell ? A. H e was very excited.

209. Q. Just tell me what was said between you? What was Mr. J ewell doing when you saw him 1 A. H e was walking up and down the deck. 210. Q. Do you know if he had been firing 1 A. I do not know.

21 L Q. Had he a rifl e 1 A. No. H e walked quite

close to me ; and I lward him remark "This is devilish treachery. I will write to the 7.'im es about this, and see that the world knows all about it." 212. Q. Did you hear him say anything about Mr. Robinson shooting 1 A. Yes. H e said the Judge had shot a ·good number of natives . I forget the number he said at the time. It struck me at the time as being an impossible number, I know. I know he said that the Judge had shot a number of natives, and was firing as quickly as he could load his magazine. I said to him "Calm yourself, J ewell ; it is a very serious matter; tell me how many natives have been killed." H e said "There must have been at least 200 "on the fir st occasion. I said "I think that is impossible. Be calm and tell me, because I want to know." He said "There must have been at least sixty or seventy." He said" I saw the Judge shoot fi ve in one shot." He walked about ; and I went to speak to the Judge after that.

213. BY HIS HON OR : Q. Did the J udge overhear this conversation at all between you and Mr. J ewell ? A. I t hink not; I think he went away. I believe h e went to his room whil e I was speaking to Mr. Jewell. I also said to Jewell "How many natives did you see shot "? H e said "I do not know how many ; but all t he police were firing ; so was the Judge, and some of the crew of the

'Merrie E ngland.' I saw the Judge shoot fi ve in one shot; and I saw Rothwell shoot one." I went to speak to the Judge after that. 2 14. Q. ·well now, after breakfast, you said, the two parties went to visit the various villages ; and t hat you and Mr. Jewell went with one. vVhat position had Mr. J ewell1

A. He was acting Private Secretary to Mr. Robinson. 215. Q. H ow did it com e about that you and Mr. J ewell went together, and Mr. Bruce and t he Judge 1 A. I had seen that Mr. J ewell was very angry after what ha d taken place; and I thought it advisable that t hey should not be t hrown together du ring the clay; and I also wanted to :speak to Mr. J ewell ; so I went to the Judge, and I told

him t hat I thought it would be better if the party was rean angecl . I also said to him that I could not agree to go ashore on the same footing as we we re that morning; and t hat we would have to rearrange matters, because l could not agree to be considered in charge of the party when rifle firing had taken place without my consent.

Witness-A. H. 'Jiear.

216. Q. What did he say to that 1 A. He mid " Very well; tell me what we had better do. Perhaps we h ad better arrange a plan now. " So we arranged that Mr. Bruce should go with him, and that 1\1r. J ewell should come with me in my boat, and that no rifle-firing should

take place except under circumstances of actual danger to life. No measures were to be taken without I gave the order. I went back to the forepart of t he ship and saw Mr. Jewell. I said to him "I have < Lrrangcd that you are to accompany me, and Mr. Bruce is to go with t he Administrator." H e said, " I am very glad of that; but I want to sec the Judge first." He said, " I would not

go with him." vVe both wa-lked along,

Judge ; and he (Jewell) said "Do you wish me to go

ashore this morning, sir 1" The Judge said " It is not part of your duty to go ashore: if you do not wish, you can stay ; but we have arranged for you to go with Mr. JiPar." He said "I am quite willing to go with Mr.

Jiear, sir. " That is the actual eonvcrsation which took place. Later on J e we ll said to me "I would not have

gone ashore with the Judge ; I could not. I do not know what I would have said or done." 217. Q. \V ere there other men b esides lake cl eta,ined that morning 1 A. Y es ; there \v erc eleven, I think,

altogether. 218. Q. Besides lake? A. Yes, I think so. 219. Q. Do you know who arrested these mcn- wa,s it the constabulary force 1 A. I only saw two men b eing arrested. I have h eard who arrested them.

220. Q. What have you heard 7 A. I have heard tha,t it was some of the constabulary, assisted by the crew of the "Merrie England." I saw two instances myself in which a native constable was struggling with a m1tive;

anJ I saw Captain Harvey assisting him. I also saw

afterwards, after I had secured lake, a native constable wrestling with a man. Then I saw a member of the crew of the "Merrie England " with a rifle about to hi t a ma n ; the man was handcuffed but not leg-ironed. It was t he

constabulary, assisted by the crew, as far as I know. 221. Q. You went ashore that morning? A . Yes. 222. Q. What happened 1 Tell us what you did, shortly. A . We landed at several villages.. The Judge in sisted that his boat should take precedence; and his bm1t went ashore first in each case, and my boat followed immediately after.

\Ve walked through several native houses, back into our boats again, and then into anoth er village. 223. Q. did the natives do ? A. They all ran

away. 224. Q. About what was the number of your two boat­ loads 'I A. There would be n.bout eighteen in :iVlr.

boat, ancl ttbout ten in mme. Then there

would be two steam launches. 225. Q. Did they land 1 A. No; they did not land.

They hacl some native co nstableA on board. · 2:2G. Q. In every village you visited the natives cle;wed out ? A. Yes ; all that day, as soon as we would leave the village, we would see a few come back. \ Ve bad no

communication with t he natives that day. 227. Q. \Vell, next day? A. We went to more villages on thfl .Monday, a nd t he same t hing occurred- the natives n,ll ran away. As soon as we left the villages they used

to come back, some of them. 228. Q. Did you get any communication with them 1 A. vV e did speak to a few natives t hat day ttt one village. 229. Q. Do you know what was said to tl1em ? /l. Y cs; a set story was told to t hem. T hey were told we only

115

26 July, 1904.

wanted to get those four men and Tomkins' skull. We used t o inquire as to the whereabmts of those men, and as to the whereabouts of Tomkins' skull. 230. Q. Did you get any satisfaction from 1 A.

No; we various stories.

231. Q. Well, what became of those eleven persons who were detained as hostages 1 A. That afternoon, the

Monday afternoon, when we got back to the ship about 5 o'clock, I had a talk to Mr. I1.obinson about the matter, a nd pointed out to h im that two or three of these men were very old men, and t ha t it was not advisable to take

them away from their hornes. He agreed; and we decided to return these men, iLn cl make use of them by sending messages to their tribes, because we thought th

co uld go back and tell them. That afternoon we se nt back one ; we sent him ashore to Dopima Village. That was on Monday afternoon. There had also been a number

of canoes come round t he ship during my absence, I heard, and they had been talkir.g from some distance. They stood off perhaps a hundred yards, and spoke to their friends, who were captnr ed, on the ":Merrie England."

2:32 . Q. That was told you on your return 1 A . Y es.

I heard there was about a dozen canoes, with a lot of men anrl some women, who had been >peaking to t hese people on boarJ . 2:33 . Q. When you left the "l\1-crrie who was

in A. Captain Harvey.

234. Q. Had he just his crew 1 A . H e had the whole of his crew, with the exception of four men who were on t he launches. 235. Q. Did all the constabulary go with you 1 A. No,

not all of them. 236. Q. vVere some left on board 1 A . Yes, four or fi ve. 237. BY HfS HONOR: Q. How many are there of the "JYierrie England? " A. I am not snre, twenty-five or twenty-six.

238. BY MR. INNES : Q. I understand the "Merrie England" carries a N ordenfeldt 1 A. I know she has a gun of some kind ; it is up near the chart-house. 239. Q. As far as you know, no attack, or anything approaching an attack, was made on the "Merrie

E ngland" after that Sunday morning 1 A. So far as I know, there was not. 240. Q. You have told us that, on the Monday, one prisoner was given back 1 A. On the Tuesday morning we Bent back two others.

241. Q. In the c ;ame way, I suppose? A. No ; I took

them back mvsPlf, and the Administrator came wit h me in the boat. "vve took them to 'l'urotere village. 242. Q. You told them to t ell the others what you

wanted ? A. Yes; we saw a g0od many natives t hat

morning. Th ey C3me up and spoke to us. 2+:3 . Q. Did you t ell them what you wanted 1 A . Yes ; and what we were there for. 244. BY HIS H ONOR : Q. Is Turotere to the eastern end of ·the northern side of Goaribari 1 A . No, Your

Honor ; it is to the west of D opima. 245. Q. Where is Dopima 1 A. Dopima is the village as you go into tho ch a nnel leading to the Omati River. Dopima and Turotere arc less than a mile from each other. It is a very dens ely-populated district.

246. (j. vVhat would he the population at that side of the island ? A . Goaribari I :;land has about 3,500 natives .

[The Commi ssion adjourned at l p.m.]

Witness-A. H. Jiear. 26 Juiy, 1904.

AFTERNOON SIT'f!NG.-FIRST DAY.

TUESDAY, 26 J ULY, 1904, 2 P.M.

[Mr. J. Ga'l"liclc toolc shorthand notes of the evidence and proceedings. J 261. Q. They had each, th

pended their 25 rounds, and some they had borrowed?

ARMY HENR-Y JIEAR (previously sworn) was further examined as under:-247. BY MR. INNES: Q. Beforeweadjourned,youwere telling us the events of Monday and Tuesday; and you said that, on Tuesday, the two other prisoners were returned to the natives-you yourself, with Mr. Robinson, went to return them ? A. Yes.

248. Q. And nothing else occurred, I believe, on the Tuesday? A. Yes ; there were other occurrences. 249. Q. Nothing you have not told us? You went

among the villages and got into communication with them ? A. One Yillage only. 250. (J. What else happened that day? A. We went to Turotere and landed these two men; and we saw twenty or thirty natives, and spoke to several of them, and told them what we wanted, and what we had come there for; \Lnd explained that we had brought back these two men because they were old and aged men, and also so that they could go round and tell their tribesmen that the men we were taking aw-ay were not injured, and would not be killed or injured in any other way. And we told them that, if they would bring along the skull that we required, that is Tomkins' skull, and would assist in any way in tho arrest of the other three men that we wanted, we would be very glad; and that at least some of the men would be released.

251. Q. Some of the men you had taken as hostages? A. I believe this was told to them-I myself did not do so-I bclieYe Judge Robinson told them; but he did not do so in my presence. Still I know that he did do so. He told them this through int6l·preters.

252. Q. Did anything else happen that day? A. Yes. We went back to the " Merrie England " and several canoes came along, and brought some skulls of natives. They stood off about 70 or 80 yardR, and put the skulls into one canoe and let it adrift, and let it float with

the tide alongside the ship. We secured the canoe, and got the skulls up on board, and found they were just

native skulls, and not what we wanted. Some of those skulls were kept by the Administrator, and some of them were put back into the canoe; a,nd it wa,s let go a,gain. 253. Q. Did you have any communication with the natives in the canoes round about? A. Yes. vVe spoke to them about the whereabouts of this skull particularly; and also told them that these natives that were being taken away would be brought back later on.

254: Q. Was there anything else that day, Tuesday? A. No. vVe waited about two hours after that, I think. 255. Q. And no more canoes cmne? A. No more canoes came. Several went up and down along the shore about 300 or 400 yards away, crying and calling out to us, but t'hey did not come' up close to us.

256. Q. You left that afternoon? A. Yes; the steamer left that afternoon. She left, and went east to Orokolo. 257. Q. That is between Goaribari nnd Port Moresby? A. Yes; on the. coast-line between those two places.

258. Q. Did you, at any time, ende::wou r to form, or ditl vou form, any estimate of how many shots were fired from the "Merrie England" on the Sunday morning 1 A. I l1ave not, myself.

259. Q. Did you make any enquiries, or come to any yourself? A. Yes ; I inquired from the Darn

detachment of police what ammunition they had used, and I found that they had expended all their own, ancl some that they had borrowed from other constables . 260. Q. How much did that amount to 1 A. They had 25 rounds ench, and I do not know how many they

borrowed; I could not find that out.

A. Some they had borrowed from the Commandant's detachment; I do not know this, but I heard the police saying that the Commandant's detachment of con­ stabulary had expended most of their ammunition; there were some recruits, comparatively new men, who had not used all theirs.

262. Q. Do you know what their supply was? A. Yes; it was 25 rounds each. 263. Q. How many police were there on board alto­ gether, including your seven men 1 A. Thirty-nine.

264. Q. Can you tell us who issued those rounds to the police? A. Yes, in the case of the Daru detachment,

Corporal U ria, who was in charge of that party; and I believe the ammunition was issued to the Commandant's detachment by the sergeant, a boy named Antonio. 265. Q. 1'hen this is only you heard, about their

having 25 rounds each 1 A. Of course, I did not see it in this particular instance in their possession, except in one or two instances. I ha,ve inspected one or two of my own men to see that they had it; I do not know whether the others had it. I instructed the Commandant to issue it to them.

266. Q. Did you find out from your detachment, the Daru police, as to whether they had made any estimate of how many they themselves l1ad ];:illed 1 A. Yes; I made inquiries from my men; and they said they had shot, between them, fifteen natives.

267. BY HIS HONOR: Q. You mean that the Daru. police had ? A. Yes. 268. Q. The Daru seven had ? A. Yes; they accounted for fifteen between them.

269. BY Mu. INNES: Q. As compared with the other constabulary, what sort of shots were your men 1 Up to. 200 yards, you said that the Daru men were pretty good shots 1 A. Yes.

270. Q. As compared with the other constabulary,-­ the remaining thirty-two, under Commandant Bruce,­ were your men better or worse 1 A. Very much better; immeasurably superior in every way, as shots.

271. Q. You say your seven men, expending twenty­ five rounds each, said they killed fifteen; or thought they killed fifteen ? A. Y es. 272. Q. Can you tell me, did the captain of the "Merrie England," Captain Harvey, and his crew, know, before the Sunday morning, that thf'se arrests were about to .be made on the Sunday morning 1 A. I could not say; but I believe Captain Harvey knew something of it. If he did not know exactly what was to take place, I believe he knew that there were some natives to be detained if they came on board the ship.

273. Q. Had this been spoken about generally on the way between Darn and Goaribari--this plan of taking: hostages ? A. It h ad been spoken about amongst a few of the officials.

27 4. BY HIS HONOR: Q. I understand this was a sort of tour of inspection originally; it was intended as a tour of inspection : was that so? A. The first part of the tour was; but not the visit to Goaribari. That could hardly be called a visit of inspection ; it was a visit for a special purpose.

275. Q. The ship had come from Port Moresby originally to Daru ? A. Yes; and she had been back again to Port Moresby before she went to Goa,ribari. 276. Q. Then she started from Port Moresby on a

distinct expedition to Goaribari 1 A. No; she did not. She did not come from Port Moresby direct to Goaribari; she came from Port Moresby to a place off the Turama River in the Gulf of Papua ; and she waited there for our party, who were up the river in steam launches: she came there to pick us up.

51 117

Witness- A. H. Jiear.

277. Q. I s that to the westward of Goaribari 1 A. Yes. 278. Q. From that point, after picking you up, so far as yo u could make out, was it not a tour of inspection, as intended by the Administrator, but a tour of a punitive character 1 A. I think not for punitive purposes by any means ; but not what we would call a general tour of inspection--not as we understand that in New Guinea. We went there for a special purpose : that purpose was to arrest t hese four men, and to endeavour to recover the skull of this Mr. Tomkins who had b een killed there. I do not think t here were any ideas whatever of a punitive expedition ; because we thought we sh ou ld b e able to arrest th ese men, and to recover the sk ull. 279. Q. Then yo u thought yo u " ·ould be able to arrest them by professing to be going on a trading expedition, trading with the natives ; or how 1 A. I did not think

that a.t all. I did not propose to do that a bit. 280. Q. What was your proposition 1 A. My proposition was to go to t he villages where these people were, and tell them that we required the men-- these four particular men- a.nd , if we saw them, to arrest them ; and, if we did

not see them, to stay in the locality, as long as we were a.ble to stay, to see if we could find them. 281. Q. Then your idea was to make it clear to the

natives, a t the start, that that was what you wanted j .d. Yes. 282. Q. That you wanted to get these four men, to

arrest them ; and you wanted to get Mr. Tomkins' skull? A. Just so. 28 3. Q. That proposal was not accepted, in that form, by Mr. Robinson? A. No; not in that form.

284. Q. What was his proposltl, as nearly as you can remember it? A. H e proposed that, the first chance we got, we should detain some natives (he said any number up to a dozen), and k eep them ; and it did not matter how

they wer e got. H e said it would be very easy to get them on board the "Merrie England," and entice them down into the saloon, and keep them there : we could shut them in and detain them there. And then, if we failed to

arrest the murderers, we should have these men as host­ ages; and they could be taken away for educative purposes. And I believe that he said t o other people-h e did not say it to me -- I understand that he said on board the ship, that it would be a good thing to take away a man and

make him a policeman. H e did not say that to me ; but I heard it said, on the ship, that he had made that

suggestion. 285. Q. Did you represent t o him, or did it strike you to represent to him, that that would be an act which would bear to the natives the aspect of A. I pointed

out to him that it would be difficult, after an act of that kind, for any other Government party to come along and to get into friendly negotiations with the natives. 286. Q. ·what was his reply to A. His reply was

t hat h e thought that, as the natives had been told, on a former occasion, what we were going to do, they must expect this sort cf thing; and that the end justified the means : I remember his making use of that term

distinctly. 287. Q. That the end justified the A. Yes.

288. (J. Then the means which were settled upon were, that the natives were to be allowed to co me round and to go through a certain course of trading, n ot regular trading, but trade in arms, and that kind of thing, making the

usual exch ange of arms for tomahawks and various other things that they wan ted; and then that the first opportu­ nity was to be taken to surprise them. I s that so? A. That is so.

280. Q. Did you, or did you not, again advise Mr.

R obinson that this was at variance with t he practice which you bad found most cond ucive to getting the nati ves to rely upon the British? A. Y es ; I told him

that on three occasion s. A s late as the morning of the affair I told him that I did not wish to have anything to do with the detention of these natives, who were not

26 July, 1904.

r eally interested in the Missionary killing of some years b efore; and, if ho had no objection, I would attend to the matter of arresting the offenders, the actual offenders; and I would be glad if he would undertake to direct any

movement that would be necessary to detain any natives whom h e wished to k eep. 290. Q. \;vhat did he say to that 1 A. He said "Very well : ca.n yo u t ell me a good man to stand by me 7"

meaning that h e wanted a 1mt ive policeman : and I told him that I thought one of the Daru men wo uld perhaps b e t he best, as b eing the most experienced in those matters. 291. (J. Then you did give way to his id ea, did you, that at any rate the offenders, if t hey co uld be identified, were to be a rrested after the natives had appeared to be given confidence by b eing allowed to com e on board 1 A. It was not a question of giving way to his idea, Your Honor;

I wJ:J quite agreeable to that all along, myself. The view I took of the position was this, that these men were actual offenders, ttnd they sh ould be arrested under any circum­ stances. That is the view I took then ; and I nuty say I

still hold it. 292. Q. But :you did not think it was judicious to

detain other persons as A. No.

293. Q. Did you point out that there was likely to be bloodshed in consequence of this course b eing taken? A. No ; I did not mention that matter, because I did not think t here wo uld be. In my opinion, it is an extraordi­

nary circumstance t hat was any.

294. Q. Did not you expect that there would be rather a fierce struggle on board if an attempt were made to anest men 1 A. No, I did not ; for this reason,

that we never allow a man to come on board the ship with his arms, not if we know it; at least, I never do (it

appears that several did get on board the "Merrie

England " with their arms) ; and natives, from their co uld do very little injury to anybody on board

the ship with their arrows. 295. Q. Then you did not look on it as likely that

any such sufficiently dangerous attack could be made by the natives from their canoes on the ship as would lead to, or justify, retaliation from the ship with firearms 1 A. No, I did not. There were none about the ship (the " Merrie England ") who had their arms on deck, with t he exception of the constabulary. I had none myself; and I beli eve the Commandant bad none.

296. Q. But did not all the constabulary clJ,rry their carbines? A .. Y es; they al1Yays have them at hand. 207. Q. And they had had the ammunition served out to them before this 1 A. Y es ; they h ad it, for weeks before­ hand, regularly served out, and, I believe, inspected by

t he sergeant of police. 29 . Q. Carried in belts 1 A. Thry carry it in pouches in most cases, I think ; in a few cases, I think, it is

carried in bandoliers around their waists, but in most cases in pouches on a belt. :20 9. Q. Did not it strike you that the natives would con­ sider, in spite of some suggestion t hat had been thrown

out by ·:rvh. Le Hunte, that t he punitive expedition that had formerly taken place-I think there were two, were tb8re A . :Not two punitive expeditions; one only. 300. Q. \Vould not the natives consider that that had

practically wiped out the original offence? A. No; that has never occurred to me, b ecausP-, of course, I remember distinctly telling t hem different myself. 301. (J. Y ou considered that t hey had understood that, and that that had spread amongst th m 1 A. I have no doubt that they understood that; I ha ve not the least doubt that they understood what we told them.

302. Q. I s that, that t h ose two villages, or tho di strict generally, was to b e considered as still liable to the arrest of tho murderers 1 A. Not that the villages wo uld be li abl e, but that those fou r men would be liable to arrest.

\ Vell, what we t old them "·as this : t hat we would come again the follow in i:( year, and when we did come, we wished them to give up four men quietly, and also

Witness-A. H. Jiear.

to hand over to us Tomkins' skull ; and, if they did not do that, we would endeavour to arrest them by such means as we could ; and that if we did not arrest the m, and there was any semblance of resistance, they would be fought and punished. 'l'hat is what I told them mysp]f; and I heard Sir George L e Hunte repeat that, with this addition : he said that he would also burn Jown the

villages where the massacre took place, that is, Dopima village, and Turotere, and Amahe village, where some of t he principal offenders lived. 303. BY MR. INNES : Q. That was in 1902 1 A. Y es.

Of course the expedition did not go in 1903, on account of some difficulties that cropped up. \Ve were not able to go then ; and it was p ut off to this year. 304. BY HIS HONOR : Q. Th;;,t substituted two years for the one year you had mentioned ? A . Yes.

Sir George Le Hunte was

306. Q. Then, as far as id entifying t he murderers, if they were near at hand, and as fa r as arresting the

lnurderers afterwardR, on board the ship or otherwise, was concerned, you thought that that would, at any rate, involve no such deception of the natives, or be likely to lead to any such violence, that any evil consequences would follow ? A. No, I did not.

307. Q. But you did not, I understand, agree with the detention of others, so far as your opinion went 1 A. No ; I objected to it on at least three occasions ; and, in con­ versations that we had at other times, spoke about it. In

various form s we used to discuss the matter ; and the .Judge knew quite well my view of t he matter-that I objected to it. 3013. Q. You had had a very consideral.le amount of experience with the natives? A. I have bee n in th e

district fiv e years almost; and I have bee n over the whole of the Division now, tlJC whole of the coast. Jin e, and more of the interior than I think any other man. 309. Q. How long had the himsdf been

there? A. H e had never been there before. 310. Q. Not at that end of the island ? A. No. 311. Q. And in New Guinea generally how long had he been? A. I think about eight months altogether he had been in the Possession. He had called at Darn once, and stayed there a day: he held a sitting of the Court there

once-that is a ll. 312. Q. vVas t he question of your experience, as com­ pared w'ith his, brought up at all in conversation 1

A. Only in this way, that, when he arrived at Darn on this tour, he asked me if I wou ld take charge of t he movements of the par ty, and control its operations. 313. Q. You have mentioned that. But, when it came t o a question of

to be done, was that question (of your and his experience) touched upon ? A. I told him what I knew of the natives; and of co urse he said it was not a question of knowledge of that particular t ri be or tribes; but it was a

question of general policy as to whethe1· tlH•y should be detained or not . 314. Q. H e seemed then to lmve set his heart upon the arrest of these men; and upon the JisGovery of l\It· Tomkins' Jf . Yes; there is no doubt about it;

that was the purpose of the visit. 315. Q. At thtt time, how soo n was the successor of Sir George Le Hunte expected? A. It was known, I believe, the day we got to Gqa.rib9.ri, thu.t the

52

26 July, 1904.

present Acting-Administrator was to be appointed. It was not known for certain; but we had information, that came, by mail from Thursday Island, round by Daru, and followed us along, that the present Administrator

was to be appointed. 316. Q. A lmost immediately? A. \Ve did not know that; but we heard that he was tci be appointed. ::n 7. Q. As Administrator, the tenure of office by

.T Robinso n was merely temporary-was it not 1

A. I do not know about that. Of course I took it that it was so. 318. Q. there anything more that strikes you to

inform the Commission, Mr . .Tiear ? A. I might say this : t hat I agreed with .T udge R obinson in this part- I do

not think it has been asked me- l agreed with him, that it would be a good thing, in my opinion, as well as his own , if some natives were taken itway from Goaribari, or that district., to Port Moresby, or other places, for educa­ t ive purposes. It was purely a question of how they were got that I differed from him on-how they were to be obtained. I freq uently have clon e the same thing myself - taken natives from outside districts into Daru, and kept

them there. 319. Q. By force or otherwisfl? A. I have at times

taken them by force. Sometimes they come willingly: but I have, on at least three occasions, g iven orders to the constabulary to capture anybody they could; and I have taken a principal chief from a large district into Darn, and detained him for six months, for educative purposes. My district is in rather a peculiar position in that way, as we are very handy to Australia, and we have constant communication with Thursday I sland. I can get a man and send him over there; and it is a very good object lesson for him : and then I send him back to his home again. I send him over in the Government boat if it

lmppens to be going, and he can see civilisation. That has been my action; and in those matters it has been upheld by the Governor on each of t hese occas ions. 320. BY MR. INNES: Q. I s that after hostilities be­ tween you and this particular village where you get the men ? A. Y es ; usuall v after trouble.

:321. BY HIS HONOR: Q. That has been in the course of what might almost be called warfare, I suppose? 11. In most cases have been the eircumstances : there have been two tribes living near ead1 other, one of whi ch h as probably though t they bad :>ome grievance . (with the other); and they have gone <1long :1nd perhaps killed one or two of t heit· ncig bbours. Then it devolves upon

myself to either go, or to send, and try to a rrest the

olTenclers. Som etimes we are able to do that, and so me­ tim es we are not ; and, on one or two occasions, t he police have come in contact with the natiYe,. In trying to

make the arrests they have been shot at by arrows, and of course they ha \·e had to retllrn the fir e ; and natives have been killed in that way in my diYision, and they have made some captures; and, if I happened to be with them, and thought it advisable to bring away any of these people, I have clone so, and have taken them away to D::1rn, and in one or two in stancPs have sent th;nn over to Thursday Island for a trip. That is the sort of thing

that has been done for many years. 322. Q. Of course, in that course of action you did not i nve igle the people 1 A . No, not by any means; they kne w that we were after t hem, and they tried t o get

away. ;)23. Q. But, in this case, there is no doubt that t he action of the ship did amount to inveigling the natives on board ; and then seizing them suddenly when they

were quite unsuspicious of any sud1 idea in t he minds of the Europeans? A. Yes. 324. (.). That is wh at you thought was inj udiciou fi a nd improper 1 A. Yes; I thought so. Itold the .T udge that on two or three occasion s ; and I still think so.

325. You did not think, and you do not think, when a man is actually a. murd<:>rer, and. is known to be liabl e.

l.

Witness-A. H. Jiear.

to arrest--he knows himself, and the others may b e taken to know, that he is li able to b e arrested--that then i t is either injudicious or improper to use a certain a mount of - I do not know what to call it exactly : it is not

treachery. You do not look upon it as treachery, in

such a case, to arrest him in any circumstances in which you can get A. No. I mainta in that it is right to

arrest an offender anywhere, or under any circu mstances. I told the Judge that at the t im e; and I still hold that view. 'l'hat is the way I endeavour to carry out affairs in my division. lVIy in structions to t he co nstabulary are always to effect the arres t of an offender anywhere or anyhow, alive. I have never had any other instructions myself from my superiors. .

326. Q. 'l'hen, I suppose, it did strike you, and it would strike you under such circumstances as occ urred on this occasion, that the natives would bo likely to imagine that an arres t of others, such as did take place, would be for the purpose of either putting them to death, or of treatincr

them in some other way than merely detaining them '7 A. I think they would think so; because, from what little I know of the native mind abou.t that district, no man is detained in any way, or taken away, except for the

express purpose of being kill ed, and, I think, in that particular district, of being eaten. 3:!. 7. Q. And that particular district was so ignornnt of the wn,ys of Europeans that, I suppose, it was not unlikely that they would think that Europeans would deal with their prisoners in the same way? A . Yes, I think they would. Of co urse that ques tion cropped up ; because, you know, there had been a man from that district taken away before, ftnd after a lapse of nine or ten months he

was bt·ought back again and r eleased. But it a very difficul t thing to find out or to understand what the native mind would conceive, even from that. It is

questionable whether those natives really t hink that the man who has been brought back is the same man. 328. Q. H ow is that 1 A. It is a very deep question;

but they do think these things at times. I have known in the Bamu River district, which is a little to the

westward of Goaribari, that the natives have ideas of that kind. I saw the return of that man, Kemeri. I was

present wh en h e went back, and saw him go into his village, and in spite of shouts and calling, and various explanations that he made, it .took a long while for his people to come along and recognise him, and I do not think-at any rate it would not surprise me, or anyone who knew the ways of those people, if th ey still think

that he is not the man.

329. Q. They think he is a fraudulent A. They have queer ideas at any rate. It is only by

constantly mixing with these peo ple that you find out these things. 'l'hey nrc a totem is tic people, and totemism controls every action of their lives alollg there, and you have to combat that if you wiBh to find out anything about them.

330. Q. Did you point out any oE these considerations to the A. Y es. I pointed out to him

the fact that, unless there was no sign whatever of what has been called t reachery shown to the natives, they would be likely to gather a wrong conception from w11at was being don e, and they migh t think that these people were being taken away- at least I was certain that they would think that they were being taken away-for a bad purpose, and it would be very h ard to make th em believe

that they were not. H e said that he thought they could get over it by taking these men and sending them back at intervals-sending back one or two men the first year, and later on sending back another one or two ; or even

doing it at close r intervals by sending them to Daru and letting me get them home overland, which is almost an impossibility. 33 1. Q. 'l'he policy of the Admini. tration has been, I understand, from the first, to give the natives absolute confidence in the openness and reliability of the white

H

53 119

26 July, 1904.

authorities 1 A. That is the policy, as far as I know it. I have seen n o instance which would go to show that their policy was otherwise, except this particular one. 332. BY MR. INNES: Q. Are you of opinion that you could possibly have succeeded in the method you suggested, by landing, and end eavouring, first of all, to get these

men to giv e the ringleaders up, and, if they did not

accede t o t hat, then by t aking forceful measures 1 A . You want my opinion 7 333. Q. '7es? A. I t hink that the chances are that we would not have got the four of them.

334. Q. Any of them 7 A. vVe may have got some of them. 335. Q. Without bloodshed? A. I think the chances are that we should not have got the four; because they are separated so widely-they belong to different villages.

336. Q. Taking all those circumstances into considera­ tion-the difficulty of one village giving another warning, and the large number in the island, 3,000- do you think you could have got any of them without bloodshed 7 A.

I think we should have got two. 337. Q. Without A . I could not say with­

out bloodshed; because t he chances a re that on shore the natives would fire more arrows than on the ship. 338. Q. However, you think your plan would have suc ceeded 1 A. I think it would have suc ceeded to the

extent of getting either one or two of them, at any rate; we should not have captured so many as we caucrht on the ship. "

339. Q. A nd, in your opinion, would the bloodshed have been greater, or less, in the land fight ? A. I think that, as far as our party are concerned, there would have been no one injured; but I should not like to say what would

have happened to the natives had they fired at us on shore, because I think there would probably have bee n only one or two of them killed, because they have such effective cover in the dense scrub and sago swamps, and the undergrowth is so dense.

340. Q. You do not think there would have been any danger to your party 1 A. If I had had full control of it, I would have arranged it so that I do not think there would have been any. Of course, we make these arrests

under special arrangements. I have not known, except in one instance, anybody to be injured in fights with natives in my division. I believe there was also one man slightly wounded at night. I think h e was sniped on the first occasion that Sir George L e Hunte went to Goaribari; but it was not in a fight.

34 1. Q. From your knowledge of their manner of warfare if the natives had intended to attack the " Merrie England' on that occasion, what time wou ld they have chosen­ ni gh t time or day tim e 1 A. I should cer tainly say, if they intended to attack, it would be in the day-time ; because the western division of New Guinea native n ever goes ou.+. at night-he is too afraid of darkness .

34 2. BY HI.S HONOR: Q. I underRtand that, just at the time when this affair happened, there was plenty of t ime ahead ; t here was no great hurry on account

of the com ing on of t he so ut h-east trade winds 1 A. No; t here "·as not, at t hat ti me. The intention, when we went there, was to stay a week. 'l'h e Judge said that h e would limit the time to a wee k, or, if I found it necessary after

we got there, if parleying and were taking

place, if I found it necessary to extend t he time to ten days he wo uld not mind. There was no hurry on account, of the season. It was very fin e weather at that particular place wh en we got there.

3-±3 . (J. This was during th e north-west monsoon 1 A. Ye,. 3-1-4. Q. 'l'he south-east does not come on until t he end of }larch, or the beginning of April ? A. Yes, about the beginnin g of April generally. Of cou rse you cannot tell to a few days. I have see n it earlier ; and I have seen it delayed till t he end of April, and even until May. For

H. Jiear and vV. C. Druce.

instance four years a!!o t he so ut h-east monsoon did not come until the middl'" of May. 345. Q. So that had not hing to do with the question of hurrying t he thing through- the weather had nothing to do with it? A . No, or should not have had.

346. Q. Do you find that the natives of these villages clear right out, if there is any danger of being attacked, and utterly disappear, and leave their villages completely 1 A. A lot would depend on who was coming. It would depend on the nature of the party that was coming to attack them, or t hat t hey thought was coming to attack them. For instance, they wou ld go further away from a party like ours was, than they would from a party of natives like themselves who are strangers to them, but

would no t appear so strong. 347. Q. They can get back and conceal themselves for practically an unlimited t im e 7 A. Yes. The Goaribari natives, if they wanted to go away for any length of time, would probably go O\·er to the mainland in their canoes.

348. Q. They are able to do that 7 There is not t he

pressure of other hostile neighbours at the back to prevent their doing so 7 A. No. The nati \·es of that district are all friendly to this extent, that they would shield one another if there was any danger. Of course, they would, as likely as not, kill members of the different tribes; they do not seem to car e about t hat. It is quite a common

thing for the natives of one tribe to make a raid on their neighbours. That would cuu se bud friendship for a few months, and then they would be all right again. 349. Q. Scarcity of food 1 A. Probubly a scarcity of

350. Q. But not of a,nimal food 7 A. I do not know

whether there is an ubunduncc of unimal food or not. I have not been ubout inla,nd there ut a,ll. 351. BY lVIR. INNES: Q. Are all those tribes cannibuls 1 A. As far as we . know they ure, from. the information we have been ·able to get. They even eat their own children; mothers have been known to eat their children there. That is, of course, if you ca,n take t he informution supplied to you by the natives us being correct.

(Witness retired.)

WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM BRUCE was sworn and examined as lfnder :- •

352. BY lVIR. I NNES : Q. Your name is William Cunningha,m Bruce 1 A. "William Cunningham Bruce. 353. Q. And you are t he Commandant of the Armed Native Constabulary, and Assistant Magistrate, in the British Possession of New Guinea 7 A. I am.

354. Q. How long have you been in your present posi­ t ion as Commandant 7 A. Since November last. 355. Q. November, 1903 1 A . 1903. 356. Q. A nd were you in New Guinea before tha t? A. I fi rst went up as H eadquarters Officer.

357. Q. How long ago? A . Last May twelve mo nths. 358. Q. May, 1903 1 A. Y es . 359. Q. The following November you were appointed Commandant 7 A. Y es.

360. Q. I believe you were in the " Merrie England" in March last when she went with J udge Robinson to Goaribari 1 A. I was. 36 1. Q. And you, I pres ume, were in command of tho N ative Constabulary force on board ? A. Yes.

362. Q. What did t hat force consist of 7 A . It consisted of thirty-two of the H eadquarters police and seven of the Daru detachment. 363. Q. And how were they armed 7 A. Armed with

M artini-Enfield carbines . 364. Q. Are they the sa me carbines that are on board the " Merrie England " now 7 A. The '' Merrie England " is armed with Martini-Henry-the crew of the " Merrie

England " is. The Constabulary is armed with Martini­ Enfield.

26 July, 1904.

365. Q. Are tlwr c any ca,rbines that the Constabulary a rc armed with on board the "Merrie England"? A. No. 366. Q. Do the Constabulary carry t hem with them all day, or every day, or only those on duty 7 A. It is part of t heir equipment.

367. Q. And I pres ume those thut had not them with them would be able to get them immediately ;-they were not locked uway anywhere 7 A . No. 368. Q. What ammunition had they 7 A. ·303. .

369. Q. And how many rounds 1 A. Every man carried thirty rounds of ammunition ; t en in his pouch, and twenty in his haversack. 370. Q. You remember the "Merrie England" arrived at Goaribai·i on the morning of Saturday, the 5th of March last 1 A. Y es.

371. Q. And I suppose yo u had t he Constabulary there on guard ;-were they on guard 1 A. I mounted a guard . 372. Q. As you entered 1 A. Y es; as we anchored I put a guard on.

373. Q. Did you know, at that time, that there was any­ thing intended as to taking hostages or endeavouring to capture uny natives 1 A . F rom a conversation I had had with Mr. J iear previously I had a, knowledge that they

were going to arrest some hostages. 37 4. Q. I want you to tell me what occurred that

Saturday morning, as far as you can without my prompting you 1 A. On the Saturday the natives came off to the ship. 375. Q. Y ou arrived sometime before lunch 7 A. About half-past eleven; and aft.er some little time the natives came round about in canoes.

376. Q. Could you say about how many 7 A. A couple of hundred or so. 37 7. Q. A couple of hundred nutives or canoes 1 A. A couple of hundred natives.

378. Q. Y es 1 A. A nd tho late Judge and Mr. Jiear talked to them. I really do not know what they to

them ; but they held conversations with the nutives. 379. Q. Did anything happen ;- did t he natives come on bourd, or wa,s trading going on 1 A. Y cs ; a, good many of the natives came on board. They seemed a bit shy; but they came on board. I believe there was some

tmcling. I did not see any trading myself. 380. Q. But nothing at all unusua,l happened that day until sundown, when the natives went away? A. No; nothing happened.

381. Q. Did you notice whether t he natives were armed? A . Y es; they had their bows and arrows with them. 382. Q. Then nothing happened, I understand, during the night ;-did anything happen that Saturday night 7 A. No.

383. Q. No disturbances 1 A. No. 384. Q. Had you a guurd mount ed during the night 1 A. Yes. 385. Q. The next morning, S unduy morning, as far as you know, wha,t occ urred ;- what time did you get on deck 7 A . I got up about a quarter past 7, to parade the poli ce, and inspect the arms. I fell the men in ; and the late J·udge and Mr. Jiear were talking on the fore-dec k.

386. Q. You inspected the arms ;-can you say whetlwr the police then had that ammunition with them-thirty r ounds-which you spoke of 7 A . They would only have t en rounds in the pouch.

387. Q. They would not have their haversacks on them at the time 1 A. No. You see, one of my habits is to

inspect the arms every morning and see that they are clean; and so I fell the police in in the usual way at a quarter past 7 ; and the late Judge came over to me

and told me to dismiss the police, and not inspect their urms on that morning, because falling them in would frighten t he natives away. 388. Q. vVere the natives round the vessel at that time ? A. Y es ; they appeured to be rather shy. The;r were rather more shy, I thought, than they were before ; but they were round the ship.

121 55

Witness-W. C. Bruce.

389. Q. That is on Sunday morning 1 A. Yes. 390. Q. Were they about the same number, or more or less than you saw on Sn.turday? A. I do not think they were quite so many. I should think-oh, well, they wer e about t he same. I could not estimate the number of

natives ; but my estimate is, between 200 and 300. 391. Q. Did you not ice whether they were n. ny different from what they were the previous day 1 vVere they armed any di fferently 1 Did you notice anything peculiar about them 1 A. I noticed that some of them had these armlets on.

392. Q. Do you know whether they hn.d those on the day before 1 A. I think they did. 393. Q. In your opinion, at that time, did you think that the natives intended to attack the vessel in any wa.y 1

A. No. 394. Q. You say that you did not inspect your constabu­ lary t hat morning? A. No; I dismissed the police. 395. Q. And about this ammunition ;-if they had ten.

rounds with them, where was the other kept ;-could they get at it? A. They would have to go down below for it, into the hold. There is no accommodation· for the police on the "Merrie England "; and they would have to go down into the hold.

396. Q. And, as far as you know, all the ammunition they had on them was ten rounds 1 A. That is all they had on them.

397. Q. Are you speaking of your own men only, or of the Daru men as well ? A. I am speaking only of my own men. 398. Q. As far as you know, what happened next? What did you see next after the dismissal of your men? A. I

went down to my cabin, and my orderly came down and t old me that Mr. Jiear wanted him to assist in arresting some natives, and asked whether T would give him per­ mission; and I said, "Certainly." I followed him up on

deck ; and I just got out of the passage-way when a sort of struggle took place. 399. Q. Just tell me what you saw ? As far as you could see, what was the beginning of this struggle 1 A. There appeared to me to be some sort of signal. I mean to say

that all worked in unison. They threw themselves on the natives that were on board, together. 400. Q. Of whomareyou speakingnow? A . Thenative constabulary. I saw as many as four struggling with one person, and three, and all over the decks.

401. Q. You gave no order yourself? A. No. I was not told that this was going to ta.ke place ; I knew nothing about it. I mean to say, I had an inkling that they were going to arrest--[ interrupted].

402. Q. But you had not any idea when it was going to take place; and you did not give any order to your

mentodo it? A.No. 403. Q. Do you know who did 1 A. I only know from the inquiry I held afterwards. I know what my senior­ sergeant told me.

404. Q. He is not here, is he 1 A. No. 405. MR. INNES : ·will your H onor a.llow me to ask t hat? 406. By HIS HONOR: Q. What sort of inquiry did you hold 1 A. I had him up on deck, and went into the

mat ter. 40 7. Q .. H e isa mtive 7 A . Y es. 408. Q. I s he a reliable man 1 A. Y e3 ; a very relia.ble man.

409. Q. The matter was fresh then 1 A. Y es . 410. Q. ·when was it you held the inquiry 1 A. That day. 411 . Q. Thesameday ? A. Yes.

412. HIS HONOR: Yes ; I will allow that. 41:3. BY :.\'IR. H \ N E .'l : Q. Just t ell us what you asked him. and wh at he said about this 1 A. I asked l1im who gave the signal, and he said "Mr. Jiear."

414. Q. That was the signal to arrest ? A. Yes. 41 5. Q. To arrest auyone in particula r, or toarrest--1 A. I understand it was the general arres tin3 of p,ll the men that were on board ; a.ll they c:>u ld catch,

26 July, 1904.

416. Q. Did you ever tell Mr. Jiear you held this

inquiry 1 A. Yes. 417. Q. And did you tell him what your sergeant had sa.id 7 A. Y es . HS. Q. Did he say that that was so 1 A. No; he said t ha.t he only gave the signal t o arrest t he one man.

4 HJ. Q. Y ou say the first thing you saw was t.hat these men, as if by some preconcerted signal, fell on whomever they could, a.nd endeavoured to arrest them. What was the next thing you saw 7 A. I walked down towards the

waist of the ship, and went towards the port side, and I heard a shot ring out. 420. Q. Where did it come from 1 A. It appeared to come from just alongside Captain Harvey's cabin.

421. Q. Is that forward or aft 1 A. Forward. 422. BY HIS HONOR : Q. That did not appear to come from the bridge 1 A . It sounded from the deck we were standing on.

423. BY MR. INNES : Q. His cabin is on the starboard side 1 A. Yes. 424. Q. That shot was the firs t act of open hostility that you saw or heard 1 A. That was the first.

425. Q. Did you see any arrows fired before that 1 A. No. 426. Q. When that shot went off? A. It was followed by several other shots, and I sprang over to the starboard

side of the ship, and I saw the police outside Captain Harvey's cabin, and also in t he waist of the ship, and the late judg':\. And t hey appeared to be engaging some canoes which were almost level with the captain's cabin

on the starboard side; and these canoes had apparently discharged arrows at the ship, because they were throwing down their bows and arrows when I got to the side of the vessel. They were armed, and had apparently discharged arrows.

427. Q. Did you see any arrows yourself actually shot 1 A. No, not thet·e, no. 428. BY HIS HONOR : Q. How far away were these canoes from the ship 1 A. I should think they were about sixty yards away.

429. Q. By "level" you mean right abreast 1 A. Right abreast. 43 0. BY MR. INNES : Q. When the first shot was fired I suppose the canoes were all round t he vessel; quite

close up against i t-some of the natives were on board 1 A. Yes. Some of the natives sprang overboard; but there were some canoes nearer than the canoes they appeared to be engaging. In fact, the canoes were all round the ship.

431. Q. After the firing started did they sheer off, or attempt to clear out 1 A . Yes, they threw down their bow s and arrows, and cleared out. 432. Q. Scurried off 1 A. Scurried off.

433. Q. Did you , at any time, see a.ny arrows shot 1 A. Y es ; as I came to the sid e of the ship I cast my eyes down t o the stern ; and I saw two men standing in a

ca.noe. There were fiv e men in the canoe ; and they shot arrows at the ship. 434. Q. You saw them actually shot, yourself? A. Yes. 435. Q. Those are the only a.rrows you actually saw sho t 7 A. Y es. ·I to ok a rifle off a policeman that was standing by; and t ook a shot at this canoe myself. I a imed a. t the waterline ; and they dropped their bows and

arrows, and pulled off astern. They picked up their paddles, and cleared off. Then I heard firing on the port side of the ship ; and I crossed over; and I saw the

occ upan ts of the launch firing ; a.nd there did not seem to be any imm inen t danger to the ship-the canoes there were clea.ring a-way from the ship-so I went back to the starboard side again ; and, when I got hack t o the stn.rboa1 ·cl side, the late J udge had shi fted his position. \Vhen I first saw him, he was fo r ward of the captain's

cabi n ; and, wh en I came back, he had go ne down almost outside his ow n cabin ; so I had a. look, and I thought that the safety of t he ship was all righ t.

Witness- V\' . C. Bruce.

436. Q. Was the Judge firing then 1 A. Yes; I

thought that they were out of arrow-range, and there was no more danger of anybody being hurt on board, and so I gave the order to cease fire. 437. Q. About how long was that after you heard the first shot 1 A. I should think about three minutes.

43S. Q. Had all the hostages been secured at that time 1 A. No; they were still struggling on the deck. 439. Q. And amongst those struggling were some of the constabulary 1 A. Yes. They were all, practically all, the constabulary; and, of course, I heard afterwards that a couple of Europeans had a ssisted in arresting them.

440. Q. Those constabuhtry who were assisting to sec ur·e the natives had not used their rifl es ? .A. N o ; I saw as many as four constabulary on one prisoner. If you gave them an average, we will say, of three to each prisoner, it

would pan out about right, I think. Of course, these savages arc very active, and very strong, and they take a great deal of securing. 44 l. Q. And, besides that, they are oiled and sli ppery 1 A. Yes ; they are very greasy.

442. Q. You then gave the order to cease firing 1

A. Yes. 443. Q. Was that obeyed 1 A. It was obeyed by my police. 444. Q. Did firing go on after you gave the order 1

A. Then I went over to the port side again, and sang out to the launch that I had ordered to cease firing; so they stopped firing in the launch, and then I heard my police firing on the other side, and I went back, and got very angry with them, and cuffed them, and made them pile their arms on the deck.

445. Q. About how long would you say it was from the time you heard the fir st shot until the firing stopped altogether 1 A. All the firing did not cease then, you know. I heard some firing aft, and I went aft, and saw the chief officer fire with a ·winchester, and I told him I had given the order to cease firing, and he stopped Then I heard some shots right forward, and by the time I got forward there was nobody there; but I should think from the first shot to the last shot would be altogether about seven minutes.

446. Q. You have been on active service 1 A. Yes; I was through the Boer war. 44 7. Q. So that, at this time, you were not very excited 1 A. No ; I was not the least bit excited.

448. Q. I suppose it would be impossible to form an estimate of how many of the natives were killed or wounded 1 A . Impossible. 449. Q. Because they would jump away from their canoes to escape the firing 1 A. Yes; jump in again, and jump out.

450. Q. Did you see empty canoes about there 1 A. Yes ; I saw a few empty canoes. 45 1. Q. Did you see anybody actually hit 1 A . Yes. 452. Q. How many 1 A. I estimated eight as having been probably mortally wounded.

453. Q. I think you said that you did not think the

natives intended any attack on this particular day 1 A. No ; I do not think so. 454. Q. You think there would have been no attack unless the arrests had been made 1 A. I think the attack was the logical sequence of the arres ts being made on board.

455. Q. And, with regard to the firing, is it your

opinion that the firing was necessary, from the danger in wl1ich the ship was 1 A Perfectly justifiable. 456. Q. That is, aft er the arrows had been discharged 1 A. Yes; there is no doubt in my mind .that the ship was attacked, and that the firing was perfectly necessary ; and, if it had not been prompt, probably somebody would have been killed or wounded on board the "Merrie

England." 457. Q. But you say t hat, after the canoes got out of arrow-range--7 A, It should have stopped.

56

26 July, 1904.

158. Q. It was continued too long, you think 1 A I think so. 459. Q. Can you give any estimate of how many rounc.J were fir ed 1 A. 1 know how many rounds were fired by the headquarters men.

4 GO. (J_ Row many ? A. Seventy rounds. 461. Q. How h P. ve yo u been able t o form that estim ate 1 A. I is.;;ued the ammunition the following day to make up what had been ex pend ed.

462. Q. To tmtke up the thirty rounds each 1 A. To make up the thirty. 'l'hey carried ten of them. 463. Q. Y ou onl y iss ued seventy 1 A. Y es. 464. (). The firing having ceased, what t ook place next; what di d you do next 1 Did yo u have any conversation with the ,Judge 'I A. I went up to the Judge and I asker! him if he had given t he order to fire, and he said "No." So I said that I would htw e t o find out who had givPn it, and I hold an inquiry, and my seniON'ergeant told me that a corporal of the Da-ru pol ice had see n a man shoo t an arrow at 0<1ptain H arvey, a nd he had shot at him.

465. Q. And that was the first sho t fired 1 A. That was the first sho t . 466. Q. And that was discharged after a,n arrow had been shot at Captain Harvey 1 A. Yes . I r eported the . matter to the Judge, and he said that he could no t blame

the corporal, and he thought that his action shoul d be comm ended; it was a prompt reply to the arrow, and he thought that, if he had not been so prompt, there might have been some casualties on board. I concurred with Judge R obinson.

467. Q. You still think that 1 A. I still think so.

(2. That was on the Sunday morning. I understand

that you went with the Judge-there were two boats sent off to the villages 1 A. Yes. 469. Q. You and the Judge went in on e, and l\'Ir. Jiear and Mr. Jewell in another? A. Yes.

4 70. Q. And you had your constabulary divided amongst the boats 1 A. Yes. 471. Q. Did you have any conversation witl1 t he Judge on the way regarding the matter 1 A. Yes. He askPd me my es timate of t he killed, and I told him I could not

possibly say for certain; but I told him that I had seen eight kill ed. 472. Q. Anything more? A. No. 473. Q. v\7hen you say you saw eight killed, you mean you saw eight struck in such a way that you would think they were mortally wounded-you did not see t he bodies 1 A . No _ ; they went down.

47 4. Q. Then yo u went on that day with Judge B.obinson visiting different vi ll ages 1 A. Yes. 47 5. (J. And lVlr. ,J iear has told us that on that day you did not see any of the natives, because they ran away as soon as you came near the villages . I s that so 1 A. That is so. vV c could not get into touch with them.

47 G. Q. You could not get into touch with them at all that clay? A. No. 47 7. Q. Y ou came back to the "Merrie England " in the evening 1 A. Y es . ·

478. (J. And, as far as you know, nothing had happened in the way of an attack during the clay 1 A. No. 479. Q. In fact, there was nothing in the na ture of an attack from that on t ill the t ime you left? A. There was not another shot fired.

48 0. Q. On either side? A. No. 481. Q. On theMondaydidyougoashoreagain1 A. Yes; we went another tour round. 482. Q. And did you get into touch wi th the natives that day 1 A. I do not know; I do not think so.

483. Q. There were, as a matter of fact, I understand, el even natives captured on the Sunday morning, as hostages 1 A. I think nine ; I am not perfectly sure. 484. Q. Three were taken back 1 A. I think two were released ; fiv e taken t o Port Moresby, and t·wo left at Daru; but I am not sure.

Wztn esses-W. C. Bl'uce and A. J ewell.

485 . Q. Were you with the party that took those two who were released 7 A. No. 486. Q. Y ou did not go ashore? A. N o. 487. Q. Did you stay on board, then, after the Monday? A. Yes; I stayed on board after thA second trip. I did not go ashore on the Tuesclay morning.

57

488 . Q. When the news arrived at Port Moresby that there was to be a Commission of J nquiry into this matter, did you have a conversation with Mr. about it

in any way 1 A. Y es. 489 . Q. Did he express an opinion then about what had happened 1 You gave some evidence, I understand, at the inquest ? A . I had a convcrsa.tion wi th him on the

Sunday prior to his dea.th. 490. Q. Did he refer to this matter at aJl then? A. Y es ; he referred to it: he seemed to be very worried about it. 49 1. Q. Did he say anything about taking his life, or anything like that? A. No; he did not gi \'C me the

impression thn,t he was going to t a,ke his life ; hut he appeared to me very much worried indeed. 492. BY HIS HONOR: Q. Wbt sort of shot<> arc yo ur men 1 A. They are not particubrly good shots.

You see, they a re the headquarters police, and I am training them. Sixteen of those t hirty-two men I had were rec ruits. 493. Q. They were half recruits then ? A . Yes; and the Papuan is not a particularly good marksman.

494. Q. I s it a fact tha,t he generally takes a, sight, and then shuts his eyes before h e pulls t he trigger ? A. I am afraid that is so in some cases. 495. Q. In which case he may, possibly, hit his object?

A. Probably not, unless it is something goin g very t o the ship's side. In fact, t he markl;manship was par­ ticularly bad at t hat time. 496. Q. Where a canoe is empty, I suppose it is just as

strong evidence that the occupant has jumped into the water as that he has been shot? A. Just as strong. 497. Q. Are they good swimmers under water, and in getting away some distance before they show any signs of their presence again ? A. They are very good swimmers.

498. Q. And, I suppose, in that is involved the ability to keep themselves pretty well cm1ccaled, and not show up much ? A. Yes. (Witness retired.)

ARTHUU JE\VELL was sworn and examined as under :-499. BY MR. INNES: Q. Your name is Arthur J ewelH A. Y es.

500. Q. Antl I believe, in J\

501. Q. H ow long have you been in New Guinea 1

A. I a rrived there on the 11th of May, 1903. 502. Q. That is last year? A. Y cs. 503. Q. Y ou were on board the "Merrie E ngland, " in the capacity of Private Secretary to Mr. Robinson, w hen she visited Goaribari on the 5th of b st 1 A . Y es.

504. Q. Before you arrived at Goaribari, did you know that the J intended t J take som e hostagrs ? A. Y cs,

to take priso ners. 503. Q. Do you mean the ringleaders, or do you know that h e intended to take hostages at random? A. The ringleadE>ri', if he could get them possibly.

506. Q. Did you know what was his plan of doing t hi s ? .A . I do not. 507. Q. Did yo u know before you arri ved at Goaribari that be was goin g to do what he eventuall y did 1 A. No.

508. Q. You h ad no idea? A. No ; no idea. 509. Q. So that, wh en t he expedition started, you knew the object waR to secure these ringleader s and .l\lr. Tom­ kins' skull ? A. Y es.

123

26 July, 1904.

510. Q. But you did not know the means that were going to be used to carry it out ? A. No. 511. (J. And you did not know right up to the very time it wa s done? A. No.

512. Q. I believe you arrived at Goaribari about half­ past 11 on Saturday morning, the 5th of March 7 A . Y es . 513. Q. And we are to'd that the natives came all

round in canoes? A. Y es . 514. Q. Coulcl you say about ho w many? A. That afternoon ? 515. Q. On the Saturday, when you arri\·ed? A. P er­

haps about a hundred canoes, or more, just at random. 516. Q. About how many natives would that mean ? A . They V

518. Q. Did you notice them, to see wlwther they were armed, or had anything about them ? A. They had bows :md UITO\Yi< in large quantities in their canoes. 519. Q. Just tell us, as c!osely as yo u can, what hap­

pened t hat Saturday aftern oo n ? A. ·when the natives were around the J·uclge Robinson and Mr. Jiear

di d all thl"y co uld to get into communication with them, to have the ringleaders of the Chalmers massacre pointed ou t to them, and to know them by name and by sight. Many natives came on hoard that afternoon.

520. Q. And was there any trad ing done? A. Y es. 52 1. Q . . And everything passed off in a friendly and ordinary way, as far as you could judge ? A. Y es; they left quite peaceably at about sundown.

522. (J. Th en, next morning, the Sunday morning, about what time did you come on deck 1 .A. About half-l' ast 6. .

523. Q. \ Yere there natives around the boat then 1 A. Y es. 524. Q. About how many ? A; Probably the same nu mber; perhaps a few more.

525. (J . Did you notice whet her t hey were armed in the same way, or was t here any diffvrence ·j A. There wa s no difference w l1ate\·er. 5:2 G. (J. In yo ur opinion, before 1h e arres ts, was

nny attack intPnclcd on t he " Merrie England " on the part of t he natives? A. Not t h

A. Nnthin g whatever. 528.

Ad ntinistrator was there at the time, and also Mr. Jiear. The natiYe police, of course, were all on board ; and, I think, the sa me men, with t he exception of one (I forget his name) of the ringleaders, were al so around the ship, and inducements were being offered to these men to come on board.

5.30. Q. ·what do you mean hy "inducements " ? A. K niY es were hel d out to them; they were shown the ordinnry "trade." 531. Q. Articles of trade were held up in order to try and induce them to come on board and do some trade 1

A . To come OH'r the side, yes. 532. Q. Y cs? A. There was on A man standing on t he boom on the port side who appeared very suspicious, and did not. feel incl ined to come o,·e r. In the meantime, I think the Judge had gone into hi s cabin again, and this man wa s eventuall y induced to come over t he side on to the fore-deck

5:33 . Q. Did you find out afterwards who t hi s man was 1 A. I think t he man was lake. There were a goo d many natives on board at the time. 53- J. . (j. They had come over to trade, I suppose 7

A. Apparently to trade. 535. Q. Y es? A. As soon as this man lake came over he was seized ; but i t seemed to be the signal for a general ;:trres t to be mad() of natins, indiscriminately, on board.

'· 58

Witness-A. Jewell. 26 July, 1904.

536. Q. 'When this general arrest, as you say, was made, what then 1 A. Of co urse, there w::ts a great

commotw: on board ; some nat ives escaped by jumping over the s1de of the ship.

559. Q. But, at the time, you formed an idea, which afterwards you modified by saying that it is quite possible. th::tt a man may have gone out of his canoe without being hit at all? A. In some instances, sir; but again, it is

still quite evident to me that they were hit. . 537. (J. ·where were you a t t he time 1 A. On the fore­ d,eek. Some of the natives jumped overboard ; and, as far as I could see, all made for t he shore. 560. Q. Some of them were? A. Some of them were.

561. Q. But not all t h::tt went into the water? A. No.

538. (J. In their canoes 1 A. Yes ; they were in their canoes. 56 2. Q. But, at the t ime, and immediately afterwards, you then had an idea that because a man went into the

water he was probably hit? A. Yes. 539. Q. All the cano es nuue off? A. All the canoes made otf, yes. 563. BY Mn. INNES : Q. Can you tell us now about

how many you think were hit 1 A. I can only judge by the number of em pty canoes which I saw.

540. (J. What was the firs t overt act of hostility that you saw after that 1 A. The first act of hostility that I he<1rd was a shot fired from about amidships on the star-board side. •

541. Q. Up to that you had seen no arrows shot?

A. No. 542. Q. Well, after that shot-did you see where the shot from, or wh0 fired it 1 A. I could not say who

fired 1t, nor could I say exactly where it came from. As far as I could judge, it was about amidships, opposite the Governor's cabin, on the starboard side. 543. (J. And after that shot? A. The arrest s were

proceeding with some difficulty ; and that seemed to be the signal for a general fire, for a general independent firing. Fire was then opened on the n::ttives. 544. Q. Up to that time, h::td you seen any arrows fired? A. No.

545. Q .. there h::td been a flight of arrows,

were you m a pos1twn to see it? A. Y es ; I was standing by the side. 546. Q. And you do not think there w::ts any fli"'ht of arwws up to the time a general fire was opened{' A. I saw none whatever.

54 7 . . Q. Did you .see nnyone firin:s ;-did you notice anyone m particular firing 1 A. Y es . I noticed, of course, that the police were firtng ; not 1tll of them, of course. 5.48. (J . Some of them were engaged in securing the nat1ves ? A. Y es.

54!?. Q. Those th::tt were not securing nativ01s were firing? A. Y es . 550. Q. And any one else 1 A. Y es, the Judge was

firing. 551. Q. Was he very excited at the time? Did he

appear very excited 1 A. H e appeared to be quite excited, yes; although he was fi ring quite calmly. 552. Q. Did you see any of the natives hit 1 A. I saw them disappearing, falling out of their canoes into the water, apparently hit. It was a good distance; and it is impossible to say.

553. (J. About what distance were the canoes, about this time, when the general fighting took place 1 A. The canoes were varying in distance then, some farther than others. The nearest would, perhaps, be a hundred yards away at the time.

554. Q. Then could you t ell, or would you only conjec­ ture, that a man was wounded? A. From the way in which t hey fell out of their cu,noes, I should decidedly say they were hit.

555. Q. Could you tell whether Judge Robinson had hit any one when he was firina 1 A. Une of his shots, I distinctly remember, undoubteclly had effect. 556. Q. I suppose you could not fo rm any estimate at all as to the total number of those hit-I mean wounded or killed- on the side of the natives 1 A. No.

557. Q. For the reason that you could not tell, when they fell out of their canoes, whether they had done so to escape the firing, or whether they were hit 1 A. No ; you could not t ell.

564. Q. Of co urse you cannot judge it from that, but you say that evidently so me were hit; and you have no dou bt now that some of the shots you saw fired took effect? A. Y es, undoubtedly.

565. Q. Can you tell us now about what you think was the number of either wounded or killed-about how many shots took effect 1 A. I am certain I saw at least ten men going out, at the very lowes t, in that way.

566. Q. You saw t en shots, at the least, take effect in that way 1 A. Yes. ·

567. Q. About how long do you think the firing was going on ? A. For at least ten minutes. 568. Q. Were you on deck during the whole time 1 A . Yes.

569. BY HIS HONOR: Q. These canoes have no out­ riggers 1 A. No. 570. Q. Can a native get into his canoe out of the water easily 1 A. Y es; I saw them at the time. On the

previous afternoon a canoe capsized ; and the native got ini!o it very quickly and baled the thing out. 571. BYMn.INNES: Q. Hegotintoitfromthewater? A. Y es.

572. Q. Then we arc told that, after that, when the canoes made off, the Commandant of the constabulary stopped the firing-gave the order to cease fire 1 A. Yes. 573. Q. And the firing e\'entually did cease-did stop altogether? A. Yes.

57 4;. Q. That all took place before breakfast on the Sunday morning 1 A. Y es. 575. Q. Did you have any conversation with either Mr. Jiear or Mr. Robinson that morning soon after 7 A. Not with Mr. Robinson.

576. Q. You h::td a conversation with Mr. Jiear1

A. Not really a conversation ; the thing was being dis­ cussed, and Mr. Jiear was there. 577. Q. Can you tell us what it was 1 A . Mr. Jiear

came to me, and I was expressing my views ; and 1\tlr. Jiear told me to--[ intermpted]. 578. Q. Could you tell us what it was you said; be­ cause we have already bad it described by lVIr. Jiear 1

A. Do you mean how I des(·ribed the whol e thing 1 57 9. Q. Just what you said to Mr. Jiear at the time 1 A. I told him thn.t I was intensely disgusted and indignant at the whole thing, and I regarded it as a treacherous massacre.

580. Q. You yourself had not fired, or taken any part in it at all? A. None whatever, except helping Captain Harvey when he was struggling wit h a man on the deck. 58 l. Q. You took away a belaying-pin. A. Itook away a belaying-pin.

582. (J . You said , in Mr. Jiear's hearing, that you were intensely disgusted with this ; anything else 1 A. I think I referred to Judge Robinson at the time. 583. Q. Do you remember you gave some estimate of the number you thought were wounded or killed. A. Oh, yes, I did ; my first estimate was 200 ; that was a hasty .

statement. 58± Q. Then, you after wards modified that 1 I mean t hat on the same day, within a few minutes, you modified that 1 A. Yes, to eighty people.

558. BY HIS HONOR: (J. You say so now; but, at the t ime it occ urred, h::td you it in mind that, when you saw a man fall out, you thought he was hit 1 A. At the time of this one particular sbot ; but in other cases it was app>tren t, to my mind, that they were hit.

585. Q. Then, after that, on t hA same day, you went ashore ;-two boa ts were sent ashore to visit the native

59

Witnes.s-A. Jewell.

villages, and yo u went in the boat with Mr. Jiear?

A. Yes. 586. Q. Just tell us bow that cn,me about, that you went with Mr. Jiear instead of with the Judge? A. Mr. Jiear cam e to me Afterwards and said, " 1 Y[r. Jewell, yo u are to come in my boat this mor11in g with me." I S

"I will go nowhtore until I ha,·c spoken to His E xcel­ lency " ; and he said, " I am in charge. H is Excellency bas given me full charge of the expedition now, and you are to come with me." And I again said t hat I would go

nowhere until I had spoken to H is Excellency myself, which I did. I asked him if he wished me to go on shore, and he said I could please myself ; it was not part of my duty; and I told him that "I did not regard it as a matter of duty, sir; if you wish me to go, I will go. " And he

said, "Well, I thought you would go with Mr. Jiear." And I said, "Very well, sir, I will go. " 587. Q. And you, as a matter of fact, did go with

Mr. Jiear ? A. Yes. 588. Q. Do I understand that at that time you were rather disgusted about the whole affair A. I was. - 589. Q. And did you, when you were in the boat with

Mr. Jiear, say anything about not going with Judge Robinson. A . No. 590. Q. Did you say that you would not have gone with Judge R obinson, had he asked you to? A. No ; n ot that I remember.

59 1. Q. But it is a fact that you were indignant at

the affair ; and were you indignant at the part the Judge had taken in it? A. Yes; I was. 592. Q. That Sunday, then, you were with this party who visited thesr" villages ; and I understand you did not get into touch with the natives at all that day. A. N o.

593. Q. And t he next day did you go with the boats ·again 1 A. Y es; the parties went out in exactly the same way. _ 594. Q. And how many natives were arrested, do you

know, on the Sunday morning ? A. N ine, I believe. 595. Q. That is including l ake 7 A. Yes. 596. Q. Was it on the Monday that two were returned

to their respective villages 7 A. 1 t hink it was on Monday that two were returned. I think it was on Monday after­ noon after the return from the-(inte1·ntp tecl). 597. Q. '\Vere two or three returned? A. Three al to­ gether.

598. Q. One returned on one day; and two on another 1 A . Yes. 599. Q. On the Monday, you did get into touch with the na.tives, did not you-that is, when the lJOstages were returned 1 A. I did not go ashore in t he boats when that was done : that was a thing. That was after

the return. 600. Q. Did you get into touch wi th the natives when you were ashore? A . No. 60 1. Q. Did you go on the then? A. No; I

was on board all day. 602. Q. The whole time you we re on bo::Lrd, there was no hostile demonstration on the part of. the nat i ,·cs after the Sunday morning 7 A. Not t ha t I saw.

603. Q. Did any of the nati,·cs, when yo u were on

board, approach t he vessel after the Su nday morning 1 A. Not while I was on board. TIJCy c:1mc round. A few

125

26 July, 1904.

canoes came round howling to friends on board ;

but never (;ame within, I should G'lJ, a couple of hundred yards of the ship. 604. (J. Not ncar enough to speak to them 1 A. Only at a shou t ing distance. They were shouted at.

600. ()."Were t here n,ny women amongst them ? A. No. 606. (J. Amongst tho natives who e11me close to the vessel? A. N o. 607. Q. I understand you to say that, as far as you

saw yourself, you diu not see any arrows fi red? A . No. 608. Q. A nd you were standing on the fore-deck the whole time? A. Yes. 609. BY H IS HONOR : Q. Can you give any idea of the number of times that you saw the Governor fire­

actually load and fire 1 A. I distinctly remember fo ur shots ; but there were some fired before that. They were tbe four last. I cannot say how ma ny he fired before t he four.

610. Q. Those were the four last? A. The four last

shots l1 c fired. 611. Q: What were the natives doing at that time? A. They were in a small creek, leaving a canoe, to land in t he mud.

612. Q. W ere any of •them standing up, apparently wit h the intention of disch arging arrows at the ship at that time 1 A. No, decidedly not; they were t oo far off; they were on shore ; or, at least, just in a little creek.

613. Q. How far was the sh ip tt t this time from the

shore? A. F rom the I sland, or the mainland 2. 614. (J. 'rhe n earest shore? A. I should say about three or four hundred yards. 615. Q. The nearest shore was the Island, I suppose 7

A. Y es; that was the I sland. 616. Q. How was the "lVIerric England" heading; was she ly ing with h er starboard, or port, sid e to the l sland; headmg west or heauing cast 1 A. I think, as far I can

remember, she was lying with her port side to the I sland. 617. Q. Heading north-west, I suppose? A. Yes. 61 8.

619. Q. But you did not see any one actually hit ? A. I am sure neither of those shots had effect. 620. Q. None of the four? A. None of t he four.

621. Q. I forgot whether you said how long the firing continued from first to last? A . Ten minutes. 622. Q. At the least, did you say 1 A. At the least ten minutes.

623. Q. Y ou were rather excited at the time ? A. Yes; I was excited a t the time. 624. Q. B ut., although you were excited, you t hink, as far as the time is concerned, you can g iv e a pretty clear idea; or may you have imagined it was a good deal longer

t han it was ? A. No, sir; considering all I have

never had reason to " :tor my opinion . 625. Q. I understand you did not hear ;::,nything of the intend ed arres t before it occu r red? A. N othing "·haten'r, 626. Q. N othing sct id to yo u ::.t all directly or in­

directly? A . No. (W itness rcb-cd).

At 4 p.m. the Co mmi ss!on adj onmcd until l O a.m.­ next day.

60

W-itn cM-R. H. Harvey, 27 July, 1904.

MORXING SITTING.-SECOND DAY,

WEDNESDAY, '27 JULY, 1904, 10 A. M.

[The Commission met at the Commonwealth Offices, Sydney.]

.

C. E. R. MUB.RAY, EsQ ., D.C.J. (Commissioner). Mn. G. LONG I NNE;3, Barrister-at-Law, instructed by Mr. Robison, of the N.S. vV. Crown Solicitor's Office, appeared on behalf of the Commonwealth Government. Mn. ATLEE HUNT, Seet·etary, Department of Extemal Affairs.

Mn. J-. GARLI CK, Secretary to the Commission.

Jf1·. 11. L. Ellis toolc shm·tltancl notes nf tlte evidence and proceedings.

ROBER'l' HENRY HAHVEY wa.s sworn and examined as under :-627. BY Mil. I NNES: Q. What is your 1 A.

Robert H enry Harvey. 62 8. You a.re the capt:tin of the "Merrie Engln.nd"? A. Y es. 629. Q. Tha.t is the Govcmor's bwt in the New Gninea P ossession? A. Yes.

630. Q. How long have you been captain of t he "}ferric Enghnd "? A. About years.

63 1. Q. ·were you on her before? A. Y cs, as second and chief officer. 632. Q. H ow long have you been on the "Merrie England ? A. About 7 yea1·s. I was on the coast for 3 years as mate of a schooner.

633. Q. Have you been much round this part of the coast, where Goaribari I sland is ? A. Yes ; I was in

charge of t he ship each time she went t here-three times. 634. Q. You were in charge of t he vessel when Sir Geo rge L e Hunte went t here in 1901 and 1902? A. Y es. The first t ime, I anchored 4 mil es off. The second t ime; we went close in, where we anchored this time.

635. Q. You say you were with Sir George I,e Hunte in 1902. That was the last time he visited Dopima1 A. Y es. 636. Q. Before he left, on that occasion in 1902, did you hear him say anything to the natives in the way of a r eturn visit-of what he would do, or what their position was 1 A . Yes. To the best of my recollection he said, before we left there, that as they had not complied with his wishes by giving up the skulls of Mess rs. Chalmers and Tomkins, and giving U]) the murderers, he would come back in 12 months and burn their dubus and fight them.

637. Q. Cou ld you say whether they thoroughly umler­ stood 1 638. By HIS HONOR : Q. H ow wa>; it conveyed to them 1 A. Through interpreters.

6:39. Q. Was any reply made, as fn.r as you know 1 A. I heard Sir George orders to the interpreters. 640. Q. But probably you cou ld judge by the appear­ a nce of the natives who were spoken to, and by t he way in which they acted, whether they understood what wa.s said to them 1 A. \Veil, to t he best of my recollection, they did seem to understand what was said. All the New Guinea natives have certain signs; they wrinkle their foreheads, for instance, as much as to say, " I understand," or, " I know. "

641. By Mn. INNES : Q. Had you had other communi­ cations made to the natives in a simil ar way, through interpreters 1 A. Yes, I was ashore in one place where it was done.

642. Q. Had those communications been acted u pon previously7 A. \ ¥el l, they brought off Chalmet·s' skull. 'l'hey understood then what was wanted. That was con­ veyed to them in the samQ way, through interpreters.

643. Q. ·w ell, as a matter of fact, Sir r: 2orge Le Hunte did not come back in U months' time ·: A. No, he was Home. 644. Q. And the "Merrie England " was not in com­ mission, or something --1 A. Something had stopped her.

645. O. So the next time you went to th e I sland was in March this year? A. Y cs, on t he 5th of March. 6-16. (). Now, before you got there, had you been told anything of what was going to happen, or the plan of operations t hat J ud gc Robinson intended to carry ou t 1

A. No. 6-±7. Q. So yo u did not know, until you got there, what was going to take place ? A. No. G4tl. ().Well, you got to Goaribari about half past eleven on Saturday morning, the 5th of March ? A. Y es .

649. Q. ·what was tho tirst t hing that occurred, as far 1

as you can remember; did you sec any of the lu.rge canoes taking away the women and children 1 A. we saw

them at the upper end of the passage. 6!'50. Q. The canoes taking the women and ch ildren to a place of safety 1 A. Yes, the passage.

651. By HIS HONOR: Q. Going loaded, and co ming back unloaded 7 A. Y es; comi ng back with perhaps only one or two men. That is, going loaded, and coming back to t he I sland unloaded.

652. By :M:n. I NNES : Q. As far as you know, is t hat a usual thing with the natives, when strangers come along 7 A. Yes. 653. Q. That is what usually happens 7 A . Yes, t hey take away their women and children and their goods, ornaments and toys-their t reasures, you might say.

654. Q. W ere any •special arrangements made on the boat t hat day? A . The boats were lowered soo n after we arrived, so me of them. G55. (/.There was nothing unusual in that 7 A. No.

656. (j. " Well, did you know on that Saturday that any nttempt was going to be made to detain any hostages 7 A. No. 657. Q. On the Saturday, we are told, the natives came round in the ordinary way. About how many would you sav 1 A . There must have been about 200 that day.

They happened to recognise Mr. Jiear and myself. 658. (2. Did you, on that day, recognise any of th e rin"leaders in t his massacre of Chalmers and his party? Di;l you know them by sight 7 A. I did not know them ; but, on t he second occasion t hat Sir George Le Hunte was there, I was on shure with him in both of the villages and sa w two of the men. One was a man who admitted

having knocked Mr. Chalmers on t he head. vVhat the other man had done I do not know, but he was one of the party; and Sir George L e Hunte told t hese two men to go on board t he ship, which they did not do.

659. Q. That was the time when Sir George L e Hunte says that t he two ringleaders were pointed out to him, and he co uld have arrested them, but he thought it would be a t reacherous act ? A . Yes, that was t he time-on h is becond visit, in 1902.

660. Q. \Ve are told that these nati\·cs came on board during the whole of that day, Saturday, and traded in the ordinary friendly way 7 A. Yes.

61

Witness-R. H. Harvey.

661. Q. And nothing unusual occurred that A. No­ t hing more than wl1at you might call friendly on both sides. vVe tmded with them on that occasion. I pointed out one man to Judge Robinso n who seemed to be a very influential man among t he natives, and who gave us a good deal of assistance the time when we were there;

and Judge Robinson arranged with him to come off and act as pilot and interpreter. 662. BY HIS HON OR: Q. W hat was t hat man's name? A. I could not tell you, Sir. H e was a low-sized man with an enormous nose. H e seemed a very jolly man.

663. Q. vVh en you say he acted as interpreter, between whom did h e A. F rom Sir George L e Hunte

to a Kiwai man, and from him to another native. They act through various interpreters. · 664. Q. Did h e do that on t his A. I believe

he did. 66 5. Q. Do some of the Goaribari islanders then under­ stand Kiwai 1 A. No, not K i wai ; but they understand a nearer tribe, a tribe further to t h e west, and they under­ stand the tribe fu rth er west still.

666. BY MR. INNES : Q. And sometimes you have to use half a do ze n interpreter s 1 A. Yes. B ut on this

occasion we had a man "lvho had picked up some of the dialects from Kemeri, whom Sir George Le Hunte had taken away. 6 6 7. Q. You did not see Kemeri on this occasion

A. No; we were told he was away fi shing up on t he Delta. 668. Q. \Vell, the natives left the boat about 6tmdown 1 A . Y es. 669 Q. Did you notice on t h is occasion- on the Saturday -whether they were a rmed, or h ow t hey were dressed 1

A . The canoes were armed, and the natives had their wicker gauntlets on. 670. Q. That was on t h e Saturd:1y A . Y es. . 671. Q. Nothing out of the way happened during t he whole of that night, I A. Nothing that I know of.

672. Q. \Veil now, we come to the next morning.

What time did you come on deck on S unday morning? A. About six o'clock- perhaps a little earlier. 67 3. Q. At t hat time were the nati ves r ound A. Y es, t hey were ronnel the vessel wh en I got up.

674. Q. About how many? A. About tl,at time-fiix o'clock- there might have been a hundred alongside t he ship, but they were coming off all the time from away up the inlet. 67 5. Q. vVere t hey armed in t h e same wa,y as on the

Saturday? A. Y es, jnst the same. I saw thousands of

arrows in t he canoes. . 676. Q. But there was nothing to lead you to believe that t hey intended any hostile attack 1 A. No, I would not say there was.

677. Q. You say yo u came on deck about half past six 1 Who else was on deck when you came out of your A . To the best of my knowledge, the J uclge "IYas

there, in his pyjamas; Mr. Jiear; and various members of the crew. 67 8. Q . .And, I suppose, some of the constabulary 1 A. Y es, they were up very earl y.

679. Q. vVell now, what is the fir st thing which happened, as far as you can A. I was strolling round t he

foredeck- [inter-r-up ted]. 680. Q. Up to then, yo u had not heard anything whatever about the arrangements for arresting the hostages? A. No. I was strolling round t h e foredeck, and, after a while

- I suppose it must have been about a, quarter past

seven-I had to go down below deck, and I came up again in about t en minutes or a quarter of an hour. It must have been then about a qua rter past seven. I saw a native on the port boat boom. H e was very chary about coming

towards t he ship. There were a lot of canoes around

the ship-about 100-and about 500 or 600 natives. :M:r. J iear was trying to get t his man on board. The

boat booms are made fast to t he ship to keep the boat from chafing. There is a short ladder; I should my it would I

127

27 July, 1904.

be about eight feet between the boom and t he water. The boom is g uyed. Th ere are fore and aft guys. 681. (J_ Mr. Jiear was t rying to persuade him to come on board. A. He was offering him a tomahawk,

t hrough an interpreter. I t hen heard Judge l'tobinson say that they wanted that man, and they seemed very anxiOl\s to get him on board t he ship. Judge Robinson was, at that time, forward of t he vent ilator.

682. Q. Did you find out afterward s who t hat man was? . A. E m a, I t hink. l:l e was :L tall man,- a chief. After >L

few minutes I got, tired, and went in to dress myself in my room. J\lfy two forward windows were closed ; the side one was open. I was just in t he act of throwing off my pyjanm jacket to wash myself, when I heard a commotion.

I looked out forward and saw a man darting along. I heard soineone say "That mau will get away." I saw t he man dart from the mast to the starboard sid e with a

policeman after him. I rushed out; the man was astride t he rail, looking aft, with his hand holding t he shro uds. T he policeman was trying to drag him in board. I put my weight on to him, and broke his hold ; and h e fell in board. I took up t he man's left leg and said to the police

man, "Where are your ha,ndcuffs "? and then an arrow wh izzed by my head immediately, and t hen there was a rifi e shot. T he policema,n let go his hold. 683. Q. That was the first you heard of ri Ae firing?

A . Yes. The sound seemed to come from t he waist of the ship. Judge Robinson was standing on the foredeck 684. Q. So that the sound did not come from where Judge Robinson was 1 A. No. I immed iately tripped the

man and he fell, and I went t o hold him. H e took my

right hand in his right, and he attempt ed to bite i.t. I

.Jerked my hand away and struck him on the side of the head. I ·had n ot my hand closed at the time. \Ne

struggled ; t here were shots going on at the t ime. H e dntggecl me to t he pin-rail and he drew a brass belaying pin. Immediately I saw him draw the belaying pin to nJ e, I t hrew him on his back again, and I grabbed the belaying pin with my right hand, when I found· t hat I had no power in it. I had lost the power of two fin gers. I

then grabbed his righ t wrist with my loft hand and pinned him. M r. J ewell came along, and I said, "Jewell, take tlmt bebying pin out of his hand." H e said, " vVbat will I do wit h it" l I f;aid, ''GiYe it to me," a.nd he did so. I

put it b:tck in its pbce aga,in. 68 :3. Q. About l:ow long did that struggle take 1 A. I shoulr\ :.;ay >omcthi ng under fiye minutes. . 686. Q. You say about this time general firing was going on 1 A . Yes. I noticed the Judge going from where he was fonYarcl alon g t he port side.

687. Q. 'I'hat was when you got up 1 A. During the struggle. 688. BY HIS HONOR : Q. All this st r uggle was

taking place n ear the starboard rai l ? A. Between t he mast and the staruoard rigging. I noticed the J uclge going aft. I do not r ecollect seeing him come forward again, but I saw him forward. 1'he man dragged me to

t he rail, and he drew the behying pin a,gain. vVe

struggled, and he jammed me between the house and the rail, and his toe caught in my pyjama a nd I could

not free my lPg. Tile caqwnter and a policeman came, and took the belaying pin out of his hand. The man was taken from me, and the firing ceased then. J ucl ge

Robinson passed me immediately after, after tbe man was taken from me ; l1e passed me on the starboard side of t he house. I saw Judge Robinso n there, firing three or four shots, and the policemen too.

689. Q. Do you mean that firin g absolutely ceased altogether. A. It had ceased a t t he time I finished my struggle, but Judge Robinson and a policeman fired afterwnrds.

690. (J. The general firing had ceased, but Judge

Robinson fir0d afterwards 1 A . Y e3. 69 1. Q. \ Vas he the last one to fire, as fa r as you could see A. Y cs, h e fired at lo11g range.

Witness-R. H. H arvey.

692. Q. I suppose you could not tell what the r esult of this fire was-whether the shots took effect or not 1 A. I saw nobody hit, or nobody float. I was below the rail most of the time.

693. Q. You h eard no orders to fire, or signal to com­ mence firing, at all 1 A. No. 694. Q. And you say t he first shot was fired Imme­ diately after an arrow had whizzed past your h ead 1

A. Yes. 695. Q. Do you know if it is a general order that, if the constabulary see nat ives firing, or about to fire, they are to use their rifles 1 A. It is a general order in t be

Government service. I got it myself from Sir -William Macgregor at the time of the Green massacre at Mambare, -about 1896, I think. 696. Q. Did you make any inquiries afterwards as to the number killed or wounded 1 A. Yes. The launches went away from the ship on Sunday, and I took charge, of course, of the prisoners, while t he Government officers were away. I had them chained on the starboard side ; leg-ironed and handcuffed. I wanted to get into com­ munication with the nati ves, to t ry and make friends with them ; and gradually I got canoes to come alongside.

697. Q. When was that 1 A . Sunday, I think. I am

not sure whether it was Sunday or Monday. It was after the boats' parties had gone ashore. There were three women in one canoe. They were the wives of that man

who was on the port boat boom. I do not know his name. I got them alongside the ship by giving them tobacco and matches, and through an interpreter,-one of the police­ men aboard the ship- they told me that t here were eight killed. I got the names from them, as best I could. I

told the second officer to take the names on paper, and I handed those names to Judge Robinson when he came back. 698. Q. There was no one hit on your side; of t he

"Merrie England " party 7 A. No. 699. Q. You say one arrow whizzed past your head. Did you see any other arrows fired 7 A. I saw no arrows fi red. I saw them on the deck.

700. Q. How many 7 A. There were six picked up on deck, but a lot went through the awning. 701. Q. How do you know 7 A . Well, from the way they fired.

702. Q. Did you see them 1 A. No. 703. Q. Did you hear them7 A. Yes. 704. BY HIS HO "OR: Q. You heard them. A. Yes. Two whizzed right past the lamp trimmer.

705. Q. But you yourself did not see them 7 A. No. I saw the remains on t he deck, two on the foredeck and one aft. I was told there were six found on the de ck. 706. Q. From your experience do you think it wo uld have been possible, supposing other means had been used, - supposing the "Merrie England " party had landed, and demanded that these men should be given up, and Mr. Tomkins' skull should be h;:tnd ed over, and in case of refusal force had been used,-do you think it wo uld have been possible to capture the men in that way 1 A. Not unless the men were pointed out.

707-708. Q. B ut if they were pointed out, and t he natives showed fight 7 A. If t he men were pointed out, and there were policemen placed to immediately pounce on them, t hey might have got them. But, on one occasi on at Cape N elson, I saw t he same thing tried, and the men got away.

709. Q. I understand that Goaribari is a very populous district 1 A. Yes. 710. Q. And also very savage? A. Yes. They are the worst natives I have seen anywhere.

711 Q. They are all cannib>lls, are they not? A. ·well, I have never seen them eating human fl esh ; but it is the general t hi ng round there. They will not allow white people to see them eating human iiesh.

71 2. Q. You have been on the "Merrie England " for seven years 1 A. Yes.

62

27 July, 1904.

713. Q. Has not it always been looked upon as a

sanctuary in Sir George Le Hunte's time ;-I mean, nothing of this kind has occurred before, in the way of seizing hostages, when they come to trade 1 A. Not in 'llY time. 711. Q. Have any arrests of anyone been made on boa,rd the ship- of natives, I mean 1 A. Not to my recol­ lection.

715. Q. That is during the last seven years 1 A. No. 716. Q. I suppose the officers' mess includes yourself as captain, and t he Governor, the Judicial A dministrator­ whoever happens to be on board. There is one mess in the saloon 1 A. Yes. Myself, and two or three engineers and the chief and second officers. There are two tables;

t he Govemor sits at one, and I at the other. 717. Q. Any special communication wo uld not take place then, of course ; Lut still there is a general conver­ sation going on from one table to t he other 7 A. Yes.

71 8. Q. If there bad been any general idea on th e ship of taking any general action it would not have been very exclusiv ely kept. You would have been sure to bear of it 1 A. Yes. But Judge Robinso n was a man who kept his ofticial duty very much to hi mself.

719. Q. ·He would, then, generally, I suppose, com­ municate with his private secretary and with Mr. Jiear 1 Jl . Yes.

720. Q. Do you know what sort of a shot he was 7 A. I could not tell you. I never saw him firing at any targets. 721. Q. You did not hear in the course of conversation 1 A. I have seen them all on the foredeck with their

revolvers or their rifles; b ut I ne

723. Q. H e was a man thoroughly accustomed-to the use of firearms? A. Yes; as far as 1 could see from a distance. 724. BY Mn. I NNES : Q. As a matter of fact you did not fire a shot at all on .this occasion? A. N o, I never

expected anything like that to happen. 725. BY HIS HONOR: Q. I understand you were quite taken by surprise wh en you found this was going on, and t hat you expressed your surprise 1 A. Yes; I was very much surprised .

726. Q. Knowing what you do of the natives, what would you have expected as the result of a sudden, and by t hem unanticipated, arrest of a number of them 1 A. That they wo uld shoot at once.

727. Q. You would look forward to that? A. Yes. Not alone the natives there, but in other parts of New Guinea. If it had happened on I am perfectly sur e they

would have made a hard fight to get those people from us. 728. Q. What was the general policy, then, in your experience, in regard to making all sorts of arrests. vVas it to give the natives notice beforehand, t hat something of the kind was to be done, that they were to be considered as parties to a state of war ; or was it the practice to take advantage of sudden opportunities to arrest men unawares? A. vVel l, I am not in a position to judge that, because my duty was confined to the ship. I would only be answering from hearsa,y.

7:29. BY lVIR. INNES : (J. Still, you were on shore with Sir George Le Hunte when he refused to take advantage of hi s to seize those two men 1 A. Yes. At that

time he went there on a mission of peace. He wanted to discover the murderers, and to recover the skulls. H e told them he would be friends if they would give up the men and the skulls.

7:30 . BY HIS HONOR: Q. Well , then, it would be war if they did not 1 A. Yes, it would be war when he next came ·back. 73 L. BY MR. INNES: Q. Tl1c "Merrie England" carries a N ordenfeldt 7 A. Y es .

73:2. Q. \Vere any orders g iven to have the Nordenfeldt in readiness that morning 1 A . The chief officer came and told me, about 7 o'clock, that he had given orders to the carpenter to put the ammunition near the ordenfeldt in

Witnesses-R. H. Han'ey and E. Rothwell.

the hoppers. I made a slight error. I said that the

Nordenfeldt cartridges were put into the hoppers by the chief officer's orders : but the carpenter could not get the hoppers from the chief officer, as he was shaving. It was after the firing had· occurred that he put them into the hoppers. The Nordenfeldt was not fired, except by acci­

dent, after the ftring had ceased. The carpenter did not know there was a shot in the breach, and it went off by accid ent. 733. Q. That was some t ime after the firing had all A. Y es.

734. BY HIS H ONOR : Q. What size bullet does the Nordenfeldt A. A n'l:artini-Henry cartridge fit s it, I think. [ \Vi tness retired. J

EDWIN ROTHWELL was sworn and examined as under :-73 5. BY Mu. INNES: Q. Your name is Edwin R oth­ well ? A. Yes.

7 36. Q. You are the chief officer of the " Merrie

A. Y es.

737. Q. H ow lon g ha \·e you bee n in t hat

A. For four years. 73 . Q. vVere you on t he "Merrie England" bcbrc A. Yes, fo r three and a-half years.

739. Q. You haYC been seven or eight years on the "Merrie t l . About nine years. I joined in

1893; but I was away fo r about eighteen months. I was there about four years; t hen I left for about eigh teen months ; then I went back.

63

740. Q. ·were you in her when Sir George Le Hunte went there, in 1901 and 19021 A. Yes. 7-1,1. Q. So you know this A. Y es.

7-12. Q. You were there in March this year, when she went there with J udge A . Yes.

743. Q. She got there on Saturday morning, March 51 A. Y es, about 1 or 2 o'clock. 744. Q. Up to the time of your arrival, had you heard anything about seizing A. No, I had heard

nothing whatever. I did not know what they we re going to do. 7 45. Q. Had you any idea? A . I heard we were going there to try and get the murderers of Messrs. Chalmers and Tomkins.

7 46. (.J. That was generally understood on the boat 1 A. Y es. 7 4 7. Q. You arrived there on Saturday morning. Did you see the natives taking away their women and across the channel ? A . No ; I cannot say that I d1d.

At the time, we were very busy navigating the channel. it is a very intricate place to get in. 748. Q. A great number of the natives c::tme round in their A. During the afternoon a g reat many

came off, but we had a great difficu lty in getting them near the ship. 7 49. Q. How did you overcome that difficulty 7 A. They were enticed alongside by the people on hoard showing them tomahawks and things of that description.

750. Q. And about how many were round the vessel that A. I should say abc,ut 200 natives,

perhaps 250. 751. Q. There was nothing unusual in the nati ves coming round 7 A . No, it is the ordinary thing. As a

rule, they come off to t he ship, or come round the vessel within hailing distance, and hover about. 752 . Q. Did you notice whether t hey armed 7

A. Yes; they all had bow s and arrows. 753 . (.J. As far as you know, from your experience, is that the ordinary way that a native would go A . It

just depends on the place we go to. I n places we h;we been in the habit of visiting r egularly, they generally come off without arms.

129

27 July, 1904.

754. Q. But, wh en Sir George Le Hunte said that the natives in this locality never move without arms, he was correct 1 A. Yes, he was quite correct. 755. Q. So there was nothing peculiar in their being armed 1 A. No.

756. Q: \Vell, eventually they came on board, and were trading in a perfectly friendly and ordinary way 1 A. 0£ course, I cannot remember their coming on board on the Saturday.

757. Q. Don't you remember their coming on the Satur­ day 7 A. No; we were very busy getting out the launch. 758. Q. As far as you know, nothing out of the way happened on the Saturday? A . No.

759. Q. And they left about sundown 1 A . Really, I do not think t hey were on board on Saturday. 760. Q. vVell, now, we come to the Sunday morning. Nothing happened during the night 7 A. No. We had the police on guard, and one of the ship's company keeping watch ; but nothing happened.

761. Q. Now we come to the Sunday morning. What t ime did you come on A . I was on deck at 6

o'clock on Sund::ty morning. 762. (J. Did you notice who else was on deck at the time 7 A. No ; I did not.

763. Q. I want you to tell us what was the first thing t hat happened , aR far as you can remember, that was out of the A. The first thing t hat happened, I

should say-it was close on 8 o'clock in the morning; I was in my room, dressing. I had just finished shaving, and was putt ing my razor away, when I heard some scuffiing on the foredeck ; and I heard some shooting

afterwards. I rushed out. 764 . Q. That was while you were in your cabin 1 A. Yes. I heard shooting, and then scuffiin g on the deck. I rushed out of the room to see what was the matter.

765. BY HIS HONOR : Q. Where is your cabin. A. My cabin is the forward room on t he starboard side aft. At the time, we had a large 400-gallon tank in the rigging, on the right of my cabin, and there was a lot of Govern­ ment stores amidships; so that I could not see very well

without going a little way forward. I ran out, and I

saw the police scuffiing on the deck. I ran back to my room and grabbed my gun. I thought the vessel was being boarded. 766. Q. When you saw t he natives, did you notice if they were armed in the same way as on the previous day 1 A . Yes; t hey were all armed that morning.

767. Q. But t he same way as they had been. A. I

cou ld not say. I did not take particular notice. 768. Q. Did you see anyone firing7 A. I saw the police firing. I also saw the boat swain firing a revolver, in the waist.

769. Q. Did you fire at all that morning. A. Yes; I took my gun. 770. Q. \Vhere was your gun 7 A . In the cabin, under­ neath the mattress. I t ook the gun from underneath the mattress, and p,ut in a few cartridges, and walked out along t he house. I saw t he police firing, and I saw two or three men in the canoes with t heir bows drawn, and arrows fitted; and some were firing.

771. Q. You did see the natives firing. A. Y es. 772. Q. Could yo u say about how many arrows you saw fired 7 A. I could not say. It would be very hard for me to say. I could only see one portion. I could not see

forward on account of the boats. 773. Q. From what you could see, how many arrows were fir ed, do you think. A . From t hat side, I should think about half a dozen or a dozen .

7H. Q. No one was hit on board the "Merrie England"1 A. No; there was no one hit. 775. Q. Did !Lny of your shots take effect 7 A. \Vell, I fired mostly to frighten, more t han anything else. I ftred t hree or fou r shots. I just fired at random.

776. Q. Do you mean that yo u fired without taking any aim 1 A. I just fired at random.

Witne sses-E. Rothwell and E. S. McDermid.

777. Q. You did not aim at the man who was firing. A. I just took a rough pot shot. 77 8. Q. You could not say whethet· the shots took · A. No; I do not think any of my shots took

effect. I was a little excited at the time. 779. Q. About how long do you think this firing lasted, from the time you first heard it in the cabin till it ceased A . From the time I fi rst heard it, it might have been three minutes ; but from the time I left the cabin I do not

t hink it was more than a minute and n half. 780. Q. Do yo u mean till the firing ceased absolutely 1 A. Y es. I do not think it lasted more than three minutes at the outside.

781. Q. Thnt is, as fa.r as you can A. Yes.

782. Q. After t hat, I believe, so me nine men were

arrested 1 A . Y es, I believe there were nine men arres ted. 783. Q. Had their arrests been completed by the time the firi ng A. I could not say. I walked forward

and I saw them on the foredeck, with the police guarding them. Someone passed an order along to cease firin g. Well, I had ceased firing before t hat, on account of my rifle jamming; and, as they were retreating, I thought it was no use firing.

78·1. 0. I understand the natives b egf1 n t o cleat· off us ·soon as t he firing began 1 A . Y es . Some jumped out of the canoes, and used t he canoes us breastwork between them and the ship. They S\\·am the c.:anocs to the shor e.

They swam on the far Ride of the cunocs. 785. BY H I S HONOlt: Q. Do you know the effective range of these arrows? A. The effective range of one of t hese arrows-it >vould go through a man at 100 yards quite easily. I have seen them fi re arrows nt 100 yards, and they have gone through a half-inch deal board.

786. Q. '\Vhat would be t he thickness of an arrow-the circumference ? A . It will be pretty near an inch and a-half. 787. Q. And that would go through a man 1 A. The diameter of an arrow wou ld be from three-eighths to half an inch. There are some larger than t his.

788. Q. Do you think they would go through a man at 100 A . I am certain.

789. Q. You don't mean to say that it would go right A. The arrow head would go right through

him; it would stick out the other side. I do not mean to say the arrow itself would go through him. 790. BY MR. INNES : Q. After the firing ceased, the natives did not come round at all 1 A. No, we never saw them any more that day.

791. Q. I understand that two boats' parties went ashore, visiting the various villages ? 11. Yes. 792. Q. You stayed on board 'I A . Yes. 793. (J. Captain Harvey has told us a.bout some canoes that came over with some women to speak to the hostages. Do you remember this 1 A. Yes, t hat was on t he follow­ ing day. No one came near the vessel that clay. vVe might have sighted on e in the distance, but that was all. It was on the following day t hese canoes came off

794. Q. Y ou remained on board till you left t he island ? A. Y es. 795. Q. During t he whole time you have been on board the " .Merrie England," do yo u remem ber any other occasion that anyone else was arrested on board ? A. No, not on board the ship.

79 6. Q. Has the "Merrie England " been regarded, by the nat ives and by yourselves, as a sort of a sanctuary? A . W ell, she has been regarded that way. I have seen them go on Rhore and arres t. I have go ne myself ; and I have bee n told off to go on shore to l1 clp to make

797. Q. \Vas that in t he time of wh at I mi ght call war­ fare? A . It was wh ere traders had been killed by

natives, and ,,.c J,a,·c gone round to tl 1c villages, lowered t he bou. b, and gone and arrested ti1Clll .

798. Q. Did yo u tell thent >l·hat yo u were coming for, tlrst of all? A. vVel l, they generall y nm awu.y ufter com­ mitting n murder, or anythin g like t hat.

27 July, 1904.

799. Q. But, as far as you know, no arrests have ever been made on the "Merrie England 1 A. No, sir, I cannot remember. [Witness retired.]

EDWARD SCOTT McDERMID was sworn and examined as under :-800. BY MR. INNES : What is vour name1 A. Edward Scott McDermid. ·

801. (J. And you second officer on board the "Merrie England "1 A. Yes. 8 02. (J . H ow long have you been oa the "Merrie

England " 1 A. Two yec1. rs in October. 803. Q. Next October ? A. Y es. 80-i. (J. So th is is the first occasion on which you have visited Goaribari Island 1 A. Y es .

805. Q. You were on the " M errie England " in March last, when she went there with Judge A. Y es.

806. Q. U p to the tim e you got to Goaribari, did you know what was the obj ect of go iug to the isla nd 1 A. vVell, I was not of the obj ec t of goi11 g t here, but I heard we

were going to tl'y and t he murderers of Mr.

Chalmers. 80 7. Q. That was the general on board 1 A. Y es.

801:1 . (j. But you harl not heard any particulnr plan of opcra tions-lww they we re going to arres t them, or what the ide:1 w:ts? A . No, sir; I had no id ea, whatever. 80 9. Q. Yon arrived t here on the Saturday morning, before dinner? A. Y es, sir; about 11 o'clock.

810. Q. \ Ve are told that the natives came round in their A. Y es.

811. Q. About how many, do you think, came round on the Saturday? A. There might have bee n from 100 to 150, or thereabouts. 812. Q. Did they come on board ? A. Yes. They did not come on board very freely at first; b ut, after a while,

they came on board. 813. Q. Did you notice how they managed to get t hem on A. Yes. The first canoe that came along, or

one of t he fi rst that came along, Mr. R.obinson stood on the gangway, and invited t hem up. 814. Q. How did he invite them 1 A . He beckoned to them, and offered them "trade."

815. Q. E ve rything went on perfectly A . Yes,

as far as I co uld see. 816. Q. During the Saturday 1 A. Yes. 817. Q. Trading was going on in the ordinary way 1 A. [

817 ! . BY HIS HONOR : Q. Tho trading consisted of Eom ething being give n on bo th sides 1 A. Yes. 818. Q. vVhat was taken in exchange from the natives? A. Bows and arrows.

819. Q. Principally or entirely ? Had they any other articles of trade than bow s a nd arrows? A. Merely their bows and arrows, and t heir bobos-bamboo tubes that they smoke through.

820. BY MR. INNES : (J. Did you notice wh eth er they were armed in any way that day 7 A. They had their bows and arrows with t hem. 821. Q. And you say they were trading these bows and A . Yes.

82:2. Q. Th ey went off about sundown, I suppose 1 A . Y es. 823. (J . A nd went hack to t heir villages 1 A. Yes. 82-t (j. There was nothing particular happened during that night 1 A. No.

8 :25. Q. And now we come to t he Sunday morning. 1n1e n did you como on dc(·k? .11. About 6 o'clock. 8 :2 G. Q. I V ere tb e nati,·es round the vessel

A . Yc. >. 82 7. Q. In their canoes 7 A. . Yes. 828. (J. About the same numbc1' as on the aftern oo n 1 A . Probably more.

6 .. . v

Witnesses-E. S. McDermid and A. Watson.

829. Q. Dressed and armed in the same way? A. Yes, exactly the same. They have not much dress, you know . 830. BY HIS HONOR: Q. The dress, I suppose, con­ sists mainly of the gauntlet, and something round the

waist 1 A. They had a bit of native twine and a sh ell,

most of them. 831. BY lVfR. INNES: Q. You say you came out about 6 o'clock, and you saw them round the vessel ? A. Yes. 832. (J. And they were in the same friendly way as on the previous day? A . Yes.

833. (J. Then you went back to your cabin? A. Yes. 834. Q. What was the first thing you heard or saw of the commotion? A. After that, I started to wash, and the carpenter came down for the hopper for the N orclen­ feldt. I went up on deck and got it, and gave it to him, and then went clown below again.

835. Q. You say you took the hopper for the Norden­ fel dt up to the c:1rpenter on deck, and then you went to you r c:1bi n again ? A. I hnd to go on deck to get the

hopper. My cabin is down below. 836. Q. Up to then, h ad the1·e been any c-ommotion at all? A. Not that I had noticed. 837. Q. \Yell, after that, you went b,1ck to your cabin. ·what is the next thing you h eard or saw? A. I had just finish ed washing, wh •·u I hem·d a rumpus on deck.

838. Q. vVhere is yo ur cn,bin ? A. In tho saloon, right opposite t he Judge's room. 839. Q. Tbat is do'n1 below, of course? A. Y es. (J. You sa-y you hea rd a rumpus. Do you mean

sounds of stl·uggling ? A . There was a rush of feet, and :1 so und of a melee, and t hen firing started . 841. Q. Had the firing star ted before you left your cabin at all 1 A. Y es . A shut went right past the port.

I thought t hey wer e fi ring at the Rhip, it so unded so close. 842. BY HIS HONOR : Q. Your cabin is on the port side 1 A. Yes.

843. Q. And you say a shot went past the bull's-eye light in your cabin i A. No. It j nst sounded right along­ side where I was standing. 844. BY MR. INNES : Q. What did you do when yo u heard this 1 A. I dressed myself, and wen t along the dec k.

I walked alo ng forward, and I saw Mr. Jiear and some of the native police tying the natives to the mast. 845. Q. About how long was that from the time you heard the first shot ? A. It co uld have been no more

than three minutes. 8'16 . BY HJS HONOR: Q. That would be the fore­ ma-st 1 A . Yes. 84 7. BY Mn. INNES: Q. W as the firing going on when you got on deck 1 A. Yes.

Q. About h ow long did it continuo after you got

on deck 'I A . About seve n or ten minutes. 849. Q. From the time you h Pard the first shot until the firin g absolutely ceased, h ow lo ng do yo u think it would be ·? A. vVell, a quarter of an hour I thought at the time.

(To His Honor : I think the same now. vVh en I ca,me on deck the natives were all secured.) 850. BY Mn. INNES: (J . But the natives who had been alongside 1 A. They were clearing awa-y as fa-st as

they could. 85 1. BY HIS HO::\OR: Q. Gettin g out of firearm range 1 Ll. Yes. 852. Q. By that time they must have been very well out of arrow range 1 A. I should think so, Your Honor.

853. BY MR. INNES: Q. What is the arr ow range? A. About 200 yards. 854. Q. They were more th an 200 yards away wh en you got on the deck 1 A. Well, I should say so; and getting away as fast as they could. In fact, before I cam e on

deck, I saw many of them getting away. 855. BY HIS HONOR: Q. When you sa-y that the arrow range is 200 yards, you mean with an eleva-tion of about 45 degrees ? A . Yes, at a ve ry high elevation.

856. Q. The direct arrow range is much less than that, is it not 1 A. Oh, yes.

131

27 July, 1904.

857. Q. What do you put it at? A. I do not think they would go over 100 yards at the outside. 858. BY MR. I NNE S : Q. Did you see any arrows fi red yourself 1 A. No.

859. Q. When you got on deck, t hey were out of arrow range, and they h ad stopped firing 1 A. Yes. 860. (J . Did you make any inquiries as to what arrows had been fired 'I A. Y es, I asked particularly about how

many arrows had been fired. 86 1. Q. From whom ditl you make inquiries? A. The crew of the vessel. 862. Q. W hat did you learn 1 A. The utmos t I could

learn was that there were three arrows fired altogether. 863. Q. That is only from what you heard? A. Yes. 864. (J. \Ve have been told that t here were six arrows picked up on the ship? A. I heard t here were three.

865. BY HIS HONOR : Q. Where were t he three found? A. One qn the fo r edeck; one was found near the companion ; :tnd I do not know about t he other one. 866. (J. It had somet hing, had it? A . Yes.

867. BY lVIn. I NNES : Q. You wore on deck when the order was given to cease fire? A. Yes. 868. Q. Do you remember Mr. Bruce giving the order'? A . Yes. I r;a, w Mr. Bruce; he wa,s lLbreast of the engine­ room skylight, and he was tell ing the police to cease fu·ing then.

869. Q. Did you sec ],im? 11. Y es ; lt c got hold of a

native policeman and told him to stop firing. 870. Q. I suppose everyone was very excited ? A. Yes. 'l'he native police were ;;roatly excited. 87 1. Q. vll ell, after the natives went away to the shore,

you sta-yed on board, did you 1 A. Yes, I was on board the whole clay. 872. Q. I suppose you were on board during the rest of the time the "Merrie England " was a,t Goaribari ? A. Yes.

873. Q. Did the na-tives como otf aga-in at all, after that 1 -il. On the Monday we got three canoes alongside. They would not come on board. They got toba-cco from the captain, and were speaking to the pnsoners >vho were on deck.

87 4. Q. Some of these, we are told, were women? A .· Y es, there were a,t least three women amongst them. (Witness retired.)

ALEX A N DE R WATSON was sworn and examin ed as under :--8i :>. BY l\1H .. INNES: Q. Your name is Alexander ·watson 1 A. Y es.

876. Q. You are the chief engineer of the "Merrie England " 1 A . Yes. o /7. Q. How long l1 ave yoa been there 1 A. T wo

yoa,rs, come next Augus t . 878. Q. You h

880. Q. W e are told you arrived at Goa-ribari Island on Saturday morning, the 5th of March ? A. Yes ; about noon. 88 1. Q. vVh at was the first thing you sa w, when you arrived at Goaribari. Did you see any natives taking away t he wom en and children across tbe channel1 A . They

were too far olf for me to sec that, but I saw the canoes going backwards and forwards. 882. Q. \ Vas that as you were coming up the channel? A. Y es.

883. Q. Then, a-fter that, \YC a rc told, the natives started to come round t he vessel ? A. Yes. 884.. (J. A bout how many, do you think, were round t ht> vessel that afternoon-the Sa-turday 7 A. Two or three hu ndred.

8o5. Q. \Vere t hey arm ed 1 A. A s far as I could see, all the canoes that came off had t heir bows and arrows. 88 6. Q. Did they come on boarLl that day? A . Yes, a lot came on board. I bought some arrows myself, and gaye tobacco for them.

66

Witness-A. 'Watson. 2i July, 1904.

887. Q. Did you notice wh ether they came on bo11rd readily 1 A . They seem ed to hesita te a lot, but eventu­ ally they came on board, after Mr. Robinson had a talk with them, and Mr. Jiear.

909. Q. And you saw him sink 1 A. Yes. 910. Q. At that time h ad you seen any arrows fired 1 A. I never saw any arrows at all fi red. I heard of som e, but I never saw them.

888. Q. How did they persuade them 1 A. They got down the accommodation ladder, and offered them t obacco, and turkey red, ami knives .

91 1. Q. What opportunity had you for seeing them. '\Vhen you got on deck where were the natives 1 A . 'l'hey were all scampering away, each side of the ship. They would be about 2 or 3 y

one man struggling with a native in the small steam launch which was alongside.

889. Q. That is, they induced them to come on board by giving them "trade" 1 A. Y es. 889 2-. Q. And they did come on board 1 A. Yes, and had a look round the ship.

890. Q. And trade went on 1 A. Y es. 891. Q. And everything was perfectly friendly, and no commotion occurred at all that day 1 A . None whatever, with the exception that I told th e third engineer to close the shutters of the launch, to see that the natives did not take anything. One of the prisoners we brought from Port Moresby with us- he was acting as a fireman-went back into the launch, and he eventually opened up one of those shutters, and was doing a bit of trade by himself. In the meantime, some of the natives came alongside ; and there were some spanners there, and they grabbed these. With that, the prisoner we had sang out, and I got on to the third engineer about it. Mr. Robinson came round, and told me not to frighten th e natives ; he would not have them frightened; he did not care if we lost a dozen

spanners. 89:!. TO HIS HONOR : They brought the spanners ba,clc 893. BY Mn. INNES : Q. What was this prisoner 1 A. A prisoner from l'ort l\Iorcsby.

893b. Q. He was not one of the Goaribari natives 1 A. he had been imprisoned at Port Moresby for steal­ ing. He was brought along to help to get the launch

along. 8$! 4-. Q. I suppose they went ofi about sundown? A. Y 8 95. Q. And everything wa.s perfectly quiet during the rest of the evening, and that nigh t 1 Ll . Yes.

896. Q. Now we come to t he Sunday morning. Were you on deck in the morning 1 Ll . I was on deck about

half-past G or 7 in the morning. 897. Q. ·were there natives round the vessel ? A. Yes, they woke me up with the noise and jabbering. I got up, and had a walk round th e ship, and was drying myself after my bath.

898. Q. The natives at that time were quite qu iet 1 A. Y es. 899. Q. And armed just in the same way as on the Satur­ day? A. Yes.

900. Q. You went back to you r cabin 1 A. Y es; I was dress ing myself when the firing commenced. 901. Q. You were in your cabin when t he first shot was fired 1 A. (Inten·upted).

902. BY HlS HONOR: (J. Where is your cabin 1 A. In the after part of the ship, on deck, by the hatchwa.y. lVly room is on the port side. 903. BY Mn. INNES: Q. W ell, did you hear tr10 firing begin as general firin::;, or one shot first of all? A. As general firing.

90-i. Q. Then you came o::tt of your cabin 1 A. Yes. 905. Q. Had you a rifle? A. N o. 906. Q. Did you do any tir·ing7 A. N o. I never had

a firectrm in my hand. 1 do not think I ever did ha vc

one, except one .time wh en I went inland with Captain H arvey. 907. Q. You went out of your cabin. Just tell us what you saw 1 A. On t he starboard side, just outside the

captain's room, I saw the Judge fire on e shot. I walk ed backwards round t he house. I two or three of the

native constabulary firing at a man in the water. H e would be about 3 or 4 yards off the ship. I saw that

ruan go down. 908. Q. So that, to t he bes t of your belief, he was hit 1 A. Oh, yes. I believe three men were firing at this one man in the water.

912. Q. Supposing arrows had been fired, would you have seen them 1 A . Yes. 913. Q. And you did not see any 1 A. No. I belieYe

the arrows were fired in t he forward part ofthe ship. 91 4. (J. By the natives on t he ship 1 A. By the nati l'es in the canoes, but in the forward part of the ship. 9 15. Q. Did you see any natives fire 1 A. No.

9 1 G. Q. About bow long do you think the firing went on, from the first time you heard it in your cabin 1

A. Between three and fiv e minutes. 917. Q. Did you see any other shots, besides that one, take effect on the natives 1 Ll. That was the only one I could see take effect.

918. Q. I think you said you saw Judge Robinson fire one shot, and then you turned :ctnd walked back, and then you did not see any more of him ? A. Y es. 919. Q. Did you see anyone give the order to cease fir·ing 1 A. I heard Mr. Bruce give the order to· cease firing; I recognised his voice.

920. Q. Did they obey him at once 1 A. Not exactly at once. He had a job with the noise. He stopped them on one side of the deck, and then went across and stopped them on the other side.

921. Q. I believe steam was not up that morning 1

A. No. ·when we arrived at Goaribari, I asked the

captain how long we would be t here. H e said, "Two or t hree days," so I allowed t he fires to die out. 922. Q. How long would it ha ve taken to get steam up, in case the natives made a general attack on you 1

A. Between four and six hours. 923. Q. So there could be no idea of any necessity for getting away in a hurry? Ll. No, we were not prepared to get away in a hurry; the told me we would be

there two or three days, so I arranged the work accordingly. 924. Q. Did you afterwards make any inquiries as to how many arrows were fired by the natives 1 A. I am not sure whether I did or not. I do not recollect inquiring.

925. Q. You did not hear1 Ll. There were three or

four, as far as I can remember. 926. Q. That is what you heard 1 A . Yes. 927. Q. After the natives had got away, did you stay on board that day 1 A . Y cs, I stayed on board all t he

time we were at Goariba; i. 928. Q. Did the natives come round again at all ? A. No, not at all. 929. Q. We are told that, on the :Monday, some canoes came round 1 A. Yes, but t hey Jid not come on board. The captain induced them to come pretty near. I think he gave some men in the canoes some tobacco. I know the women did not com e on board. 'l'hey brought some fo od to the men who had b 2en arres ted. The women

were crying. 930. Q. I think you about some skulls which

were brought there 1 A. Y cs ; that was on the T uesday morning, just previous t o sailing. \Ve left about 1 o'clock. 931. Q. That morning some skulls were brought to the vessel 1 A. Yes.

932. (J. How did that come about 1 A. I believe the captain, on Monday, had t old those natives who came along­ side that if they would bring the skulls, or the skull of Mr. Tomkins, there would be no more fighting- that it would be all right. ·w ell, eventually, they told those round about. I saw three or four men in the canoe-a rather large one- and in a sm a ll canoe there was only one man, with these two skulls. They hovered about the

67

Witnesses-A. Watson, C. Tyscr and T. Griffin.

forward part of the ship, and this one man got ou t of the canoe, and went in the canoe with the other man, and cast the other canoe adrift, and let it come alongside, and held it on a rope till it came to the compn nion, and then the two skulls were got out. Tiley were afterwards fo und to be nati \"C skulls.

BY HIS HONOR : Q. That is all you know about

the mqttcr, Mr. vVtttson ? A . Yes. (W,itness retired. )

CHARLES TYSE R w:ts sworn and examined as under :-933. BY Mil. INNES: Q. Your name is Charles Tyser? A. Yes.

!J3-L Q. Y ou are the second engineer on board the "Merrie England? A. Yes. 935. Q. How long have you been on board t he "Merrie :England?" A . Since November last year.

9:36. Q. You have made only one trip to Goaribari ? A. Yes. 937. Q. You were with her last March, when she took Judge Hobinson to Goaribari ? A. Y es.

938. Q. And yo u arrived on the 5th of March-Satur­ day morning ? A . Yes. 939. Q. T hat morning when you got there, what was the first thing yo u noticed ? A. The canoes came round,

just a few at a time, early in the morning, gradually got nearer the ship, and some nativt>s came on board. 940. Q. Did t hey co me on boa rd at once? A. No;

Mr. Robinson and Mr. J iear were speaking to them from the ship until they came on board. 9-!1. Q. They co uld not speak to them, because they did not understand t heir language. Did you see them?

A. Y es, I heard t hem and saw t hem. 942. Q. Did you see t hem offer t hem anything? A. Y es, they were giving t hem knives, and Turkey red cloth, and trading stuff.

943. Q. And then they came on board? A . Y es; after breakfast, I think it was. 944. Q. vVell, you did not get there until just before lunch? A. I cannot remember. 1 would not be certain

what t ime it was. 945. Q. vVell, the whole of that day, natives were on board in an ordina ry way ? A. Y es. 946. Q. Did you trade at all with hem yourself ?

A. No. 94 7. Q. Did you see them trading? A. Y cs. 948. Q. What did t hey trade ;-what did the natives give ;-I suppose they received tomahawks and t urkey red and tobacco ? A. I do not think any t rading was

done by t he crew a t all that day. 949. Q. Did you see the natives give anything that day ;- did t hey trade t heir bows and arrows? Jl . I believe t hat on Saturday afternoon some got some bows and

i1tTows from them.

950. Q. About how many natives would there be round the vessel that day 1 A. It would be hard to say; about 500 or 600, I should say. 95 1. Q. And they had their bows and arrows with them 1 A. Y es.

952. Q. They wen t away about sundown, I suppose, and we are told that nothing happened out of the way during the night? A. Nothing at all. 953. Q. W ell, now, we come to the Sunday morning;

about what t ime did you get on deck on Sunday morning 1 A . About 6 o'clock, I think. !J54. Q. Were t he natives round the vessel then 1 A. V ery few.

!)55 . Q. What did you do ? A. I did nothing. I waR about the deck and down Lelow in t he engine-room until very nearly breakfast-time. 95 6. Q. What was your breakfast-tim e? A. 8 o'clock.

133

27 July, 1904.

957. Q. Up to that, did anything happen? A. It. was about t hat time that they managed to get t he few that they wa nted on board, and made the arrests. 958. Q. vV herc were yo u when the arrests were made 1

A . The arrests were made about the same time as the first shot was fired . I was in the cabin. !J59. (J. You did not see the a rrests mudc 1 A. No. 960. (,}. When the first shot was fired, and you heard t he scu ffl e, what did you do 1 A. I carne out and had a look on both sides of the ship. The native police were firin g.

96 1. Q. Did you see anyo ne else besides the native police firin g? A. No; I did not go to the forward end of t he ship. 962. (J. Did you see any natives firing 1 A. Yes, several of them.

963. Q. About how many arrows would you say you saw iired ? A. I did not see any arrows fired at all. 964. Q. I mean the Goaribari natives; did you see

them f-iri ng at all ? A. No, I did not sec any arrows fired by the Goaribari natives at all. !J6 5. Q. vVhen you got on deck, whereabouts were t he Goaribaris 1 A . They were jumping out of their canoes, and trying to get ashore as quick as t hey could.

966. Q. About how far ? A. Some very close, and some 200 or 300 yards away. 967. Q. After you got on deck, you t hink there were no arrows fired? A . I do not think so; I did not see any,

968. Q. Did you see any of the shots take effect 1 A. It is hard to say; t hey jumped into the water ; they might have been shot ; they left their canoes. 969. Q. You could not form any estimate? A. No, I could not.

970. Q. H ave you any idea abou t how long the firing lasted 1 A . In my opinion, it was only about three

'minutes, at the very most. The whole thing, from start to finish , did not last ten minutes. 971. (J. Have you any mea,ns of telling us about how many shots were fi red ? A. I have not.

972. Q. vVell, then, after the natives got ashore, did you stay on board the whole day- that was the Sunday 1

A . Y es. 9i3. Q. I understand no natives came to the vessel that day 1 A. No; I do not thnk so.

97 4. Q. vVere yo u on board on the Monday? A. Y es. 975. Q. Did they come round the vessel that day? A. I was on board in the morning, but I was away in Mr. Jiear's boat when the launch went away in the afternoon.

976. Q. That was going rou nd and inspecting t he viilageH? A. Yes. 9i7. Q. Then you left on the Tuesday, taking away these hostages with you? A. Y es.

(Witness retired.)

THOMAS GHIFFIN was sworn and examin ed as under :-978. BY MR. I NNES: Q. Your name is Thomas Griffin 1 A. Yes .

979 . Q. And you are chief steward of the ":Merrie England " ? A . Yes. 980. (j. How long have you been on board the " Merrie England"? A. About two and a half years.

981. Q. Then you have only been once to Goaribari 1 A. Y es. 982. Q. That was in March last, when you went there with Judge Robinson? A. Y es.

983. Q. vVe are told you got there about half-past eleven on a Saturday morning? A. I cannot say the exact time; Saturday, some time. 98-!. (J. Did you see any natives that day? A . Y es.

985. Q. They were round the Yessel ? A. They did not come very close to the vessel that day.

Wi tnesses-T. Griffin and F. vV. Johnson.

986. Q. Not that day at all? A. Not that I ean

remember. 987. Q. Do you remember if any came on board that day 1 A . There was some trading done. 'l'hey came close to the ship. I did not see any on board on Saturday.

988. Q. "'Well, then, nothing out of t h e way happened on Sa turday, as far as you know 1 A. No, sir. 98t Q. Things were just in the ordinary friendly tl'ading way. A. Yes.

990. Q. Now, on the Sunday morning, wha t time did you get on deck 1 A. About a quarter past 6. 991. Q. Whereabouts is yo ur cabin 1 A. D own below, on the port sid e.

992. Q. vVere the nati vcs r ound t he vessel at thnt

time 1 A. Yes.

993. Q. In cmoes 1 A. Y es. · 9!H. Q. Abou t how· many, do you think ? A. About

995. Q. Did you stay on dock ? A. Y es, I stayed on

deck for some time. 996. Q. Did the natives start coming on board when you were on deck? A . No, it was later on they came

on board. 997. Q. When? A. About 7. 99 8. Q. \Vere you on deck then ? A. Y PS. 999. Q. How did they come on bmtrd ;- --were they

trading, or what? A. Some of the native police were trading with then-:t over t h e side. 'l'hey got a few on

board, and they were showing them round the ship. 1000. Q. vVho ? A. The native constabulary. · 1001. Q. vVell, now, what was the first yon heard; what happened 1 A. Shortly after that, about half-past 7, the firing started.

1002. Q. Where were you at that time ? A. On the

starboard sicle, near the gangw

. 1005. (J. The first you h eard was a volley 7 A. Yes,

independen t firing. \Vhen I heard the fi ring first I

thought the ship w:w a t tacked . 1006. BY HIS HON OH.: Q. Which way were you looking when the firs t lot of shots were fired ? A. I was standing on the starboanl side, speaking to the cook, looking towards the por t side, t hrough t he g<'.lley.

1007. Q. Abaft the captain's cn,bin 1 A. Yes ; abaft t he Governor's cabin, too. 1008. BY lVIR. INNES: (J. You were facing inboa rd 1 A. Y es.

1009. Q. Then you could not have seen 1 A. No. 1010. (J. The first you heard was a volley of firing? A. Yes ; I saw a general r ush of three or four natives

running and jumping overboard. Captain Harvey was struggling with a nati vc. lOll. Q. You saw some of tho Goarihari natives

jumping overboard ? A. Y es. 1012. Q. And then yo u went more forward? A. Y es. 101 3. Q. Did you sec rmyone else struggling ? A. Captain Hal'vey and a native policeman were struggling with one of the Goa riba r i natives.

1014. Q. You only saw one man being arrest ed?

A. Y es . I 01 5. (J. Did you see any anows fired 1 A. N o.

68

27 July, 1904.

10:?0. Q. About how long, from the beginning of t he firing unt il it ceased, would it be 1 A . Three minutes, at the outside. 1021. BY HIS HONOR: Q. Cnn you say at whom t he sh ots.were fir ed 1 Did you see any fi ri ng, or did you only hear 1t 1 A. I saw two or t hree of the policemen fire.

The canoes, on t he side of t h e ship I was on, were ab out 150 yards from the ship. 1022. Q. Did t hey appear t o be firin g at t he can oes or at the men in the water? A. I could not sny for certain.

I 023. Q. You do not know whether any arrow-heads were found or n ot ? A. Y es ; t here were so me arro ws

found on bo

1026. Q. Righ t up to t ho t ime yo u left ? A. Yes. 1027. (j. Did the natives co mo round at all ? A. A frw cam e alongRide on M onday. 1028. (.! . Tlmt was the t im e some women came alon " -side 1 A. Y es. "'

1020. Q. And they were talking to the prisoners 1

A. Y c'l. -

1030. Q. And on the Tuesday do you remember a nY natives coming round with some skulls-the day you left"? A. Y es ; some na tives were to wing a canoe with some skulls, and t hey let it drift down t he stream t o us.

1031. Q. You left on Tuesday moming ? A. Yes. I 032. Q. That is practically all you know of the affair 1 A. Yes. [Wit ness retired. J

FREDERICK WILLIAM JOHNSON was sworn and examined as under :-1033. BY Mn. JN N ES: Q. Y our name is Frcdcrid: William Johnson 1 A.

1034. Q. And you arc second steward on board the " Merrie England " 1 A . Y cs. 1035. Q. How long have you been on the "Merrie England" 1 A. Two years on the 1O th of August.

1036. Q.You have been only once to Goaribari ?

A. Yes. 1037. Q. Th at was in Ma rch last ? 1038. Q. -when you went with A . Yes.

A. Y es Judge Robinson?

I 039. Q. You a rrived at Goaribari on Saturday, the 5th of March ? A . Y es. I 040. Q. Did you see the natives round the vessel that day 7 A. Yes .

1041. Q. A bout how many, do you think 1 A. There would be nbout fourteen or fif teen canoes on th e Saturday. 1042. Q. Did they come on hoard at all ? A. Yes;

some came on board. 1043. Q. Did you see them come on board 1 A. Y es. 1044. (2 . Dirl they come on board at once, or wore they hesitating 1 A. They had to be coaxed aboard.

104-5. Q. How were t hey coaxed? A. Tbe Governor coaxed them with som e flannel and tobacco and t hings of that kind. He went down the gang way. 1046. Q. And then they came on board ;- about how many 1 A. There were not many came on board on the Saturday-about fifteen or twenty.

1047. Q. I suppose trading was going on 1 A. No ;

there was not much trading going on. 1016. Q. You were on deck the whole time, from t he t ime you fi rst heard t he shot t ill t he n atives got aw ay 1 A. Y es ; I was on deck all the t ime. 1017. Q. And you saw no anows fired at all? A. No.

101 8. Q. vVh at did t he natives appea r to be doing ? I suppose they a ttemp ted to clear out n,s fast

1048. (J. Did you trade at all 1 A. No; there was no

clmnce ; we t ried to, but t hey would not 1049. Q. \Vho would not 1 A. The 1050. (J. W ell, nothing happened t h at day-Saturday?

. 1019. Q. Dia you see any of the sbots t ake effect?

A. No; I cou ld not say whether they t ook effE-ct ;"', ot. They were jumping overboard out of t he · ·

A. N o. I 0.51. (J . And they went away about sundown ? A. Y es. 105 2. (J. vVell, on the foll owing morning, wha t time did you com e on. de <;k that n1orning ? A . About t en

minutes to G.

69

Witnesses-F. ·w. Johnson and J. Muir.

1053. Q. Were t he natives round the vessel then 1 A. Y es. 1054. Q. A bout h ow many? A . About thirty or forty, perhaps fifty, canoes. 'rhey h ad fo ur in some canoes, six in others, and some had only one in.

1055. Q. You were on deck a little after 6 ;-wh en did you see any natives come aboard that day 1 A . They started to come aboard abo\l t half-p ast 6. 10j6. Q. Did t hey come on board at once on the

Sun day 1 A . No ; not at once ; they stood some distance off ; they had to be coaxed on board. 1057. Q. Th e same way as on the previous day?

A . Y es. 1058. Q. Do you know who coaxed th em this time? A . I think i t was Judge Robinson and Mr. Jiea.r and some of the police.

1059. Q. That is, by offering them "trade?" A. Y es. 1060. Q. W hat was the fi rst you h eard of t he st ruggle that took place 1 A. Some of t he natives going over the side.

1061. Q. Where were you then 1 A. I was on t he

starboard side, on deck, near t h e captain';; r oo m. 1062. Q. And the first thing you noticed was some of the natives going over the side? A . Y es. 1063 . Q. ·w as that before you h eard any shot fired 1 A. Y es.

1064. Q. You had seen noth ing at that time to account for their r ush ing over the side? A. No. 1065 . Q. When you saw th em r ushing over the side, what did you do ? A. I stood and watched them.

1066. Q. W hat did you see 1 A. They wer e t aking some prisoners. 1067. Q. Did you see t hat? A. I only saw the one.

Down by the corner of t he captain's room. 1068. Q. I s that t he one Captain H arvey and a n ative constable were attempting t o arrest ? A . I could not see who it was.

1069. Q. What is the n ext thing t hat happened ?

A. Th e firing star ted t hen. 1070. Q. ·w here were you then ? A. I n t he same place. 1071. Q. What did yo u hear first of all- general firin g or on e single shot ? A. It seemed t o be one shot and then a lot.

1072. Q. Did you see wher e the single shot came from ? A. No; but it sounded as if it was on t h e port side, about t he bridge ; not quit e amidships. 1073. Q. Befo re you heard the shots fired, had yo u seen any arrows fired ? A . No.

1074. Q. W ell. aft ed A. Y es. 1075 . Q. Tell us what you saw? A . I only saw one

arrow fired. It st ruck t he Go vernor 's r oom ; i 'G went close by me. 1076. Q. D idyou seeamanfire it? A.Yes,I saw him jump over the side; then he got into his can oe, and fired.

1077 . Q. D id h e aim at you 1 A. I do n ot t hink so.

H e got into his canoe, got his paddle, got a couple of strokes away from th e bow of the ship, then got his bow and fi red . 107 8. Q. Did you see any other arrows fired ? A. No.

1079. Q. You say you wer e forward ; were yo u look ing forward 1 A. I was looking over the side, over th e port side. 1080. BY H I S HONOR : Q. Y ou had crossed t hen 1

A . Y es. 108 1. BY MR. I NNES: Q. If any arrows had b een fired from the port side you would have seen them, I suppose 1 A. Y es.

1082. Q. Did you see if t.he firing on t he part of t he police took effect ? Did you see anyon e h it, or co uld you t ell whether they were hit or not 1 A. I co ul d not tell

whet het• t hey were hit, but saw them falling out of the canoes. 1083. Q. Do you mean falling out, or jumping 1 A. Y ou could not tell whether t hey were jumpinrr or falling,

because the canoes wobble about. K

135

'27 J nl y, 1904.

l OS-!. Q. ·whom did you see fi ring ? A. The native police. 1085. Q. You did not see anyone else fi ring 1 A. N o. 1086. Q. A bout how long do you t hink that the fh·ing, from the t im e you heard the fi rst sh ot till they stopped firin g, lasted ? A . As n car as 1 coul9- tell, about a quarter

of an h our. 1087. Q. Did you say that this arrow, which was fired, and which came past you- was that befor e you heard the single sh ot? A . No, it was after t he sin gle shut.

1088. BY HIS HONOR : Q. W as it aft er the single shot, before t he general firing? A. A bout t he same t ime. 1089. BY M n. I NNES : Q. Did the firin g begin when th e natiYes rushed by you overboard 1 A. No, it had not star ted then.

109 0. Q. W ere any other arrows found on board ?

A . Y es, I sa w t wo or t hree which were found aboard. They wer e broken off. 109 1. Q. ·w as any trade clon e on th e Sunday morning b cfor o the fi ring began ? A. N o, there was no trading. They only had b ows and a,rr ows, and they would not part

with any of these. 109 2. Q. A fter the natives got away yon stayed on board 1 A . Yes ; nobody went ashore. 1093. Q. 'l'hen ne x t day were you on board ? A. Yes,

all th e time. 1094. Q. Did any natives come round t hat day? A. There were t hree canoes came round that day, towards t he afternoo n. T hey were only calling for the prisoners.

1095. Q. D icl they come alongsid e 1 A. They came wit hin about t wenty or t hirty yard s from the ship. 1096. Q. They were talking to the prisoners on t he Tuesday : you were on b oard up to the time you sailed?

A . Y es. 10 97. Q. Y ou remember a canoe coming along with t hese skulls 1 A. Yes. 109 8. BY H I S HONOR: Q. A re you quite sure t here was no t radi ng done by anybody on board t he ship either on the Saturday or t he Sunday ? A. Not so far as I

coul d see. 10 99. Q. ·w ere t here n o bows and arrows that had not been there befo re, in any body's possession 1 A . Some natives that came on board brought arrows with them, but th ey would not sell them . When the r ush started some wore left 11board.

1100. (J . Those are the on ly bows and arrows, as far as you know, that remained on boa,rd 1 A. Y cs. [W itness retired.]

J A !\1ES MU I R

was s worn and examined a,s under :-1101. B Y Mn. I NNES : (!. Your name is James Muir1 A. Y es . 11 02. 0. You are a c;trpenter on board the "Merrie

England "? A. Y es. 1103. Q. How long have -ou been in t he "Merrie England " 7 A. About fi ve yea rs. 11 04. Q. ·w ere yo u in lw r w hen Si r Grorge Le Hunte

went to Goaribari in l GO l and 1902 1 A . Y es ; on both those 0ccasions. 1105. Q. So you know that locality profty A . I

have been there on three occasions. 11 06 . Q. Y ou were there in March last, when she took Mr. R ob inson to Goaribari? A . Yes. · 11 07. Q. You arrived on t he 5t h of Mar ch-Saturday ? A. Y es.

1108. Q. ·w hen you got there, did the natives come round ? A . They were round t he beach, but no t round t he ship. llOG. Q. Did they come off afterwa,rds? A. Y es ; there were so me came off i n the afternoon .

11 10. Q. Can you say h ow many 1 A. I cannot say for ce rtaip.

Witness-J. Muir.

1111. Q. About how many would you judge were round the vessel in their canoes 1 A. About fifty. 1112. Q. Fifty natives 1 A. Yes. 1113. Q. Did they come on board that day 1 A. I do

not think so. 1114. Q. You do not think any came aboard on the Saturday 1 A. No. 1115. Q. What were you doing on t h e Saturday during the day 1 Would you be in a position to know whether the natives did come on board or not ? A. I would not

say for certain. 1116. Q. Did you do any trade with them a t all? A. No. 1117. Q. Neither on the Saturday nor the Sunday ? A.No.

1118. Q. Did you see anyone trade with them on t h e Saturday 1 A. No. 1119. Q. Were they round the vessel in a friendly way on the Saturday 1 A. Yes. They showed no signs of

fright at all. 1120. Q. Then there was no trouble at all on the Satur­ day 1 A. None at all. 1121. Q. And I suppose they went away about sun­ down 1 A. Yes; as soon as the sun went down they left the ship.

1122. Q. Well, now, on the Sunday morning, what time did you come on deck 1 A. About half-past 7. 1123. Q. Were the natives round the vessel then 1 A. Y es.

1124. Q. Could you say about how many were there then 1 A. I would not like to say for certain ; there were fifty, any way. 1125. Q._ Did you see any of them come on board that day? A. I would not say they came on board in the

morning. About midday there were some came on board. 1126; Q. ·well, when did this struggle take place 1 A . Oh, it was Sunday morning they came aboard. 1127. Q, Did you see them come aboard that morning ? A. Yes, I saw several come aboard.

1128. Q. Did they come a board at once, or were they hesitating? A. They were h esitating. 1129. Q. Were they persuaded to come? A. Mr. Jiear enticed them on board the ship.

1130. Q. What did he do? A. Coaxed them aboard. 11 31. Q. What did he do to coax them? A. He coaxed them with "trade" ; with calico, and one thing and another.

1132. Q. About what t ime was that, do you think­ when they first came on board? A. Before breakfast. 1133. Q. I just want you to tell me what happened next 1 A . After they came on board, they tried to capture some of the leading men, the chiefs.

1134. Q. Before that, do you remember any one coming talking about a N ordenfeldt 1 A. 'l'he chief officer came and told me to get the N ordenfeldt ready. 1135. Q. vVas that before the struggle took place? A. Y es.

1136. Q. I suppose you did? A. I went along to the

second mate's room to get the hoppers for the cartridges. He was busy ; so I got a bucket of ammunition and took it up, while I was waiting for the hoppers. I got the

wrong hoppers from the second mate's room. 1137. Q. Did you eventually get the ammunition-get the hoppers fi xed up ? A. I was going to get the right

hoppers when I saw a scuffle on the lower deck. 1138. Q. Just t ell us what it was? A. They were

securing the natives on the port deck. 1139. Q. Who were? A. l\'Ir. Jiear and other officials. 11 40. Q. I suppose the constabulary? A. Yes. 11 41. Q. Securing some of the natives who had come on board ? A. Yes.

1142. Q. What happened next? A . In place of going for the hoppers, I went to the fore deck to see what was the matter. I went to their assistance. 1143. Q. To whose assistance 7 A. One of the native police. He had a boy down, and he had his work cut

70

27 July, 1904.

out; h e could not hold him. He was singing out, and I went to him. The native made a bite at me. I got

away from him, and hit him with my hand. 11 44 . (J. You securedhim ? A. Y es. Thenhegrabbed at another boy down on the starboard side. He w:as just about done, and I went to his assistan ce, secured the boy, and put the irons on him.

1145. Q. Did you have any cmwersation with the Judge at that time? A. Only when I sang out for help. The

Judge came over with the butt of his rifle. H e was going to hit th e native on the head with his rifle. 1146. BY HIS HONOR: Q. Which native was that 7 A. One of t he Goaribari boys.

11 4 7.

handcuffs on h im, and then t he Governor left us. 1149. BY HIS HONOR: Q. Do you mean that he rcfr

1150. Q. F or hitting him ? A . Yes. 11;"51. Q. He had the rifle in his hand 7 A. Y es. 1152. BY Mu. INNES: Q. At this time had the firing started? A. T hey had been firing previous to this.

1153. Q. --w- here were you when the firing started 7 A. I was coming from t he second mate's room, and I saw some natives rushing by me, and I went up to the fore deck to see what was the matter. Some shots had been fired before I came up.

11 54. Q. You were down in the second mate's room before the firing started 7 A. Yes. 1155. Q. And then you say you assisted to ari·est those two Goaribari natives 7 A. Yes.

1156. Q. Y ou saw tl1eJudgecome up with a riflein his. hand, going to hit this boy, and he did not 7 A. Yes,

when I sang out for assistance. 1157. Q. A nd the firing was going on at this time?

A. Yes. .

11 58. Q. Did you see the Judge go on firing after that? A. Yes. 1159. Q. Could you see whether any shots took effect­ whether any natives were hit? A. Y es.

1160. Q. You could 7 A. Yes. 1161. Q. Whose shots did you see take effect 7 A. I saw him fire at a canoe with three boys in it. 11 62 . Q. Could yo u tell whether they were h it 7 A. I could not tell whether they were hit or not, but they fell out of the canoe.

11 63 . Q. Could you say whether they were hit or jumped out? A. It seemed to me as if they were hit. 1164. BY HIS HONOR: Q. They could not all be hit at once 7 A. I could not say.

1165. Q. Unless theywere inaline? A. Theywerein a line. .

1166. BY MR. INNES: Q. They were not so that a shot could go through them ? A. They all fell out on the: sam e side. They threw up their hands and let go the p:',ddles, and fell overboard.

1167. BY HIS HONOR: Q. Did the paddles drop outside the canoe, or in the canoe? A . In the canoe. 1168. Q. Are these paddles of a light, flo ating wood, or of heavy, sinking wood 7 A. I co uld not tell you--about t he Goaribari.

1169. Q. What are they usually about New Guinea A. F loatable. 1170. BY MR. INNES: Q. A bout how long would you say that the firing, from t he time you heard it in the

second mate's cabin, lasted until it ceased altogether? A . From ten to fifteen minutes at the very most. 1171. Q. Did you see any arrows tired? A. Not one. 1172. (J. You were up on the fore deck? A. Y cs.

1173. (!.Which side? A. The starboard side. 117 4. (j. IV ere you looking out over the ship's side? A. I was looking from the ship's side.

Witness-J. Muir.

11 75. Q. So that you co uld have seen them, if they had been fired from that side 1 A. Yes. 1176. Q. And you saw none 1 A. I saw none. 1177. BY HIS HONOR: Q. How far from the ship

would you say that canoe with the three men in it

was 1 A . About 50 or 60 yards. 1178. Q. At the time the shot took effect, what were the men doing 1 A. Pulling ashore. 1179. BY Mn. INNES : Q. They paddle standing up,

do they not 1 A . Yes.

71

1180. Q. When you saw that shot fired by Judge Robinson, was the firing g:Jing on generally then. A . Judge Robinson was the only man I saw firing on the fore deck while I was there.

11 8 1. Q. vVas there any firing after that, in the other end ()f t he vessel? A . Y es . 11 82. Q. You yourself did not fire at all1 A. No ; after secured the boys I went aft.

11 83. Q. There was something about a Nordenfeldt- a shot went off accidentally 1 A. When we got the hoppers all ready loaded, according to the mate's orders, he told me to load her and have everything ready. Some of the

police boys came up, and I shifted a lever, and one of the cartridges was fired. That was after the firing had ceased, and everything was quiet. 11 84 . Q. Could you arrive at an estimate of how many shots t ook effect, or what was the number oE killed or wounded? A. I could not say for certain how many shots

were fir ed ; I think about fifty were shot. 11 85. Q. How do yo u como to that estimate 1 A. A c­ coJ·ding to t he canoes that went away without :.;,ny boys in them.

11 86 . Q. That is the only means you have of estimat­ ing 1 A . Y es .

11 87. BY HIS HONOR: Q. Did it not strike you that some of those canoes might have the boys who belonged to them keeping under the lee ·j A . The canoes kept turning round-spinning.

11 88. Q. Still, they might have swum ashore? A . 11 89. Q. They can swim very well without showing much sign on the surface 1 A. Y es . They could get away to the lee of the canoe, and you would not see them at all.

1190. BY MR. INNES: Q. You heard the order to cease firing given 1 A. Yes. · 11 91. Q. That was given by Mr. Bruce 1 A . Supposed to be, sir.

1192. Q. Did you not hear him give it 1 A. I do not know who gave it. 11 93. Q. Did you see Mr. Bruce coming along and ordering his constabulary to stop firing 1 A. No, I did

not. 1194. Q. Did you see Mr. Jiear or Mr. Bruce firing at all 7 A.No.

1195. Q. Did you hear either of them say anything about the firing 1 A. I would not be sure. 1196. Q. Was the Judge there when it was said? A. Y es. 1197. Q. vVas it said to him 1 A. I could not say.

11 98. Q. Was it said in his presence 1 A. H e might not have heard it. 1199. Q. You say you have been on the "1\Ierrie

England " for some five years, and you have been on

13'7

27 July, 1904.

various trips of inspection with Sir George Le Hunte 1 A. Yes. 1200. Q. In your knowledge, has anyone ever been arrested on the "Merrie England " before this 1 A. No.

120 l. Q. Do you know of your own knowledge whether the natives regarded the " Merrie England" as a sort of a safe place, where they would not be touched? A. In other places I have been t o, it has always been regarded

as a place of safety. 1202. Q. But all round the N ew Guinea coast no one has ever been a rres ted on board before 1 A . No. 1203. Q. Do you think there was any necessity for this firing 1 A. Not in the least.

120-1. Q. After the natives cleared out, did you stay on board all that day- Saturday 1 A. Y es. 1205. Q. And no natives came round that day1 A. No. 1206. Q. The next day were you on board 1 A. Yes.

1207. Q . .. We are told that some canoes came round that day, containing some natives and three women 1 A. Y es. 1208. Q. And they had some communication with the men on board ? A. Yes.

1209 . Q. And on the Tuesday did any natives come out before you went away? A . Yes. 1210. Q. Do you r emember some skulls being sentdown1 A. Yes; two canoes came out, and they sent one adrift with some skulls in it.

1211. Q. That is all you know about it ? A. Y es. 1212. BY HIS HONOR: Q. I do not know whether you were asked the question of t ime, how long the firing lasted 'I A. About ten or fifteen minutes.

1213. (j. You are still carpenter on that ship 1 A. Yes. Ul .J-. Q. A nd likely to remain t here 1 A. Y es. 121 G. (j. As to you heard of some arrows being

found on board, as 1f they had been shot on board 1 A. Yes. I was led to understand by the lamp-trimmer that two came alongside the chart-room, where t hey. were standing. Whether t hey were £red by the natives I could not say.

121G. Q. But does it not appear as if som\l arr ows were, fired into the ship 1 A. Y es, I heard there were three. 1217. Q. I suppose there could not be any doubt that these had been shot in from the outside ;- they could not belong to the men who had the rough-and-tumble. on deck

when arres ted 1 A. No, they came from the canoes. I know there were no more than three. 121 8. Q. Did you see much of the Administrator, Mr. Robinson, perso nally 1 A. I have been on board his ship on different occasions with him, and have had different conversations with him at Port Moresby and Samarai.

1219. Q. Had you any difference of opinion with him at any t im e, or were you ever reprimanded by him ? A. No. 1220. Q. N ever at all? A. No. 1221. (J. There was nothing in your mind to influence you to his discredit? A. Nothing at all.

1222. BY MR. INNES: Q. Did you see any trading don e on t he Sunday before the arrests were made?

A. Yes, ,ye were tmding the first thing in the morning. l n 3. Q. vVhat were they trading in ;- what did the natives give up 1 A . Their bows and arrows. 1224. Q. Did you see that yourself 1 A. Y es.

(Witness retired).

(At 12·45 p.m. the Commission adjourned).

AFTERNoo:sr SrTTING-SEco:srn DAY.

WEDNESDAY, 27 J ULY, 190+.

1225 . HIS HONOR sat, but, the witnesses summoned not being in attendance, after waiting until 2·45 p.m., adjourned the Commission until 10 a .m. next day.

72

Witness- D. James. 28 July, 1904.

THIRD DAY-MORNING SITTING.

THURSDAY, 28 JULY, 1904, 10 ur.

[The Commission met at the Commonwealth Offices, Sydney.]

C. E. R. MURRAY, EsQ. D.O.J. (Commissioner). Mn. G. LONG INNE.S, Barrister-at-Law, instructed by Mr. Robison, of the N.S. vV. Crown Solicitor's Office, appeared on behalf of the Commonwealth Government. ' Mn. ATLEE HUNT, Secretary, Department of External At!airs.

MR. J. GARLICK, Secretary to the Commission .

.Mr. E. G. Jf. Baker took shorthand notes of the evidence and proceedings.

1226. Mn. GARLICK: Your Honor directed that the original reports, which were left by the late Judge

Robinson immediately prior to his death, should be obtained from Melbourne, if po ssible, instead of those copies whieh were handed in on Tu esday. Mr. Atlee Hunt, the Secretary of the Depar tment of External affairs, has given me to-day the originals as received by H is Excellency the Governor-General; but they prove to be copies of tho actual documents, which are retained in Guinea.

These are those which were received (handing documents to the Commissioner). 1227. HIS HONOR : By whom would those copies be made 1

1228. Mn. GARLICK: I do not know; but on the face of it they would appear to have been made by a clerk in the office of the Administrator in New Guinea, because they were enclosures in the Administrator's dispatch.

1229. HIS HONOR: Those are one step nearer to the originals, and I think near enough to be taken as originals ; or they may be used merely for the purpose of comparison, to see that no error has crept into the further copy.

(Vide Exhibits 6 and 7). 1230. Mn. GARLICK : In addition to that, your Honor directed that the original t elegram from the Queensland Trustees, Limited, with regard to the representation of the late Judge Robinson at this Commission, should be obtained from Melbourne. That original telegram has been received.

1231. HIS HONOR: That had better go in, as a sub­ stitute for the copy previously put in. (Vide Exhibit No. 8.)

DAVID JAMES

was sworn and examined as under :-1232. MR. INNES: Q. Your name is David James? A. Yes. 1233. Q. You are an A.B. seaman on board the" Merrie England "? A. Yes.

1234. Q. How long have you been in the "Merrie England" 1 A. About eighteen months. 1235. Q. You were on board her in March last, when she went to Goaribari 1 A. Yes.

1236. Q. ' Ve are told you arrived thet·e on Saturda-y morning, the 5th of March ; is that so 1 A. Yes, that is so. 1237. Q. Do you remember that Saturday, getting there? A. Yes.

1238. Q. Did the natives come round the vessel soon after she arrived? A. Yes. 12 39. Q. Could you say about how many there were 1 A. A few hunch·ed, I suppose.

1240. Q. Did you notice whether t hey <.:amo on board that day 1 A. Yes. U.J-1. Q. Did t hey come on board at once? A. No, a long whil e after we arrived ; a few of t hem, not many.

U42. Q. Did t hose few como on board at once, or of their own free will, or wore they induced to come on

board 1 Just tell us anything you saw. A. I could not say; I saw them on board. 1243. Q. You did not see them actually come on board? A.No.

1244. Q. 'Vas there any trading going on that day? A. Yes, between the crew; a few arrows. 1245. (J. A few arrows; you mean that the natives tr

1246. Q. Did you trade yourself with them? A . Yes. 1247. Q. Did you get arrows in exchange for what you traded? A. Yes. 1248. Q. And I suppose the whole of that day they were there in a perfectly friendly manner, and nothing happened at all? A. No, nothing happened on the Saturday.

1249. Q. Were they going over the ship in a perfectly friendly way, wherever they wished, as far as you could see 1 A. I do not know; I could not say for that; I never spoke to them.

1250. Q. How did you effect your trading? W as it through an interpreter, or did you just get hold of a man and show him something he wanted, and point to an arrow? A. Showed him a piece of tobacco, and he gave me arrows in return.

1251. Q. You went up to a man and showed him

tobacco, and pointed to an arrow you wanted in return? A. That is right. 1252. Q. And did they deliver up the arrows willingly? I mean, without any--1 A . Yes, they delivered them up willingly.

1253. Q. Now come to the Sunday morning. What time did you go on deck that morning ? A. About 6