The Queenslander, 27 January 1900, p. 169
ISLANDS OF TORRES STRAIT. LECTURE BY HON. J. DOUGLAS.
Probably no one in Australia is better qualified to speak
with a full knowledge upon the subject of the islands and the inhabitants of
Torres Strait than the Hon. John Douglas, who since 1885 has filled the office
of Government Resident at Thursday Island. He has seen the growth of settlement
in the latter place, as before, during his long connection with Queensland
public life, he saw that of the colony. It was, therefore, a happy idea to
induce him to give a lecture before the Geographical Society, and thus place on
permanent record some of his observations and experiences. The public interest
aroused alike by the subject and the personality of the lecturer, secured a
large attendance, and it may be said that few of the addresses delivered under
the auspices of the society have been listened to with greater attention or
with warmer appreciation. The chair was occupied by the Right Hon. Sir Hugh
Nelson, a very old friend of the lecturer, and, like him, an ex-Premier.
THE CHAIRMAN’S SPEECH.
Sir Hugh Nelson said this was a special meeting of the Royal
Geographical Society, and anticipating—and he was proud to say that the
anticipations had been verified—that there would be a very good audience, they
had very fortunately obtained from the officers in charge of the School of Arts
the use of their hall for the purpose of especially listening to his old
friend, and, he thought, the old friend of a large part of the
audience—(applause)—and one of the oldest public men connected with the colony
of Queensland—connected with it in a public way even before Queensland itself
was separated from the mother-colony.
They had come to listen to some remarks that Mr. Douglas had
kindly undertaken to favour them with, on the subject of Torres Strait, the
islands there, and their inhabitants. It was hardly necessary for him to
introduce Mr. Douglas because he thought most of them were acquainted with him
already, and were aware of his career, which had been a very lengthy one in
this part of Australia. He had no doubt that they would be all gratified by
listening to him, and also interested as well as instructed. Before he asked
Mr. Douglas to commence his lecture he would like to mention that he had
received a letter from the Hon. J. R. Dickson, the Chief Secretary, regretting
that owing to a cold he was unable to be present. He was sure that they very
much regretted that Mr. Dickson could not be present. (Applause.)
MR. DOUGLAS’S LECTURE.
To follow Mr. Douglas with minuteness in his mental tour
through the Strait and its many interesting little islands would require more
space than we have available for the purpose, but a summary of it will probably
be found full of information and interest. Mr. Douglas was full of his subject,
and the difficulty with him was not to find material, but to compress his
discourse within reasonable limits.
He commenced his lecture by a brief reference to the visit
to Torres Strait of Dr. Haddon, of Cambridge University, and his party, and to
the researches they had made among the different islands. He then passed on to
the subject of very much earlier researches of Captain Cook, the great
navigator and explorer, and indulged in a very warm appreciation of the life
and work of that eminent man. He paid a high tribute to the accuracy of the
observations and the chart which Captain Cook had left for the guidance of
those who came afterwards, and made an eloquent appeal for some worthy memorial
of his life and work to be erected on Possession Island, on which Captain Cook
first raised and saluted the British flag.
Captain Cook, he said, was certainly one of the greatest of
navigators, and for us Australians he was the greatest of all explorers and
discoverers. We ought to venerate his name as one of the great men of our time.
Captain Cook discovered, for all practical purposes, the eastern coast of
Australia, and was the first and greatest of all explorers.
He (Mr. Douglas) would like to mention that he had
discovered in the library of the society a copy of the original journals of
Captain Cook, which had been sent to them by Sir Henry Norman. This book was of
the very greatest interest. It was published by the authority of the Admiralty,
and was in every respect a faithful record of Cook’s own observations and
memoranda made at the time.
Before passing on to deal personally with the subject of his
lecture, Mr. Douglas paused to pay a tribute to the bravery and noble effort of
the band of explorers led by the ill-fated Kennedy, and he made a strong appeal
to the Geographical Society to co-operate in raising a fitting monument to the
memory of the leader and those who lost their lives with him in their effort to
explore the Cape York Peninsula.
Kennedy, he said, was one of the first of the Australian
explorers. He was a brave man, just like the volunteers who had gone to serve
in South Africa. He failed, unfortunately, to achieve his design, but he
deserved that there should be a monument erected to perpetuate his memory and
the memory of his companions at the same time. (Applause.) It was not necessary
to spend much money. All that they could ask would be that some landmark or
cairn of some kind should be erected on the island on which he was killed, so
that it might be seen by the vessels as they sailed through the picturesque
Albany Pass.
HOW THURSDAY ISLAND BECAME SETTLED.
Thursday Island, Mr. Douglas explained, was not the original
settlement in Torres Strait. At one time Somerset, on the mainland, was a
rather important place. It was the place of call, as Thursday Island is now,
and the Government buildings were located there. For some reason,
however—probably owing to the strength of the tide there, which made steamers
feel uncomfortable—it was abandoned, and the settlement was removed to Thursday
Island.
Mr. Douglas said he was not certain that the selection of
that island was a wise one, because it removed the settlement from the
mainland. He believed a safe anchorage could have been found in one of the bays
in this part of the Peninsula, and if that had been done it was quite possible,
by some wild flight of imagination, the construction of a railway to Somerset
might have been projected. As a matter of fact, at one time there was talk of
such a railway being constructed, but the removal of the settlement to Thursday
Island set the project at rest.
Thursday Island was chosen because the pearlshellers had
resorted there, and it was thought most prudent that the Government should
follow them. The Police Magistrate (and afterwards the Resident) was moved to
Thursday Island, and it became Mr. Douglas’s duty, when in office down here, to
effect the change. The selection of Port Kennedy was made at the instigation of
Captain Heath.
That island was surrounded by a group of islands which
protected it, and constituted a fine anchorage. The actual area of the island
was small—he (Mr. Douglas) thought it was less than 900 acres altogether, but
he added with a smile, “it is wonderful where you come to go into details what
a large space 900 acres really is. There is a population of 1500, and that
occupies about a third of the island and there is room for ten times the
population.”
It is, he explained, the centre of the pearl-shelling
industry. By way of comparison, he said that when he first knew Brisbane in
1851, the population was only one-half the present population of Thursday
Island. The centre of the pearl-shelling industry, the island, provided a
population of various nationalities. The Europeans, he was glad to say, were
still at the head of the list. Japanese came next, and he thought Malays and
Manilamen next. The Japanese resident on the island did not anything like outnumber
the Europeans, but with those who worked in the boats, there were a little over
2000 aliens.
STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE.
From a strategic point of view, he said Thursday Island is
considered of great importance. Some people run away with the idea that the
guns of the fort command the Strait, but that is a fallacy. The fort was never
placed there with the intention of commanding the Strait. There were many
passages which could, and no doubt would, be used if the occasion arose, by
ships of war.
The importance of Thursday Island from a strategic point of
view lay in that it afforded a convenient harbour and coaling station, and in
the event of war every vessel must pass within sight, and no vessel really
could pass without it being known.
HORNE ISLAND.
Horn Island, he said, was the seat of their hopes so far as
gold was concerned. The position of the diggings was under what was called Horn
Hill, from its resemblance to a horn. What they would eventually turn out it
was impossible for him to say. Some people thought they were no good, and
others that they promised very well indeed.
At any rate, the Melbourne syndicate now working the island
were spending a lot of money. They were putting up very expensive machinery,
and they hoped for very good returns. He (Mr. Douglas) hoped they would be
successful, because they had spent, as he had said, a lot of money and they had
about forty men working for them, and in a month or two they hoped to commence
crushing.
Of course, it would be a great help if the diggings turned
out well, because he desired, above all things, to see a European population
settled in the strait, and, of course, the presence of gold diggers would
contribute very much to the advancement of Thursday Island.
THE BANKS GROUP.
Having briefly referred to the islands immediately adjacent
to Thursday Island, Prince of Wales Island, Booby Island, Goode Island, and
Mount Adolphus Island, where the ill-fated Quetta went down, he passed
on to describe the islands lying nearer to the coast of New Guinea.
Commencing with the island of Mobyag, he explained that it
had a population of about 250 natives and South Sea Islanders. These natives,
he was glad to say, had learned to work on their own account; they owned their
own pearl-fishing luggers; and they cultivated the land to the extent of
providing the vegetables they required. There were some 100 children on the
island, and the natives were very anxious that they should be taught English
and educated. One of the objects of his present visit was to secure, if
possible, a teacher for this island. He would prefer a woman to take up the
work, and he was hopeful that he would be able to find one who would undertake
the training and tuition of the children on the island.
Mobyag was healthy, and its population was not decreasing.
At Badu, which was the native name of the Mulgrave Island, there was a
population of about 200. They were a fine people. Like most natives, they were
rather lazy, but they engaged in pearl-shelling on what was known as the old
ground, and, among other edibles, they cultivated a very superior yam,
specimens of which he had given to Captain Pennefather to see if they would
grow at St. Helena.
The village was formerly on the eastern extremity of the
island, but recently it had been moved to a spot near Green Island, which was
often resorted to as an anchorage by the pearl-shelling boats. He had named
this new village Greenwell, after his old friend Canon Greenwell, of Durham.
Moa was also a fine island, and there was great diversity in
its area. There was a high mountain called Mount Augustus, which rose to an
elevation of about 1600ft. There was a good deal of scrub and of pasture land,
but there were not many natives on it. Decimated years ago by an expedition
from New Guinea, they did not number now more than forty or fifty. The adjacent
island was also poorly populated. It was very picturesque, and there was some
good land on it.
The chief resident was a man named Jimmie Samoa, and with
regard to him a question of nationality arose the other day. Jimmie Samoa had
been there as long as he (Mr. Douglas) had been in the strait, and the question
arose recently whether he could hold a license for a shelling-boat. The
magistrates at Thursday Island went into his case, and decided that as he was
not a British subject he must be deprived of his license.
“However,” said Mr. Douglas, “he has grown-up sons, and they
are certainly all British subjects. Remember that. They are entitled to all the
rights and privileges of British subjects, and I hope we shall see that they
secure them. The native-born inhabitants of these islands are all British
subjects. They are civilised people; they are being educated; and they are
entitled to be, and I say shall be, treated as British subjects. At present
they are not even enumerated in the census. I hope that in future account will
be taken of them. They are civilised; they marry and are given in marriage;
they live in good houses; they are under our jurisdiction; and they are
entitled to the same privileges that we enjoy. They are growing up intelligent
people, and they want to be educated, even more than our own people; their
inclination to be educated even exceeds that of our white population.”
NATIVE SOLDIERS.
Another indication of the civilisation of the natives of
these islands, Mr. Douglas said, was afforded by their love of soldiering. Some
of them visit Thursday Island occasionally, and they watch the soldiers
drilling at the barracks. This has struck them as exceedingly delightful. The
people of Mobyag, for instance, have got together a force of thirty men, who
dress in a uniform of their own, and are made to look as like our soldiers as
possible.
They get a few wrinkles from the sergeant at Thursday
Island, and sedulously endeavour to profit by them. They now go through their
military exercises almost as well as the soldiers themselves, and he (Mr.
Douglas) had no doubt that if the occasion arose, a useful auxiliary force
might be raised from the islands of Mobyag, Moa, and Badu.
THREE SISTERS AND DARU.
Mr. Douglas then proceeded to touch briefly on the islands
known as the Three Sisters, and to refer to the mysterious predilection which
ships seemed to have for drifting ashore there, and to the question of cocoanut
cultivation, which he pointed out, was not so easy as some imagine. The
cocoanut requires as much attention as any other tree during the first two or
three years of its growth, or it will not reach maturity.
The Darnley Islands, he said, had a population of about 250,
and of those nearly half were either South Sea Islanders or the children of
South Sea Islanders, who had married Darnley women. This island, differing from
the other, is of volcanic origin. It is very fertile—a perfect garden, in fact,
and the people live entirely on what they grow.
Saibai, nearer still to New Guinea, has a schoolmaster on
the island, and a school attended by about 90 children. The Saibai people, even
in his time, were absolute savages, but now they are among the most industrious
and enterprising of all the Torres Strait natives. They have built a church
which will hold as many as the School of Arts hall. The proposal to pass this
island over to the New Guinea Government, he said, had his complete approval.
After pausing to glance at some of the other islands which
dot these summer seas, Mr. Douglas referred to Daru, now the headquarters of
the administration of the western division of New Guinea. This, he explained,
was used as the penitentiary for criminals from New Guinea, and was where the
natives were trained for the constabulary. The excellent views which he
afterwards exhibited and explained showed what a fine body of men they are.
The lantern views with which the lecture was brought to a
close brought vividly before the audience the natural features of the islands
which had been described.
As already stated, a vote of thanks to Mr. Douglas, moved by Alderman W. Jones and seconded by Mr. A. Muir, was carried by acclamation.
