ABSTRACT
‘When that the general is not like the hive To whom the foragers shall all repair, What honey is expected?’ Troilus and Cressida, Act I, Scene 3. One of the chronic colonial problems is shortage of European staff, and everywhere some form of Government has had to be devised in which the natives play a part. To the Germans who first brought the coast of New Guinea under control this presented no apparent difficulty. Chieftainship was at that period taken for granted—it was presumed that there was invariably someone who was respected on account of his noble birth with dominion, if not over a wide area, at least over a village ; and the obvious procedure was to take advantage of his hereditary power. The possible existence of a system of political organisation such as the Busama possessed does not seem to have crossed anyone's mind, much less the notion that this might be typical of Melanesia. The plan adopted was to confer upon the leading headman an official title, ‘luluai’, the word meaning ‘village leader’ in Rabaul dialect, and hold him responsible for the settlement of minor disputes and the discipline of petty transgressors. Customary penalties were regarded as sufficient, and the Government reserved for District Officers the right of sentencing offenders to imprisonment.
