Ecology of Indonesian Papua Part One. Andrew J. Marshall
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private support zoological collectors now became more numerous, with Walter Rothschild of Tring—who had begun building up his museum—now emerging as a major sponsor. In 1888 Basil Thompson collected birds and mammals in the Milne Bay Islands (partly York Museum); in 1890 he was followed by James Cockerell with the Rev. George Brown (from then-German New Guinea; see also below), both engaged in bringing Methodism in the southeastern islands. Another missionary, the Rev. R. J. Andrew, collected insects on Misima, by then a mining site (BMNH).
From Germany there came a sponsored collector, Emil Weiske; he obtained Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, and other fauna (including birds and mammals) in 1897–1898 (Dresden and other museums). Localities visited were largely in the present Central Province—much as those of Loria a few years before: the Astrolabe Range, Sogeri, Meroka, Elema, Kabadi, Vaitala, Kerema, Brown River, Kemp Welch River, Paimomo River, Aroa River, Vanapa River, Rigo/Hula, and elsewhere. But by this time German attention was otherwise largely becoming directed towards their possessions (see below).
British New Guinea (1898–1906); Papua (1906–1914)
With the departure of Macgregor for a governorship in Lagos, Nigeria, government interest in natural history greatly receded—although his successors, Lt. Gov. G. R. Le Hunte and Administrator F. R. Barton made miscellaneous collections of animals and plants (Brisbane, but also in BMNH). The latter, during his extensive travels, obtained amongst other biota a red-flowered rata vine, Metrosideros ovata (now M. regelii) in the Owen Stanleys and, in 1904–1905 on Woodlark Island, found fossils of dugong, turtle, and gavial. Some collecting was also undertaken by Armit and Giulianetti, the latter accompanying Le Hunte and Barton in the Mekeo region in 1901; but late that year Giulianetti was murdered, Armit having died of blackwater fever some ten months earlier. Of Macgregor’s staff only Monckton continued on (with an ascent in 1906 to the top of Mt Albert Edward); in 1907, however, he resigned—uncomfortable with a "new era." And Belford’s last assignment was in 1906 with the Royal Commission under Col. J. A. K. Mackay—which included a march right across the Owen Stanleys through Kokoda; but little was (or perhaps could be) collected, apart from a few orchids. Under the new Lieutenant Governor, Hubert Murray, only scant official attention would be paid to the biota.
It was bird (and butterfly) collecting that until World War I now took first place in the territory, with Rothschild the dominant sponsor. For a long period, his principal collector was Albert S. Meek. From 1894 to 1916 Meek collected, spending 1895–1901 in the Milne Bay Islands and the eastern part of the mainland. Many assistants worked for him, among them his younger brother (W. G.), Albert and George Eichhorn, brothers-in-law W. B. Barnard and Harry Barnard, and Mr. Gullivers. After Meek’s retirement, the Eichhorns continued work in this region until 1923 in this region (including Owgarra, Bragi, and Mambare River); in 1925, they would collect in New Britain, also obtaining miscellaneous insects. (Most of the bird collections of the Tring Museum were sold in 1932 to AMNH to pay debts, with the museum itself passing into the care of the BMNH in 1937 under Rothschild’s will.) For the British Museum (Natural History), A. S. Anthony was also active in the region; and very early in the twentieth century (1902–1903) the Pratts—father A. E. and one son, Henry—worked extensively at lower elevations northwest and southeast of Port Moresby and in addition visited parts of the Goilala region, following the gradually developing Sacred Heart Mission interior road (through Mafulu) to the upper Vanapa Valley (at Ononge) before finally returning. They concentrated on birds and Lepidoptera (Tring/BMNH and AMNH); and in 1906 the senior Pratt published a popular book, Two Years Among Cannibals.
Botanical collections in this period were rare, partly due to losses in transit, and, with one exception, unofficial. The Pratts in 1902–1903 (see above) had also obtained plants but a goodly part, if not all, were lost. Mary (Mrs. H. P.) Schlencker from Queensland collected extensively from 1905 into the 1920s (but mainly before World War I) in the Rigo district (Boku) and elsewhere while associated with the London Missionary Society (LMS); the majority were described or recorded by Bailey. In 1910–1911 Miles Staniforth C. Smith, director of Mines and Agriculture and long-time Administrator, with a party collected ferns and mosses on his ill-fated trip up the Kikori River to Mt Murray; unfortunately all the specimens were lost on the river descent. Afterwards Smith—perhaps soured by this experience—never again took an interest in biotic exploration, though he did support geological work (on account of mineral and petroleum exploration) and established a small museum in Port Moresby (the forerunner of the present National Museum). He also had come into prolonged conflict with Murray; only in 1918—with Smith away on war service—did the Lieutenant-Governor feel himself able to support a new botanical expedition (see below).
By this time the Victorian popular interest in natural history had subsided, as curiosity became satisfied and new leisure pursuits were taken up—although a byproduct was the rise of conservation movements. There were also changes in horticultural fashions, notably the marked decline in the cultivation under glass of tropical plants; while in the sciences, description was giving way to "higher" laboratory-based analysis, along with increasing specialization—a "linearist" development which led to considerable neglect of the Australian biota, let alone that of Papua, for several decades. The first half of the 1890s was moreover for Australia a period of severe and prolonged economic depression; recession also struck in other parts of the world. Official support for such work was thus liable to a lack of funds as well as changing interests and priorities. Only wealthy individuals (or well-founded museums or herbaria) could afford to continue extensive sponsorship and collection formation; and what was obtained tended to be the more spectacular or saleable items. The plume trade, which continued until the end of World War I, also remained an important source of new material. Thus, by 1914 birds and larger insects in southeastern Papua were comparatively well known; but, with far fewer useful points of access, this was simply not true for the interior parts of the Gulf, Delta, and Western Divisions, while botanical knowledge was very patchy and disorganized, and now well behind German New Guinea. Even today, biotic coverage of much of the southern fall of the main ranges remains thin, with more intensive sampling relatively localized.
NORTHEASTERN NEW GUINEA
AND THE BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO
Before the Germans (to 1885)
Large-scale exploration in mainland northeastern New Guinea (from 1884–1914 styled Kaiser-Wilhelmsland) developed later than in British New Guinea or in the Vogelkop Peninsula, but during the decade from 1875 to 1885 the islands to the northeast saw rather more activity. Apart from Miklucho-Maclay (see above), prior to 1885 the sole mainland "pioneer" was F. H. Otto Finsch. This German naturalist, anthropologist, and covert agent undertook two major tours, investigating all the coasts of eastern New Guinea (and the northeastern islands)—and very likely influencing the choice of lands for future German enterprise. In 1880–1882, as part of a world cruise funded by the German Humboldt Foundation, he carried out his coastal surveys, while in 1884–1885—on behalf of the just-formed Neu-Guinea Compagnie—with the Samoa he explored in more detail the northeastern and island regions. Finsch made many natural history collections—particularly in 1881 around Astrolabe Bay, already well known from the work of Maclay—and also worked in the Milne Bay region. In 1885 he sailed fifty kilometers up the Sepik, naming the river for Empress Augusta (Kaiserin-Augusta Fluss). Later his interests turned more towards ethnography, already discernable in his book Samoafahrten (1888). His collections (Bremen, Brunswick, Leiden) were partly destroyed in World War II. The tree genus Finschia, a macadamia relative also with edible nuts, is named after him.
The northeastern island region was at the opening of the period visited by two great marine expeditions, both in 1875. The first was the Challenger (see above), returning to New Guinea waters after calls elsewhere in Malesia (and "rest and relaxation" in Hong Kong). Under G. Nares as commander, C. W. Thomson as scientific leader, and with Moseley continuing as naturalist, they worked during March in the Admiralty Islands (Nares Harbor in northwestern Manus remains so-named as a token of their presence) before sailing into other waters. The second was the German Gazelle (after which the large northeastern peninsula of New Britain was, and is still, named). With the future Bismarck Archipelago as one of the Gazelle’s main objectives, the vessel and its crew and scientists (with Freiherr G. E. G. von Schleinitz—later the first administrator of the German territories—as commander and F. C. Naumann as surgeon-naturalist), after calling in