An abundant rainfall, together with a high and equable temperature, has produced a vegetation of exceptional luxuriance and great variety. While in places extensive areas of grass plains are found, the hillsides and lowlands are, for the greater part, covered with almost impenetrable forest, containing timber trees of considerable size and utilitarian value. Manioc (wild arrowroot), yams, bananas, and other tropical fruit such as paw-paws are cultivated by the natives, while sago forms a staple food of the inhabitants. Sago palms grow wild in the bush, and prior to treatment sago is, like tapioca, in its crude state poisonous; but the Papuans have devised the means of carefully preparing the pith of the palm, and by washing, straining, and drying rendered it fit for food. Until the end of the flowering period, the hollow interior of the sago palm, somewhat similar to bamboo, is filled with a starchy mass from which the growing fruit draws its nourishment. The tree is felled by the Papuans and the pulp scraped and washed, during which process the sago is separated and sinks to the bottom. Cocoa-nuts also form an important food factor, and groves are found everywhere; while copra and palm-oil are the principal articles of trade. Papuan birds are noted, and amongst the numerous species of bird life the bird of paradise is particularly notable for richness of plumage; and the skins of bright-plumaged birds have been in the past extensively exported. New Guinea holds less than 500 white inhabitants, the majority being, of course, German officials and planters; while the natives living in all the islands are estimated at 500,000. Papua suffered for years from the presence of the undesirable "white men on the beach," and wild and weird tales are told of early days of white men with nothing to do, sitting or lying about in native houses. The Rev. Henry Newton, one of the pioneers of later civilisation in British New Guinea, gives the following description of a phase of New Guinea life: "The storekeeper would go to bed and leave a supply of liquor handy for his clients to dispose of as seemed best to them. "They would spend the night drinking and gambling, the empty bottles thrown over the veranda would form a fine heap on the ground, and sometimes one or two humans would follow the bottles as the result of a heated but disconnected argument, and decide to remain there till the morning. The storekeeper and publican would count up the number of 'dead-heads' in the morning, and divide the total cost amongst those whom he had left to enjoy themselves overnight. "A gaol was built for the accommodation of native prisoners; not that this meant there was no need of a place of detention for members of the white race. Occasionally a white man had to be accommodated.