A few of the Papuan tribes have reached a condition of barbarism much like that of the Iroquois Indians in New York when the white men found them. They live in houses, some of them four or five hundred feet in length. Perhaps thirty or forty families may occupy a single house. The houses are divided into apartments, each family living separately. In some of the tribes the men live in a communal house by themselves. The women live in small huts, two or three together. They cook the food, which they carry to the communal house; they also do all the work required in cultivating the gardens of yams, bananas, and vegetables. War, hunting, and fishing are the only pursuits of the men. Three nations, Holland, Great Britain, and Germany, have divided New Guinea among them. The Dutch have the eastern half of the island. The British and Germans possess each about one-quarter, British New Guinea being situated opposite to Queensland, Australia. The British own the Solomon Islands to the eastward of New Guinea, also. The Dutch are laying out plantations and teaching the natives to work them in the same way that they are managed in Java. The British are busy exploring the interior, looking especially to the rich mines in their possession. They have also established a considerable trade in copra, sago, pearl shell, and cocoa-fibre mats. They are planting rubber-trees, for there is no better land in the world for rubber. They have one great advantage, namely, the Fly River, which is navigable six hundred miles from its mouth, and opens a trading route far into the interior. Port Moresby is the trade centre of British New Guinea. The Germans make their share of the island pay expenses by taxing and licensing the traders who go there to do business, and they manage to get a considerable profit out of it. When they find that a trading company is making too much money they buy the company out and carry on the business themselves; and this is profitable, too. Although less is known about New Guinea than almost any other part of the earth, enough is known to make it certain that it is one of the most desirable bodies of land in the world.