Sir Hubert Murray

Completion of 23 Years of Distinguished Service

ON November 30, Sir Hubert Murray, K.C.M.G., completed 25 years’ ser vice as Lieutenant-Governor of the Ter ritory of Papua.

Having been Chief Justice of the Terri tory since September, 1904, Sir Hubert (then Mr. Justice Murray) assumed the powers of Acting Administrator on April 9, 1907; and on November 30, 1908, he was formally commissioned by the Common wealth Government as Australia’s first colonial Lieutenant-Governor.

In Sir Hubert Murray, Australia pos sesses a Colonial Administrator whose ability, vision, scrupulous integrity, and rigid adherence to a high code and a splendid ideal has given him a world wide reputation. In the whole history of colonial development there have been few men comparable with him, for length of service or for the conspicuous success with which that service has been ren dered.

In his well-ordered government of the primitive Papuan, and his scientific paci fication of the Territory, his method has been that of association and collabora tion; his steady policy that of pacification of all the tribes in the heart of the Ter ritory; his fixed principle, the well-being and development of the natives entrusted to his care.

During the quarter century of Sir Hu bert Murray’s administration, the Terri tory has been brought under European control. The native population, spread over 90,000 square miles of mountainous and extremely difficult country, has been brought to recognise and to appreciate law, order and peaceful living. Education has been widely spread among them; they have absorbed a considerable idea of mod ern agricultural methods; and in the set tlements near the Government Headquar ters they act efficiently as clerks, over seers, artisans, and medical assistants.

The whole period of the Murray admin istration has been characterised by pro gress. By the method of association and collaboration, to use Sir Hubert Murray’s own words, an administration “tries to preserve the individuality of the natives and to associate them with their rulers in industrial progress and the advance of civilisation generally.”