Danger

Aeroplane Services

In Papua

Sir Hubert Murray Sees a Danger

From Our Own Correspondent.

Pt. Moresby, June 15.

IN the annual report for the Territory of Papua for the year 1933-34, just pub lished, the Lieutenant-Governor (Sir Hu bert Murray) deals with aeroplane services in Papua.

“When prosperity return to Papua,” he writes, “aeroplane services will certainly be established. Apart from their value to planters and others, they are obviously of great assistance in the pacification of outlying districts and in the maintenance of order.”

Sir Hubert Murray, however, points out a danger to this advance that cannot be overlooked from an administrative point of view. That is the comparative neglect of the native populations between stations, and the loss of contact that would follow as a result, if patrols were conducted by air instead of on foot.

The introduction of the motor car in India, he indicates, had similar effects to that which the aeroplane might cause in Papua. Contact with the bulk of the people in India was lost to a great extent by the introduction of motor cars.

The old civil servants formerly travelled slowly through the villages, biding their time, listening to all and sundry complaints.

This condition has changed; to-day they flash by along splendid roads and stop only for a short time at the larger centres.

The possible loss of contact with village people is a matter the Administration should bear in mind, considers Sir Hubert, if aeroplane communication ever becomes established in the Territory. He makes reference to Mr. Wyndham, who, in his book “Native Education,” makes much the same objection to the substitution of motor for horse transport, which he says, “has diminished the personal and intimate rela tions between European officials and na tives,. which in the past has been one of the most admirable features of many colonial administrations.”