Two Years of Present Administration—Canberra's Dictation

From Our Own Correspondent.

Rabaul, Aug. 17.

HPHE Administrator of New Guinea, A Brig.-General W. Ramsay McNicoll, accompanied by Mrs. McNicoll sailed for Australia by the Nellore to-day, on leave.

It is nearly two years since General McNicoll arrived here to take over from Brig.-General Griffiths. During that period, he has done far more travelling than any other administrator. It was his main idea to get out and see the Territory for which he was responsible— mostly in small comfortless schooners.

Blessed with a well-stocked Treasury, General McNicoll has been responsible for an elaborate new works programme, and public servants have been well pro vided with houses on the outstations as well as in Rabaul, and new government offices have been erected in nearly every district. The goldfields have had large sums spent for road construction and Salamaua now possesses fine staff quar ters, and bungalows and the suburb of Kila shows great improvement. The

aerodrome at Salamaua will be something to delight the hearts of the pilots when it is finished.

Ramsay McNicoll has had his crosses to bear. First and foremost, is the in terminable interference from Canberra in matters purely local, and which Canberra has succeeded in “putting over.” Critics have blamed him for allowing this bureaucratic dictatorship to over-ride local demands. Had he protested he would have been replaced by a more subservient official.

There came into existence, with General McNicoll’s arrival, a return to the more stringent official regime which, to the many returned soldier residents., savours too highly of the militaristic days of the War. New Guinea officialdom bears no contradiction; it tolerates un kindly any outside criticism. As a machine, New Guinea officialdom has attained some most satisfactory results: it has made the country a veritable public servants’ paradise. But the machine —

like all mechanical contrivances without a soul—lacks that great essential quality: . uman Touch and Understanding.

Officialdom in New Guinea does every thing; if non-official residents were asked to have a bigger finger in the Administra tion pie there might be a happier atmosphere.

But even if General McNicoll’s training allowed him to appreciate that value it is pretty certain that Canberra (which is always a-shiver lest something should happen here and the P.M.C. at Geneva should scowl) would never tolerate such a popular move. Agricultural, educational, shipping and aviation boards are all required in this Territory. The personnel of such boards could easily be selected from non-official residents.

No one should welcome such a change in policy more than Ramsay McNicoll himself who, by his thorough inspection of every district in the Territory, has come to realise its potentialities and its prob lems and who should be most willing to share his responsibilities with the more experienced residents.

Mr. J. P. Bayly, Acting-A.D.C. to the Governor of Fiji, arrived in Sydney from London by the Orford on August 26, en route to Suva.

Mr. C. E. Clarke, who recently arrived in Rarotonga from Auckland to become resident dentist in the Cook Group, has for long occupied a prominent place in New Zealand’s scientific circles. He was noted for his collection of moths and but terflies, containing over 50,000 specimens, which took him 30 years to assemble. Be fore leaving for the South Seas, Mr.

Clarke presented his collection, valued at over £l,OOO, to the Auckland Museum.