Amalgamation, Inertia, and Australian

Politicians

IF amalgamation means a continu ance of the procrastination, pre varication and general inertia which, for two years, have marked Can berra’s control over New Guinea and Papua, Territories residents may well pray to be saved from the new Australian Minister’s new plan.

On the grounds only of efficiency and economy—especially the latter— there are reasons for amalgamation.

On broader grounds—based on Mr. W.

M. Hughes’ dictum that “the nation which controls this protective fringe of Pacific Islands controls Australia” —there are some weighty arguments to support the proposal that the two Territories should be placed under one vigorous administration. But if the change means merely that an ex panded bureaucracy will have in creased opportunities for sleeping on the job, then the last condition of the Territories may well be worse than the first.

It is nearly two years since Rabaul was threatened with volcanic extinc tion, and it was decided to remove the capital immediately to a safer place.

It is a year since the Griffiths Com mittee recommended that Lae be the new site. It is nine months since Mr.

Hughes said that the new capital

should be at Salamaua, and that a new road would be built forthwith between Wau and Salamaua. It is over three months since the Minister announced that an expert committee would be appointed at once to investi gate a plan of amalgamation, which embraced a new capital site, and methods of defence, development and settlement.

Just before going to press, we in quired of Canberra whether anything had been done in regard to the amalgamation committee, the road, or anything else; and we were politely informed that the various- months’old proposals still await the sanction of Cabinet.

It is a situation deplorable beyond words. Both Territories, at an early date, should be fitted into the Aus tralian plan of defence. Both are ripe for well-directed developmental activities —and the rank and file of both public services are composed mostly of intelligent and keen young Australians, eager to be up and at it.

The finances of both Territories need a general overhaul—especially New Guinea, where there has been an alarming, unexplained and apparently inexcusable drift into a condition where current expenditure is much in

excess of current revenue. There are a score of separate problems, as apart from these general conditions, de manding governmental attention. And not a thing has been done.

It may not be fair to blame the new Minister. He does not have full Cabinet rank; and he appears to have done his best to get decisions made, in accordance with his own business like formula; and, anyway, he is not i esponsible for the gang of squabbling politicians which masquerades at Canberra as a National Government.

Logic, and the demand for increased efficiency in the Territories adminis tration, and the imperative need for building up defences against the southwards-thrusting Japanese, pro vide a strong case for amalgamation, and, moreover, suggest the extension of that plan to the Solomons and the New Hebrides—as explained else where. That is the theory of it. But there is another side. The Australian governmental record of the last two years, in relation to the Territories, provides one very good reason why the Territories should resist any closer ties with the Australian politicians and the inert bureaucracy which they allow to exist.

Indications are that the committee eventually will be appointed, and will make a leisurely tour of both Terri tories—and probably of Northern Territory, Nauru and Norfolk Island —and take copious evidence. Very many months will pass, and much

money will be spent before a report is made.

Meanwhile, Territories residents will have ample opportunities of arguing amalgamation, pro and con. Already, it is apparent that there is much to be said on both sides.

Broadly, and in theory, this journal is in favour of amalgamation. But when it sees the kind of administra tion which Australian politicians so far have given the Territories, it is inclined to say that the less the Islands have of Australia, the better