For Papua

No New Administrator For Papua

THE administratorship of Papua re mains vacant; and the Australian newspapers continue to exercise their cheery imagination regarding same.

Some time ago, one newspaper an nounced confidently that Sir Walter McNicoll, Administrator of New Guinea, was to be aooointed administrator over both territories. This press “rabbit” was allowed to have a good run before it was formally and officially slaughtered by the Minister for Territories.

On September 18, another Sydney newspaper stated that' Mr. H. W. Champ ion, who has been acting as Lieutenant- Governor of Papua since the death of Sir Hubert would probably be ap pointed administrator. Canberra, gently questioned, protested that it knew noth ing whatever about the matter.

The “P.1.M.” holds to its opinion, ex pressed over two months ago, that the position will not be filled until the new Commonwealth Government has taken office, and the new Minister in charge 01 Territories has had an opportunity of examining the whole situation.

The Pacific Islands Society in Sydney has instituted a fund, the proceeds of which will make gifts of books to edu cational institutions in the Pacific. The president (Mr. A. E. Stephen) has given a set of books on carpentry which will be forwarded in due course to the voca tional school at Nauru Island. Now comes a gift of £2/2/- to the fund from another ex-Nauruan, Sir Albert Ellis, of Auck land, who was one of the pioneers of the phosphate industry on that island. The Society hopes to expand its scheme which, hitherto, has been confined to a prize for the senior student at the Native Medical School at Suva.

Koitaki Para Rubber Estates, Ltd., a £75,000 company which owns plantations in Papua, earned a net profit of £12,132 in the year ended June 30 last and has paid a dividend of per cent. The Company made £3,555 profit in 1938, £9,882 in 1939, and £12,132 in 1940.