"Chinatown"

A Social Problem in N. Guinea

AN interesting sidelight on life in New Guinea is seen in the insistent demand that a “Chinatown” be created in the new mining town of Wau, New Guinea. “Chinatown”, of course, is that part of a European town set apart exclusively for the Chinese.

There is in New Guinea now a fairly large and steadily-growing Chinese com munity-clever, adaptable people, dis playing all the good qualities of their race, who have been for the most part born under the Australian flag and who, quite properly, claim the privileges of British citizenship.

But the great ambition of the average Chinese is to own and run a trade store —that is, a store which trades directly with the natives. There are a number of such trade stores already in Wau, and they have been established in or near the residential district. The effect, of course, is to bring into the European residential area large numbers of natives, who spend their spare money in the stores, and their spare time hanging around outside. They are quiet and peaceful enough, but they have the habits of natives and, therefore, they create what Europeans regard as a con siderable nuisance in a European area.

The allocation of a “Chinatown”, to which Chinese-conducted trade stores will be restricted, will be welcomed by Wau residents.

Mr. Albert Robert Quintal, one of the best known identities on Norfolk Island, died recently at the age of 47.