Rabaul And Wau
p. 27 · Read in the full issue
A Bitter Comparison
From Our Own Correspondent WAU, June 27.
FOLLOWING on the ghastly murder of Miss Jean Wilson, at Wau, last Sun day, one is apt to realise more fully the disparity between the manner in which Rabaul is wrapped in police and other precautions against crime, fire and so forth, and the manner in which such precautions are cheese-pared in other populous districts.
In Rabaul there are 14 police officers; in Wau, where the European population also is large, there are four! The duties of these 14 officers in Rabaul are con fined to the Rabaul township area; in Wau, the four officers’ duties include an area reaching to the Bitoi, Ridges, and out as far as Otibanda, with one officer at Bulolo, one at Bulwa and one at Edie Creek, making seven officers in all, over a busy and important area approximat ing to 100 square miles, wherein there are perhaps 10,000 native labourers.
In Rabaul, the police station is open day and night, with a Warrant Officer always on duty. In Wau, the police sta tion closes at 4 p.m.
In Rabaul, there are elaborate quarters in rear of the police station where all the night patrol reliefs of Native Con stabulary are housed, and paraded by the Warrant Officer on duty throughout the night. In Wau, there is no such pro vision.
In Rabaul, there is a trained fire bri gade, under control of the police. In Wau, there is no such thing.
In Rabaul, there is an elaborate com pound at Raplndik, under official super vision, where all native labourers other than domestic servants and so forth, are housed, and out of the town by sun down. In Wau, there is nothing of the kind, except private compounds which are maintained by New Guinea Gold fields Ltd., and Burns, Philp & Co.
In Rabaul, there is a self-contained Chinatown, and no such thing as a native-trade store is within or near the European residential and commercial area. In Wau, trade stores abound, right among European residences, so that natives lounge about the streets at will.
It must be said that the removal of these trade stores is under way, but it has taken many years to get this nuisance even considered by the Government—in fact, it was openly stated by an ADO, who was in charge here a few years ago, that the Chinese had as much right to ply their trade and live in the Euro pean area as the European had! And what about Chinese dummying for Euro peans? No action has been taken by the Government to put a stop to this practice.
Thus Rabaul is shown in a light of, “I’m all right, Jack: you,” to use an old army expression. Finally, be it always remembered that Wau is the centre of the industry which keeps the official coffers full, and enables Rabaul to have all these safety measures, in addition to emoliumed roads, while resi dents on the Goldfields have not even a footpath to walk on!
Judge and Madame Louis Duplatre are now residents of Sydney. He was, for 34 years, a judge in Siam, and he saw that nation change from a somewhat primi tive absolute monarchy into an advanced constitutional monarchy, and become Thailand.