Confusion In

N. Guinea

Effect of Hurried Move From Rabaul : And the Cloud's Silver Lining

rpHERE are indications that the deci- X sion to remove the administrative headquarters from Rabaul to Lae has introduced into New Guinea a period of confusion—commercial and industrial, as well as administrative.

Owing to lack of money and prepara tion, it is impossible to assemble all the removed departments immediately at Lae. Some have to go to Salamaua, while others will remain for a time at Rabaul.

It is difficult, at the moment, to say where the capital of New Guinea actu ally is. The Administrator took up his residence at Lae on November 25, but the offices of Central Administration, at the head of which is the Govt. Secretary (Mr. Page) are still in Rabaul, and may remain there until February. (See our correspondent’s article on page 44.) It may be argued that the capital of the territory is where the Administrator lives. Actually, for business purposes, the administrative headquarters seem to be where Central Administration is located—and that still is Rabaul.

It can be understood that the wide scattering of departments and adminis trative officials is not only confusing but also very expensive. Communications between the departments have now to be maintained by radio and Government vessels.

So far as the big firms are concerned, the position is complicated. The two principal firms, Burns, Philp & Co. Ltd., and W. R. Carpenter & Co., are appar ently making plans independently of each other. The latest information is that the Burns, Philp establishment probably will go to Kenabot Plantation, near the present township of Kokopo, 20 miles around the Rabaul Harbour, on the safe side of the volcanoes; while the W. R. Carpenter establishment may be

divided between Timbur, near Kokopo, and Toboi, about two miles west of Rabaul. n lf rr if r ?, us Chinese establishments where half the retail and artisan trade is done—do not know where they are going, and probably will end by remain ing exactly where they are.

AS an illustration of the commercial confusion, one may cite the case of the “Rabaul Times”. This large printing office has produced Rabaul’s weekly newspaper for over 20 years, and also has carried out, under contract, most of the Government printing. The deci sion to move the Administration else where means that a large portion of the Rabaul printing establishment must either go with the Administration or be closed down altogether. The “Rabaul Times” management, when it learned that Central Administration was to move to Lae in December, announced that the “Rabaul Times” would cease operations at the end of December. But as it has now been decided that Central Adminis tration shall remain in Rabaul for another month or two, it is possible that the “Rabaul Times” will carry on.

It is doubtful, however, whether there will be enough printing and advertising business left in Rabaul after the removal of the Government to justify the pub lication of a weekly newspaper, and in ordinary circumstances it might be expected that the “Rabaul Times” estab lishment would be moved to Lae.

However, the alert people who estab lished the “Morobe News” recently at Wau moved their printing works to Lae immediately it was known that Lae was to be Governmental headquarters; so that there already is a weekly newspaper in existence at Lae—although it is prob able that there is not sufficient printing plant there to cope with Governmental printing. It is expected that either the Government will purchase sufficient plant to do its own printing in Lae, or that the owners of the “Rabaul Times” and the “Morobe News” will amalgamate their businesses.

THEN there is confusion in regard to mainland transport facilities It is apparent that if the capital of New Guinea is to be at Lae, reading communication must be established with the interior. This certainly means a good arterial road up the Markham Val ley onto the Ramu-Purari tableland, and it may then be expected that a branch road will go up the Bulolo Valley into Wau.

In the meantime, the Wau miners are still insisting on the use of the short route between Salamaua and Wau —over the mountains—and their latest plan, as described elsewhere, is to cut a mule track over the mountains and organise mule transport. This, as a stop-gap between now and the time when the arterial road will go up the Markham and Bulolo Valleys, may prove a sound idea.

THE silver lining to this picture of confusion and expense *is the cer tainty that the placing of the New Guinea capital on the mainland of New Guinea will lead quickly to the develop ment of the vast internal plateaux—the fertile lands lying at an average height of 5,000 feet and authoritatively de scribed in the last couple of as “a second Kenya”.

The outbreak of the Rabaul volcanoes, leading to the abandonment of Rabaul as Governmental headquarters, may in many ways be regarded as a disaster; but, if at last it brings about the devel opment of this vast territory on sound economic lines, it will not be an unmiti gated disaster.