Papua And Tng

To Be One

Plan Advocated by Sir W.

McNicoll

SPEAKING' at the Royal Society of New South Wales in December, Sir Walter McNicoll, Administrator of the Mandated Territory of New Guinea between 1934 and the Japanese occu pation in 1942, said that after the war Papua and New Guinea should be under one administration.

Since the evacuation of the Territories, the voice of Sir Walter on any matter pertaining to the Territory—past, present or post-war—has been conspicuously absent. Until now he has either been content to rest on his laurels or retire from the New Guinea scene.

Although joint control was much in the news before the war, at no time since have reformers mentioned the sub ject—possibly because they are not cer tain into which legal, international cate gory the “Mandate” now fits.

Speaking on post-war development in the Territory, Sir Walter suggested also that New Guinea and Papua should be come Australia’s sole source of rubber supply after the war; that New Guinea should supply all Australia’s cocoa; and that huge forests of pine and hoop pine in New Guinea should be scientifically exploited in co-operation with a policy of afforestation.

In seven years’ time Papua and New Guinea would, he believed, be producing enough rubber to supply the whole of Australia’s peacetime needs.