Government

Frank Comments on the “Provisional”

Letter to the Editor

IHAVE read with interest the debate in the Australian Parliament on' the Bill to provide a Provisional Admin istration for Papua-New Guinea.

One member hoped that firms like Burns Philp & Co. and W. R. Carpenter & Co. would be kept out. Bad as these firms may be, there is one thing that can be said for them; They know their job.

It is doubtful whether some of the mem bers do, if they are reported correctly.

B.P.’s had been called often a pirate and an octopus. They had little opposi tion, and everything was in their own hands. By comparison with our Produc tion Control Board, though, they were archangels. If any of those firms had to survive on what they made from the natives they would soon have been de funct. Shell and copra, I should say, was their main source of revenue. The natives contribute a very small percentage of those commodities. I believe that I can say, without fear of contradiction, that no firm in Papua treated their labourers better than did Burns Philp.

ONE member said that people come here to make money. That, I should say, is what they go to most places for. Most people came here because they thought it was a land of promise—a place where one could get a nice home to gether and be reasonably well-off, before they were too old to enjoy it. Not, as some of the fanatics seem to think, for exploitation.

Before the war, there was not one small holder here making more than a

bare living. Most of the plantations at this end are—or were, when the war started —still working on calls. Many now will never pay interest on capital outlay, unless phenomenal prices occur.

Some may give the owners a living. It is a pity that some of these great re formers would not educate themselves a little, then they might be able to dis cuss the Territory intelligently. Very few plantations come into full bearing for well on towards 20 years—some over 20.

Another item is shipping. Is it pos sible that the taxpayer of Australia is going to be bled for a national shipping line? Past experience should, I think, be fresh enough in the mind of many mem bers to prevent such another fiasco.

Judging from previous attempts, it is doubtful just what they could run suc cessfully. Not ships, I feel sure.

ANOTHER member said that natives were taken away from their villages for too long, and that the indenture system aggravated the evil. Natives were signed on in Papua for 12 months. 18 months and 2 years. No native could be signed on for more than a second term. Several places were closed against recruiting, but that did not keep them at home. The new Act says that they must go home. I thought that they were British subjects and therefore free. I have no recollection of any native being forcibly sent home under the Murray Government unless he was a bad charac ter. They could not loaf about the towns, but they could work voluntarily

for whom they wished. They could go where they liked, but not stop in the towns unemployed. The previous em ployer paid one shilling and got a receipt to clear him of any further responsibility for the native.

With no recruiting, one wonders how they will get to work, seeing that most of them will have to travel between 50 and 100 miles. It appears that the new set-up does not want them to work. That is all right, providing that the Australian Government is prepared to carry the baby. Except medical attention, there is very little that these natives need. This malnutrition talk is tripe. I think they do suffer from want of food —not be cause they have not got it, but because it is their custom to have but one meal a day, in their villages and, in the rest of the day, they eat anything or noth ing, as available.

SOME member said that 80 per cent, of the people have a smattering of of Motuan. This is a misstatement.

By far the greater number, all ever the Territory, have a better grip of Eng lish. No Motuan is spoken east of Samarai or on the north-east coast, until one gets to Tufi. Woodlark Island.

Misima and Sud Est employers used natives from all the islands around about.

Many thousands were used bv the miners and planters. None ever tried to speak anv of the. dialects. It was worse than useless —every time they got new natives it would be another dialect —so they spoke English. I have been on all the islands around this end of the Territory, and have never at any time had any trouble over language, and I speak only English, with perhans a little Australian thrown in occasionally. * From what one reads, it apnears that our own needy people are having a ter

rible job to get any attention, either In hospitals or homes, yet the Australian Government is going to set up new stan dards for natives who are actually in need of nothing, apart from medical at tention. , , . ...

They will show the world what they can do for natives! Have they never heard of what the British have done in Africa? They will have travelled a fairly long road before they catch up to the British.

One would think that no native ever got more than 10/- per month. No N.E.

Coast native got less than 12/6. Many natives were getting £l2 per annum, and many more from £2 to £9 per month.

Burns Philp paid a native £9 per month; and three days after he was paid he did not have a cent, or a thinp- of value, for the lot. I am. etc.,

W. A. Young.

Dogma, 15/9/45.