Notes from Lae, TNG

From Our Own Correspondent W Lae, October 26.

E are to have a school at Lae—in fact, two schools. The Roman Catholic Mission from Sek, Madang, within 24 hours of their representative arriving in Lae, had secured some tem porary building for that purpose, and the school will be in operation before Christmas, complete with a staff of sisters, and with a priest in charge.

The Administration has also decided to open a school, and an Education De partment representative recently arrived here to go into the matter, and after two public meetings a Parents and Citi zens’ Association was formed as a pre liminary measure in opening a school for Europeans. Asiatic and Native Schools are also being considered.

Residents are gradually removing from the outlying parts into Lae, and it is astonishing how folks dig in and make themselves comfortable with the aid of a few “frills” in former war buildings.

FEWER jeeps are seen about these days; most have been parked, as those who possessed them could show no receipt. What remains after spare parts have been salvaged from them, will be sold to the public, so by buying five it may be possible to make up one that will go.

Salvage benzine is now running short, and blackmarket prices have risen con siderably. Some people are buying ben zine in the open market at a price which staggers those who invested in huge, six-wheler trucks as runabouts. Trucks owned by natives, who paid £6O each for them (against a few shillings paid by Southern buyers, who were allowed to come here and pick the eyes out of car parks) are gradually being abandoned through lack of spare parts. It is just a matter of time and they will be off the road.

Trade stores are springing ujjt every where, in order to scoop the cash from the native who, because of increased wages, must now pay more for his goods —a law of economics that applies to all, irrespective of race. The native will tell you that he is not as well off now as he was in pre-war days, when he could buy rice at 4 lbs a 1/-; good unbleached calico at 6d per yard (now 1/9); matches at 30 boxes for 1/-; axes from 6/- (now 25/-); large 14in. knives for 5/- (now 10/-) —and so on. The export duty on essential foodstuffs from Australia, plus import duty, has hit everyone very hard —especially the natives who buy rice.

Quite a few Europeans who are not temperamentally suited to this country are gradually leaving. A large number of military men who hopefully obtained their discharge here, now find that their future lies in the big cities —so they pack their gear and leave. Thus we shall eventually return to pre-war conditions in which industry will again be built up by those who, in the past, made this country worthwhile.

LAE has no matches, tobacco, beer, sugar, and many other every-day commodities, and it is felt that until we again have our own Administration, we will be short of everything, in order to supply Moresby. Even our short rice supply has been reshipped to the Seat of Government, leaving us with insufficient to meet our own needs.

The South Seas Evangelical Mission, operating in BSI, has sold its motor schooner “Evangel” about 25 tons, to the Rev. J. E. Goldie, for the Solomon Islands Methodists Mission, The Evangelical Mission intends to build a new boat in Sydney for its work in the Islands.