Houses And Gardens Still
p. 68 · Read in the full issue
Preoccupy Papuans
From Our Brisbane Correspondent
Jan. 25, 1947
¥ITHEN he arrived in Brisbane by plane TT recently from Port Moresby, Col.
J. K. Murray, Administrator of the Provisional New Guinea-Papua Govern ment, who was on his wav to the Pacific Conference in Canberra, said that the “Puzzie Wuzzies” were still angels, but were harassed by the same housing short age which confronted Australia.
No building was carried out by them during the war years. Moreover, their houses were flimsy things compared with those in Australia. They needed repair ing or rebuilding every five years or so.
Most of the natives, said Colonel Mur ray, did what most of us did when the war ended—they went home. Many of them were still there, and would not leave until they had finished work on their homes.
Native gardens were also in a bad way when the war ended. The gardens as a rule were worked out after five or six years, and new ones then had to be planted.
The fact that the natives had all that to do in their home villages was the main reason for the native labour short age in the Territories, added Colonel Murray.
Bishop Henry Newton, Anglican Mission, Dogura (Papua), who had been a patient in St. Martin’s Hospital, Brisbane, for several months returned to the Territory by the “Montoro,” on January 16. Now 81 years of age. Bishop Newton has been actively engaged in Mission work for 47 years. He will train native deacons for their ordination.