Papua-N. Guinea
pp. 16-18 · Read in the full issue
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Mr. Ward Says All Is Well In Spite Of Complaints of Public Ser vants, Planters and Miners
rE Minister for External Territories (Mr. Ward), who is to go abroad at the expense of Australian taxpayers shortly, is more than satisfied with the state in which he will leave the Aus tralian Provisional Territorv of Papua- New Guinea. All, according to Mr. Ward, is well there, and rapidly becoming even better.
Any opinions to the contrary, either from within the Territorv or from with out, are described by this politician as the utterances of “vested interests,” and therefore summarily dismissed.
Urged by Mr. White (Lib. Vic.) in the House of Representatives in April, to ap point a joint select committee of Par liament to inquire into:— (1) Inadequacy of the administration; (2) Its failure to maintain production of essential commodities; (3) Lack of policy for economic de velopment; * (4) Unbalanced native policy and its adverse effects; (5) Unrest in the Public Service; Mr. Ward replied that Mr, White was the mouthpiece of capitalists who were opposed to progressive policy of the Aus tralian government in Papua-New Guinea.
The administration in the combined Ter ritory was, at all events, only provisional, he said, but when the international trus teeship agreement was ratified a bill would be brought down to establish a permanent administration.
He denied that the Administration had done nothing to restore the planting in dustry. It had, in fact, spent £280,000 on clearing and restoring plantations, and production was steadily increasing.
There were twelve inter-island ships being run by the Shipping Control Board, and nine more were in course of con struction. Soon, too, shipping communica tion between Australia and New Guinea would be increased and there would be at least one ship every three weeks.
The government had built 24 homes in Port Moresby at a cost of £50,000, the maximum rental for which was 13/10 per week. Single public servants in Moresby, and those who had had to leave their families in Australia, secured board and lodging for 35/- per week; in addition, married men received a living-away-from home allowance of £l2O.
In reply to Mr. White’s assertion that the labour supply in Papua had dropped from 12,500 to 9,300, while the number of natives employed by the Administration had increased from 850 to 4,000, Mr. Ward said that indentured native labourers were becoming fewer because natives pre ferred to work for the Government which had reduced their weekly working hours from 55 to 44.
That is Mr. Ward’s version of the Papuan-New Guinea story. It is, however, strangely at variance with the view-point of those people, whether they are planters, traders or public servants, who have to live in the Provisional Territory at the present time.
It differs also from the views of impar tial outside observers. A Sydney “Sun” journalist who recently visited the com bined Territory said that the problem of how best to emancipate the 1,300,000 natives was no nearer a solution than it had been when Mr. Ward announced his New Deal almost two years ago. They certainlv have more money but it will buy them nothing and they are still tae
wildered and confused. They do not like the new short labour contract and will not go to work under it.
This journalist also had something to say of the inadequacy of European housing, lack of coastal and overseas shipping, and dwindling production.
LAST_ August the public service organ isations of Papua and New Guinea called a protest meeting in Port Moresby to air some of their grievances, which include'd lack of housing and high living costs in comparison with salaries.
The 24 houses to which Mr. Ward re fer above, were then in course of con struction by John Stubbs &' Sons at a cost of over £2,000 per unit. It was realised then that these houses, would do little to alleviate the housing shortage and it was urged then that more and cheaper houses be built quickly. Public servants were at this time promised also that a public service commissioner would inquire into their grievances over salary and probably adjust them to meet the high cost of living in the Territories.
That was over eight months ago. Both the New Guinea and the Papuan Public Service Associations are still stating that the housing conditions in Port Moresby, Rabaul and Lae are shocking and that high living costs and low salaries mean bankruptcy for public servants.
The public servant, however, receives a regular salary, inadequate although it may be. If he faces insolvency, then the lot of planters and miners, who kept the Territories financially afloat in the days before 1942, but who, since the return of civil administration, have been living on war damage insurance moneys and other capital, need not be laboured.
It is ironical that the Australian Labour Government, which is pledged to sock Big Business and assist the under-dog, should have deliberately created in Papua- New Guinea, a set-up in which Big Busi ness, with its large reserves, alone can survive while the small, individual planter and miner must inevitably go to the wall.
PLANTERS are still returning to their plantations in New Britain, New Ireland, Bougainville and the smaller groups of islands in those areas. Many are marooned in Rabaul for weeks or months, until they can get a ship to their properties; and when this has at last been achieved they are then faced with the task of clearing the plantation of undergrowth, rebuilding, recruiting labour and, months later, getting back into pro duction.
Rehabilitation is hampered, firstly by lack of supplies of all kinds from Australia and, secondly, by the lack of sea trans port from Rabaul. There is, as well, in these overgrown plantations, a great hazard to health, both from malarial mos quitoes which have bred unchecked, and from bush mocas which cause scrub typhus and whose breeding ground is in secondary undergrowth.
The men—and women—who seek to re habilitate themselves are not young. They did their pioneering, in the first place, 2U or 30 years ago. The majority of plan tations, moreover, are tied either to the Expropriation Board or to the Big Firms, or to both. What incentive is there then for planters to begin again, particularly as the Australian socialist government is in no way interested in the contribution they can make to the prosperity of the Ter ritory and, in spite of Mr. Ward’s pro tests of good-will, has thrown every ob stacle in their path to rehabilitation?
It is small wonder that they complain than an iron curtain seems to have descended between the New Britain-New Ireland-Bougainville portion of the Ter ritory and Port Moresby, where the ad ministrative policy is shaped and put into effect; or that some of these planters, disillusioned and in bad health have had to return to Australia.
IN the Morobe, district, on the main land, apart from Bulolc Gold Dredging (which now has two dredges working) and, to a lesser extent, New Guinea Goldfields, Ltd., things are little if any better, than they were nine months ago.
Except for a brief period after the arri val of infrequent ships, food, both for Euro peans and natives, is scarce. Europeans are still living largely on canned foods and flour left behind by the American and Australian armies, and are still erecting temporary houses out of old timber and iron salvaged from deserted army camps. (Continued next page)
Some of the lesser lights in the Government employ in Lae are still living in old canvas tent-houses at the former Amencan “Base E” camp. When it rams, as it does incessantly in Lae, inmates resort to catching drips in buckets suitably placed in the leakiest positions in their dwellings.
The Labu-Wau road was out of commission for some time, due to the Administration road-gangs’ inability to cope with repairs during the rainy season. Bulolo Gold Dredging and New Guinea Goldfields have now taken over the job of repairing it and, with a fleet of tip-trucks, are making rapid progress.
T ITTLE has been heard of the Lae ±j town-planning scheme for some time although a great deal of Government money has been already spent upon it.
The original scheme was to plan a Gar den City for 1,000 people; but, as there is now little industrial and no agricul tural policy to back it. the whole thing becomes as unsubstantial as a dream, However, the administration has not signified its intention of abandoning its planned city and, in the meantime, Lae lives on in temporary dwellings, scattered over miles of country formed by the tri angle between Milford Haven wharf, Malahang Native Hospital and the Lae
hotel.
Many people have applied for agricul tural leases in the Markham Valley, but these have not yet been granted. Others have applied for business sites on “the flat”—the area that was pre-war Lae— but no decision has been reached in re spect of these, either.
On the credit side, the Lae Branch of the New Guinea Citizen’s Association has become well established and the local branch of the RSSAILA is also a strong body. The erection of an up-to-date social club is planned and funds are being collected to meet the cost of this. The Bank of New South Wales is flourishing on what used to be Eekhoff’s corner; and it is rumoured that there is soon to be a picture-show.