N.Guinea

Living Cost In

Statistical Economist Needed

Prom ° ur ° wn correspondent

Port Moresby July 4

rpHE New Guinea Administration has 1 advertised for a “Statistical Officer.”

It is hoped this means some one with a training in economics. A routine statistical economist is one specialist urgently needed in the Territory The basic problem of European'residents to-day is the cost of living, in relation to

which officers claim, they are underpaid.

The little information which has filtered through about the re-classification of the public service by Mr. Buttsworth, who has completed his findings, has not caused any great satisfaction. The report pro poses a base salary of about £370 a year.

This is insufficient in present-day New Guinea.

How can the Government assess salary rates in Papua-New Guinea without any statistical data on the cost of living? In the absence of a cost-of-living index, salary adjustments must be more or less arbitrary. The testimony of residents is that our costs of living are abnormally high. This seems to merit scientific analysis by a trained economist—which m turn would provide a sound and un questionable basis for salary decisions.

To the layman, there is strong evidence of a very high increase in prices here over Australian equivalents. At June 30, 1947, the following prices were being charged by Burns Philp, Steamships Pty., Ltd., and the Port Moresby Freezing Com pany at their Moresby branches:— Bread, 2/4 per loaf; butter, 3/3 lb.

Sugar, 6d. lb.; tea, 6/7 lb.

Fillet steak, 3/3 lb.; eggs, 4/6 dozen.

Small leg of lamb, 16/-.

“Baby bottles” of soda water, 14/dozen.

One lamb’s fry, 1/6; washing soap, 2/ bar.

Potatoes, sd. lb. (with a high percent age inedible).

Onions, 6d. lb.

Apples, 4d. each; oranges, 9d. each; pears, sd. each.

Boiled sweets, 2/11 lb.

These prices, however they may be arrived at by the firms concerned, pro vide some sort of case.

COST of living, however, is only the basic adjustment necessary for a happy and energetic colonial service.

The type of young man needed for careers in Colonial Affairs will not be at tracted by the mere prospect of a living wage; nor is it possible to overlook the disadvantages of tropical service, such as severance from friends and family, isolation from modern amenities, and less comfortable environment. Missionary zeal will not alone bring men into the service, as others have already pointed out.

There are further adjustments neces sary for men with families. At present they have to send their children to Aus tralia for secondary schooling, and it is desirable that they should see these chil dren over vacations; this runs out at the best part of £2OO per child per year.

All these factors should be accounted for specifically and fairly in addition to the basic living wage computed from cost of living figures. This Territory, with all respect, needs rather a more outstanding type of officer than the normal public service department.

Meanwhile, public servants in New Guinea claim they are having a hard struggle to remain solvent, and those who are winning the battle are doing so at the expense of their deferred pay.

Their claims and the problems of admin istration merit a more thorough, en lightened and knowledgeable investiga tion than the routine public service classifier can give them. For this reason, if no other, the Buttsworth report is not likely to satisfy.

And then there are the non-Adminis tration employees, whose financial prospects would also merit study by a statistical economist. There will, perhaps, be an Arbitration Ordinance in the future Territory which could assist them.

Messrs. W. M. Burns. M. R. Gallen and C. D. Carr have been appointed officers of the Royal Papuan Constabulary.