Papua-Ng Costs Australia

£3,000,000 Per Annum

Letter to the Editor OUR Administrator, Colonel J. K. Mur ray, gave us a short broadcast address on the evening of July 4, re lative to the commencement of the New Era in Papua-New Guinea—the establish ment of the permanent administration.

We were not impressed.

His Honour dealt very briefly with the achievements of the Provisional Adminis tration. Probably, owing to lack of material, he could not have said much more, anyway.

His Honour thanked one and all for their assistance and co-operation in the past. But we noticed that there were no thanks for either the Australian tax payers or the non-official residents of the Territories. He did mention, however, that our Civil Service has increased three-fold since the war, and that the Commonwealth grant, which pre-war was around £50,000, is now over £3,000,000.

Reference was made to the dazzling promise of a Legislative Council, to func tion some day—carefully designed to keep the people who earn the revenues (or would like to do so) in a small minority.

When are we going to hear something about the development of these Terri tories on sound economic lines, so that they can at least become part-supporting?

Surely the Administrator does not ima gine that Australia is prepared to go on indefinitely finding £3,000,000 per annum for the kind of set-up we have here now!

I am, etc.,

Exploiter’S Minion.

Papua.

Mr. and Mrs. E. V. O’Brien, of Madang, New Guinea, returned to their plantation home in mid-July. Mr. O’Brien spent several weeks in a Sydney hospital, receiv ing treatment for an unsatisfactory heart; but he has recovered sufficiently to get his doctor’s permission to leave “the land of strikes and palaver” for a few months.