The Month In Moresby

From Our Own Correspondent

Port Moresby, Jan. 2.

MORESBY’S business centre is growing rapidly. BNG’s new store, to re place the one lost during the war, should be in full operation within a year.

Rear section of the bulk store should be open for wholesale business within four months. The new store will have two storeys and a basement, with offices on the top storey. The Port Moresby Freez ing Co. has started building a new butcher’s shop. A cafe and milk bar will be erected beside the shop and it’s planned to make it all part of the Papua Hotel. Steamships recently opened what it claims is the most modern native store in the Territory, Attractively designed and well stocked, the store sells soft drink, ice cream and freezer goods, as well as groceries, hardware and drapery goods.

Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Carter’s new photo graphic and gift shop in Cuthbertson Street opened just in time to capture the Christmas trade. ♦ AFTER three months of electricity rationing in Moresby, residents have been told that the new engine part that the Administration has been waiting for, will leave England by ship early this month. When it arrives power supplies should return to normal. Generating plants which will greatly increase the powerhouse’s capacity are on order and the first of these, a 720 HP plant, is due to leave England in February. Two 600 HP plants, ordered in August, 1947, are due to arrive from England next May.

Officials say that the fact that new plant

was ordered as far back as 1947 clears the Administration of any blame for the

present difficulties.

* THE Public Service Association has just been advised that the Public Service Ordinance, 1949, is only temporary and will be replaced by a permanent ordinance as soon as possible. Revision of the ordinance is going on now. Pre viously it was thought that the ordinance was permanent and this caused the Asso ciation some concern as some important matters were not provided for. One of the missing provisions concerned long leave and furlough, a subject now being considered by the Department of Ex ternal Territories. Indications are that the final terms of this provision will be satisfactory to both prewar Papuan and New Guinea officers and to new public servants.

Officers of the former administrations of Papua and New Guinea met in Moresby recently to discuss superannuation. A statement issued after the meeting said: “The present position is that the recent Superannuation Ordinance, 1949, has to be re-enacted as an Ordinance of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea. Re presentations are still being made to the Department of External Territories, Com monwealth Treasury and Commonwealth Actuary, regarding submissions by the Public Service Association about the rate of pension in respect of salary earned from 1945 onwards, and in respect of the conditional 25 per cent, increase in pen sions.”

Messrs, w. r. murphy and j. Reid hope to open a modern steam laundry in Moresby within a few months. They have some machinery and are expecting 1 the rest soon. The laundry will be in the former Catholic Mission boys’ school at Koki. According to the proprietors, they will do residents’ laundry at half the cost of keeping a laundry boy.

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FIRST meeting of the Executive Council was held in Port Moresby on Decem ber 19. Members of the Council were appointed for six months from December 1, 1949, pending decisions on organisa tion of the public service and the per manent appointment of several depart mental heads. The Council will advise and assist the Administrator, who pre sides over its meetings. Members of the Council are:— Mr. Lonergan (Acting Government Secretary).

Mr. Jones (Acting Secretary for Plan ning and Development).

Dr. Gunther (Director of Public Health).

Mr. Chester (Acting Treasurer).

Mr. Groves (Director of Education).

Mr. Humphries (Acting Director of Native Labour), Mr. Cottrell Dormer (Director of Agri culture, Stock and Fisheries).

Mr. Holmes (Secretary for Lands, Sur veys and Mines).

Mr. McAdam (Acting Secretary for Forests).

No one here can forecast when the Legislative Council will be set up. It won’t be before July, 1950, however, as the Papua and New Guinea Act specified that the Council should not operate until a year after the Act became effective (The Act came into force in July, 1949). Much preparation will have to be made for the election of the non-Government members of the Council. * new houses for Administration . officers at Abau are ready for occupa tion. Better than the usual out station residences, they are R and A types, similar to those in Lawes Road, Port Moresby. * THE Administrator (Colonel J. K.

Murray) made this significant state ment in a special Christmas and New Year message to residents: “For the future I hope that the Australian Government will determine the design for not only development of the native people, but also for the economical development of the Territory, on which a great deal of the security of the Commonwealth and the happiness of all in this Territory depends.” ♦ A CIVIL AVIATION spokesman says that construction of an alternative all-weather airstrip for Port Moresby on Fisherman’s Island should begin early

in the New Yean The strip will take any plane in an emergency and when it is finished aircraft will no longer have to by-pass Moresby because of bad weather.

Fisherman’s Strip will be easy to approach because of the absence of surrounding hills, which, at times, make conditions difficult at Jackson’s. New radio naviga tion aids to be installed at Moresby will enable aircraft to land at Fisherman’s in almost any conditions. The strip will be 5,000 feet long compared with Jackson’s 6,438 feet and it will have a coral surface capable of taking planes with a gross weight of over 60 tons. It will cost about £40,000 in the early stages. * THE Administrator, Colonel J. K. Mur ray, and Mrs. Murray, spent Christ mas and the New Year holiday on an inspection cruise in the Laurabada around the eastern, south-eastern and northern divisions of Papua. * NEW telephone books will be issued in the Territory within a month. * A NUMBER of vehicles in Moresby are certain to be ordered off the road when registration is introduced, un less their condition improves before then.

They will be ordered off for not meeting the safety requirements provided for under registration. Before they will be regis tered, vehicles will have to pass a strict examination. They must be roadworthy and equipped with windscreen wipers, headlamps and tail-light. Left hand drive vehicles must have a mechanical or hand operated indicator. The Motor Traffic Ordinance, 1949, which provides for regis tration in Papua, among other things, is now awaiting the approval of the Ex ternal Territories Department. One of the most important provisions of the new ordinance, as far as Moresby is concerned, may be a higher speed limit. It has been recommended that the limit within

Moresby be increased from 15 mph to 25 mph. The limit will still be 15 mph when passing a school or playground. Outside Moresby the recommended limit is 40 mph, or 25 mph for heavy vehicles—those with a carrying capacity of more than two tons, including a trailer. * TRUSTEES of Moresby’s recreation area have planned a number of improve ments to the area. First on the list are new dressing sheds on Ela Beach. See saws are to be installed in the children’s playground and picnic shelters will be built. It is also hoped to erect a band rotunda. On the Recreation Ground it self, the Trustees intend to build a new pavilion and score boards. * MISTRAL (W. Connolly) won the Moresby Aquatic Club’s Fairfax Handicap with 27 points, Tradewind (A. Murray) was second with 22 points, and Kevani was third. The Lady Skip per’s Race was won by Miss Lorna James in Mistral, with Berinice (Miss D. Bald win) second and Arrow (Mrs. A. Adler) third. There will be no more races until next March. * Formation of a bowling club in Moresby has been suggested. A pub lic meeting to discuss the matter will be called soon. *

Miss Betty Christine Smith, A

nursing sister at the Moresby Euro pean Hospital, married Mr. Lance Quayle, of the Works and Housing De partment, at St. John’s Church of Eng land, Moresby, on December 19. Brides maid was Sister Pat Lumley, of the hospital, and Mr. Norman Plant was best man. Mr. Leslie Elliott gave the bride away. The reception was held at the Hotel Papua. The couple had a “round trip” honeymoon on the Bulolo. * MRS. N. ODGERS, wife of the local officer in charge of OTC, has re turned to Moresby after a year in Perth.

Senior Medical Assistant, Stan Chris tian, who has been conducting malarial surveys in the Highlands since 1946, has gone on leave.

Spending their leave in Brisbane are Mr. and Mrs. Harold Foley, of Moresby.

APC’s head accountant in the Terri tory, Mr. Len Morris, and Mrs. Morfis, flew to Melbourne by Skymaster on Xmas Eve on three months’ leave.

Mr. and Mrs. Frank Hill, of Moresby, are in Australia on leave.

Assistant Director of Agriculture, Mr, R.

E. Dwyer, and Mrs. Dwyer, returned to Moresby from leave on the December Bulolo.

A son was born to Mr. and Mrs. Frank Barber at the Moresby European Hospi tal recently.

Mr. C. J. Miller, of the co-operative sec tion, and Mrs. Miller, returned from leave on the December Bulolo.