Native Voyagers
p. 23 · Read in the full issue
New Rules For
ANEW regulation, at the end of Novem ber, cutting down the number of native labourers who could be carried on a coastal vessel, from 150 to 37 —at one time, as many as 300 were permitted—caused much disturbance in commercial circles in Papua-New Guinea.
Maybe there had been overcrowding; but the decision of the New Bureaucracy that bush natives, on their way to new labour contracts, should be accommodated like fussy Europeans, was surely an example of creating an absurdity in order to remove an impropriety. It meant that many Territory employers simply would not be able to engage native labour at all.
Strong protests led in December to some revision of the regulation; and it is ex pected in view of events in Canberra,, that the whole situation will be reviewed.