New Ireland Notes

From Our Own Correspondent KAVIENG, March 15.

THE day that the Deputy Prices Con troller arrived here I got a lb. of trade tobacco for 11/6. Now, it’s 14 6! He reduced bread from 2/- to 1/9, but it’s up again to 1/10.

WHAT is the best present to give a 54-year-old Chinese on St. Patrick’s Day? Woo You has amassed a fortune and lived for nearly 40 years in Kavieng without going further afield than Rabaul. He can rightly claim to be our most popular Oriental. He will en tertain friends on his birthday (March 17). :: :: :: IT costs one_ person about £22 a month to live at Kavieng, excluding rent, liquor or tobacco. Here are some re cent prices;— Milk, powdered, “Sunshine” 10 - 3-lb. tin Rice lid. lb.

Cauliflower (1-lb. tin) 1/7 Bully Beef 2/4 tin Onions 9d. lb.

Sugar lOd. lb.

Potatoes lOd. ib.

Kerosene, 4/85 gal. bulk, or 5/1 gal. in 4-gal. tin.

Sandsoap lOd. cake.

Beetroot (1-lb. tin) 3/4 Matches 1/3 pkt of 12 Butter, Fresh .. 5/6 lb.

Soap, common washing .. 2/9 2-lb. bar.

“Kraft” Cheese (12-oz. tin) 2/9 Fresh meat flown from Rabaul is only for the well-to-do, and even Kanaka fowls are 5/- each and native eggs 4/- a dozen. :: :: :: KAVIENG Club (1949):—A little pro gress, but not much. Every effort should be centred on completing a bar as speedily as possible so as to pro duce immediate income quickly.

OUR post-office now lacks the feminine charm of Mrs. D. C. West, who, with her popular husband, a PWD Works Supervisor, flew South on leave recently.

They were given a farewell party at the residence of the District Officer (Mr. lan F. G. Downs). New post-master is Joe Seeto. :: ;: ;: SUB-INSPECTOR of Police, J. H.

Theckston and Mrs. Theckston, shortly move off to Wau, where it is hoped the climate will prove a tonic to Mrs. Theckston, who does not take; kindly to coastal regions. Born within sound of the “Bow Bells of Wigan,” Harry has never lost that Grade Fields accent.

AT the Singapore Day gathering at Kavieng I met again Jim McGuigan, Senior Medical Assistant.

A few days before the fall of Singapore in 1942, I was wounded and placed in an ambulance for the Base via the Advanced Dressing Post. To my surprise I saw Jim McGuigan directing traffic at this Post (he was a Corporal in the Field Ambulance). A terrific bombardment was taking place; shells, mortars, bombs, bullets —were pitching around him, and he was extremely lucky to get out alive.

I can see him now, at the cross-roads, in dirty jungle-greens, drenched with rain, wearing a tin helmet and smiling complacently as he directed vehicle after vehicle on its journey. He was the coolest man I saw that day—must have been his ex-naval training!

He has just gone on a medical patrol fl Tabar Islands.

DISTRICT Officer I. F. G. Downs has gained praise from planters for his personal efforts in keeping open the nain East Coast road —tne very life flood of the Kavieng Sub-district.