The Month In Moresby

From Our Own Correspondent

Port Moresby. Sept. 6.

UNLESS the External Territories De partment takes urgent action it is certain that Wau High School will not be built in time to open on February 1, as promised by the Minister.

Red tape at the Canberra end is hold ing up the project. The Administration has plans and specifications ready; equip ment has been organised; staff has been appointed and 46 pupils have been en rolled. All that is needed is the Exter nal Territories Department’s approval to let the contract for construction of the school. The Administrator is so worried about the delay that this week he sent an urgent cable to the Department asking for an immediate decision on the school.

He said there was still time to finish the job before February, particularly if the work were divided among several contrac tors. Parents and others, however, are not so sure that there is still time. Some of the 46 children who have been enrolled for the non-existent school will be in an awkward position if the school does not open on February 1. Their parents will have to try to get them into southern secondary schools at the last moment.

Those among the 46 who are now in Grades 6 or 7 in Territory schools will not be so seriously affected. They can con tinue in their present schools until they finish Grade 8 and by then the High School should be completed.

Port Moresby Parents & Citizens’ Asso ciation fears that if the building of the school is shelved until next year it may result in an indefinite hold-up, perhaps the cancellation of the whole scheme. An alternative to opening the school next year is already being considered. This alternative is for the Administration to pay the fares of all children going to Australia for secondary education and to make an allowance of £l5O a year for each child. However, this same scheme was rejected by the Commonwealth Treasury four years ago and another approach on these lines would probably meet a similar fate. Mr. Spender’s reputation in the Territory as a man who gets things done will be marred if the school does not open on schedule.

NEW houses for Hanuabada and Elevata natives are still going up at a great rate. Fifty of the 335 houses to be built have been completed; the frames are up for another three and foundations are down for seven more—all in ten months. This remarkable progress has been made by a team of 27 natives work ing under Mr. Max Roth, with Mr. Des Sullivan supervising the project. Timber for the houses has come from Port Romilly, Wau and several other sources.

Soon the Administration will begin building 20 houses at Gabuta, near the Moresby golf course, to accommodate natives to be moved from Shanty Town at Koki. Meanwhile, houses for Adminis tration staff in Moresby crawl into exis tence at no more than a fifth of the rate achieved by Mr. Sullivan’s team. Reason for the different results is easily explained.

The Hanuabada project is under the direct control or the Government Secretary and red tape has been cut to a minimum.

QANTA3 Bird of Paradise services have been chahged following the with drawal of a Skymaster from the run.

Previously there was no regular service on Fridays but now a DC3 arrives from Sydney on Friday and another goes south from Bulolo and Wau. Instead of the

Rabaul aircraft arriving in Moresby on Thursday and returning south on Saturday, it now comes through on Saturday and returns south on Tuesday. ;; ;; •' , . , CONTOUR survey is now being made of the small island off Koki on which it is planned to erect a national war memorial. The Administration is having the survey made on behalf of the Australian authorities who are handling the erection of five national war memorials. ft is not definitely known what form the memorial will take. Port Moresby RSL

understands that it will be a beacon with a perpetual light. Before the war the Moresby European jail was on the island on which the memorial is to stand.

TWO hundred building blocks on the Boroka Estate at the Four Mile, Moresby, will be available soon. The Government Secretary told the Advisory Council recently that Mr. Foxall, a con tract surveyor, was working in the area and would go as far as pegging the al lotments. There was provision for shops, a school, churches and a recreation ground.

The Government Secretary said that the contour survey of the new Pandora Crescent blocks was finished and the de signing could now begin. Pegging of new allotments on Lawes Road would start

soon It had been decided to give priority to Boroka Estate because this could be opened up quicker than the other two areas. A second party of contract sur veyors would be engaged by the Adminis tration to speed up survey work which had been held up by the shortage of Administration surveyors.

The Government Secretary said that the Minister’s decision that the minimum size of residential allotments should be 120 ft. by 200 ft. (nearly 2 of an acre), was now being reviewed. The Advisory Council decided to recommend that the minimum size be 4 of an acre. Council mem bers felt that 3/4 of an acre would be unnecessarily big in certain cases.

THE Advisory Council has been disap pointed to find that its recom mendations regarding the new Moresby wharf and storage areas have been put aside. The Government Secre tary reported that to change the design as requested by the Council would delay the construction of the wharf. It had therefore been decided to retain the original plan for a 640 ft. wharf. If necessary, the wharf could later be ex tended to 900 ft., the size suggested by the Council.

The Administration advised the Council that the 1950-51 works programme in Moresby included the following works; Re-sealing of Musgrave Street, Ela Beach Road and Lower Koki Road; construction of Bampton Street and construction of roads serving new allotments on Lawes Road and Boroka Estate; improvements to pumping plant at Bomana; investiga tions regarding an underground water supply for the Three and Four Mile; commencement of the new wharf; com pletion of the emergency landing ground on Fisherman’s Island; commencement of reconstruction work at Jackson’s Strip; provision of safety fences on dangerous sections of road and widening of narrow sections as far as possible; power house extensions and installation of new plant; renewal of the oil pipeline to the Moresby wharf.

THE Territory has probably received the last of the American cars that it has been getting from Hong Kong.

Under a new Commonwealth regulation, a permit has to be obtained to bring these cars into the Territory—and permits will be hard to get because of the dollar shortage. Before the restriction was in troduced, about 40 American cars from Hong Kong had entered New Guinea and six-four of them second hand—had arrived in Moresby.

SAMARAI has become an easier place to visit since Mrs. Robertson opened a guest house there recently. Pre viously there was nowhere in Samarai where visitors could stay except in private homes. Mrs. Robertson’s guest house has about 20 beds. The tariff is £l/5/- a day, or seven guineas a week.

AT St. John’s Church of England, Moresby, on September 2, Miss Marion Trenaman, of PCB, married Assistant Sub-Inspector John Simons.

Miss Frances Bradley of PCB was brides maid and Assistant Sub-Inspector Vince Neilsen was best man. The honeymoon is being spent at Yule Island.

Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Foley, of Subitana Plantation, Moresby, have gone to Sydney on their first leave for several years.

Mr. Norm Odgers, of OTC, Moresby, and Mrs. Odgers, have left for Esperance, Wes tern Australia, where Mr. Odgers will manage the OTC station.