Sandals For Ng Natives
p. 17 · Read in the full issue
AFTER many months of experiment on the part of the Department of Footwear, Sydney Technical College, a sample of a sandal designed to meet the peculiar requirements of the New Guinea native (mostly for police-boys) has been forwarded to the Department of External Territories for approval. If it is approved, tenders will be called immediately for at least 2,000 pairs.
Preliminary experimental work included a visit by a member of the Footwear Department’s staff to Papua, where he took numerous plaster casts and X-ray photographs of natives’ feet.
The project has entailed the drawing up of entirely new last scales, as the main feature of the natives’ feet was found to be their extreme breadth. Con trary to expectations, the average length turned out to be particularly short. On standard sizes, in length, the range will run from about 3 s to 9’s, but with exceptional breadth.
Stud poultry, including 25 White Leg horn hens, was shipped to the Solomons from Australia in August to establish a stud flock nucleus from which birds will later be distributed to the natives to build up the quality of native stock.