The Sorry Plight of Australia’s Great Tropical

STILL IN THE GRIP OF THE PLANNERS The Sorry Plight of Australia’s Great Tropical Dominion

From R. W. Robson

Pt. Moresby, Oct. 30.

THE following is my summing-up of impressions gained in a« 4-weeks’ tour of Papua-New Guinea, just completed. This comparison is made be tween conditions as I knew them in 1939, and conditions today. I am told that to-day’s conditions are somewhat better than they were in 1948-49; but I had no first-hand knowledge of the Ter ritories in 1948-49.

There is demoralisation among the non- Highland natives who supply the native labour force.

This is due to (a) the Ward-Murray policy of wiping out the indentured labour system, especially the provisions for penalty in respect of breaches of contract: (b) the Ward-Murray policy of distributing huge amounts of money among natives as war damage compensa tion, on a very loose system.

There is demoralisation among non official Europeans, who provide the mainspring of the private enterprise without which this PNG Territory cannot be developed and made less of a financial burden on Australia.

This is because of the failure of the ad ministration to provide the Europeans with economic and efficient labour, and adequate security in land titles and leases.

Evidence of this is seen in the almost cessation of coconut planting; the con

tinued importation of sawn timber at fantastic prices (although scores of per sons and interests are clamouring for permission to cut local timber); the de crease in the number of individual gold miners (who cannot carry on under present-day costs); and a general reluct ance to engage in enterprise which could be wrecked by an unsympathetic gov ernment.

There is demoralisation among official Europeans, more especially among field officials, such as District Ser vices.

This is due in part to the centralisation of authority and the almost incredible delays which occur in getting rulings and decisions from Port Moresby (and, it is suspected, from Canberra).

It is due in part to the introduction to the Territory of Works and Housing— surely the most wasteful and inefficient set-up ever seen under conditions such as these. The commonest types of white workmen in this set-up receive from £35 to £4O per fortnight, less about 16 6 per week for mess charge—the net result of which is that these people are being paid far more than the most skilled and ex perienced field officials.

It is due in part to the introduction of swarms of officials and “experts ’ who are running around the Territory on

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jpecial jobs, getting in each other’s way m transport services and in hotels, and the value of whose work it is hard to see. rhere is demoralisation among members of the public generally, because of the lack of any means by which they can express their views on public affairs.

There should be Town Advisory Coun cils in Rabaul and Lae, at least. There should be Advisory Councils for the Dis trict Officers —which were promised, but of which there is no sign. Above all, there should be a Legislative Council, rep resentative of all classes, which should meet at least twice yearly.

There is demoralisation among the hand ful of executive heads who direct Big Business in the Territories.

They can see very clearly the pie crust character of the economy which has been built up in Papua-New Guinea.

There are many surface evidences of great prosperity and an abundance of money. The Territories’ income comes from five main sources —Governmental expenditure, which may be £6,000,000 or £7,000,000 p.a.,; expenditure on oil search, may be £1,000,000 p.a.; receipts from sales of copra, say £2,000,000 p.a.; sales of gold, say £1,000,000 p.a.; and rubber, say £750,000.

The two first-named sources may close up at any time. Receipts from copra, gold and rubber are not likely to in crease. Little real progress has been made in the establishment of new in dustries—such, for example, as timber cutting, although the South Pacific gen erally is crying aloud for timber at any price. 1 COULD elaborate on each of these themes at considerable length—but space considerations forbid. But I have a notebook filled with concrete ex amples to prove every allegation; and. moreover, in New Guinea and Papua, I have gone over the foregoing summary with the leading official and non-official men, and they have generally agreed with it.

The most definite challenge to my sum mary came from a highly-placed official, held in universal respect, who said that the abolition of the indenture system could not be laid at the door of the Ward-Murray regime—that one had to go further and dig deeper to find the origin of the drastic change.

How Indenture System Was

Cancelled.

AS it happens, I know what he was referring to. The move against the indenture system began about 1944, when the late Mr. Beasley, Australian Socialist Minister, was attending an In ternational Labour Conference some where. He cabled Australia that ILO were hostile to the indenture system, and sought instructions. Under advice from External Territories officials, he was in formed that the system would be abolished as soon as it was deemed advisable to make the change.

Soon after this, Mr. “Eddie” Ward and his pack' of precious planners, called the Army Research Council, took charge of the situation. There was not among them one practical man, experienced in tropical administration —the head was a Sydney medical student, who be came a full colonel, and the Council comprised academicians, anthropolo gists, and what-not, all of whom be came lieutenant-colonels, majors and captains, who travelled around the Is lands with full regalia and priority

privileges.

They were all regarded as professed Socialists—as some undoubtedly were.

Colonel J. K. Murray, afterwards head of the School of Tropical Administra

tion, was a member. He then was— probably still is—a convinced Socialist.

Although he had never had one hour’s practical experience of Pacific Islands administration, he was selected by Ward for the post of Administrator. One of his first acts, on arriving at Konedubu, was to call all his leading officials to gether, and deliver a paean of praise of “Eddie” Ward, and declare that Ward would be Australia’s next Socialist Prime Minister.

IT was the Research Council, plus Ward, plus Murray, plus all kinds of so called experts, who framed the Ward- Murray policy, during the confused ANGAU regime. It was then that the Australian Socialist Government com mitted itself to the United Nations and the ILO with the statement that the in denture system would be abolished in five years. It was then that the guiding hand of Mr. “Jim” Taylor was seen. (Continued Next Page)

“Jim” Taylor was one of the best fieldmen that the NG Administration ever had. It was he who, in association with the Leahy brothers, explored much of the Highlands. His success in bringing uncontrolled areas under control was not-

able. But, as an administrator of a dis trict, he was not regarded as above the average.

This was the man whom the Planners called in to assist them in framing part of their policy; and the Native Labour

Ordinance, introduced when the Ward- Murray regime took over from ANGAU and mainly responsible for the chaos and confusion in the Territories between 1945 and 1950, is regarded as the compilation of Mr. Taylor. Mr. Taylor was Director of Native Labour for two or three years.

His retirement from the job, and from the Administration service, was not re garded as a calamity.

His defenders say that Colonel J. K.

Murray did not favour the early abolition of the indenture system—they say it was forced upon him by Ward and Evatt. If he had had any experience, he would have foreseen the effect of the change, and resigned rather than agree to it.

As it was, he agreed to the abolition of the indenture system at the end of five years, and the immediate reduction of the contract term to one year; and he should now be forced to take responsibility for the results —a disorganised and de moralised labour force; cheeky and unde pendable natives, who seem to be moving steadily towards the point where they will challenge the white man’s authority; the embarrassment and discouragement of private enterprise; and a staggering increase in the costs of administration.

NEW Planners argue, of course, that whatever we may think, we are forced by our obligations to the UN Trusteeship Council to wipe out the in denture system. That is prevarication.

It was the Chifley Socialist Government which committed us to the abolition of the system within five years; and the Chifley Government and all its works were repudiated by the Australian people.

We are not obliged to accept, in every thing, the dictation of the Socialist or the Trusteeship Planners.

The primary paramount consideration in respect to New Guinea is its devel opment as Australia’s mosU important

outward bastion of defence; and in that regard the natives must be compelled to do their share.

The new Native Labour Ordinance is a weak compromise, for which the Spender regime will be blamed. It will not re move the evils created by tne Ward- Murray-Taylor regime. The whole thing will be up for review and amendment again.

Extraordinary Hold-Up In

Timber.

PROBE as I might, I could not find the reason for the extraordinary nold-up in the issue of permits to take timber out of the coastal jungles.

Canberra has approved; Port Moresby has approved; everyone has approved except \ne very stubborn Director of For ests, Mr. McAdam. In the absence of any other information, we aie forced to the conclusion that tne cause of delay lies in the office of the Forestry Director.

As a forester, Mr. McAdam is held in high respect. It was due to his probity and forthrightness that the timber-lease conspiracy of 1945-48 (which sent “Jock”

Garden to gaol, and threatened “Eddie”

Ward with political extermination) was defeated. It is believed McAdam would rather have a tooth pulled than lose one of his beloved trees to greedy commerce.

It was thought that when, as a matter of policy, it was decided that the Morobe pines and cedar should be cut only under a tender system, with adequate re-affor estation provisions, Mr. McAdam would withdraw his objections to the wholesale milling of the timber in the coastal areas.

But, at the date of this writing, the hold-up persists and there are whispers of somewhat drastic action being planned by the powers at the top.

The timber industry of New Guinea is at a most interesting stage, and is the subject of a special article elsewhere in this issue.

Channels Choked In Moresby

And Canberra.

MOST informed people are agreed that the ideal system of administration in this vast wide country would be achieved through the decentralisation and delegation of authority, so that the offi cers in charge of districts would have the widest possible authority to proceed along lines laid down in a general policy.

That idea was accepted by Mr. Spender.

He promised that District Officers would become District Commissioners, who would be aided by local Advisory Councils; and that much of the excessive powers now exercised by Port Moresby and Canberra should be delegated through Deputy Ad ministrators to the men in the field.

Seven months have gone by, and at this writing not one of these things has come to pass. I am told that fantastic delays occur, while more and more mat ters are referred South, to the inevitable Mr. Reg Halligan, for decision.

Everyone blames everyone else—it is like fighting a feather bed.

I would place the blame mostly upon the present Administrator —a most worthy professor, who has had no experience whatever in this kind of turbid and turgid organisation, who is too much of a gentleman to do the obvious, necessary things, and who is the South Pacific’s outstanding example of a round peg in a hole that has become painfully square.

W & H—Frankenstein Monster

COLONEL MURRAY is generally held to be responsible for the introduction to the combined Territory of the De partment of Works and Housing. It was his idea of a way to get things done, without private enterprise. For him it has become indeed a Frankenstein Mon ster.

It is directed and controlled /by a Minister in Australia. Although it is

responsible for practically all the public works in the country, the Administrator has no authority over it. Liaison be -525; £J* H a ? d the Administration to provided by a series of stiff n^ h^ ge ! S een Gover nment Secretary and local W & H Director. i nS? 1 !* monstr ous concern lias just under th°p 00 H^ r^ P6ar i em P lo y ee s- spread all over the two Territories. Heaven knows how uS? y l ac S es , a ?? how many natives it uses of the latter, there must be thousands. It is building roads, bridges houses, stores, air-strips, wharves— and “ * u tbe instrumentalities which are wasting the Australian taxpayers’ money ln u u 01 [ any other country, this is probably the worst. From my own ob servations, I have gathered scores of ex amples of W & H muddle and waste. . That 15 bad enough. But even worse is the concern s effect on native morale.

It has brought in hundreds of whites of ! °w wage-plug type-uncouth hooli gans who have no idea of how to main tain the status of the European among these natives. They fraternise with the native labourers, and associate with native women, and they have so much un accustomed money that they are a posi tive pest in all the places where beer is sold.

Many of us had hoped that the natives wouid soon have recovered from the effects of the military occupation. But this W & H invasion confirms the harm done by the thoughtless soldiery.

There are scores of very competent and responsible officials in W. & H, but they are in a minority, and swamped in the general inefficiency and disrepute.

The Territory is getting its houses and public works, but at an appalling cost, in more ways than one.

IN a native village, not far from a small town where I stayed, there was en camped a woman doctor, who has specialised in infant dietetics. She is said to be getting £1,200 per annum, plus travelling and other expenses, for teach ing native mothers how and when to feed their small children.

Old Territorians, who know the natives and their ways, think it is extremely funny. As an Australian taxpayer, I am not amused, because this is typical of the sort of thing that is going on all over the Territory.

These priceless Planners, in their eager ness to present New Guinea to the Trus teeship Council as a model Native Welfare State, are consistently putting the cart before the horse.

Out at Matupi, near Rabaul, they have a most expensive set-up, where half-a dozen Europeans are training some 25 or 30 boys (who are being paid labourers wages) in certain trades. Out at Station 9PA, near Moresby, they maintain no less than three Europeans (two appar ently quite untrained) as announcers in Motuan and Pidgin; but in not one native village, anywhere in the Territory, did I find any regular listeners-in. In fact I did not locate one community receiver.

If only these planners would get down to the hard earth, and use these easy funds from Australia to train selected natives for the difficult task of teaching simple English to the natives of New Guinea, we might be getting somewhere.

We may be getting somewhere now: but it looks to me very like the road to fin ancial and administrative bankruptcy.

I have had 28 days of ear-bashing— cheerfully endured, because these Papua-New-Guinea people are the most lovable people in the Pacific, and they surely have real grievances. Their troubles are like an ingrowing toe-nail: the more they think about them, the worse they seem, and they feel they must talk about them.

Their plight is made worse because

there is no way in which they can offi cially let off steam. They should have a Legislative Council, where their moans could be channelled to official ears, and genuine grievances dealt with. But there is no sign of the Legislative Council, so often promised. I have followed it back as far as I can—and I am convinced that it is just another of those things held up in Canberra.

It is a pity we could not get a bird's eye view of the matters which await decision in the Department presided over by Mr. Halligan. It would make a startling picture.