The Cecil

The Battle Of

The Lae Planners and the New Hotel

From R. W. Robson

LAE, October 15.

LAE is in the grip of the Town Planners, and a minor war is proceeding.

Officialdom insists that all builders must build “on top” (on the green ter race behind the air-strip); but, for some reason, the trading community yearns for the flat area beside the air-strip, between the terrace and the sea, site of the original Lae, wiped out by war.

There has been rebellion against The

Plan. Ail real Territorians hate Planners, anyway. Leader of the rebels is the in domitable Mrs. Flo Stewart; and, to date, she has had the victory.

In 1946, she took over a collection of Army-made bush shacks, three miles out in the jungle, and opened up the Hotel Cecil (named after the hotel which was obliterated by bombs). She achieved miracles in providing a resting-place for transients; but, from the moment of her return, she aimed to rebuild the Cecil on the Cecil’s old site. Officialdom said “No —the Plan provides for a hotel there, on the terrace.”

The lady insisted on her right to build on her own land, site of the original hotel.

Officialdom said; “You can’t build without a title. Everything was obliterated by bombs. The area must be re-surveyed.

But all is ready for you to build on top.”

The stubborn woman would not build on top. The stubborn bureaucracy would not produce a title.

But the gods favoured the woman. The concrete floor of the old Cecil was still there, among the bomb-craters. A couple of iron posts, which were buried in con crete and marked the old tennis-court, were a help. Using these marks, Mrs.

Stewart got her approximate boundaries— and after a four-years’ fight, commenced building.

The new hotel is now in shape—frame, floors, walls and roof —and the tireless owner still hopes to occupy it by Christ mas. But she is meeting all the usual frustrations and laziness, and it looks as if the bush pub will have to function for some months yet.

When the Cecil is finished, it will com

pare with anything in Papua and New Guinea —which includes the excellent Papua Hotel in Moresby, and Mr. Brown’s fine new Ascot Hotel in Rabaul. With cool lounges, wide corridors, bedroom amenities and a tropical garden on the flat roof, overlooking the sea, and with gardens, lawns and a swimming-pool Mrs. Stewart has planned a hotel that should put Lae clearly upon the tourist’s schedule.

But it is “down on the beach.” and officialdom still looks sourly upon the en terprise. Buntings, of Samarai, have also built on the beach —a fine new store on land they acquired from Henry Eekhoff— and one hears of one or two others who reckon they can defy the Town Plan.

Generally, however, the Lae community —now big and growing—is conforming to The Plan; and the indications are that it will be a lovely little town, cleverly ar ranged, sheltering from the tropical sun amid trees and green lawns, and fanned by the Huon Gulf breezes. It is less than half built, but despite temporary ugli nesses created by the builders, it already has distinction and charm. The construc tion of the Number One hotel down on the beach will merely give variety to its charm.

Mr. and Mrs. P. Chandler and infant son, of Madang, New Guinea, were in Aus tralia on leave in October.

The Minister for Overseas France, M.

Francois Mitterand, who is the youngest member of the French Cabinet, is to visit the Pacific to study the French Colonies on the spot. A man with a briliant record, his visit is arousing great interest in Noumea and Port Vila. (He was expected on November 7.)

Mrs. Flo Stewart and her daughter, Miss Ela Gofton, photographed in front of their fine, new hotel, now nearing completion on the sea-front at Lae, New Guinea. Photo of hotel on page 11.