New Guinea Coastal

Shipping

In Poor Shape—Little Prospect of Improvement

By R. W. Robson

Madang, Oct. 15.

ONE gets the impression that the coastal shipping services are better than they were—which is not prais ing them. The Government shipping monopoly set up by the Ward-Murray Administration was a maddening and calamitous thing and, in the 1948-49 period, it crippled enterprise and drove most of the copra-producers to madness.

When the Socialist Government was thrown out, it was decided —in an effort to get something approaching efficiency and willing service—to hand coastal shipping over to private enterprise. But private enterprise has been very shy. All the private concerns had had such a hiding under Wardist Socialism that they are not willing to risk their money and their fleets in Papua-New Guinea, unless they are secured by guarantees which officialdom is not ready to give.

So the coastal services are being run, as before, under a so-called Directorate of Shipping.

The Directorate really is doing its best.

But its good intentions are being frus trated by a demoralised native labour force utterly inadequate wharfage and storage in the chief ports, and inability to get all the efficient European person nel required.

Conscious of these things, I hesitated to criticise. So I turned for advice to an old friend —Mr. R. Crookshank, a retired Commander of the Royal Navy who is well-known in South-west Pacific, and who at present is looking after the ship ping which carries copra and supplies to Caroenters’ big desiccated coconut factory at Madang. Commander Crookshank’s comments were forthright and pointed.

"mHE freights here have just been 1 raised another 50 per cent.,” he said.

“They already were too high. Now, they are four times what they were before the War. Although the cost of operating ships in these waters has risen enor mously, I do not think that it has risen enough to justify the new rates.

“The higher costs are due to several factors, and I think most of them are avoidable.

“One is insufficient wharfage in Rabaul, Kavieng and Madang. It is not unusual, in Rabaul, to take ten days to turn round a vessel of about 100 tons, R.T. Should an overseas ship be at the Government wharf, it is almost certain that you will be much delayed; as the PCB Wharf can only take two small vessels at once.

“Then there is the labour trouble. The hours worked are very short —in actual fact, from about 8.45 a.m. to 11.30 a.m.; and from 2 p.m. to 3.30 p.m. The native labour is usually there at about 7.30 a.m., but the European staff has to have break fast, and the business of their day does not really begin until about 8.45, and they stop loading at 11.30 and 3.30, so as to have the wharves cleared by noon and 4 p.m. respectively.

“It is the rule rather than the exception, to see the Shipping Directorate’s entire fleet in harbour at once, awaiting a berth, also any other unfortunate privately owned vessels that get caught in the crowd.

“The PCB wharf in Rabaul is very cramped, which prevents full advantage being taken of the limited facilities that do exist.

“When a ship is discharged, the only places where she can load are the Govern

merit wharf, if available it will not be, BnrmPiSin’q whn P r C f r emain i of Burns Philps wharf at Malaguna, and ships usually have to queue up for that too- . „ The Shipping Directorate ships, for the most part, are unsuitable for their work.

With the exception of, I think, three “4-posters, they are poor carriers for their size.

“The European officers are very underpaid and this means, of course, that the Directorate is securing mostly only those officers who have failed to secure a job

anywhere else. In my opinion they do surprisingly well, considering the circum stances, but naturally the Shipping Dir ectorate has very little control over the good men, as there are plenty of iobs about that pay more than the Directorate, if any of them has a mind to, he just walks off. Many do, and vessels are frequently held up while they try to find a ne w man.

“Most of the engineers complain that the: l are induced to join by beautiful promises, made in Sydney, that they will never be called on to undertake any repair

work when in port,; whereas, in real life, they have to do it all.

“The reason for the low wages paid is hard to understand, as an inter-island iob, if properly done, is both arduous and difficult, and requires a considerable amount of local knowledge—a commodity that is difficult to accumulate if the men employed change round too frequently.

“If a man is unfortunate enough to be married, it is very difficult for him to get a house for his wife, and very expen sive to live in it, if he can get it.

“The climate is still, in 1950, a good deal worse than, say, the Australian Coast.

“No overtime is paid to the Europeans, although the natives get it—which seems to me to be a pretty considerable injustice.

A bonus system would probably speed up the shipping part of the show—but it would be of little worth unless both wharves and copra storage were greatly improved, too.

“Many of the Shipping Directorate’s vessels are not supplied with enough boats, and many of the boats they have are of unsatisfactory pattern. The inter island trade in New Guinea waters is almost all dependent on boats, and many of the anchorages are very bad, conse quently there is usually a pretty heavy casualty list in boats. Before the War, spare boats were always kept ready and repaired in harbour, so that a vessel coming in with damaged boats could change them without delay.

“Another cause of delay would be re moved if the native crews were signed on on any sort of agreement," concluded Commander Crookshank. “At present, much delay is caused by the native crews walking off, whenever they feel inclined.

It is, and always has been, easy to get boats crews. But the present system just doesn’t work—it wouldn’t work with Europeans, or any other kind of crew I am acquainted with, either.”

A Case In Point

Mr. Percy J. Wood, of Brisbane, writing on November 9, says that, before World War 11, a company in which he is inter ested (Sawataitai Ltd., which has a plantation on Normandy Island) could land copra in Samarai for £7 per ton. In 1949, the cost of the same service was £24/4 - per ton.

Pastor George M. Masters, who was with the Seventh Day Adventist Mission in Fiji for 20 years, is now principal of the Adventist Correspondence School in Sydney. Recently he and his mother motored across Australia to Perth, Western Australia.

Vessel for the Solomons

A . . cc J

T HE New Auki, a 55 ft. schooner-rigged A vessel, with a 42 HP Southern Cross auxiliary diesel engine, left Sydney f or Honiara, British Solomon Islands, on November 15. She is being delivered to BSI on behalf of W. S. Tait & Co. Pty.

Ltd., Islands agents of Sydney, by Cap tain George O Brien. IVIi. Bill Davis is tSmen^The 6 vessel o '^s^nett^^nage nf io?’tnn«s ve 61 n ett tonnage “ Captain O’Brien will collect the Fairy mead Sugar Co.’s ship Ruena in the Sol omons and bring her back to Bundaberg, Queensland.

New Caledonia’s Melanesian Society, which is doing a good deal to arouse interest in the Coloney’s native life and ancient history recently, with the co operation of the Native Affairs Dept., held a successful “session folklorique” in Noumea. The entertainment included a show of native art; a showing of the film Oceanie, made by the Rev. Father O’Reilly, who spent a long time in the French Pacific and who is now attached to the Musee de I’Homme in Paris; a brief coloured film of the Noumea-Santo flight made by Air France; and singing by natives of Mare.