Port Moresby
pp. 71-73 · Read in the full issue
February News From
From Our Own Correspondent
Port Moresby, Feb. 10.
For reasons of space this material was held over from our last issue.
Reconditioned Bailey bridge steel from Britain will be used for the new bridge over the Markham River, above Lae. About 500 tons of this material has reached Sydney, from Britain, for the 1,730 foot bridge, and smaller quantities will be shipped to Lae from Bougainville. Tenders for con struction of the bridge may be called by the middle of this year.
TIMBER from the privately-owned mill at Angoram on the Sepik River, and a new sawmill near Wewak are helping to solve the shortage of building materials in that part of New Guinea.
A number of new houses have been built from local timber at Wewak, and Angoram which had no buildings at all at the end of the war, is now an attractive station with some of the best permanent homes in the Territory.
Across at Goroka, Mr. Jimmy Leahy has started a new sawmill which will be a valuable asset to the district. Up to now, practically all timber has had to be air-freighted from Bulolo and Lae.
That makes even Australian building costs look reasonable.
PORT MORESBY residents no longer walk in darkness for now their evening strolls can be taken under the glow of about 70 street lights. Soon there will be a real glitter over the big town for another 70 are due to go in as soon as the linesmen can get on to the job. Then comes the crowning glory, suspension lights along Ela Beach.
REMEMBER the old days when the hangman’s noose was around the Treasury money bags, and a million men or more waited for a job? Now the Civil Aviation Department has got the okay on a £1,000,000 expenditure in the Territory, and is having a hard job to spend it for lack of men and materials.
This is holding up construction on big new airports and improvements to exist ing aerodromes. There is also high frequency radio equipment, radar and communications gear to be installed, plus erection of D.C.A. houses and airport buildings. The vital importance of air services and facilities was thoroughly demonstrated in the Lamington rescue work. The tragedy would have been even greater without the prompt relief and re organisation made possible by air trans port of nersonnel, medical supplies and food.
BEACONS are being installed along the south coast of Papua by the Com monwealth Lighthouse Services vessel Wallach. The work is being directed by Mr. Douglas, senior Engineer of the Lighthouse Services, who expects to be in the Territory on this job for about 12 weeks.
DURING the recent scholastic year the Sogeri and Kerevat Education Centres had a record number of trainees complete the two-year teachers’ training course; 35 did their course at Kerevat and 20 at Sogeri. They have now taken up duty at Administration schools throughout the Territory. Meanwhile 60 new students have started at Sogeri, and after the holidays another 120 resume course at the Central School or in the teacher training section.
JUST over 100 secondary education grants have been made to Territory parents whose children are attending schools in Australia. The subsidy for each child is £125, with one return air passage to Sydney or ports to the north.
The qualifications were completion of Grade six or an equivalent standard.
Most of the students are from 12 to 17 years.
This secondary education bonus, so far, is for one year only, and was announced by the Administrator, Colonel Murray, some time ago when informing the public
that the proposed Wau High School could not be built on the original plan which set February, 1951 as the opening date, v , OORT MORESBY residents have been I enjoying an uninterrupted supply of electricity for some weeks now, and a big new 720 HP generator from Britain is being installed. This should be in use by the end of March.
Prospects are bright for the future as some time in *he next few months, alter nators are due for another two new generators already at Port Moresby. Then
there is the big hydro-electric scheme which will utilise water from the Laloki River just below Rouna Falls. Tenders will soon be called for the turbine, gene rating equipment and driving and switch gear, and orders have already been placed for the transmission line steel work. The Works and Housina Depart ment’s executive engineer from Melbourne, Mr. C. C. Rosenthal, was in Port Moresby during January discussing the scheme with Territory engineers. This scheme is a £200,000 job and it will probably take two or three years to complete. But with the local power supply backed by three new generators the time factor looms much less important now that when evenings were measured by the number of local blackouts.
This long-range planning will put Port Moresby in a position to handle new industries for the initial output of the hydro-electric scheme will be 3,000 kilo watts, as against the present peak con sumption of 600. And the project is be ing designed for enlargement to a final output of from 4,000 to 5,000 kilowatts.
ANOTHER bright star on the Moresby horizon is the prospect of a local brewery. A Territory syndicate now in process of being formed into a com pany to be known as the South Pacific Brewery Limited, has been granted a brewery licence, and machinery is on the way from Germany, A German brewer will also be brought from Europe, and if he can successfully turn Laloki River water into good beer he’s going to be a boon to local thirsty souls.
Mr. Joe Bourke of Wau, who is one of the big men in the new company, expects that Moresby beer will sell at about half the present retail price of imported beer.