Community Development

At Wagawaga

ACCORDING to Dr. Cyril Belshaw, an Australian anthropologist, writing re cently in Corona, the magazine of the British Colonial Service, the Papuan village of Wagawaga is something special in the Melanesian scheme of things.

Wagawaga has 270 native inhabitants and is situated on the south shore of Milne Bay, not far from the Kwato Mis sion and has thus come under this mis sion’s influence. During the Pacific war, the village was evacuated and the area became a naval base. When the people returned after hostilities had ceased they were listless and filled with a sense of frustration.

Then a Wagawaga native who had been away from his village for some years and had some technical training, returned and comparing village apathy with the activity of his military neighbours enlisted the help of a missionary.

Their first task has been the develop ment of some industry suitable to a village community and they have*fixed upon fur niture-making (for the local European trade), fish and fruit canning.

Profits from copra went into a general fund to finance the furniture factory which was, at the time Dr. Belshaw wrote, employing 13 people who were using local timber and imported canvas. A new dynamo had been ordered to provide street and house lighting for the village; and canning and fishing equipment had been ordered from Australia. A beginning was made in clearing the communal farm.

Although the Wagawagans have made one or two errors in the handling of the community finances, the author feels that the experiment has a good chance of suc

cess and that if it is successful it will pro vide a focus of activity for the people, stimulate self-confidence and will also give the opportunity of developing a new com munity culture.

Mrs. Myra Humphries, widow of Mr.

W. R. Humphries—a prominent member of the Papua-New Guinea Administration staff, who lost his life in the Mount Lamington disaster paid a visit to Sydney and other Australian centres in April. She has decided to retain her residence in Papua for the present, and will have charge of the Port Moresby library.