New Administrative
Set-Uf For P Ng
Mr. J. R. Halligan Is Special Adviser to Minister
A USTRALIA’S New Minister for Terri \ tories, Mr. Paul Hasluck, MP, took charge of his Department during Jay and, in recent weeks, has been laking himself acquainted with multi udinous files, and with conditions in the ’erritories he now controls—namely, the Forthern Territory of Australia, Papua- Few Guinea, Nauru and Norfolk Island.
Although arrangements have not yet een finalised, Mr. Hasluck expects to isit the chief centres of Papua-New luinea at a very early date.
Since mid-May, some important changes i the system of administration, as affect ig the Australian Territories, have been nnounced.
Mr. J. R. Halligan
Mr. James Reginald Halligan, who has een closely associated with Australia’s eternal territories since 1922 —mostly as ruef executive officer and latterly as ecretary of the Department—has been opointed Special Adviser to the Minister ir Territories.
Mr. Halligan is 58 years of age, and has sen a member of the Commonwealth üblic Service since 1911. He has filled lany positions connected with the Ter tories. He is a qualified accountant, and olds the Diploma of Commerce of Mel lurne University. He was an accountant i the New Guinea Administration in )22, and he had a spell as a Deputy Ad- Linistrator in Norfolk Island in 1937. He as taken some part in practically all ustralian activities relating to Australian erritories, and he has represented Aus ■alia before the Trusteeship Council teetings, at Lake Success, on two occa ons.
Mr. C. R. Lambert
Mr. Cecil Ralph Lambert, formerly irector of Northern Territories Affairs in le Department of the Interior, takes Mr.
a lligan’s ace as Secre iry of the epartment o f x t e r n a_l ffairs, which 0 w controls 1 e Northern erritory. H e 52 years old, id has spent s working f e in the )mmonwealth iblic Service, pecially i n i e sections ncerned with onomics. He notable for le outstand g work he id for the aral Bank in
3W where,
tiong other ings, he was ven the task reconstruct-
g four million acres of worn-out and er-capitalised wheat lands. Those who low him well rate him highly.
“Political Considerations”
The Australian Prime Minister, Mr. enzies, commenting on the new appoint ents, said: The administration of the territories volves very difficult political considera >ns on the international level.
“Through various agencies, such as the Trusteeship Council of the United Nations and the South Pacific Commrnission, a concerted international effort is being made for the benefit of backward peoples.
"The new Adviser, who will be freed of routine administration, will be engaged chiefly on matters arising from Australia's membership of and responsibility to the United Nations’ Trusteeship Council, and will also be Senior Commissioner on the South Pacific Commission.”
It may be noted that Territories Min ister Hasluck and Adviser Halligan will now have in their care a complicated and more or less inter-connected set-up com prising the following Australian Govern ment responsibilities and instrumen talities: Australian Northern Territory, with several subsidiary boards and branches.
The combined Territory of Papua-New Guinea.
The Territories of Nauru and Norfolk Island.
The Australian-New Guinea Produc tion Control Board.
A branch of the Australian Directorate of Shipping, which runs the coastal services in Papua-New Guinea.
The Australian School of Pacific Ad ministration, with headquarters in Sydney.
The South Pacific Commission, with headquarters in Noumea.
The Trusteeship Council (headquarters at Lake Success) watching New Guinea and Nauru.
Each of these establishments has prob lems peculiar to itself; and some are literally clamouring for Ministerial at tention.
Mr. Halligan is now Australia’s Senior Commissioner on the South Pacific Com mission; and, as reported elsewhere, the Secretary-Generalship of that body is to be taken over shortly by the retiring Governor of Fiji, Sir Brian Frees ton, who takes the place of Mr. R. D. Forsyth, a distinguished young Australian who or ganised the establishment of the Com mission.
Planters’ Deputation To
Minister
Papua-New Guinea residents now hope that, under the arrangements outlined above, they will get quicker movement and prompt decisions in Territories af fairs. For years, owing to political troubles and Ministerial changes, there have been confusion and delay in such matters.
At the end of May, in Sydney, the new Minister (Mr. Hasluck) was interviewed, on behalf of the New Guinea Planters' Association, by a deputation comprising Colonel H. T. Allan, Mr. E. T. Fulton and Mi*. Jack Allen. They placed before him various data relating to the Copra Stab ilisation Fund, the price paid for copra under the MOF contract, the low price charged Australian copra crushers by the Production Control Board, the delay in bringing in the new Land Titles Ordin ance, and various associated matters The Minister carefully noted the depu tation’s statements, and said he would try to give decisions as soon as he had acquainted himself personally with the matters under review.
Deputy Administrators
The Minister told the PIM that some time probably would elapse before he would make a statement about the ap pointment of the two Deputy Adminis trators, for which positions applications were invited eight months ago. (There is a belief in some quarters that these ap pointments now may not be made—but the Minister would not comment on that.) The Minister indicated that he was keenly interested in representations that
had been made to him about the MOF contract—namely, that the New Guinea planters were receiving an unfair price, because the £ Sterling had been depre ciated substantially after the contract was made.
Mr. Lambert.