No Soldier
p. 27 · Read in the full issue
Settlement
RSS&AILA Plan Apparently Lost in Departmentalism
THE Administration of Papua-New Guinea has for long been con sidering proposals for opening up areas of vacant land in Papua and New Guinea, for settlement by ex-servicemen of World War 11, but there still is no indication that any practical plan has been put in hand.
A project for the settlement of teervicemen on areas suitable for cocoa-growing has been advanced by the RSS&AILA; sub-committees of the Port Moresby and Lae sub branches have made specific sug gestions to the Australian Minister in Charge of the War Service Land Settlement: there have been “talks” between the servicemen’s organisa tion and the Department of Terri tories; and everything seems to have become bogged down in the Depart mental files.
The Director of War Service Land
Settlement and the Department of Territories, in 1950, sent two repre sentatives to Papua-New Guinea to inquire into the machinery needed to set up a local organisation for War Services Land Settlement. They were Mr. Snelgrove, Deputy Director of the first-named, and Mr. Woods, special research officer of Territories Department. They had an exten sive tour at the public expense and, presumably, they reported to some one; but nothing more has been heard of them, or of the general plan.
Can anything practical in the way of increased European settlement in the Territories be expected while the Administration is dominated by people whose main thought in development is to “prevent the white man from stealing the black man’s land?”
Mr. Douglas Chisholm, son of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Chisholm of Wes tern Samoa was married at the end of July in Sydney to Miss Maureen Smart, of Aberdeen, Scotland. Miss Gwen Chisholm, sister of the bride groom, went to Sydney from Samoa to be bridesmaid at the wedding.