Central Highlands
pp. 17-18 · Read in the full issue
Mr. Greathead’S Fine Record In Ng
Officialdom’s New Move May Restrict His Usefulness
r is reported that the Central Highlands Administrative Dis trict of New Guinea has been t in two —Western and Eastern ghiands Districts—and that Dis ict Commissioner Greathead has en given charge of the Eastern strict.
There may be good reasons for is rearrangement; but the first ra tion of the average observer is un vourable.
One of the best administrative >s in Papua-New Guinea since the it has been done on the Central ghiands by Mr. George Great ad. He was given charge of a ge area, stretching from the imu-Markham Divide westwards actically to the Dutch border; and proved to be the ideal man for most difficult task.
He was handicapped in the be ming by lack of equipment /erything still has to be flown in), :k of trained personnel and lack transport and communications, ithin a remarkably short time, by iet and patient work, brilliant inning and the intense personal ierest he took in the District, he jembled a loyal, comnetent and thusiastic staff, and gained the odwill and co-operation not only non-official Europeans and of all ssionaries, but also of the count s tribes of very primitive natives, rhe whole region now is “under fitrol”; the way is open to the ralopment of what is really a new d rich Territory; and most of J credit goes to Mr. Greathead. rhe next stage in the administra n of the Central Highlands will most important. The Adminis >tion cannot afford to make mis ses. It easily could make a stake by putting an unsuitable m in charge of the new Western ?hlands District.
'To mistake would have been tde if the Administration had left . Greathead in charge of the ole Central Highlands area, and )ported him by giving him two puty District Commissioners— -3 at the eastern and one at the stem. Why interfere with a sys n that has been so successful?
HIS kind of thing is typical of NG Administration. We had, for example, a couple of years 3, the much-criticised switch mnd between Mr. Bates and Mr :Carthy, at Rabaul.
Mr. Bates had been at Rabaul ice its restoration after the war,
and had done a splendid job, and was held in high public esteem. For no reason that the non-official mind could understand, he was trans ferred to the less important post at Madang; and Mr. McCarthy, who was virtually a stranger to Rabaul, was sent there at a vitally impor tant time.
The Rabaul people resented the change. This had nothing whatever to do with Mr. McCarthy, whose administrative and personal record is excellent; but the effect of it all was a serious loss in District Com missioner service and efficiency. Mr.
Bates was discouraged, and was wasted in Madang, and at least a year passed before Mr. McCarthy could get anywhere as close to the difficult job in Rabaul as Mr. Bates had been.
This criticism, no doubt, will be dismissed contemptuously ’in high official quarters in Moresby or Can berra. But the facts and the re cords, in the Central Highlands and in Rabaul, speak for themselves.—
Rwr.
Mrs. and Mrs. Frank Exon, oJ Suva, Fiji, who are in Australia on long leave, have settled down at.
“Glencraig,” near Robertson, NSW and later will visit other States Their two pretty daughters, Eliza beth and Jocelyn, are now residing in Brisbane. Miss Elizabeth Exon will marry a well-known Brisbane business man early in 1952.
Commandant Pierre Mariotti, of Port Vila (who, as M. Villebois, is credited with some notable ex ploits in World War II) was recently created Officier of the Legion D' Honneur. After the war, in Holly wood, he met Miss Ethel Nordman, of Tahiti, who was playing in “Lure of the Islands” and “Moon and Six pence,” and they were married in New York. They settled in the New Hebrides a couple of years ago.