Sydney Commos’ Concern
p. 98 · Read in the full issue
For P-NG
SYDNEY’S Communist Party newspaper Tribune had this to say recently about the state of affairs in Papua-New Guinea:—
Australian workers rightly fight ing for higher wages and increased margins should spare a thought foi New Guinea natives, whose basic wage is approximately 28/ per week.
They are exploited by the Govern ment, missionaries and plantation owners who include world-wide monopolies.
A former New Guinea resident told Tribune that with the advent of the Menzies Government what little progress was being made in New Guinea had stopped.
Plans for new schools and ad ditions to others have been cancelled.
The same goes for hospitals which have to be seen to be believed.
Nearly all road work has stopped, sanitary and garbage services have been cut from daily to three times a week.
New Guinea natives need the assistance of the trade union move ment to lift their standards.
Tribune’s opinion is neither use ful nor important except in that it shows how dangerous can be a little truth taken out of context and used for propaganda.
Tribune’s informant might have qualified his statements by saying that the high-cost operations of the Department of Works and Housing (which is responsible for public works in the Territory) had made it economically impossible to carry out anything but a fraction of the work required in F-NG.