In Papua-New Guinea

Current News Items From Our Correspondents In Papua-New Guinea

Png Prepares For Sewers

And Exported Cray-Fish

Tails

VIRTUALLY all of the PNG Government Gazette of February 17-over 50 pages-is devoted to meticulous rules and regulations under which sewerage work may be undertaken in the Territory. It covers everything—from the definition of a slop-hopper to the form of licence to be issued to sanitary plumbers and sanitary drainers.

Somewhere in the regulations, it states that for natives an “Asiatic’' type of pan may be provided—by which we conclude that, in these respects, natives and Asiatics are to be regarded as different to Europeans.

In a Gazette in January a large amount of space was devoted to the regulations under which the export, freezing, packing and canning of tuna and crayfish tails might be undertaken, Both sets of regulations are what might be termed “forward looking.”

As far as we know, there is no sewered area (within or without “the meaning of the act”) in PNG nor is any contemplated in the immediate future.

The same applies to frozen Crayfish tails or canned tuna. (A former NSW superintendent of Fisheries said recently in Sydney that it was a reflection on Australian enterprise

that her tuna resources had not been developed and that it was known that there was an abundance of between Northern Australia

? wflf mean hinf ff

j™ are evef hi?eri i a how ) PS ar6 6V61 hired to show us '

District Services Men

Away For 4 More Weeks

Of School

For 32 weeks of the coming year, eight officers of the PNG District Services Department will be “out 0 f service” attending malaria-con trol school at Minj in the We3tern Highlands.

At the time of the murder of Harris and Szarka, near Telefomin late last year, it was officially stated that the District Services Depart ment was desperately short of officers. At the same time, 37 officers of the same department were on a 2-years’ course at the Sydney School of Tropical Administration.

The Director of Health considers that malaria is the major health problem of the Territory, As well as the 4-weeks’ course for 64 District Services personnel, there will be longer courses for field staff of the PHD. and three-months’ courses for native personnel,

Oddments

The But census district of the Wewak Sub-District has been closed

More and more new business pre mises are appearing In Lae, New Guinea.

This store was opened recently in Seventh Street.

to recruiting for approximately the next 12 months.

Burns Philp (NG) Ltd. have been successful in a tender for an allotment of land at Goroka, Eastern Highlands. Does this mean that

'this growing < Hu|h lands

town’ growing Highlands In ' the Government Gazette of January 27, a Town Advisory Council was established for Wewak, Northern New Guinea.

In the same Gazette tenders were called for the right to collect and sell “underwater war surplus materials” below high water mark in (a) port of Kavieng; (b) port of Samarai; (c) port of Finchhafen, Langemak, Dreger; (d) Milne Bay; (e) Oro Bay; (f) coast between Raihu River, Aitape, to the Dutch border; (g) a distance of one mile around the islands of Mushu and Kairuru; (h) part of Seadler Harbour in the Admiralties. Rights are for 12 months and tenders are to be on a royalty basis “that is to say, payment of a percentage.

Large Shipment Of Highland

Passion Fruit Goes South

When the Burns Philp ship Manaola left Lae in February it took with it 18 tons of passion-fruit pulp from the Goroka area of the Highlands. It was consigned to Cottee, the Australian firm of fruit processors who sponsored, under Mr.

George Greathead’s guidance, the

passion-fruit industry around Garoka.

This is the largest single ship ment of passion-fruit pulp from the Highlands, to date.

No O Ld Clothes, Please

At Kavieng on February 23. three Indian seamen from the M angola were each fined £5O for bringing a^nermit' 1140 N G “ l ‘J ea Admhiistrat?on snokesman P, n JA^. lnl ?L r A tl0 ? f said to-day that it had dcgh suspected that some crew members 0 f ships from Far Eastern ports had been smuggling second-hand, unfumigated clothes into the Territory and selling them to natives.

Such clothes carried with them a serious danger of introducing disease,

Rabaul Solicitor Returns

As Temporary Judge

Mr Tllstipp Runprt Charles Alfred oilerenshaw was appointed an Act i ne judge of the Supreme Court of Pa g Dua nd New Guinea during absence on leave of Mr. Justice Kelly. Mr. Justice Gore is at pre- Port M orelbf f?om Austrato on February 24, and was sworn in by the Acting Administrator, Mr. Justice Phillips.

Mr. Justice Ollerenshaw’s appointment will be for three months.

Prior to the war he was in practice as a barrister and solicitor at Rabaul for several years; since

the war he has been practising at the New South Wales Bar.

High Pay For Young

Officers

The PNG Government Gazette of February 11 advertised that there were vacancies for 15 cadet patrol officers between the ages of 18 and Starting salary ranged from £567 at 18, to £920 at 23. to U V TwniTQTRv

1 Ijuo 11

Further Administration assistance to the infant kenaf industry in Papua, was given in February when imported materials for establishing a kenaf factory were exempted from Customs duty.

The material exempted includes material for factory building, elec trical equipment for installing Power and Ught, generators, con duit> wirin g- etc - machinery, shaftm S> bearings, workshop and laboratory equipment, bale strap- PmS

Administration’S Generous :

Short Holiday Scheme

Full details of the short holiday scheme for PNG public servants at Wau, NG, have recently been an- ■ nounced.

Six houses are available for periods i of two weeks, rental being £4/15 - ■ per week per cottage.

The Administration will also help

with the fares of officer or family— paying all but the first £lO in the case of families and over the first £7/10/- in the case of a single officer.

More Co-Ops For Milne Bay

District

Co-Operatives officer, E. O.

Graham has transferred the head quarters of the organisation in the Milne Bay District, Papua, from Labe, to Samarai.

Milne Bay District is an active area for Native Co-operative Societies and it was expected that, after a survey in February, further societies would be formed on the Suau coast where the people are anxious to establish a society.

The Co-op vessel Moutuana is Kept busy and has recently made visits to Woodlark and Conflict Islands as well as to societies in Milne Bay.

Japs Show Preference For

Rabaul

Rabaul had a visit from the Japs on February 6, but it was a little different from 1942, They needed help this time.

The fishing vessel Azuma Maru, of 148 tons, radioed from about 100-miles out a few days before that it had a crew member suffer ing from appendicitis, and was given permission to land him.

Two other vessels called on similar quests later—another appen dix and a broken collar-bone.

Some Australian newspapers have chosen to make a mystery out of the incidents. They cannot under stand why the Japs always pick Rabaul when they could go as easily to Honiara hospital, or maybe Buin.

One Island wit has suggested that, perhaps, they have seen Honiara hospital.

The newspapers infer that trie Japs are again up to tricks—prob ably spying. If the Japs do not know everything there is to be known about Rabaul now, after 31 years occupation during the war, then they will never know.

Perhaps someone on the Jap ships has a nostalgia for Rabaul; perhaps, by insisting on going where no one wants them, they are doing a little bit of Japanese face-sav ing. Or it could be that they are waiting to be asked to show New Guinea natives how to catch fish.

Lap-Laps In The News

It has been reported from Syd ney that an Island trading com pany wishes to buy thousands of yards of red and blue cloth which were used in Sydney for Royal Tour decdrations. Purpose—lap-laps for PNG natives.

And a famous maker of ladies’ foundation garments is currently advertising a new creation under the tag “Lap-lap.” It is said to be “with lap-lap thigh ease,” and the model in the advertisement is

h l iv W m f i S i cip i pin .? at ?°S t the page in her little elastic girdle.

No Licbmgbs, Bad Road

Manners In Moresby

Port Moresby’s ro a d-manners came in for some strong criticism during February.

The acting Commissioner for Police in the Territory Superintendent C. Normoyle, told Port Moresby motorists that they were te worst in the Territory for bad hand signals and careless driving.

He said he would like to have the public’s co-operation: but if the police couldn’t get it, there were other ways of straightening the matter out.

About the same time as Commissioner Normoyle’s warning, the Port

Moresby police had a lightning check on driving licences. Some fo e caf e polire Station wls* inundated with motorists remembering that their licences were overdue, after all.

Keeping Capsids And

Beetles In N. Brtain

The Department of Agriculture has installed an officer at Rabaul to police the plant quarantine regula tions. His job is to see that plants do not leave or enter Rabaul with out authority.

Many passengers doing the round tour on ships, have been taking out such things as cocoa pods without permits; the Department wants to prevent such pests as cocoa capsid getting to the mainland. Although

the Regulations existed previously the department has not had enough staff to fully police them.

Jungle Juice

The days of the war-time jungle juice drinkers were recalled in Port Moresby recently when two half castes died after a drinking bout.

The men, one the father of five children, became unconscious after drinking an unnamed spirit and were taken to hospital, where they died within a few hours of each other without recovering conscious ness.

Polio Scare

Three cases of suspected polio were reported from Bogia, north of Madang, in February. They were all natives; and the first reported in the Territory for some months.

Flying-Boats—Cure For

Waterspouts

There is a theory that one way to make a waterspout disappear is to fire a bullet into the centre of it.

The displacement of air is sup posed to make the waterspout col lapse.

It could be right or wrong, but on February 10 the crew of a Qantas Sandringham off the New Britain coast had an experience something like it. While on the usual New Britain run they sighted a large waterspout in Kimbe Bay, off Talasea.

The aircraft, skippered by Cap tain C. Fox, flew around it several times and estimated it to be about 800 feet high. It had a diameter on the sea surface of about 150 feet.

The crew reported that while they were making another bank to come around it, rather close in, the waterspout simply disappeared.

They think its collapse might have had something to do with air dis turbance created by the aircraft.

Papuan Villages Destroyed

By Fire

A fire in the village of Saroaket in the Rigo district, south of Port Moresby, burnt out 11 of 20 houses on February 9. Nobody was injured.

It was the second fire in the Rigo district in a month. On January 17, 52 out of 64 houses in Taruba village were destroyed. The Ad ministration, in that case, too, sent some assistance.

P-Ng Mosquitoes On

Mainland?

Are man-eating anopheles mos quitoes from Papua-New Guinea taking trips to the Australian main land aboard regular aircraft?

In February, a team of Army malaria experts went to Cairns’ to investigate, on the assumption that the mosquitoes had travelled. The team went from Sydney and is in command of Major K. J. Clinton a specialist scientific officer at the School of Tropical Medicine at Syd ney University. He is regarded as

one of Australia’s outstanding ex perts on tropical diseases.

However, before the team left for the North, the Territory’s Director of Health, Dr. John Gunther, said from Port Moresby that he would be most surprised if anopheles had travelled to the mainland. He said It was a poor traveller. And air craft were sprayed before they left the Territory.

Png Has Own Liquor

Inquiry

An inquiry into the liquor licensing hours of clubs, hotels and other premises in Papua New Guinea started on February 15, at Lae.

It will continue into March after holding sittings at Madang, Kavieng, Rabaul, Samarai and Port Moresby.

Mr. W. E. Sansom has been appointed a special commissioner to preside at the inquiry, which was set up following suggestions from the Legislative Council.

Lae Will Wait Some More

For Permanent Aerodrome

The airport at Lae is likely to stay where it is for some time yet.

In this financial year, at any rate, there is no provision for the pro jected move to Malahang.

The Malahang scheme was first announced in 1948, when they talked of a runway 6,000 ft, that would take the biggest aircraft.

The aircraft are now getting bigger but they are still using Lae’s jOOO-ft. runway, one end of which finishes on the brink of the Huon Bulf with Lae township blocking its rear end. Regulation maximum load )f the Skymasters cannot be utilised.

There is still some belief, in the Lae district, that they may eventu ally get round to making Nadzab the airport for Lae, although it is 30-miles distant. But DCA has stated definitely that Nadzab is out, and Malahang is in—but when?

Public Nominated Tag’S

Some new members of the Port Moresby Town Advisory Council will be nominated by the public when it is re-constituted in March.

Two representatives for the West and Central wards will leave their posts, and a vacancy has existed since December in the East ward.

The Administration in January announced that it would seek nom inations for people to fill the ward positions—nominations closed with the Government Secretary on March 4.

There has been a suggestion that all members of Advisory Councils should be elected and it was given official consideration. But nothing more has been heard, and it is reported to have come to nought. (Ed. Note: It is difficult to see how the public can nominate a Council. Presumably final choice will still be left to the Adminis trator) .

Bad Landing Areas Take

Toll Of Sandringhams

Another Qantas Sandringham damaged its hull in February, but this time it was done by running over a snag at Redlands Bay, in Brisbane.

The Sandringham did the damage when she was taking off for Port was B nu y t on lth th the r reSUlt V S £ B ™ a f JSoc sl iPl a 5, Moresby and was three days behind schedule.

TOA planes had a lot of trouble from the same cause in the Brisbane river but at that time they used narrow Hamilton Reach. Hull trouble is something that flyingboats are apparently heir to. Last year there was some excitement when a Sandringham ripped a piece out of its hull on the New Britain run and had to make a dash for Moresby. vTr’QT' vtt a p MuaciODi b DRYEbI YEAR Port Moresby, in 1953, had the lowest rainfall in the 10 years since records have been kept at Jackson’s airport.

Dnrinp- thP vpflr nnints wpi-p recorded—the Previous lowest vear

Ein 1947 6 4 061 noints

The g highest rainfall in P anv vear J Tfi nt ra:inliall in any year was 6,169 points in 1946.

The low registration for 1953 was caused by the failure of rains during February and March, 1953.

Sydney Alp Alleges Victim

Isation Of Adherents In

, Png

. Papua and New Guinea is receiv in S a little news from time to time about the progress at the ALP sut*committee which is investigating, in M Territory 6 ln - treatment The committee wa'<? estnhiicbeH hv the NSW Executive of the ALP last yea r, and it has been hearing evid ence from missionaries and others.

One of the members of the com mittee is Mr. G. O’Donnell, who was formerly ADO at Kokopo, New Britain. During the inquiry the case a European worker in PNG was cited. It was alleged that his con tract was withdrawn and he was given three weeks to leave the Ter ritory because he attempted to set U P a Trade Union. Nobody at Port Moresby can remember anything about this.

There was another case of a worker who, it was alleged, was evicted from his mess in 1952 after he tried the same thing. Police then charged him with vagrancy, Nothing is known about that either—or if somebody does know tben they are kee P in S terribly quiet about lL The ALP has said that [t will give facts and fi gures when the time comes Territory people can hardly wait to hear about them.

Atw ,R„

Ladies Golf Championship

It is planned to hold the first

Territory-wide women’s golf cham pionship about June. It will be held at Lae about the same time as the 1954 New Guinea Open. It will be over 18 holes and women golfers from five centres will take part.

Adult Education In

Moresby

In Port Moresby in late February, classes in accountancy began at the Ela Beach school. They were arranged by the Papua Adult and Technical Education Assn., a newly formed body, which hopes it can introduce classes in other subjects eventually and to extend the scheme throughout the Territory.

The Assn, has been in contact with the Workers’ Education Asso ciation in Sydney; this body will give every assistance.

If the accountancy classes are successful, other classes will be started.

Png Public Servants Pro

Test—And Wait For Houses

At a meeting in late February, the council of the Public Service Association decided to write to the Public Service Commissioner ask ing him to protest to Canberra about the local housing situation.

The council said that numbers of married officers arriving in the Territory had said that interview

ing committees in various States had told them that married accom modation was available for them in Port Moresby, at from three to six months. But this was a “gross mis representation.”

Only two houses had been allo cated in Port Moresby since May, 1953; and in February, 1954 more than 60 married officers were on the waiting list.

Council suggested that staff appointments should cease uncil the position was clarified.

Rabaul’s Public Servants mean time have been issued with neatly typed sheets showing where, rather than when, they will be moving into new quarters. Houses for married personnel going up at the moment are sumptuous affairs: floor space of the living rooms is about the equiv

alent of the whole seven squares in Single-quarters, which house two.

The Administration collects exactly the same rent on both.

The Nursing staff at Namanula Hospital have had to be evacuated while their quarters are once more patched and bolstered against the time when those poor Cinderellas, too, will be housed rather than quartered. Some of the Sisters have been sleeping in the hospital wards and others down at the Queen’s Park Guest House.

Mr. Bill May, of New Guinea, will be making the round trip in Malaita, leaving Sydney on April 4, on behalf of William E. Reed, marine brokers, buying agents, hydro-electric equipment distri butors.