In Papua-New Guinea

Current News Items From Our Correspondents In Papua-New Guinea

Chool Of P.A. Should Be In

Moresby

There is still agitation in the 'erritory to have the School of acific Administration moved from ydney to New Guinea.

Mr. Don Barrett, member for the ew Guinea Islands in the Terri >ry Legislative Council, often vocal i the subject, had some more to ty about it when he returned to le Territory at the end of March [ter a two-months’ visit to Aus alia.

He said that while in Sydney, >me members of the school had their dissatisfaction to Lm about the length of time they ere away from the Territory. They tid also that SOPA’s two-year >urse was one year too long—it >uld be cut down to twelve months.

According to Mr. Barrett, the Seers said that while taking the mrse they lost touch with the ractical things in the Territory.

Navigational Aids For

Bougainville

Buka Passage is to have its own r-radio station.

Authority to set it up came from le Department of Civil Aviation l April, and it should be going by re end of this year.

Included in the equipment will be ME, which is being installed at ;her airports in the Territory.

The new air-radio station will be i important link on the Rabaul oniara service, which is short on avigational aids.

Another Oil Search

In March, Australasian Oil Ex loration Limited applied at the □rt Moresby Lands office for an Dplication for a permit for an area : land in Western Papua.

The area is about 3,750 square lies, and is west of Daru. It ad )ins leases being operated by ustralasian Petroleum Company

l its extensive explorations.

With Papuan Aninaipi in the Gulf istrict, the oil permit map of all Western Papua now looks like a itch-work quilt. There’s little >ace left for anybody else with leas.

Ighland Land For Tender

About 2,000 acres of agricultural nd were put up for tender re ;ntly in the Eastern Highlands of ew Guinea. There are 9 blocks, 1 but one within a radius of 11 lies of Kainantu. The other one 5 miles north of Goroka.

What is different about these ocks is that they have been put ) for tender by the Administration > a part of a new policy of land stribution which was decided upon a year ago.

Previously, land seekers chose the land they would like to have, asked native owners if they were prepared to part with it, and informed the District Commissioner. The DC then sent officers out to inspect it, decide whether the alleged owners had a right to it and if so, if it would be wise to allow them to part with it. All this took a great deal of time.

Under the new scheme, the pre liminary investigations are complete, and the land is open for immedi ate settlement once it is put up for tender.

It is expected that other blocks will be made available in the same way.

The blocks are as small as 26 acres and as large as 600. The larger ones are suitable for coffee growing, or cattle; and the smaller blocks for general garden produce or dairy farming. There is labour available.

Highlanders Drowned In

The Fly

Six native labourers from the Highlands were drowned in April, following a fire aboard a bomb scow on the Fly River. A European in charge of the scow, Bruce Cull, was also burned in the fire and was flown to Port Moresby for treatment.

The incident occurred near Alli

;ator Island, on an Australasian Petroleum scow which was carrying 13 native labourers.

The labourers jumped overboard, md six of them were not found, ilthough an intensive search was irganised for survivors; native Ullages along the Fly were alerted.

The tragedy may not help labour elations in the Highlands. It is eared that deaths of this kind nake it difficult for recruiters there, Ithough there is no suggestion that .nyone was to blame.

Wau Road Goes Again In

Wet

The timber and gold industries t Bulolo and Wau, which depend n the important road link to Lae, irotested in April when the Wau jabu road was again cut.

The trouble this time was the Vampit River, which decided to hange course—as all the rivers in his area have a habit of doing— nd flowed down the road for a [istance of half a mile.

As a result, it was sticky going or the big trucks, and some ship rents of Bulolo plywood were held ip.

The Wampit first changed its ourse last December, but diffi ulties have become more frequent ince the “wet”; each heavy rain auses a traffic blockage.

Commonwealth Works has the ob on its hands. The Dept, says ae solution of the Wampit trouble ill cost money as the road will robably have to be detoured.

Madang Pngvr Unit

Northern Army headquarters in pril approved the formation of a latoon of the Papua-New Guinea blunteer Rifles at Madang.

The new platoon will come under company of PNGVR at Lae.

PNGVR, under its active CO, ieutenant-Colonel Bill Young, at ort Moresby, is going ahead swiftly i the Territory, and units are now Derating at Port Moresby, Samarai, abaul and Lae.

In Brisbane, in February, GOC orthern Command, Major-General ecombe, stressed the need for tany more PNGVR members.

A Better Ps In View

The first evening classes in the sw Public Service Institute for the erritory, got under way at vari is Territory centres on April 5.

The Institute aims to raise the andard of the Territory Public srvice. Eventually there will be Public Service Institute built at ort Moresby, with a permanent aff of instructors.

The Territory’s acting Public Ser ce Commissioner, Mr. T. A. Huxley, ild the initial Port Moresby classes i an opening address that a good Iministrative officer should never se sight of the fact that he was servant of a very exacting em oyer—the public.

The public was paying for the irvice and was entitled to the

highest standard. He said Terri tory Public Servants were doing a lot of good work and some inferior work.

Planters Resign From

Council

Mr. J. M. Joyes, of Iwi Planta tion, Kieta, Bougainville, and Mr.

Fred Archer, of Jame Plantation, Buka, have resigned from th e Bougainville District Advisory Coun cil. Both are well-known planters who have resided in the District since 1927.

Mr. Joyes has resigned because of ill-health and personal business matters. Mr. Archer believes that fresh blood will bring fresh ideas to the Council.

Both men have been in New Guinea for over 30 years. Mr. Joyes served some years in the Common wealth Bank at Rabaul before pur chasing Iwi; Mr. Archer managed some of the biggest plantations controlled by the Expropriation Board before the properties were sold. He acquired well-known Jame Island from the Board.

Both Mr. Joyes and Mr. Archer enlisted in the first AIF, and also took part in the New Guinea jungle campaigns of the Second World War. They have both been pro minent in the affairs of the planters’

Association, while Mr. Archer is President of the Bougainville Asso ciation that takes an active interest in district matters. (Over)

Memorial Cairn For

Sohano

At the Annual General Meeting of Returned Soldiers, at Sohano, Bougainville District, in February, it was decided that the Sub-Branch should proceed with the erection of a Memorial Cairn, to be placed at a suitable spot on the island, as an act of remembrance for the Coast-Watchers of Bougainville, to gether with all those who assisted them in their work, and for all the members of the Allied Forces who fought in Bougainville.

There will probably be two bronze plates fixed to the cairn, with brief inscriptions to this effect.

The cairn itself will be built of stone and cement with a broad base and placed in a garden set ting near the District Office so that visitors may easily view it. Contri butions in cash and materials have already been made towards this object.

New Guinea Recruits Flood

Bougainville

The red tide of New Guinea boys coming to Bougainville is increas ing in tempo. Approximately 200 arrived in two weeks recently and more are on order by local planters.

They are expensive luxuries as they cost approximately £5O per head to land and then to repatriate at the end of their two years’ term.

The cost of maintaining each boy during his term would be about £75

per year. They mostly arrive in quite a raw state and have to be built up medically, taught to use required tools in plantation work, and also taught to speak pidgin English, so that they may be given instructions. After a two-years’ spell they can scarcely be recog nised as same natives owing to vast general improvement.

In pre-war days, there were only a handful of “Redskins” in the Dis trict, but now the Bougain ville District population of some 45,000 natives cannot, or will not, supply the labour required to run local plantations.

There are probably 1,500 “Red skins” in the District and their presence is resented by the local

natives, as these latter do not now ?et the same perks and attention from the plantation owners and managers as when they supplied the plantations with all their labour.

Lhe “Redskins” take some £lB,OOO annually out of the District in ivages, not to mention their issues af tobacco and lava lavas. Formerly this went into the Buka and Bougainville villages. Plantations previously played a big part in building and maintaining morale in the villages from which they ibtained their workers, as those in jharge took a personal interest in native welfare. (Redskin is the local Bougainville term for New Guinea natives —in comparison with the local natives who are coal-black.)