Baffled Hunger For Land In New Guinea

Conditions Near Rabaul Are Typical

By

Judy

Tudor

IT could be that in 100 years from now, those who are inhabiting the Territory of Papua and New Guinea will rise up and call the pre sent Administration blessed because of its far-seeing land policy.

And it could be far otherwise.

It was expected that at the May meeting of the Legislative Council, the Administrator would make a statement on land policy—the most

The photographs which were to have been published herewith, have had to be held out for lack of space.

We hope to publish them in July.

contentious subject in P-NG to day.He did not. No one knows what really is the land-settlement policy of the Administration.

But District Commissioner McCarthy, from Rabaul, made a statement with regard to New Britain land. It is unlikely that he spoke off the cuff; or that what he said was not approved by head quarters.

Briefly, Mr. McCarthy said that one ex-servicemen’s association (no doubt, meaning the Rabaul branch of the RSSAILA) had land develop ment on its agenda at every meet ing, but although land development might seem essential it was not pos sible or desirable to alienate large areas.

Large areas of land on the Gazelle peninsula were undeveloped and at first glance seemed ideal for European settlement. However, in German times the Tolai-owned land had been heavily alienated to provide what were the best planta tions in the Rabaul-Kokopo area to-day. Surveys showed that 47 per cent, of the Tolai people were chil dren under 13 and, if present health standards were maintained, it was likaly that the Tolai population would increase to 70,000 in a few decades. The present land area available to them would not then be sufficient for them to live on.

Although the Tolai people had lost a larger amount of land than any other native community in the Territory, they had continued to flourish and prosper because roads gave them easy access to markets.

In Mr. McCarthy’s opinion, roads had been the prime factor in de veloping these people.

Better methods of native agricul ture would, he thought, make it possible for the natives to live on a smaller area of ground. Nonethe less, it was necessary to reserve the land for future native requirements.

Few prospective European plant ers realised, moreover, that it cost at least £lOO per acre to clear, plant

and bring to production a crop such as cocoa. It was necessary, also, that a new settler have some idea of planting or farming. It might be a good idea, he thought, if the Department of Agriculture published figures showing the cost of estab lishing various crops.

He did not say that there was no further land available in New Britain. Some areas could and should be developed by Europeans.

But the Administration policy of protecting native land rights was a wise one. Communism had an undoubted appeal to those who are landless.

THAT is the Administration case.

Against a background of what has happened in other parts of the Colonial world in recent years, it probably is sound enough.

The point seems to be, however, whether New Guinea can be judged entirely against what has happened recently in Africa or the West Indies, or even Fiji. Whether pro gress should be—or can be—held up indefinitely while the Tolais— or any other group—breed and multiply so that they will eventu ally cover the earth and engage un molested in their primitive and wasteful methods of agriculture.

To get anywhere in P-NG you fly; and you fly over mile upon square mile of virgin bush. To sum up the situation: after 75 years of European influence, NG is still

largely “bush-nothing.” Here and

there, there is a native village.

Here and there a patch of culti vated coconuts, or some other crop.

But the extent of cultivated land in proportion to the virgin forest must be a fraction of one per cent.

The land most desirable in the Gazelle Peninsula area, from a European development point of view, is the Wanangoi Valley, and (spoken of to a lesser extent) to wards the headwaters of the Kere yat River. These areas are acces sible and close to a good port.

Two groups are interested in the Warangoi land—Mr. J. L. Chipper and his associates, and the Re turned Servicemen’s League (Rabaul branch) who see it as a suitable area for soldier-settlement.

LATE in 1951 the Department of Agriculture made a soil survey of the Warangoi and a scheme of soldier settlement was evolved whereby each selected settler was to take up 200 acres and financed to bring in the first 100 acres under cocoa.

It was calculated that it would cost £14,000 per settler to clear, plant and bring the plantation to bearing. In that sum was £6OO per

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annum to provide the settler with a living allowance. There was to be a machinery pool, and the settlers were to work as a group, helping each other as required.

The scheme seemed sound, feasible and desirable.

So far as I could ascertain, the servicemen became interested in the Warangoi after J. L. Chipper and Co, had opened it up for mill ing, and the applications of Mr.

Chipper and his associates for agricultural land' in the area had appeared in the P-NG Government Gazette.

The secretary of the Rabaul branch of the RSSAILA then spent a week-end out in the area and de cided that the valley, about 10 miles wide by 20 miles long, would be ideal for a settlement scheme.

There is no suggestion that the two groups had conflicting in terests —although they might have had a better bargaining point if they had been able to join forces.

Mr. Chipper has been interested in the Warangoi since before the war. Around 1939 or 1940 he made a survey of the area. He went to the nearest village, a consider able number of miles away, and, as is the fashion of the country, asked for guides down into the valley.

There were no takers. It was a “place-no-good.” No one ever went there; Mokolkols (the half-mythical nomads who are supposed to live in the Bainings) might be there, and might kill them.

Finally he went with a boy or two of his own. He saw no Mokolkols or any other human.

But he saw good timber. I under stand that he could not take up the area himself, but that a friend did so »nd that since the war he has acquired the timber rights.

In the past two years he has put in at least 15 miles of good road and at present his company is building several more miles up stream from the original timber camp—this road to include a bridge over one of the tributaries of the Warangoi. The road is used to haul logs to Kokopo, where they are towed across Blanche Bay to the mill at Rabaul.

Mr. Chipper says—and it seems to make sense —that it is uneconomic to build roads of the kind his com pany has made, simply to get timber out. The only justification for the outlay would be to plant up the land and so establish a permanent, asset.

I saw this area 14 months ago.

Except for the removal of more trees, there has been no change over these months. If a planting programme had been permitted

then, large areas would now be established under young cocoa trees.

THE schemes of both the Chipper group and the RSL have foundered on the same blunt, unyielding reply from the Admin istration: The land is native-owned.

According to a letter dated March 23, 1954, from Mr. McCarthy to the RSL in Rabaul “. . . . There is no land in this District at pre sent available for settlement.”

Neither the Chipper nor the RSL group is prepared to take that as a final word; and they hope by persistence that their claims will finally be recognised.

They ask themselves, not un naturally, is the Warangoi land, in fact, native owned? For if the Tolai claimed no ownership in 1940, how can they claim it now? And, if land is indeed necessary for future native requirements—as is reason able to suppose—is there not still sufficient for both native and Euro pean? \ FEW weeks ago I was taken out tV beyond the Vunadidir native council headquarters, to a joint that overlooks what appears o be about half of New Britain. :n one grand sweep, from Mt. /arzen on the left, with the head raters of the Warangoi behind, you ook around an amphitheatre to he seacoast at the extreme right,

and away down beyond Kerevat to the mouth of the Vudal river where, Relieve, they have settled some of the Tolai people. In the foreground, there are obvious signs of native settlement, but beyond that there is nothing.

I do not know how large is the

area laid out before one from that view point, but in square miles it must be considerable. Enough, surely, to allow for new European, development, and to take care also of the wants of any number of vet unborn Tolais.

To borrow a premise of Mr.

McCarthy: the roads (provided by Europeans, and mostly in the Ger man times) are the factor that has made the Tolais prosperous. So, if the Germans, in their wisdom, had developed Gasmata instead of the Gazelle peninsula, the Tolais would be New Britain’s backwoods cousins to-day. That seems to be the logical development of Mr.

McCarthy’s theory.

The development and prosperity of the Tolais, therefore, are largely due to the influx of Europeans.

Should not the Europeans then, have a moral right to share in the future prosperity that the area can provide? From the unoccupied land in sight from Vunadidir, there must be sufficient to pay back the Tolais

manyfold, for the plantation land alienated from them in the Ger man era.

It is unlikely that there would be any ‘‘land rush.” As Mr.

McCarthy took pains to point out, planting is an expensive business and the hard work and waiting would sharply restrict the field, it is a inescapable fact in P-NG to-day that the further one moves out from the Administration offices at Konedobu (Port Moresby), the less there is evidence of the blind faith in that mystical thing called the “Territory’s future.”

This is particularly noticeable around Rabaul. and paradoxically, because that district has had uri precedented prosperity in recent

years. Most of the established planters there now can afford to establish some second string to their bow in Australia, and it is in this district, more than any other in P-NG, one so often heard the phrase: “I would sell up and get out for good—if I could get my price.”

And the people they have in mind for paying their price are the affluent Chinese.

These planters probably have had it. Why not? Their y-ars in the country have been long and honour able and there is no dearth of young blood eager to take up the torch— if encouraged.

A vigorous policy of European land development soldier-settle ment or any other kind —would be as a shot in the arm to Rabaul District. The alternative seems to be a future largely dominated by a solid core of established planta tions in Chinese hands, with an in creasing number of harassed officials keeping the country safe for Tolais to live in.

FOOTNOTE: It is the considered opinion of some residents of New Guinea that there never will be a soldier land settlement scheme there because its introduction would, in one sweep, cause about half of the most promising members of the District Services Department to re sign, to take up land.