Points From Their

Speeches . . .

IN its final meeting (between May 10 and 13) the first Papua-New Guinea Legislative Council pro duced no fireworks, and no contenti ous legislation. Frequent adjourn ment motions allowed members to air their pet subjects, in some cases for the benefit of the public, be fore the new Legislative Council is selected in October.

The Administrator’s’ statement on the last day of the meeting was something of an anti-climax. With very little reason, some members expected the Administrator to pro duce a spectacular announcement

of policy—particularly with regard

to land settlement. And one mem ber of the Press arrived with a dozen sharpened pencils to take it all down.

The “statement” was a statistical report of Territory activities during the three years of life of the first Council. In view of the imminence of the Australian Federal elections, it could scarcely have been much more.

Here are some points various members made in speeches during

the meeting:

PLEA FOR NATIVE GIRLS . . .

There should be equal educational opportunities for native boys and girls.

At present, education favours boys particularly so in the numbers sent to Australia for secondary education. The position will soon be that these boys will be returning and will be unable to find girls of similar educational standard whom they can marry.

The Legislative Council should make a law forbidding “bride price.” The high Jost of wives, and the fashion of chang ng wives was a bad thing. So was plural marriage. In some districts one man had wo or three wives, and others had none.

There should be a guaranteed market n Australia for all the produce of Papua md New Guinea. P-NG gets the bulk »f its requirements from Australia iustralia should reciprocate by taking the ferritory’s primary products. —Simogun, Native Nominated Member. *

Jew Public Works . . .

P-NG will spend £424,000, additional o estimates, on works and maintenance his financial year. £202,000 of this mount will be financed from savings in ther Departments and the remainder is Iready on hand because internal revenue ollections are higher than anticipated.

This financial year, £187,000 will be pent on housing and office accommodation n Papua and £172,000 on similar ccommodation in New Guinea. The ighest single outlay on maintenance is n amount of £224,000, for roads and ridges in New Guinea—a considerable mount of it due to an abnormal wet eason which affected the Wau-Labu road i the Morobe District.

Mr. H. H. Reeve, Treasurer.

Tenders will be called in June for the erection of eight Administration houses in Kavieng. Tenders will be called in October for erection of cargo sheds and wharf approaches in Kavieng. The wharf should be finished by January, 1955, and the shed in June, 1955.

Mr. S. A. Lonergan, Government Sec retary. *

European Teachers

There is no shortage of European teachers for Kavieng or anywhere else in P-NG. Nine new teachers for Euro pean-type schools arrived in the Terri tory in May and the only factor standing in the way of staffing these schools is lack of proper accommodation—particu larly for women teachers. —Mr. W. C. Groves, Director of Edu cation.

A.

That Export Duty! . . .

The Legislative Council has been of assistance to the planting industry of the Territory as a whole—with the exception of the decision to impose export taxes on primary produce. From the planter’s point of view the most important legis lation brought down has been in relation to native labour. This has been pro gressive and all planters will acknowledge the co-operation of the Administration in considering planters’ views. The only real weakness in native labour was the numbers of natives who broke their agreements and left their places of em ployment. The export industries of the Territory are dependent upon the agree ment system and measures should be taken to maintain the sanctity of agree ments freely entered into.

During the life of the Council, members

had seen the beginning of a new industry —the opening of the copra mill in Rabaul.

At the same time, they had seen the death of the desiccated coconut industry in P-NG due to unfair publicity.

Rubber planters regretted that they still had no guaranteed market in Aus tralia for their product and that there had been nothing conclusive in their fight for remission of the 2d per pound Aus tralian import duty.

With the present high price which cocoa was bringing, planters were paying £5O per ton export duty. The planting Industry always paid its way, —Mr. B. E. Fairfax-Ross, Nominated Member. *

Land For A Community

During his term of Administratorship, about 20 years ago, General Griffiths had set aside an area in the Talasea area of New Britain for the settlement of people of mixed descent. The scheme was given wide publicity and financial assistance was offered to people taking advantage of the scheme. Only two applicants came forward—one of whom was still there.

He had been assisted to establish himself and subsequently had repaid every penny he owed the Administration.

The remaining land was still available in Talasea for people of mixed descent and this fact had been pointed out fre quently to such people in the New Britain district. Only two applications had been received. One was withdrawn later. The other was under consideration. —Mr. J. K. McCarthy, District Com missioner, New Britain.

More Information, Please!

Granting secondary scholarships in Australia for native students was des cribed last year as a temporary measure.

But it had been subsequently announced that a second lot of scholarships would be granted next year. So far there had been no statement on when work would begin in the Territory for a suitable secondary school for natives.

Last year the vote for the Agricultural Department in relation to pest control was a paltry £2,000. Lack of control could threaten P-NG’s most valuable ex port crops of copra and cocoa. It was hoped that the Administration could see its way clear to set aside an adequate amount to take care of pest control. —Mr. D. Barrett, elected Member for NG Islands. (Over)

Angles On Native Welfare

Few if any people in the Territory were satisfied with the proposed native liquor ordinance. He personally would support total prohibition if he thought it would succeed. He did not see why the welfare of Imillion natives should be jeopardised for the comfort of 6,000 Euro peans. But he felt that the abuses of prohibition would be worse than the present system. —The Rev. D. E. Ure, Nominated Mem ber. * The franchise, even that of a native village council system, was a right that

demanded a high degree of political maturity and responsibility. Frequently the franchise is held to be one of the basic rights of man. It is nothing of the sort. Parliamentary democracy is the growth of centuries and presupposes solid maturity in the people who practise it. —The Rev. Fr. J. Dwyer, Nominated Member.