Change In P-Ng Administrative System

New Status of DC's May Solve the Land- Settlement Difficulties

THE danger, described in plain terms in November PIM (page 21) that land settlement and develop ment in Papua-New Guinea may be retarded and crippled by the Aus tralian Minister’s insistence on a new, complicated method of dealing with available lands, may be avoided by a somewhat revolutionary change in administrative machinery, to be given effect to immediately.

District Commissioners are to be given a new status. In the final analysis, they will be responsible for land settlement and land use in their respective Districts.

Instead of land acquisition, land assessment and land settlement be coming bogged down in the over elaborate machinery of the Lands De partment and associated Land Board, etc., the District Commissioners should now be able to keep Depart mental officialdom on its toes, and see that the Australian Government’s vital policies in relation to land use and European settlement really are implemented.

The trouble now is that the Ad ministration may find itself short of suitable District Commissioners. A shortage of qualified personnel for the Lands Department already is manifest. A similar lack of men for the higher jobs would be very embarrassing.

Fundamental Changes

IN the past, District Commissioners have been mostly glorified Dis trict Officers, tied to a consider able degree to their desks by routine duties, and making contact with other Departments mostly through their official head —namely, the Director of District Services and Native Affairs.

In the future, District Commis sioners still will be called District Commissioners; but actually they will be sub-governors, freed from routine desk work and reporting directly to the Administrator through the Assistant Administrator.

The “Department of District Ser vices,” as such, will be abolished, and the Department now will be known as the Department of Native Affairs. The Department of the Government Secretary will be known as the Department of Civil Affairs.

Officials of those Departments in the various Districts will in future handle administrative machinery much as they did under the De partment of District Services, but all such matters will be classified as belonging to either Civil Affairs or Native Affairs.

The Civil Affairs Department now will be responsible for such matters as water and power and stores— hitherto the concern of the Treasury.

The activities of Posts and Tele graphs, hitherto in charge of the Treasury, now becomes the respon sibility of a new Department of Posts and Telegraphs.

In future, within most of the 15 Administrative Districts, there will be, as hitherto, officials of the various Departments which are rep resented in the field, such as Civil Affairs, Native Affairs, Agriculture, Lands, Education, Posts & Tele graphs, etc. But instead of these various departmental officials being only loosely responsible through their respective District Officers to their Departmental heads, their work will be under the direct super vision of the District Commissioner, and the latter will have the authority necessary for co-ordination of their activities within the District.

Any comments or representations which the DC has to make regard ing the work of these Departmental officials will be made directly to the Departmental heads, through the Assistant Administrator.

New Aspect Of Land Policy

THE need for such a change—that is, clarification of the duties and responsibilities of the District Commissioners as sub-governors and the direct representatives of the Administrator —has been urged in the past by critics. This reform, therefore is one of the most en couraging moves made in recent years by the Territories Depart ment. Whatever high official is responsible for it deserves the thanks

of the non-official population, should streamline administrati and the implementation of Canbei policy.

For example, this administrat: change gives a new shape to t Lands policy and Lands Depa; ment machinery announced in Se tember by the Australian Minisi for Territories, and roundly co demned in this journal in Novemb In his statement, the Minisi said that the Lands Departme and a series of Lands Boards, woi in future become responsible for t acquisition of lands and their alloc tion to new settlers: and it was i dicated that District Services woi have little responsibility in relati to lands. We said that this was retrograde step.

It is stated that under the n system of Administration each D trict Commissioner will have a c finite responsibility regarding 1 purchase of land from the nativ its proper classification, and the d posal of such lands to persons i terested. The DC in each case v be a member of the local Lar Board and will have an imports voice in the assessment of nat land needs, the class of settlemc favoured, and the conditions settlement. Obviously, that is as should be.

As was pointed out by a speal at the recent Legco meeting, t Territories do not want haphazs European settlement. What is want is the system of settlement so si cessfully put into operation Eastern Highlands in 1952-54 by D trict Commissioner lan Dow: under which projected land pi chases from the natives, and pr< pective European settlers, and t nature of their enterprise, were cai fully screened, to ensure that — (a) The alienation of the la from the natives would not harmful to future native econpmj

(Continued on Page 145)

Ordained at

Madang, NG

On September 26, E. A. Wakeham was ordained to the Anglican priesthood at Madang, New Guinea. Photo shows the candidate kneel ing before the Rt.

Rev. G. D. Hand, the Bishop Co-adjutor of New Guinea. He is taking the Oath of Canonical Obedience to the Lord Bishop of New Guinea and the assent to the Doc trines of the Church of England. Photo: R. G. Krause.

I (b) The establishment of a Euro ean plantation in that place would enefit the native communities lereabouts; f(c) The incoming European had le character as well as the re mrces to enable him to establish Lmself successfully, and assist the dministration in the important isk of Europeanising the natives id improving their standard of le.

Any other system would be dis itrous. The introduction of new uropean settlers on a catch-as itch-can method (available lands tnply sold to the highest tenderer, id so forth), which appeared to be voured by the Minister in his an luncement of Lands policy in Sep mber, could be an embarrassment the District Commissioners, and not calculated to help the Admin iration in its policy regarding itives.

Under the new status given them, strict Commissioners must accept im the Administration and the apartment the responsibility not ly for new settlement, but also r the co-ordination of settlement d developmental activities with the lin planks of Native policy and z work of the Missions. [t is a matter for regret that rritories Minister Hasluck did not ike all this clear three months d, when he announced his Lands licy. It would have prevented a of serious misunderstanding both and out of the Dual Territory.

Eager New Settlers

NDER this revised administrative system, much greater emphasis now will be placed upon new tlement of available lands, by ;h Europeans and natives, t is believed that within a short le new areas will be made avail e for European settlement in ugainville, Sangara district, dang district, and the north .st of New Britain eastwards of iasea. Machinery is to be set up assist Europeans in the develop nt of the blocks which they will [Uire. n recent weeks, the PIM has re zed inquiries from young Euro ns desirous of proceeding to the al Territory, with a view to in ting private funds in lands for establishment of plantations, sy complained that, despite ent representations at various Dartments, they could obtain no lance as to how they should pro 1. jfe recently referred this matter Mr. C. H. Lambert, Secretary of Australian Department of Terri es. He has replied that in future h inquiries should be directed to Secretary of the Department Lands, Port Moresby. Inquirers uld ask for details of any lands liable for settlement and should

ask that, in the event of land not being available in the Districts to which they want to go, their names may be added to a list of persons who want information of that character in the future.

Titles For Native Owners

THE Administration now is giving careful thought to a problem which naturally arises, follow ing the encouragement given in re cent years to natives to cultivate their lands in accordance with European practice. Many natives for example, have become producers of coconuts and cocoa.

Native land generally is held by tribal and family groups. It has been found that as a native agri cultural economy develops there is a demand by the more intelligent and progressive natives that they shall have title, as individuals, to the lands which they cultivate. Thus there is arising a need for a new kind of native land policy under which land may be granted to in dividuals instead of to groups.

Both Department and Adminis tration appear to have accepted the view that the quickest and best way to improve the standards of native life is to encourage the settlement of the right class of European among the native communities, when it has been found that all the available unused land is not re quired for future native agriculture.

The Department, however, believes that any substantial increase in European land settlement in New Guinea will create a labour problem; but it is hoped that this problem may be solved where there is a de finite advance in the native com munities towards European living standards. The natives, finding that they need certain goods and ser vices as part of their improved standards of life, will go forth to labour in order to earn the money wherewith to buy such goods and services.

Education Problem Again

IN recent years, the PIM repeatedly has urged that the chief problem in New Guinea to-day is that of education. There can be no sub stantial advance in the native standards of life until a degree of literacy (including a working know ledge of simple English) is intro duced to at least a large proportion of the native children in Papua and New Guinea.

We are informed that this is the official view of both Departments and Administration, and all neces sary steps will be taken to imple ment such a policy. The Depart ment, however, is under no delusion about the nature of the task. Be cause of the multiplicity of native languages in P-NG (there are at least 700) it is apparent that no real progress can be made in native

education until the Administration somehow has produced a large num ber of native teachers, sufficiently trained, first, to teach the native children in the respective vernacular next, to introduce to them some knowledge of simple English.

Steps will be taken at an early date to solve this paramount pro blem of how to produce a large number of native teachers. As one high official expressed it, “that ex cellent training institution at Sogeri must be multiplied twenty times, and twenty times more, if we are going to really achieve something,”

But it is unlikely that the Educa tion Department will attack this task by itself—it is proposed that the large Mission organisations in Papua-New Guinea will be en couraged by substantial subsidies to largely increase their machinery for the training of native teachers.

Conference In Canberra

THE foregoing matters were among many subjects discussed in Canberra in mid-November, when the Administrator of Papua- New Guinea (Brigadier D. M.

Cleland) conferred in Canberra with the Minister for Territories, the Secretary of the Department (Mr.

Lambert) and other high officials.

It is reported that the appoint ment of Mr. Rupert Wilson as assistant Administrator has marked an important point in the re organisation of the administrative machinery of the dual Territory.

Mr. Wilson is working in harmony with the heads of Departments, and a spirit of co-operation and goodwill is marked and increasing.

Administration School

SOME of the reforms planned ex tend to the School of Pacific Administration, maintained for the Territories in Sydney. The practice of bringing a considerable number of young men from the Territories for a two-years’ course has been discontinued; and in its place there will be a short but in tense preliminary course of about six weeks for young men who have been selected for Territories posts; and there will be another special .course, extending over one year, for classes of Territories officials who have been selected for certain duties in the field.

The following are new brochures published for general information by South Pacific Commission: Diet ■and Nutrition in American Samoa (Sheila Malcolm) ; Dental Condi tions in Schools of American Samoa (Raymond G. Neubarth); Distribu tion of Filariasis in South Pacific Region (M. O. T. lyergar) Opthal mological Survey of Micronesia (H. E. Crawford, Grace C. Ham man, Isaac Lanwi); Malaria in Torres Straits Islands (Dorothea F. Sandars) ; Leprosy in Western Samoa and Cook Islands (Norman R. Sloan).