The Sixty-Five
p. 97 · Read in the full issue
[?]Me Of The
Were To
The Sixty-Five Questions
0771 Gordon Thomas, in Port Moresby lADS of Administration depart nents had a headache on the second day of the June session :he P-NG Legislative Council i they were faced with a list ixty-five questions from Non ial Members. •. G. Whittaker, the Member for nainland, had the highest score 52 questions, most of them the t of a tour he had recently 3 and his observations during tour. Questions dealt with > as far apart as Mount Hagen Angoram. e Assistant Administrator (Mr. jn), to whom most of the ies were addressed, was more equal to the occasion and his training in officialese enabled to fob off any particularly curly : An answer would not be in rd with government policy; it not intended to do this or that; lates were not available; ex iture could not be considered ie present as other matters held ?her priority. ny of the questions put forward deferred until the next Dn.
Barrett, who asked a mere i questions, was told by the ig Director of District Services figures concerning the opera of co-operatives (the question erned the amount of salaries allowances paid to employees :he societies in the Gazelle nsula) were private business could not be divulged. He did, iver, state that the tonnage of i passing through the societies he past year had amounted to tons, valued at £67,803. The 3 of consumer goods, he said, not available as it would be
a “breach of confidence” to divulge the figures.
One question, asked by Mr.
Whittaker, was whether it was a fact there had been 14 different Officers in-Charge of District Services at Angoran in the past 12 months. The reply, given by Mr. J. K. McCarthy, as Acting Director of District Services, was that there had been only four during that period, and transfers were not effected unless there were good reasons.
Mrs. Booth’s one question related to the Wau High School. “In view of past promises,” she said, “when is it anticipated that a start will be made on the Wau High School?”
Said Mr. Wilson: “The matter is under consideration but for a variety of reasons it has not been started.”
The sixty-five dollar question has not as yet been asked; nor has mention been made in any of the debates: What will happen to the Copra Marketing Board when the MOF contract expires in 1957?
It would seem that the majority of planters desire the present set up to continue, although there are a few who, on principle, want private enterprise to control the Board. Rumour has it that the Minister supports the minority.
Time will tell.
If Mr. Maile Tonga, Private Secre tary to Queen Salote, returned to Nukualofa with his wife and daughter on May 31 after vacation leave in New Zealand.