In Papua-New Guinea
pp. 35-48 · Read in the full issue
[?]rrent News Items From Our Correspondents In Papua-New Guinea
Dang Air-Strip Out Of
Action
one hour in early November, ive inches of rain fell in Madang. As a result the Meiro er burst its banks, the airstrip flooded and sustained damage Icient to close it for some weeks, one stage of the storm, logs 2 in diameter were seen floating n the runway. ight hours after the rain •ped, two feet of water remained the strip. A DCA official and Principal Engineer of the Com iwealth Department of Works r to Madang on November 7 inspect the damage. They re ed later it would take £4,000 ffect repairs. wring the storm, the road from lang to the airstrip was closed, the DCA staff on duty had to y on during the next shift un :hey could be relieved. ; times, muddy water from the r extended five miles out to lirty miles from Madang, a ey bridge over another river washed away.
Le and Wewak also felt the
effect of the rain, but not nearly so badly. Lae airstrip was closed for a few hours and several towns were flooded.
Fire Destroys
Unattended Car
A late model car was destroyed
b y fire near Ward’s Strip, Port Moresby, in early November.
The owner of the car, Mr. Peter Goodwin, of Steamships Trad ing Company, left it parked on the side of a dirt track in the area for about an hour while he went shooting.
On his return,
the car was gutted. Nearby bush was burning fiercely.
Psa President: No Comment
The president of the Public Ser vice Association of P-NG, Mr. R.
Brennan, on November 7. issued his first Press statement since the Public Service Arbitrator announced his findings some days earlier. (In the findings, Mr. Wood re jected most of the claims of the Association.) (Continued Oven
Mr. C. Lane, well-known resident of Goroka, Eastern NG Highlands, was married to Miss Nelson at the LMS Church, Port Moresby, on November 4.
Photo: Papuan Prints.
Mr Brennan, in a guarded state ment, said that the decision of the Arbitrator was, in accordance with the provisions of the Arbitration Public Service Ordinance, subject to review and disallowance by the Governor-General.
“Until such time as this review has been made,” said Mr. Brennan, “the determination cannot be re garded as final. The Executive of the Public Service Association con siders it would be inappropriate to comment on the details of the de termination”.
The Administrator of P-NG made it clear in a November statement that no public servant would have his salary reduced as a result of the Arbitrator’s findings.
Meningitis At Sogeri
Four natives died from Meningitus in the Sogeri district during October-November.
A Health Department official says that meningitis usually ap pears amongst the natives at this time each year and that there was little that could be done about it.
Another native died suddenly in Port Moresby early November. The native, a police constable stationed at Headquarters, could not be awakened by other constables to report for duty. A post-mortem showed that the native died from pneumonia.
Steep Rise In Recruitment
Cost Of Highland Labour
A 300 p.c. rise in the Administra
tion charge for the recruitment of each Highland labourer has been announced. It will come into effect on December 1.
From that date, the fee will rise from 10/- to £2 per labourer. The Acting Director of Native Affairs, Mr. J. K. McCarthy, explained that the increase was necessary to help recoup the Administration for higher costs incurred in recruit ment and accommodation of High land labourers before completion -of medical and attestation formalities.
The President of the Planters’
Association of Papua, Mr. Fairfax,
later described the increase £ “quite fair”.
Radio-Active Help For
Agriculture
Details of a revolutionary mei£ of eradicating a pest well-esa lished in Papua and New Guu have been received by the Den ment of Agriculture from United States.
The pest is the screw-wormi which has been eradicated frorm West Indian island of Curacaoj the use of radio-active cobalt..* Entymologists discovered
[ female screw-worm fly mated ly once. They then bred thous ds of male flies and rendered ;m sterile exposing them to anna-rays from radio-active jalt. hi official of the P-NG Depart nt of Agriculture in Port Moresby nted out that the Curacao ex iment had been successful partly •ause Curacao was an island. The is could not therefore move to ler areas. le added, however, that experi nts were now under way in irida, in the United States, and they were successful they would worthy of investigation for ap cation to the Territory.
King Administration To
The Lumus
P-NG Native Affairs patrol ently re-entered the lumu area the Tari sub-district in the ithern Highlands. [his is the area where a patrol s attacked in August and where, 1953, a native constable was led when the lumus attacked an •lier patrol. following the August attack, the cithern Highlands District Com ssioner, Mr. R. R. Cole, decided it a strong patrol should return the lumu country as soon as »sible as a display of strength s essential to bring about peace h these aggressive and arrogant >ple.
During the August patrol this tr, Assistant District Officer W.
Crellin repeatedly tried to con ice the lumus that the patrol
wished to establish friendly relations with them. efforts failed, and consistent attacks were made on the patrol, over a period of two or three days. . , Shots fired over the heads of the attackers failed to deter them and it was clear that they did not understand the fire-power of a .303 rifle. It was learned later that the lumus regarded a rifle as a noisy but harmless weapon.
The attacks continued, but Mr.
Crellin decided to withdraw and return later with a larger patrol TVia - „
re< j£ °L Natl Y^
Affairs, Mr. J. K. McCarthy, said that the recent patrol went in with a police unit of 32 and fully achieved its objective, After three weeks in the area, all the headmen reported to the Base Camp set up by the patrol, and were shown just how effective
Miss Myola Elliott-Smith celebrated her 21st washday at a party in her honour at Port esby on November 5. With her in our photograph is her father. District Commissioner Elliott-Smith.
Photo: Papuan Prints.
frifle was. Police, for the benefit f the primitive headmen and fehting-men, blew a solid wooden ost apart with a volley.
The natives then had a change I heart and went so far as to bologise for killing the native con able two years previously. They Iso wanted to pay compensation, ad although this was refused, the |trol decided to accept an offer [ send men to work on the Tari rstrip.
The patrol also started peace
negotiations between the lumus and their long-standing enemy neigh bours.
Mr. McCarthy said close contact will be maintained with the lumus.
Another patrol would visit them before the end of the year.
The lumu country is only about 10 miles from the Tari patrol post.
Tv For Moresby?
The President of the Territory Branch of the Wireless Institute of Australia, Mr. Frank Nolan, an-
nounced early November, that the Branch was planning to estab 1i s h an experi mental television transmitter in Port Moresby.
Mr. Nolan’s an nouncement fol lows an earlier announcement by the Post-Master
General that television licences would be issued to amateur wire less operators for experimental pur poses.
Establishment of a transmitter in Port Moresby would mean that anyone with a television set living within a radius of about 10 miles of the transmitter would be able to view the amateurs’ programmes.
On October 20, Miss Geogina Turner married Mr. J. Geoffrey in Rabaul, New Guinea.
A reception was held at the New Guinea Club.
Our photograph shows, the Rev. Mr. Lutton, of the Methodist Church, the groom and bride, and (standing) Miss Jean Campbell and Mr. Bill Dupe.
Photo: C. H. Meen.
Mr. Nolan could not say what programmes would be screened un til details of the licences had been made known. He added, however, that technical films and films made by amateurs would be shown. The P-NG Branch of the W.I.A. had no intention of buying a television camera.
Native Miners
Strike It Rich
Natives in the Kainantu District of the New Guinea Eastern High lands are coming into the high in come bracket.
They are reported to be earning about £l,OOO a month from gold mining. An Officer of the P-NG Department of mines has now been stationed at Kainantu to handle the gold.
Meanwhile, a mining company, has established the occurence of Titanium in possible payable quantities in the Barola area of the Eastern Highlands.
Another example of the progress and development of the area is shown in the cash turnover at the District Office at Goroka. Recently it amounted to £60,000 in one month. Three years’ ago, the average monthly turnover was less than £7,000.
An administration native labour Inspector, Mr. G. F. Brown, has suggested that native labour em ployment bureaus be established throughout Papua and New Guinea.
He said this would overcome the problem of unskilled natives mov ing from one place to another and then finding there was no work for them.
Mr Brown made this suggestion when addressing a meeting of the Lae Town Advisory Council to acquaint the members with the activity taking place in a special
area set aside in Lae for nas housing.
Mr. Brown said the idea of scheme was good but the Admit, tration was not going the right about it. Land had been set ae but no provision had been lights or sewerage.
He believed also that the Admiij tration should help finance
ttives who were building their In homes on the land.
Hanuabada Operation
Complete
Ihe re-building of Hanuabada Uage in Port Moresby is now nost complete.
Hanuabada was destroyed by fire ring the war, and the Australian )vernment undertook to put up w houses for the inhabitants.
Ihe re-building programme irted 6 years ago; 300 native uses have been erected. Only more remain to be built. (Hanuabada was a traditional nine village—the houses built t over the sea on high piles. The w Hanuabada —of timber and Ivanised iron—is built on the land d already looks like a slum, or e native quarters in a South
Wean city.)
*Ade Commissioner In Ng
Australia’s senior Trade Com ssioner to the United Kingdom, r. G. R. Patterson, told planters Rabaul recently that they must Sanise themselves properly and ily explore markets and market ? techniques.
Mr. Patterson was speaking at dinner given in his honour by
the Administration and the Planters’
Association of New Guinea.
He commented also on the progress of primary industry in all districts he had visited, and stressed the importance of producers in the Territory maintaining high quality wQC P Hnnp C hP fplt cnrp t*li nVUp was done, he felt sure that valuable markets existed in the United Kingdom and in Europe.
Another Plunge On Sogeri
Road
THE need for safety fences on th?
Sogeri Road, leading from Port Moresby up into the Papuan rubber area, was emphasised in mid- November following another accident on the road.
A Landrover, driven by Mr. Ernest Heckenburg, plunged off the road and ended up against a boulder 20 ft below.
Heckenburg was thrown clear of the vehicle and fell another 300 ft to the bottom of the valley.
He WaS found UnCOnSCiOUS 4 hours , ariH fnkpr , fn v,n<;nitai- ir.
Juries were not serious^ %h JU £^ S wer ® * senou ®- The accident occurred in the early hours of the morning while Hecken burg was following another vehicle up the mountain road.
Forced Landing Near Wau
A ploughed field near Wau town ship became a landing ground in mid-November for a light aircraft
Mr H. Hoffmann and Miss M. McNamara, [?]e married at the Roman Catholic Church, [?]t Moresby, on November 12. Our photo ph shows them cutting their wedding cake. [?]s Val Cadzow was bridesmaid and Mr. hur Roberts bestman. Rosie Vidgen was [?]er-girl.
Photo: Papuan Prints.
irced to put down there when the ttgine cut out.
The aircraft, a Fox Moth flown y well known Territorian Mr. fcrman Wilde, was slightly damaged.
Cng Tow Ends In Moresby
The arrival of an ocean-going tug id two barges in Port Moresby in jjvember ended the longest tow er undertaken by the United Tow g Company of Hull, in England, the tug, Tradesman, towed the (rges 11,300 miles from the UK to ipua in 80 days.
The Master of the tug, Captain I Hopper, said that the company id undertaken several tows that p lasted longer but the journey to ipua was the greatest distance.
He said the unique feature of the p was that nothing unusual hap
pened. There was good weather most of the way, the tow ropes did not break, and no one went overboard The two barges were bought out from England for APC.
Tb Checks In Papua
The Health Department’s tuber culosis tests in the Milne Bay Dis tricts should end before Christmas By then, it is estimated that 60thousand natives in the D’entre casteaux, Trobriand and Misima Islands will have been X-rayed.
Health Officers have been in the area about three months.
The biggest part of their job has been moving the X-ray machine from place to place. Most of its travels have been on canoes and small boats, and landing the machine at the various islands without benefit
Miss Lois Gibson was married to Mr. Allen Pratt, in the Roman Catholic Church, Rabaul, October 15. Photograph, taken at the reception, shows (left to right): Mrs. Max Lees, Mr. [?] Long, bride and groom, Mrs. Long, and Mr. Max Lees.
Photo: C. H. Meen.
of whar /es has provea a major
problem.
Dr. of the Department of Health, said recently that there were plans to build new wards at a native hospital near Samarai for TB patients.
Gift Pigs For Kandrian
Natives at Kandrian, New Britain, may soon be the proud owners of some of the progeny of New South Wales champion Red Berkshire Pigs.
They will be the gift of a former Territory plantation owner, Mr. R.
Arrowsmith, to natives who helped him establish his first plantation and worked with him for the whole of the time he was in New Britain.
In a letter to the Department of Native Affairs, Mr. Arrowsmith said he had never forgotten the debt he owed the Kandrian people of New Britain. To help repay them for what they had done for him, he wished to send to Kandrian some of the progeny of the pigs with which he won first prize at the last Royal Easter Show in Sydney.
Mr. Arrowsmith formerly owned Tobera plantation in the Kokopo sub-district. He now has a property at Castle Hill, near Sydney.
Papua At Olympics
Papua may be represented at next year’s Olympic Games in Melbourne.
A committee recently formed in Papua has applied to the Inter
national Olympic Committee in Switzerland for recognition as the Papuan National Olympic Com mittee. This would be entirely sep arate from the Australian National Committee.
An official of the Papuan Com mittee said in November that in the event of its being re cognised, the Papuan National Com
mittee would then have authority accept nominations for any of events in the Olympic Games.
He emphasised, however, 11 everything depended on the Im national committee recognii Papua as a separate entity fl Australia. If recognition w 1 obtained, nominations would be=
feived from anyone natives or juropeans.
Fnique; Ahead Of Schedule
i;The new wharf at Rabaul is now Dished —nearly three months ahead ■ schedule. [it was built by Dayal Singh Con- Cuctions (New Guinea) Limited, I a cost of £228,000, including cargo ieds. for the sheds are ftnplete but a shortage of iron is Wding up the project.
The newly-completed wharf is K) it long and 40 ft wide, and has iree concrete approaches.
Epik Art For Switzerland
k collection of the arts and crafts [natives of the Sepik District of »w Guinea will soon be placed nong a famous collection housed [the Museum of Anthropology at isle, in Switzerland.
There are more than 140,000 lecimens of the arts and crafts [Pacific Islanders and Indonesians [the Swiss museum.
The Director of the Museum and bfessor of Anthropology at Basle pversity, Dr. Alfred Beuhler, left »rt Moresby late November for tewak to start gathering the Sepik ecimens.
Dr. Beuhler, one of the world’s remost Anthropologists, visited the srritory 25 years ago but did not >rk in the Sepik district. He plans I spend about six months collect % and studying native handicrafts.
Chief Scout’S Visit
Ihe Empire Chief Scout, Lord )wellan, will arrive in P-NG on lesday, January 17, next year.
He will leave for Honiara, in the itish Solomons, on Monday, Jan ry 23.
Lord Rowellan will stay at Port iresby, Madang and Rabaul dur l his 7-day Territory visit. \ comprehensive itinerary has Bn drawn up for the Chief Scout’s lit. but, as yet, all details have t been finalised.
Ercy Dash By Crash Boat
DCA crash boat berthed in Port )resby one day late in November trying a new-born native child d the body of its mother. The by was rushed to Hospital and is ing well.
Die arrival of the crash-boat fol ded a desperate effort to get the tive woman from Abau, on the puan east coast, to hospital in rt Moresby. [t the request of the Department Health, the fastest DCA crash it available left Port Moresby to ie down the coast and pick up I woman from the motor-vessel 'fna. A European medical officer an assistant went with the mch.
Before it reached the Doma, the baby was born.
Two native nurses and the master of the Doma assisted at the birth.
OTC opened its radio-network to enable the acting Director of Health Dr. May, to give instruction to the Doma on the aftercare of the baby.
Getting Water For
Moresby
At the November meeting of the Port Moresby Town Advisory Coun cil, it was decided to appoint a deputation to seek an interview with the Administrator.
The deputation plans to ask for the formation of a joint committee of Council and Administration officials to discuss the provision of
power, light, water and sewerage, and also to discuss the establishment of a Commission to take over these services.
This move followed the receipt of a letter from the P-NG Assistant Administrator, through the District Commissioner, in which the former said the Council already knew the Administration’s plans to augment existing supplies, and that it was not going to panic the Administration into constructing temporary, un designed engineering works.
Mr. Wilson said an appointee had already been selected for the posi ti o n of Director, Administration Works Branch, and one of his first duties would be to investigate water
nd electricity supplies in the Terri >ry Mr. Wilson’s letter went on to say lat the present daily supply of 50 Ulons per head for everyone in ort Moresby was not unreasonable
for a town that had developed so rapidly, if the difficulty of equitable distribution could be solved.
The Chairman of the Council, Mr E, A. James, described this as “silly.” He said Darwin was supplied
at the rate of 200 gallons a day per person, and the source of supply was 40 miles away, 23 miles more than Port Moresby’s source of supply.
Mr. James said the Administra ti o n should be censured for its inactivity over the last eight years as regards a water supply for Port Moresby, and that
the number of people who had left the Territory because of the lack of essential services would be sur prising.
Radio Telephone Is Popular
Nearly 2,000 radio-telephone calls were received in Port Moresby and a little more than one thousand in Rabaul during the 12 months from the end of March, 1964, to March 31, 1955.
In the same period, there were 1,033 overseas calls made from Port Moresby and 439 from Rabaul.
The Annual report of the Over se a s Telecommunications Com mission shows that Port Moresby
At the Kokopo Club, New Britain, on Novem ber 5, Miss Pamela Levi was married to Mr.
Barry O'Connor by the Rev. Mr. Hatters, of the Church of England, Rabaul. Our bridal group shows (left to right): Bridegroom and bride, Mr. Denis Jones (best man), Mrs. W. Meehan (matron of honour), and flower-girls Dawn Reid and Brownyn Jones.
Photo: C. H. Meen.
people made or received 2,987 over seas calls during the 12 months.
On the OTC network, only Well ington (NZ), San Francisco and London had more.