Other Ideas

Ca And Highland

Trips

New Director Has Some Other Ideas

IHE Regional Director of Civil Aviation in Papua-New Guinea, Mr. Vern Rule, says he sees reason why Dakota aircraft )uld not be permitted to itinue using certain airstrips in ; Highlands of New Guinea, rhis did not seem to be the nion of Mr. John Arthur who ently retired as P-NG Regional ector of DCA. (PIM April, re 134). lecently, it was proposed to close number of Highland strips to iota operations and replace the iree’s” with light aircraft /ices. This met strong opposition tl local residents (native luded) who pointed out that they ild be faced with higher freight rges, and that all cargo would e to be double-handled.

When the UN Visiting Mission in the area, one of the matters ed by natives was why Dakota r ices were not being permitted iperate to Mount Hagen, which ne of the strips affected) i Port Moresby, Mr. Rule said : in the short time he had been lonal Director he had been ble to appreciate the back ind that had led to the proposal close the strips to Dakotas mg other things, he believed it Id be very difficult to provide proper ground organisation for proposed light aircraft opera 5. t*. Rule said he could not see DC3’s should not continue to ate but emphasised that there d have to be fairly rigid control the number of movements, that a great deal of work d need to be done to maintain airstrips to the standards ired by DCA. ferring to the Mount Hagen itself, Mr. Rule said he had impressed with the appearance and the work that had been sd out there in recent months. 3r 1,237,000 tons of crude phos c rock was shipped from Nauru ie year ending June 30, 1955. was a record.