In Praise For New Guinea’S

[?]its and Brickbats

“Men In The Field ”

Ve are indebted to Mr. G. W. L. Townsend for a summary of report of the recent UN Visiting Mission to New Guinea, ough it is too long to print here in full, some extracts and Mr. isend’s comments, which appear below, are of interest. Mr. isend, a District Officer in New Guinea before the war, has for \mber of years been attached to the United Nations establish : in New York. He has just recently returned to live anently in Queensland.

New Britain the Mission was had brought to its attention the iroughly impressed with the situation which had bedevilled the ve-owned cocoa farms and District from the beginning, that

sllgir fermentary and was 3d by the Administration he cocoa produced by the people was competing more favourably with that from an plantations, at times even ng a premium on the current price. ng with Public Health, the i found the Native Hospital )aul “highly unsatisfactory”, ly a Japanese prison camp, use as a hospital was ted solely by the exigencies aediate post-war conditions, resent decaying group of gs was considered by the i to be “totally unsuited for mrpose and quite unworthy Administration.” ulolo the Mission visited the i factory, the enterprise of public company formed by ommonwealth of Australia ilolo Gold Dredging Co., the holding 51 per cent, of the The large reafforestation rune, in order to ensure lity of timber for milling and i is not conducted by the ay, but by the Department jsts. lew of the fact that the ay was operating for profit 3 Administration was bearing Dense of reafforestation, the i was interested in learning pecific benefits the Territory from the enterprise. Those I seemed to be that some learned new skills; there icillary development in the nd the Company assisted in keep of the Lae-Wau road, most tangible benefit was maent of a royalty of £5 per at present amounting to per annum.

Mission pursued the matter aerra and was informed that had not been any great [lation of profit so far.

Mission spent eight days in Sepik District, the largest I most diverse geographically Districts. Since the early t has been the main source ur for employment in other f the Territory. The Mission

is, that workers who left the District did not bring back their wages with them.

They went away agreeing to receive the deferred part of their wages on their return, but many applied to the Court and had the agreement changed in order to receive deferred wages at their places of employment. This, in some cases was spent unwisely, and in others articles were purchased for which large excess baggage fees had to be paid on aircraft. The labourers returning without cash caused dissenion among their people who had been expecting assistance from them.

The Mission contented itself with drawing attention to the problem,

the Administration has d for the past 30 years.

Vewak the Mission visited the i Hospital, where it found the ies to be poor and badly ig improvement. The new mty Hospital and Infant re Centre, with modern es and equipment, was found particularly attractive; and ission was surprised to learn the indigenous people had the money for its conon. It also learned that ly. new hospitals at Vanimo were built by the Deople and that the Maprik voluntarily contributed £l2OO used as part payment for a osnital there ospicai mere. descended the Sepik for 200 miles by boat and ?d that The populous s along the Sepik form one chief economically depressed in the Territory ... the are aware of the progress is being made elsewhere and rustrated because they are taring in it. At Timbunke, it was reported more major had been committed y than anywhere in the t, the Mission heard the ;st expressions of dissatisit met with anywhere in ’erritory. The manner in

which the people voiced their feelings indicated the pressure which was being built up in their sense of grievance.”

The Mission went on to add “ The Mission is aware of the fact that the development of the Sepik River area poses one of the major problems of the Territory, and it realises that the Administration generally is trying to develop areas where a potential is believed to exist, and where immediate progress can be made, before turning to the more difficult ones.” .

The Part of the Mission’s recommendation which was seized °. n , (w l^l varying results) by Australian newspapers when the report was relea sed in June, was that dealing with the desirability 0 f “the international community ’ assisting Australia in solving the problems of administration, Commenting on this Mr. Town send says . . ...

This recommendation is based on understanding, which is not full y realised in some quarters, that Australia is a voluntary member of largest Co-operative in the world, the United Nations, “At the present moment there are at least 18 Australians, all recognised as world experts in their particular fields, who are scattered

over the world, sharing their skills with people who have applied for assistance under the Expanded Technical Assistance Programme.

Have we some false pride which allows us to give assistance but

which will not permit us to receive it when needed?

“The Report makes it clear that the personnel problem in New Guinea is acute; and it is significant that everywhere in the Territory that the Mission went, it found itself in agreement with the officers who were doing the job in the field.”

Mr. Townsend concludes his comment: “No person with knowledge of present conditions in New Guinea could fail to be impressed with the way in which the Visiting Mission of 1956 went about its task; and no one reading the Report could fail to grasp its four main points.

“These are firstly, the achieve ments of an Australian administra in New Guinea after it had been a major battlefield; and secondly, the tremendous task which still lies ahead of an Administration which is deplorably understaffed.

Thirdly, the appreciation of the work of the officers in the field, and the support of their expressed aims and ideas; and lastly, the enthusiasm for and goodwill toward the Australian Administration on the part of the New Guineans.

“That the support accorded to the Field Staff of all Departments by the Mission’s report might, in some cases, be construed by

Canberra as criticism of the Territory’s affairs, is not surprising.

It is no secret that the Administra tion and Canberra do not always see ‘eye-to-eye’; and the degree of ‘remote control’ exercised by Canberra has long been a sore

point with New Guinea’s able experienced officers.

“It is very pleasing to have belief confirmed by such authority as the Chairman of Visiting Mission that we have right men in New Guinea.”