Legco Is His Business

D. I. Mcalpin

Of Port Moresby

ALTHOUGH the tumult and the shouting have died now that the first meeting of Papua-New Guinea’s third Legislative Council has ended in Port Moresby, the work is by no means over.

It never ever seems to be over in the office of Douglas lan McAlpin, who has been Clerk of the Council since it was inaugurated in No vember, 1951. McAlpin merely works a little less hard than on the 12 hours a day he usually works when the Council is sitting.

For McAlpin is the man who has to keep the machinery of the Council running, the man who worries about the printing and roneoing, the transport, the preparation and distribution of the bills and ordin ances and notice papers, the man who has to have procedure and standing orders at his finger tips, or the tip of his tongue.

It is a big job which seems to be getting bigger. The recent meet ing of the council sat for two weeks and handled 50 Bills and Ordin ances.

But McAlpin handles it all quietly, and without panic, as he sits in his black gown at the book-piled desk in front of the Council president, Administrator Donald Cleland.

Occasionally he gets up to whisper something, probably affecting pro cedure or routine, to the president.

He is still sitting there long after the Council has adjourned to dinner —or a night’s sleep—cleaning up the day’s work, or discussing the work for the next day with good natured assistant Percy Smart, or hard-working, competent Miss Jean Lane, who directs the Hansard team of stenographers.

McAlpin has been in the Territory since 1946.

He has a wife and three children and is happy to stay there. Un doubtedly the Legislative Council

will be happy to keep him.

S.I.