DO You Remember?

Australia’s famous World War I Prime Minister, William Morris Hughes, was finding, like many others since, that it is a tough job to be minister-in-charge of Australia’s territories. In September, 1938, PIM echoed Islands' residents in saying: “When Mr. Hughes was appointed 10 months ago, residents in Papua and N. Guinea, exclaimed, ‘Thank God! Now something will be done.’ Today, they are regarding the verbal cavortings and political twistings of Mr. Hughes with dismay!”

Here are some other extracts from the September issue of PIM of 20 years ago: Former Lieut.-Governor of Malta, Sir Harry Luke, reached Fiji as new Governor and High Commissioner for the Western Pacific. * * * From the recently discovered central highlands of New Guinea, a correspondent wrote that "new colonists will be bound to succeed in this rich country”. There was a future for such things as coffee and timber, he said, and he would "also like to see some experiments made with sheep—l believe with certain breeds it would be splendid country”. * * * Another correspondent was reminding PIM that Major-General Sir George Richardson, whose death had just been announced, was "the man behind the W.

Samoan banana industry”. Sir George (Administrator from 1923 to 1928) had "de voted considerable time to fostering banana planting for large scale export. His fore sight is one bright item in the Administra tion. despite the opposition which retarded his efforts”, said the correspondent.

There was "lively interest” in Papuan oil search. PIM reported, ‘‘as a result of a widespread belief that the oil search in the two territories is likely to enter upon a new and more important phase there have been sharp movements in the shares of Oriomo Oil and Oil Search. Oil Search shares were quoted at Sydney Stock Ex change on August 1 at 7/4”. (Just 20 years later the search appeared to be at an end, and the shares were * * * At La Foa, New Caledonia, a native servant killed M. Arman, a retired policeman, and his three young grand children with an axe as they were sitting at the dinner table. Madame Arman and her eldest daughter were Injured. The murderer was captured some miles away, but not before he had bitten off the finger of one of the party who captured him. * * * Trans-Pacific air routes were in the news, and PIM reported that PAA would probably abandon land-locked Pago Pago harbour as an operating base and use Canton Island instead. Also, "Suva seems likely to become an important aviation centre”.