"Tremendous Task" Ahead Of

Hollandia is Built from the Grass Roots "Tremendous Task" Ahead Of Netherlands New Guinea

G. A. V. Stanley of Port Moresby, who recently visited Netherlands New Guinea, here compares Hollandia, as it was before the war, with the Hollandia that today has become the capital of the Netherlands territory.

BEFORE the war, Hollandia and Vanimo, 17 miles on the Aus tralian side of the NG border, were of about equal importance.

One had a Controleur; the other a Patrol Officer. Hollandia had some plantations, laid down by Germans formerly resident in the Mandated Territory pre-1918; Vanimo had a small Government plantation, but otherwise nothing.

Hollandia had a visit occasionally by a KPM steamer: Vanimo had nothing, except a visit every once in a while from the Government schooner Thetis from Wewak via Aitape. Until 1924 both centres en joyed a brisk trade in birds-of paradise skins, brought in by Malay shooters. Pre-war, the surroundings of Hollandia, although wild and un developed, were, however, well known and well-mapped. Early missionaries and travellers had been attracted there by the good harbour of Hum boldt Bay, and by the towering Cyclops Range (7,700 feet high) with Lake Sentani lying along its southern foot.

The military mapping of Dutch New Guinea (1910-1921) and the geological survey of the North Coast by J. Zwierzycki and his colleagues (published by 1930), had completely defined the topography and geological outlines of the country.

The rocks of the Cyclops were known to be of very great age; zoologists suspected that the animals living there had been isolated, as it were, on an island, for a very great period of time, "Astonished"

Miss Evelyn Cheesman visited the range during the 30’s to collect insects for the British Museum; archaeologists had been astonished in 1903 when Dr. G. A. J. van der Sande announced the discovery of a bronze hand-axe and an object which might be a bell at the village of Assei, which is on a small island in Sentani Lake.

The Hollandia area was one of great scientific interest, but of no commercial or Administrative im (.portance. Certainly not any more than Vanimo is at the present day— |which is still distinguished by

nothing except, perhaps, the fact that a Company of the Pacific Islands Regiment is stationed there.

The War changed everything for Hollandia.

The German planters were in terned, and for the second time in their lives, lost their plantations.

Then came the Japanese occupation.

An attempt by the Coast Watchers to establish a party near Hollandia failed when a Dutch Officer (Staverman) was ambushed and killed, the disaster being followed by the capture (by natives) of his Australian signaller (Sgt. Sifleet, of the AIF).

"Never Looked Back"

On April 22, 1944, the American 6th Army moved from Base F (Finschhafen) to Base G (Hollandia) and to Aitape, 150 miles eastward of Hollandia, on the same day. After its liberation Hollandia has not looked back.

With the Americans came aero dromes, roads, docks and all the paraphernalia of a great base. With the transfer of sovereignity in the East Indies, and the retention of New Guinea by the Dutch, the obvious place for the capital was at Hollandia.

Held in Trust

Although in no way bound to do so, the Dutch regard their country as a trust, and each year furnish to the Trusteeship Council of the United Nations Organisation a lengthy report on what has been done, just as Australia does for the Trust Territory of New Guinea.

But the task with which the Dutch are faced in developing the country and the new capital is tremendous.

It is just as if Australia decided to build a capital de novo at Vanimo.

The harbour is there; the American roads are there; the airfields are there; innumerable Quonset huts and a great deal of war-surplus material are there. But there is no industrial, agricultural or mining background to the place.

There are virtually no plantations, no exports, and a sparse and scat tered native population, more de voted to fishing than to gardening.

Like Canberra, everything has to be planned from the grass-roots.

And a drive around the new suburb of Noordwijk reminds one immediately of some of the newer parts of Canberra or the northern suburbs of Sydney, where houses are being run up by contractors in the middle of bush surroundings, access into the interior being given by a beautifully graded bitumen road abruptly ending nowhere.

The new gardens and ornamental trees are still struggling to take hold in the rich-looking, red soil.

And the brick houses still have a raw look, which only time and the tropical climate will mellow.

Something like Boroko, near Port Moresby, but the houses look more substantial. The scenery, overlook ing mountains and the sea, is superb.

An Australian lady of my acquaint ance, who recently came to live at Hollandia, tells me that her greatest shock was to find that the most up-to-date kitchens do not have any sort of stove —neither electric, kero sene or wood-fuel.

Most Dutch families here cook on a battery of primus-type stoves, some of which do not operate under pressure, and develop about as much heat as a small room-warmer.

My friend’s mouth waters for grills and roasts, as a change from the everlasting deep-frying in oils and fats.

Leaning Over Backwards

The aboriginal inhabitants of Dutch New Guinea are still spoken of as “Papuas”, a name which, I gather, they dislike, since it is said tc connote something of a slave relationship, or “bus-kanaka” feel ing of inferiority.

To the word “Newguinean” there seems to be little or no objection.

In official publications I find the word “autochthones” used instead of “native”.

Persons of European origin seem to be bending over backwards in the matter, and it will be many a long year before the term “Papuan” is superseded as a short, easily understood term denoting member ship of a certain racial and lingu istic group of people.

Mystery Origin

The name applied by the Indo nesians to New Guinea —West Irian —still is a mystery as to its origin.

Some Dutch friends tell me that it is a word in the language of Biak, and implies the gradual appearance of the land of New Guinea above the horizon as the island is approached in a canoe from the direction of Biak. And by implica tion propagandists see something of the same thing in the thought that (in time) New Guinea will rise out of the Eastern Seas as a great and rich land.