P-NG Group

Where Islanders [?] Meet Move For A P-NG Group

By a Staff Writer

ie word has gone around ey and the Islands that the Guinea Bar is not what is.

S talk is that the bar, in ydney’s well known hostelry f Ushers, is losing some of ientele—that New Guinea men congregate there as often as have. almost 30 years it has been centre of Papua-New Guinea when the boys are in town, as “Ethel’s bar” (after the aid who ran it), and com ively recently as the “New 3a Bar”, with its own sign i book for addresses, and the newspapers, and everything.

"Ethel's" Day

en the original Ethel left, PIM the fact—in its issue of nber, 1939 —in these words: iere is dismay in remote s in New Guinea, and itations among hard-boiled ?ers in the Solomons. Certain ig men in distant Fiji have *ed a day of mourning. For news has gone forth that i’s bar’ no longer exists in a mown Sydney hostelry, and Miss Ethel Paulter, a sunny ed woman who created a e Islands institution, has re into private life. For years ’s bar’ has been a rendezvous islands men on furlough in ;y. Almost any day, one could there men from the Islands — t always divided into groups ling to Territories. le went there to inquire after friends and acquaintances, or t the latest news of home— i’ always could be depended for the latest and most le information. One entrusted dth messages for one’s friends, t with her a few £5 notes, to le against that inevitable sad /hen one must face the home trail, stoney-broke. And one led one’s secret ambitions and and sorrows to ‘Ethel’ —it was ff her that, if she ever talked, vould wreck all the Govern s and half the homes in five tones. To Islands men, ey, without ‘Ethel’s bar’, will erely a place like Melbourne.”

But of course, when Ethel left it was not really the end of the bar at all. There was a long succession of other ladies who served the amber fluid and listened, with as much attention, to the peculiar problems of the men from the Territory. One or two of them even married Islands men. It be came also, less of an “Islands” bar, and more of a New Guinea bar.

And, of course, Sydney without a New Guinea bar would not be like Melbourne, because Melbourne these days has a bar, too, in Phair’s hotel, which was popular follow ing the inauguration of the Papua- New Guinea Association in Mel bourne about two years ago.

Another 20 Years?

As the calamity howling over Ethel’s departure, 20 years ago, was not warranted, the chances are that the New Guinea Bar at Ushers is good for yet another 20 years despite the reported falling-off in New Guinea custom. Meanwhile, however, another spot has been growing up in Sydney as a common meeting ground for New Guinea people—Toby’s Tavern in King Street, just below Castlereagh Street, and only a stone’s throw from Ushers. Toby’s is not a bar.

It is licensed restaurant under the command of Jerry Kearney (who got his name in the Sydney news papers recently as chef at an open air barbecue tendered for Princess Alexandra of Kent).

Kearney has taken an interest in New Guinea affairs, and for about eight years now his tavern has been an unofficial meeting place, especially for patrol officers of the Australian School of Pacific

Mine host Jerry Kearney looks the real picture of a chef as he barbecues steak and eggs for Princess Alexandra of Kent. See story.

inistration, and their wives or friends. tely, there has been a move, sored by ASOPA men, to form ew Guinea Association after style of the one operating in lourne, except that it would an extremely loose organisa with no office-bearers or ings.

A NG Book, Too e suggestion is that Jerry ney’s premises would make a unofficial centre, because ney himself is happy to put Guinea people in touch with other, and will instal a book, e possibility of establishing an organisation was first dis d some months ago by Assis- District Officer Bill Brown, stationed at Telefomin, who ssed it with Patrol Officer John iey and other PO’s doing es at ASOPA. ;rol Officer Des Murphy, who lis year’s president of the 3 A Students Union, said in )er: “The union will be happy Derate as a contact for New ea people, together with ney. Relations between Ad oration people and private prise in P-NG have always close. New Guinea people have le same community of interests sver their jobs, and down on , as in the Territory, they mix tier. e suggest that any New Guinea e in town—male, female, gold :, planter or judge, it’s all the —contact somebody at the i on the ASOPA phone >er, or Jerry Kearney, if they to be put in touch with is or others down on leave, lice bearers of the Union will je from year to year, because >oys are only doing one-year es now, but there will always omebody to carry on the ct work. There will be some s organised, too. We have a ne arranged for early Novem a New Guinea Cabaret Ball, Lrst of its kind, which should i to the small hours.”