Remember?

Do You Remember?

Main news in “PIM” of 20 years ago, apart from the war, which had not yet reached the Pacific, was the death and the funeral of Sir Hubert

Murray, Lieut.-Governor of Papua

since 1908, and a world authority on Colonial administration. He died in hospital at Samarai on February 27, 1940, and was buried in Port

Moresby. (His widow, Lady Mildred,

died this year, on January 26, aged 78).

Papua was already “awaiting with in terest” announcement from Canberra of a successor to Sir Hubert. “PTM” reported that choice lay been Sir Hubert’s nephew, Mr. Leonard Murray, and Mr H. W. Cham pion, the Government Secretary. Leonard Murray eventually got the appointment. ♦ ♦ ♦ Fiji announced that it now had two battalions and a battery ready in its de fence, and that Suva was now “a defended port, ready night and day to hold off a raider and to make the port a haven of refuge”. Meanwhile, the whole population of Rabaul, New Guinea, turned out to watch the New Guinea quota of the Aus tralian Imperial Force march through the town before embarkation for Brisbane. ♦ * ♦ But Fiji soon learned it was going to pay for its defence forces. The Govern ment announced an Increase in personal income tax of 25 per cent, (to 1/3 in the £), an increase in company tax by 50 per cent, (to 1/6 in the £), an Increase in the residential tax from £1 to 25/- per year per Individual, and also increased port and import taxes. Unofficial Legco members protested. ♦ ♦ ♦ The shortage of shipping in the Pacific meant a big pile-up of copra in the Islands, and the situation was becoming serious.

It had been worsened when the British Government took command of all merchant shipping, including three of Carpenter’s copra ships which had been picking up in Islands’ ports. * * * The Japanese were reported to be plan ning to introduce a civil airline into Aus tralia by flying south from the Carolines and through New Guinea to the Australian mainland. “PIM” editorially was bitterly against the plan, warning that the Japanese pilots would make very good use of the knowledge they gained if war broke out. ♦ ♦ ♦ William (“Sharkeye”) Park, one of the discoverers of the Morobe goldfields in New Guinea, had died in Vancouver, Canada, in February. ♦ * ♦ An Apia correspondent reported that with cases of beer, pots and boilers stacked in the Court Room, Apia High Court looked and smelled like a brewery when a dozen Europeans and Samoans were charged with having manufactured home brew. The correspondent attacked the situation whereby drinkers were forced to make their own because of Samoa’s peculiar for medicinal-purposes-only liquor laws. Things haven’t changed there in 20 years.

F recent years there has been quite an amusing crop of stories concerning people being in aeroplanes at the wrong times.

Or more precisely, as one airline officer put it; “The stories are amus ing in retrospect, but were not always funny at the time.

In the recent Sydney to Port Moresby episode, a young wool classer and a law student simply walked out to a Qantas Lockheed Electra at Kingsford Smith Aero drome in Sydney, and went aboard.

They hid in one of the toilets while the aircraft left for Hongkong (and first stop Port Moresby).

One remained hidden throughout the flight, but the other claimed he mingled with the passengers.

They walked away from the air craft when it landed at Port Moresby, but were later picked up in the town. They were charged, convicted, and deported.

On many internal New Guinea services the purser is usually held responsible for the fare of any extra passenger who slips in without pay ing.

Trials and Tribulations

This happened to w e 11-known Qantas officer Mr. Pat Henry some years ago when he was purser on a New Guinea Mainland flight. He took a count of heads after take off and found there was one extra.

A show of tickets narrowed the culprit down to a native passenger who admitted he hadn’t paid, but said he had no money anyway. Pat naturally did not feel like footing the bill, so he put a bit of verbal pressure on the fellow in case the money was hidden away.

Sure enough the native (who had been mumbling away as though he had a plum in his mouth) finally agreed to pay. Pat held out his hand and the native spat out of his mouth a one-pound note and a few shill ings.

A veil has been drawn over sub sequent events in this little story.

Much more recently—only a month or so ago, in fact—a local agent for one of the Territory airlines found himself in a bit of trouble over the loading of a native labour line into a charter aircraft.

There were so many extras in the cabin compared with the number of passengers listed on the manifest that the situation had ceased to be funny.

Strong Tactics

In the absence of any ability to sort out who was rightfully on board and who wasn’t, he adopted strong tactics and ordered an entire group clustered in the after end of the cabin to get out and stay out quickly enough, but one little bloke kicked up a dickens or a row.

Luckily for the little bloke, the