Who's Making Poison In New Guinea?

Papua-New Guinea may be on the brink of getting itself a reputation for the things it does to visiting VlP’s

ONE of Western Samoa’s two Fautua, High Chief Malietoa Tanumafili 11, who represented his country at the opening of the Legislative Councils in Nether lands New Guinea and in P-NG in April, returned to Sydney and went straight into hospital.

He was there some weeks. In early May, he was discharged and went to New Zealand where he will stay another two weeks be fore going back to Apia.

Why was the Hon. Malietoa in hospital? None of the available sources in Sydney could say. In fact, no one outside the New Zea land Government representatives in Sydney seemed to know that he was there.

An Apia newspaper, Samoa Bulletin, said in an issue of late April that he had been admitted as a “critical case” and was “at tended by four specialists”.

The newspaper went on in its usual, unique journalistic style: “What puzzles us, however, is the Samoan Government’s silence on the matter. ... Is not this worthy citizen, our Fautua, deserving of Governmental mention of his ill ness? We can only say that if Government do not care—we, the public, do!”

That’s telling them. The Hon.

Malietoa will probably clear the mystery up himself when he gets back.

Meanwhile, for the record: When a PIM staff member went to call on the High Chief and the NZ Minister for Island Territories

in Port Moresby, in early April, Malietoa was unavailable. As we understand it, he was upstairs having a sudden nose-bleed. A doctor was called and fixed him up, and none of his party attached much significance to the incident.

He attended the opening of the Legislative Council, plus other fes tivities, and returned to Australia the following day. But we gath ered, from people who had been with him during the tour of NNG and P-NG, that he had got more worry out of it than pleasure.

It might be remembered that some years ago Australian Prime Minister Menzies finished up an overseas tour with some days in P-NG. It nearly killed him.

He returned to Australia and had about the only illness since becoming PM and somehow we got the impression that the Prime Minister didn’t care if he never saw NG again.

Last October, Viscount Dun rossil, Governor-General of Aus tralia, went to the Territory for a few days, picked up a wog and on return to Canberra was ad mitted to hospital. When he died a few months later it was authori tatively stated that the NG illness had “definitely shortened his life”.

It seems a pity that the local witch doctors can’t concentrate on “making poison” (the local equi valent of. pointing the bone), against the thousands of unim portant people who pass in and out of the Territory each year without getting any wogs, and give the VlP’s a break for a while.