The Growif

Problem O

Port Mores

By a Staff Reporter

Settlement of foreign nati the Port Moresby area is to be a “serious threat” t land rights and the pc authority of the local natiT it continues.

EVEN without further iirr tion, the natural increa population of the people a living there is likely to “immense proportions” from 1970 onwards, and bring w many problems.

This is the view of the exe officer of the recently-estaH New Guinea Research Unit (see on this page). Dr. D. G. Bettii In May this year Dr. BiJ visited Port Moresby and pre a map showing the use of la the town. The map revealeo town planning was seriousll fluenced by native land rights..

If the present trends contim thinks, a town of about 25,00( shortly find itself having to p( transport for workers living miles from their work—at a cost.

Problem Will Develop “Foreign” natives, says Bettison, seem to come to Moresby from three areas—the country and coastal settlements* the north and south—and he it important that their movemei: investigated now before the pro: develop apace.

He suspects Port Moresby all contains a “foreign” native p<i tion of about 14,000.

Dr. Bettison has suggested ti National University that this prc of urban development in Port Mo be looked at by the Research i as its first project in P-NG.

It would be one section of a field aimed at finding out answr such questions as why P-NG nr move about, whether their move 1 should be restricted, what effe<( settlement and migration has one way of living, and what immigration has on town growtr The Port Moresby project ii pected to be approved by the ; versity. But how soon the Res?

Unit can get on with other pn

(Continued on p. 135)

in the Territory will depend on the funds it can organise.

Besides the resettlement problems, the Research Unit has been looking into the possibility of running pro jects on property ownership (includ ing land), the use of “democratic associations” (trade unions, political parties, social clubs), and the difficulties of getting Western ideas across to native minds.

Members of the Unit have suggested land ownership is es pecially interesting because of the extreme range of viewpoints. There are on the one hand, according to the way they see it, the well-developed forms of private ownership repre sented by European planters, and on the other, native exponents of group ownership.

They say the adoption of either of these two extremes as a national policy may mean the “risk of conflict on the one hand, or very sterile and tardy ‘advancement’ on the other”.

They add; “Successful develop ment of the Territory must include an approach to property that is acceptable to the majority, yet con tains characteristics conducive to economic growth. Unless the gov ernment is to be allowed to persist

in its currently exaggerated role of controller of the distribution of property among the races and within all sections of the community (certain land may not be bought or sold except through the Administration) efforts must be directed at seeking new but widely acceptable institutions for the control of property”.

There isn’t any doubt that if the New Guinea Research Unit can come up with satisfactory answers to that problem then it will certainly make a name for itself.

The P-NG Administration is expected to introduce new native land laws by the end of the year, but it is un known to what extent they will solve the problem.

Dr. Bettison considers that an im portant feature of any investigation into the problem of communicating ideas to the natives would be a study of the roles and work of Administra tion officials.

He points out that as a rule, political parties, not civil servants, have an ear to the attitude of the electorate. Yet under New Guinea conditions, public servants were often committed, as their duty, to influence the native people and then report back to their senior officers their findings and interpretations on native re actions.

An agricultural officer may find himself having to teach correct procedures for coffee growing, although he may well know that coffee was oversupplied in the world and that the native investment might suffer from falling prices. In any case, adult education can be difficult, says the Research Unit, yet its methods and problems are least understood of any in the territory, despite the fact that the results are so crucial.