P-NG Political Report Is

Trimmed To The Winds

From PlM’s Port Moresby Correspondent Probably the concensus of opinion in Papua-New Guinea on the nterim report of the Select Committee on Political Development is that t is the best piece of sail-trimming that is at present possible.

LL in one document it diverts k some of the blasts of the United tions; saves the face of Australia ile allowing it still to hold the se-strings and thus control; nudges indigenes a little further along the y to self-determination; but allows /ate enterprise a longer breathing ce in which to adjust its affairs.

Vhether it was arrived at entirely tn the investigations amongst the igenous people in September and ober is open to doubt, n many respects the views of the igenes have been used rather to firm the views of the six-member imittee; and the whole tone of the ument is somewhere forward of it the natives at present want.

'he report is, in short, very much Ferritorians of long-standing pre ed what it would be. It is, at the ie time, an indication of the swift ts in political expediency that e affected New Guinea in the last years.

Changed Climate

: is indicative of the changed deal climate of the Territory that Lloyd Hurrell, who was the most denary of the Territory’s politi s two years ago, should have ented the report and defended it; le Mr. B. Fairfax Ross, the :est-serving nominated member of Legislative Council, who has al s been something of a moderate, loudest in his criticism of it. [r. Hurrell did say, however, in debate that followed the presenta of the report to Legislative ncil, that he had been prepared ight for reserved European seats any reconstituted Legislative ncil but had found this unneces as there was complete agree t amongst natives that there must \ustralian elected members. [r. Fairfax-Ross said that anyone ing the report would wonder to t extent the Committe felt free )e guided by the people it inter red; or whether its recommenda -5 were largely predetermined by influences arising from the Foot »rt.

He also defended the system of nominated members. Although the people interviewed had felt no further need of them, he felt it was to the administering authority rather than to the field of potential electors that one should turn for advice in this regard.

Nor could anyone deny the recom mendation for 10 official Government members. They represented the tax payers and the Government of Aus tralia. They must continue to nomin ate the policy of the Council into the foreseeable future, said Mr. Fairfax- Ross, or otherwise a workable government would be impossible.

“I think that when members are dealing with this report,” he con cluded, “they might keep their feet on the ground and not let themselves be swept away with extravagant en thusiasm. They must realise that, however this Council is constituted, while we must rely on the Common wealth of Australia for the major part of our finance and while the Commonwealth of Australia is the administering authority, all (its) mat ters of policy must prevail, if indeed government itself is to prevail.

Mr. Fairfax-Ross was, of course, exactly right. No matter how the new Council is constituted, while the Aus tralian Government pays the piper, it must call the tune. The right of dis allowance by the Administrator of the Territory or the Minister for Territories ensures this—but few will deny that a Council, as proposed, will be much more difficult to push about.

For good or evil, the Legislative Council that had its early beginnings in the old Red Cross hall on Ela Beach, has come a long way since one of its foundation members, Mr.

E, A. James, now retired, described it as a “glorious debating society”.