Too Many Rules

For P-Ngs New

Parliament

From R. W. Robson, in Port Moresby My heart went out in sympathy nd understanding to Zure Makili

hirecnuoc, MHA, a stocky New

iuinean from Finschhafen ffiose official title here is Under

ecretary for the Treasury.

JPEAKING quietly but effectively 3 in simple English, he damned all lese ancient forms and formalities ith which this newest Parliament is othed, and begged for simpler rules id procedures, which a simple man luld understand.

Why, he wanted to know, could ot P-NG, said to be emerging into df-govenment, create for itself a lethod of government which could g understood by the people?

All this (he waved his arm around I the be-wigged and be-gowned fficials, the solemnly enthroned lace, the incomprehensible Standing ►rders) left so much confusion in his lind that he felt he was not of much se.

How right he was! In my lifetime, have worked as a Pressman in Par aments in four British countries, and ven now I do not understand the □mbersome procedures, and the how nd why of an agenda arrangement lat goes back to Cromwell’s day. lot only New Guineans, but also !uropeans, watching this Assembly

in action, confessed themselves be fogged.

I already had heard comment which had shaken some of the hope)' based on this new Assembly, “How is this Under-Secretary system working out?” I asked one of the most capable and experienced ob servers of the new administrative machine.

“Badly, so far,” he said. “Of the 10 Under-Secretaries, only one or two seem to be getting close to the job. The remainder are wandering around vaguely, trying to find some thing useful to do.

“They were supposed to stay in Port Moresby, and earn their £1.300

a year, plus £350 away-from home allowance, and they were quite will ing to do it; but most of them just got fed up after a few weeks of it, and went home.”

I asked the obvious question: “But whose fault is it? Can’t they take it?”

“They aren’t world-beaters,” he said. “Naturally, they’re limited by education and experience. But they’re mostly good and willing men, and if they were given some real help and sympathy, they’d serve eventually as the link between government by the Australian officials, and the emerging government.”

“Well, what’s the trouble?” (Over)

Zure Makili Zurecnuoc

“Most heads of departments to which they have been attached just :annot be bothered with them. For the one departmental chief who really tries to show them how administra tion works, there are half a dozen who merely give them some vague instruction and advice, and leave them alone.”

I saw evidence of it, the first day.

Fhere were no less than 81 questions an-notice on the Order Paper; and jvery one was answered by a depart mental head, reading from a prepared paper. Why (asked observers) were the Under-Secretaries not allowed to answer some of those questions?

Plea For Simplicity The Under-Secretaries have offices n the glittering new building along side the Assembly, and in the various departments. Information Under secretary John Guise, having been elected unanimously as Leader of the House (with Mathias Toliman as Deputy) has just announced his resignation gladly and the re signation of two more frustrated Under-Secretaries are likely.

Zurecnuoc’s plea for simplified procedures was emphatically sup ported by the Rev. Percy Chatterton, that experienced and wise LMS missionary. He called for more realism and commonsense in the task of moulding the new Assembly into Administration, and he referred especially to the highly technical legal system under which “white man’s justice” was brought to the Territory.

He said that very few natives could understand the language of the laws which they had to obey—and unless the language was simplified, they would not be able to understand the principles of British justice in the short time left in which they had to be prepared for self-government.

“Unless we do tackle this problem in the next few years, freedom and justice will be the earliest casualties when the day of independence comes,” concluded Mr. Chatterton, impressively.