P-NG's long

pay case enters final stages

From a Port Moresby Correspondent

On January 9 the longest arbi tration hearing in South Pacific history will resume in a small courtroom in Port Moresby.

THE hearing began 14 months ago when the Papua-New Guinea Public Service Association applied for extra pay for local (New Guinean) officers employed by the territory’s Public Service. The local officers receive salaries far lower than those of Australian expatriates.

The claim has been opposed by the Administration and it has developed into a vital battle.

Most of the time evidence has been taken on behalf of the local public servants. There have been some harrowing tales of resentment, of the alleged development of a “national disaster”, and talk of a white man s paradise. A Government psychiatrist said there was a clear link between discrimination over salaries and mental health.

Since the hearing began in October, 1965, the arbitrator, Mr. L. G.

Matthews, has heard more than 100 witnesses for the Public Service As sociation talk about relations between Europeans and New Guineans and the inadequacy of present salaries.

Race relations

The reconstruction of the Territory Public Service in 1964, which pro vided for lower salaries for local officers, had generally damaged race relations in the territory, the arbitra tor has been told.

On November 30 the Administra tion finally began presenting its case.

After only a day the hearing adjourned for the Christmas break and when it resumes in January, the long battle will enter its final stages.

The Administration will then begin calling evidence in support of its case. The first witness will be Sir Leslie Melville, chairman of the Aus tralian Grants Commission, a member of the Development Advisory Service of the International Bank and a former chairman of the Tariff Board.

The Administration’s case, which

was outlined by Mr. J. H. Wootten, QC, seems to amount to a compre hensive review of Australia’s economic programme in the territory.

Mr. Wootten said that threats and warnings of trouble and dis satisfaction had been given by the Public Service Association. He said it must not become part of the tradition of P-NG that sectional groups and, in particular, the Public Service might better their position by such talk.

He said, “If public servants are going to create trouble unless they get salaries which they consider have appropriate relationship to those of an affluent country like Australia, then the sooner that problem is faced and dealt with the better.

“Governments all the time have to take decisions on matters of national interest, taking into account a wide variety of considerations. They cannot allow one section of the community to frighten them out of the decision they consider proper.

“It is to be hoped—and we feel confident that it will—that good sense and moderation will prevail, particu larly when the effects of these pro ceedings have dispersed.”

Mr. Wootten spoke of the terri tory’s dependence on Australian aid.

Apart from special cases, such as Israel and Jordan, no developing country of comparable size received more external aid per capita than Papua-New Guinea, he said. In terms of its contribution to a national budget, Australian aid to the terri tory was exceeded only in three cases.