It Never Rains - It Pours

TWO native tribes living in what is almost certainly the wettest spot in the South Pacific have been advised to pack up their belongings and move out.

The 4,500 tribesmen live in the Kol and Extended Mengen districts of East New Britain (New Guinea), which last year had a rainfall of 450 inches.

At Pomio recently, the East New Britain District Commissioner, Mr. Harry West, told 150 village leaders representing the tribesmen that they could never hope to raise their living standards above bare sub sistence level if they stayed where they were.

He advised them to take their people to an Administration resettle ment area at Nakanai, on the west coast of New Britain, where land for 5,000 people was being prepared on the fringe of an area set aside for a new palm oil industry.

The Adminstration would arrange transport and lend them money to develop leaseholds.

Mr. West’s plea followed the discovery by a Government patrol into the Mengen area that more than 60 per cent, of the children under five were seriously underweight because heavy rains had washed out the food gardens.

The Administration has been sending special shipments of rice, canned meat, fish, and other protein foods into the area.