They say they'll

localise NG's Public Service

A former aviation administra tor, a veteran public servant and two native teachers have just been given one of the toughest

administrative-political jobs in

Papua-New Guinea.

They are the members of the territory’s new Public Service Board which, as Papua-New Guinea moves towards self-government and inde pendence, will be expected to turn over the important jobs to New Guineans.

Chairman of the Public Service Board, Mr. Gerald Unkles, is a former senior officer of the Depart ment of Civil Aviation, and is back in P-NG now for the first time since the war.

“We’ve got a bloody long way to go, but we’re going to do everything we can to properly localise this Public Service—it’s a job we’ve got to do,” Mr. Unkles told his first news conference in Port Moresby.

He made no apologies for the good old Australian adjective, slipped in a few “damns” as well, and impressed the Press corps with his sincerity.

The others on the board: the former Public Service Commissioner G. D. S. Somers, the Papuan Sere Pitoi from Kapakapa Village near Port Moresby, and the New Guinean Paulius Matane from Iviran Village near Rabaul.

Sere Pitoi and Paulius Matane were both senior teachers, and acting dis trict inspectors, before the Depart ment of Education released them for their full-time Public Service Board appointments.

The reasons for the Public Service Board go back to 1945, when E, J.

Ward was announcing the “New Deal” for New Guinea. From 1945 to September, 1964, native officers going into the Public Service on Aus tralian qualifications, pay and con ditions and the Public Service bill was rising alarmingly.

Then Australia announced the highly unpopular salary reductions and completely reconstructed the Public Service, lowering the entry qualifications, creating channels for the rapid promotion of local officers —and cutting the salaries from 42 to 69 per cent.

Early in 1965, Mr. lan Downs in

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