bang but a whimper

This is the way history ends—not with a bang but a whimper

The Department of District Administration, 60years-old this year, has become the first “casualty” of a new campaign to reorganise and streamline the Papua-New Guinea Administration.

DDA and its 800 public servants (739 field officers) have been absorbed by the Department of the Administrator.

DDA’s Director, Mr. T, W. Ellis, has become the Secretary of the Department of the Administrator, displacing Mr. D. M.

Fenbury, who’ll now head a brand-new Department of Social Development and Home Affairs.

DDA has become a division of the Department of the Administra tor. The decision took most by surprise, but latest reports indicate that the reorganisation will not bring any changes in fieldwork authority or responsibilities, DDA began life in 1909 as the Papuan Department of Native Affairs with three officers —a Commissioner, a Protector of Papuans (mainly in the Torres Strait pearling industry) and a doctor —to police labour regu lations. Later, it became the Depart ment of Native Affairs and District Services and three years ago, the

Department of District Administra tion.

There was a serious attempt in 1965 to get rid of the department by allotting patrol officer respon sibilities (policeman, magistrate, post master, bank agency officer and numerous other titles) to specialist departments.

Canberra’s decision (with strong prompting from Administrator Hay) to absorb DDA within the Depart ment of the Administrator was one of Konedobu’s best-kept secrets for years . . . senior DDA staff, with the exception of Director T. W.

Ellis, knew nothing until the Admini strator issued a news statement.

The Administrator admitted that one of the prime factors for destroy ing DDA as an independent depart ment, was the repeated lack of liaison between DDA and his own depart ment during the recent Indonesian incursions, shootings and killings on the Australian side of the border.

District Commissioners and other field staff were reporting to Mr. Ellis, and he was reporting to Canberra and to the Minister.

Protocol and diplomacy were casualties during the border troubles, and the Administrator and Secretary of the Department of External Terri tories, Mr. George Warwick Smith, moved quickly to restore them.

By absorbing DDA and promoting Mr. Ellis as Secretary of the Depart ment of the Administrator, the Administrator has made sure that from now on, vital information from Mr. Ellis’ field men will reach Mr.

Ellis where he is readily available . . . within the Administrator’s own department.

But the experienced, straight-from the-shoulder former Secretary of the Administrator’s Department. Mr.

Fenbury, is widely regarded as the real casualty of the reorganisation.

He has been moved out to head a new Department of Social Develop ment and Home Affairs, consisting of mid-rank divisions and branches from several other departments.

Mr. Fenbury happy?

They include the Social Services and Community Development division from DDA, the Archives Section, the Bureau of Statistics, the Electoral Office, the Stores and Supply Branch, the Government Printing Office and the General Services division from the Treasury Department. The Administrator says that Mr. Fenbury will help the Administration put considerably more emphasis on problems of urbanisa tion, excessive migration from villages to towns, and the employ ment of school drop-outs.

If Mr. Fenbury was happy about having a new and highly versatile department of his own, he was not prepared to go on record as saying so.

This sad pen and ink tribute to the famous Department of Natives Affairs is by J. K. McCarthy, one of the last and probably the best-known Native Affairs Directors, who began his career as a patrol officer and now lives in retirement in Port Moresby.

The date 1884 is the year Papua was proclaimed as a British Protectorate and the real work of pacification

began.