Handbook

Another P-Ng

And A Thank-You

After no more than the usual frustrations and hang-ups the new edition of the Handbook of Papua and New Guinea is now available. It is the sixth since the first, modest edition was pub lished in 1954.

The new, sixth edition reflects the economic growth of the territory. In the last, fifth edition, 14 pages were devoted to a list of registered com panies operating in the territory. The list in the new edition has grown to 28i pages plus a further 151 pages of registered business names.

The simple classified directory for Port Moresby grew from 31 pages in the fifth edition to 81 pages in this new sixth edition. However, none of the usual sections have been neglected to accommodate the expanded com mercial sections. Most facts of Papua- New Guinea life, from airstrips to Yule Island lobsters, have, as usual, been covered.

In addition there is a new Gazetteer section, intended for people in a hurry who just want to know “where is it?” or “what is it?” About 270 P-NG place names are covered, from Abau to Zenag, There is also a new, three-colour folding map of the territory (extra copies of which can be bought for 50 cents each).

As the occasionally harassed editor of the Handbook I’d like to pay tribute to those people who helped to bring the new edition about—Papua-New Guinea public servants and some in the Common wealth Public Service. I’d like to do this because this year, in Australia, there has been a great deal of pub licity about muzzled and buck-passing public servants and the cloak and dagger stuff that is necessary before a few facts can be wrung from them.

There is, of course, a difference between getting the dirt on the latest political scandal and obtaining a set of labour statistics or a run-down on the health problems in the Highlands.

Nevertheless, with a few minor ex ceptions, I have continued with this sixth edition to have the upmost co operation from New Guinea and Ter ritories Dept, officialdom.

As a class therefore, public servants, maligned though they sometimes are, remain near the top of the Tudor

popularity poll.-

JT.

(Handbook Of Papua And New

GUINEA. Pacific Publications Pty. Ltd.

Price $3.50.)