national self-reliance'

Mr. Somare's target is national self-reliance'

Prime Minister Mr Somare plans to continue running his country as he finds it despite legacies of long colonial rule.

A new national self-reliance will be his main target, drawing on what he calls the commonsense of the people. But there will be no tearing down of institutions, ideas or systems simply because they were inherited from a colonial past.

Mr Somare said this at a press conference in Port Moresby only hours after the birth of indepen dent Papua New Guinea, ruled for nearly a century by Australia.

“It would be a wrong decision for any leader to try to get a big axe and chop existing things down,” Mr Somare said.

Newsmen from his own country, from Australia, and from the world at large had asked him if he intended to remould a society emerging from the patterns of long colonial-type administration. But there was no sug gestion of a new broom sweeping clean—there won’t even be a cabinet

reshuffle in honour of independence and no policy changes are planned.

His answers showed there was still a trace of bitterness that Australia was not maintaining the level of aid which he believed had been promised.

But he shrugged off the bitterness with a belief that he had all the more incentive to work for internal self reliance—and that his country would be the better for it.

Mr Somare said that until Inde- 1 pendence Day when PNG had been under Australian administration, PNG had a similar position to the Aus-i tralian states in being entitled to some! specific measure of aid.

“But now, as the Prime Minister of an independent nation I have changed my attitude—we have no prerogative to say what aid Australia should give us,” Mr Somare said.

The result would be a true sense of independence in PNG, coupled with the need to be self-reliant.

Mr Somare forecast a low-key initial approach to foreign relations, and said there was no doubt that his country was an integral part of the Pacific community.

He spoke of good with Indonesia and Australia which he believed would continue to exist.

But he said, at the same time, that he would “deal with the dispute over the Queensland-PNG border at a time to be fixed”.

The dealings would be with Aus tralia, because PNG had no part to play in Australian relationships with its states. • There was temporary drama in the 1,700-mile Brisbane to Port Moresby Independence Air Race, staged by the South Pacific Aero Clubs, Port Moresby, when one of the contestants ran out of fuel and was forced to land on a beach in the Gulf District. Fortunately a heli copter happened to be nearby, who supplied him with fuel and picked up his passenger so the plane could make a light-weight takeoff. A total of 44 planes and 150 people took part in the race, which ended on Independence Day. First prize in the VFR section was taken by Mrs Jan Mackay, of Melbourne, and in the IFR section by Tony Schwerdt, of Adelaide. Mrs Mackay, flying her Piper Commanche, is an experienced pilot with 1,500 hours of private flying. Two Papuan New Guinean pilots took part. They were Joe Walames, with Air Niugini, and Leo Glaglas, of the Civil Aviation Agency.