Australia in New Guinea

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32637, 19 June 1971, Page 10

Australia in New Guinea

Australia In New Guinea. By L. P. Mair. Melbourne University Press. 247 pp. Bibliography and Index. I’ew Guinea, first sighted by the Portuguese in 1512, named by the Spanish in 1545, touched by Dutch traders, and partitioned between Britain and Germany in the nineteenth century, has become an Australian responsibility; one of the few colonial territories that has still to gain its independence. Western New Guinea has passed under Indonesian rule as the province of West Irian. The eastern half, divided into Papua (the former British colony in the south) and New Guinea proper (the former German colony in the north) has been under Australian rule since the First World War. Australian fears that other Powers, particularly Germany, would become established a few miles from northern Queensland, put pressure on the British Government to declare a protectorate over Papua in 1884. In 1906, the territory was transferred to the control of the new Australian Commonwealth. German New Guinea was occupied by Australian troops in 1914—at the same time as New Zealand was capturing German Samoa. As a result, Papua-New Guinea became two administrative areas, even though both were under Australian control. In Papua, a Lieutenant-Governor virtually reigned from Port Moresby, in a benevolent dictatorship which only gradually attempted to contact, let alone modernise, some of the most backward peoples in tire world. In the mandated territory of New Guinea Australian military officers continued to rule under orders from Canberra; they also continued some of the harsher colonial attitudes of their German predecessors. The whole system was disrupted suddenly by the Japanese attack early in 1942; since the Second World War the administration of the two territories has been combined and, gradually, a degree of self-government for the native peoples has emerged. But the division in attitudes still exists. "Old hands” in New Guinea still, sometimes, express

the attitude that “bashing the coons" is the only way to rule; Papuan Australians, on the other hand, are inclined to smug self-righteousness about their attitude to the backward peoples in their care. It should be no surprise, therefore, to find that many Papuans would like to see Australian rule continue indefinitely 'while the most militant native political movements tend to arise in New Guinea. Professor Lucy Mair takes this historical setting of New Guinea and from it attempts to analyse the economy, the government, and the land, labour and welfare policies in a territory which remains relatively unknown, even to its neighbours in the South Pacific. Professor Mair’s book grew originally from a course of lectures she gave 20 years ago to young Australian patrol officers bound for service in Papua-New Guinea. For this edition she has revised her work throughout, providing a useful compendium of facts and figures along with her interpretations. The author is ah authority on primitive societies' in Africa; she has relatively little first-hand knowledge of PapuaNew Guinea. Thus, for all her scholarship, this is not the definitive work on the territory although it is probably the best introduction available. Papua-New Guinea will certainly enjoy internal self-government within four years; full independence may not be much further away. With a population of at least two million it is easily the most important Pacific island and what happens there is of considerable importance for the whole southwest Pacific region. Professor Mair finds Papua-New Guinea suffers from a lack of resources and indigenous administrators; it is bedevilled by secessionist political parties and relies much too heavily on Australian aid to balance its budget, aid which Australian taxpayers may not be prepared to provide for much longer. She has warm praise for Australia’s somewhat belated attempts to prepare the territory to govern itself; she is not confident, however, that it is assured of a peaceful future. She concludes: “There is no particular reason to hope for a brighter future for New Guinea than the rest of the Third World is experiencing.”