NEW GUINEA ADMINISTRATION

Otago Witness, Issue 3556, 9 May 1922, Page 25

NEW GUINEA ADMINISTRATION

OFFICIAL’S SERIOUS CHARGE. (From Oub Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, March 9. Disquieting stories regarding the commonwealth administration of the mandated territory of New Guinea oontinue to reach Australia. Ever since the change from military to civil rule there have been allegations, all too frequently repeated, that the trend of affarrs was chaotic, and now confirmation in verv definite terms comes from Captain E. M. Wright, lately official secretary to the administration. An egregious error was made. Captain Wright thinks, in the haste with which the cocoanut plantations were transferred from their former German owners to the new administration. Apparently these valuable properties, which under German rule were a source of considerable wealth, have been transferred to men without the expert knowledge essential to their profitable management, with the result that their output has been diminished and their capital value has deteriorated. Worse than that, the development of the territory appears to be paralysed for sheer lack of the necessary ordinances. Men cannot build houses, because there are no land laws under which they can obtain land. They cannot prospect for the minerals which the territory possesses in such abundance, because there are no mining laws. A Ministerial visit to New Guinea has been mooted for months past. It would appear to be an urgent necessity that some responsible Minister should visit the territory without delay, study its problems on the spot, and restore a semblance of order.