The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER MONDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1919. PAPUAN ADMINISTRATION

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 24, 15 December 1919, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER MONDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1919. PAPUAN ADMINISTRATION

Some months ago an article appeared in the “South Seas Association Journal,” of Japan, in which the writer, Mr Einzo Gord dversely criticised the Australian administration and contrasted Papua unfavorably with German New. Guinea. Mr Gord’s views may not have been widely Lead, 1 but they are typical of criticisms which for , want of., an answer have been widely accepted; ana the Commonwealth Government has wisely broken its rule of not replying to criticism by issuing a reply prepared by the LieutGovernor of Papua. Mr Gord’s views are based on three assumptions—that all tlie work of a German administration must be economically efficient; that an administration which gives first place to the interests of the native inhabitants must be economically unsound and otherwise unpractical, and that a fair idea of the state of Papua may be obtained by a visitor who does not go mil side Port Moresby. An answer to these assumptions and to the conclusions derived from them might be found in the Papuan annual report ; but annual reports are not widely read, and unaiiSAvered criticisms have been gravely prejudicial both to the development of Papua and to Australian credit, Mr Gord differs from other critics by making specific charges. He says

tration, Tlie Lieutendnt-Govoi’n-or shows from German statistics that the agricultural devlopmeirt of Papua from 1906 until ' the outbreak of war, has been. ,af least as rapid as that of‘’German New Guinea during’ the same period. The critic says that the growth • ofi. rubber im Papua is tar behind that of German New Guinea; but on the Ist of January, 1914, the Germans had 5018 acres in rubber, and the Australians (1600 acres, which have now been iiibreased to 8598 acres.- Mr Gord again says that the' German territory contained quite a respectable number of pure Germans, but the British only a few Eurasians, the fact being that the white population of Papua in 1914 was 1186 against 130 in German New Guinea, which number included'at least 89 Japanese. Tlve not; uncommon charge that the Austra Han administration must fail because it will not import labor from China or India is met by the Lieut-Governor with the admission that the development ot Papua might have been more rapid if labor had been imported, as it has been into the Federated Malay States, but he also states that this commercial progress would have been accompanied by the extinction of the native races. Some companies complain of the irksomeness of the delay in procuring labor and providing a vigil standard Sf treatment- for •ecruits, and of the impossibility of obtaining land,except,ithrough the Government; but m its work iu Papua the Australian administration has made its first consideration the justification ot the British Empire throughouf the world. Whilst placing the interests of the natives, first, however, the Government has not lost sight of its duty to make Papua contribute its share' to the common stock of the world. They have assisted development by pacifying the country in. a way which the Germans Imvc never, attempted,' by f educatingj the l gaining, their, Confidence. ~‘Appreciatipp of their policy lu.s^beery ( hiu(l,ei;ect by ex-. h ggerajed eatimnfcs of the fertility of the territory aiis pf., the thickness of the, population. But its merits have been acknowledged, since tbe number of recruits has gradually come to equal the demand, and since coconut and rubber trees, the two chief agricultural products, have come to bearing. The wealth of the country may be found to have dwii I greatly under-estimated when its oil and mineral deposits have been further tested. It has been said that the .natives of Papua would be reduced to tbe same status of degradation as tire Kanakas of tbe New Hebrides, but to-day,the care,and practical wisdom shown In the interests of the natives is ac-, knowledged by missionaries and administrators alike. It may well have been tbolight imposSible to find meiiviu Australia fit for the task of;administration and wib 1 big Go uptier take it. But the upperil to the sense of adventure and of patriotism has found them, and in spite of periods of “healthy” uppopularity their work has now gained world-wide recognition.