CONTROL OF PAPUA.

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 15886, 26 July 1923, Page 6

CONTROL OF PAPUA.

MALADMINISTRATION ALLEGED, Grave charges of maladministration of the mandated territory of New Guinea were made in a series of articles written by a special investigator sent by the Sydney Daily Telegraph to Rabaul and other New Guinea centres. The following are s-ome of his allegations: The Territory administration is unsatisfactory—both in form and in staff. The Expropriation Board, which manages the properties taken from the Germans, has most of the commerce of the territory in its grip, and is holding it in a state of suspended animation. The board’s working deficit equalled 50 per cent of its turnover last year. Many of its plantations are in a state of ruin. There is no land policy—therefore no new settlement. No agricultural development has taken place since 1920. Asiatics are replacing returned soldiers on some Government cocoanut plantations. It is alleged that Chinese have preference in the occupancy of trading stations. The legal system lends itself to numerous abuses. Prisoners are said to be punished for crimes which do not legally exist. The writer blames the system under which the Government of the territory appears to be in Melbourne, nine days’ journey from Rabaul and 20 days by the present mail route from the main ex-German Papuan mainland.