Port Moresby, 21 December 1968
Restricted
I enclose two copies of a note I made after I visited Rabaul last weekend. The Minister may be interested to read this.
I draw to your attention the comments of Epineri Titimur.
Attachment
Impressions Of Visit To Rabaul
While in Rabaull had conversations with the Deputy District Commissioner,1 Mr. Yin Tobaining, and other members of the Gazelle Peninsula Local Government Council, Mr. Darcy, President of T.A.C,2 Archbishop Hoehne, Mr. J. K. Dowling,3 Mr. Epineri Titimur and one or two others.
Neither the Archbishop nor the D.D.C. was inclined to take the M.I.F. too seriously. They pointed to its small number, to the fact that its leadership tended to be on the lunatic fringe (Simpson and Tomot) and that it had touched the old rather than the young. Some of Simpson’s statements had caused the Archbishop to think he was losing his senses (for example the establishment of a military academy on the Duke ofYork Islands). While the number of branches was increasing, the membership was small. A proposal for a rally in Rabaul had been put off because of lack of support.
My discussion with Yin Tobaining revealed a deep-seated sense of frustration with Port Moresby. He spoke of the difficulty of getting decisions, the delays and misunderstandings. He thought that the only solution was for more power to be given to the districts and seemed to be heading for a sort of state system. I mentioned to him our hope that more delegations would be given, for example, to the District Commissioner for consultation with his District Advisory Council.4 He appeared to be satisfied with this kind of approach. He then went on to complain of the very small voice which the islands had in the House of Assembly with 13 members out of 94. Against that I argued strongly that the Administrator’s Council should not be overlooked because that was the top policy body on which elected members were represented and in this body the island region (and indeed New Britain itself) had two elected members out of 7. It was therefore not true to say that the voice of the islands was not heard in the top Councils in Port Moresby. Tobaining then went on to put forward the argument that Rabaul was highly unseen5 the mendicant areas of the rest of the Territory. I contested this strongly, saying that in fact all the Districts got back a good deal more than they put into the central budget. The greater part of the budget still came from Australia. It was the money from the Australian tax payer that allowed the Territory not only to help the poorer areas, but also to put in higher standards of services to areas such as the Gazelle. I sensed a certain misgiving in Tobaining about the M.I.F., but am convinced he is sincere when speaking of the frustrations of himself and other leaders. I also believe that his thinking is moving towards the statehood idea.6
During my evening with the Council, Epineri Titimur came up to tell me how impressed he had been with the state set up in Sydney. He thought that the state authorities had been very much more willing to help. He had been particularly impressed by the governor system. He asked me how one would go about appointing a state governor and I explained that it would be necessary to have a recommendation from a Prime Minister to the Queen. He seemed much impressed by this and I gathered too that he was now thinking about the benefits of a state system.
The Archbishop’s thesis was that the movement of the M.I.F. was not of great importance and would probably disintegrate in due course. He did appear though, to be impressed with the need for some form of decentralization. He also spoke of the natural economic communication and historical communication between Rabaul and Bougainville. Trade from Bougainville was channelled through the port of Rabaul. Many Bougainvillians had, over the years, migrated to New Britain and had found employment there. Rabaul was the natural commercial centre. He did not go so far as to repeat a remark to him by Peter Hastings, mainly that the islands were a natural political unit. However, his thinking could well be tending that way. I put the case for unity as an essential prerequisite to effective planning in a developing country. He appeared to accept this, or at any rate, did nor disagree with it. He agreed with me on the difficulty of keeping together the very many tribal groupings in the Territory and said that type of divisions existed amongst the peoples of New Britain as they did elsewhere. He agreed with me on the necessity of having some more national institutions in the area and said that he hoped the area7 of a conjoint teachers training college between the Administration and the Roman Catholics at Vuna Canal would come to fruition …
The D.D.C.’s view was also to the effect that the M.I.F. did not constitute a serious matter at the present, being confined to a relatively small number of persons. I asked him about the opinion of the younger men, the Rabaul ‘elite’. He said that he doubted if they were touched by the movement. There was a means of discussion with them through the Rabaul Discussion Group. However, this had not met very often in recent months.
Mr. Hopper,8 whom I met briefly said that he had become more worried about the M.I.F. since I had last spoken to him in Port Moresby in November. He had recently been out to see Nason Tokiala9 and found him worried. Unfortunately I did not have the chance to pursue the matter.
Mr. Darcy pressed strongly for the development of urban local government in Rabaul.
Mr. Dowling said he hoped the Administration would select Papuans and New Guineans from the more distant Districts for membership of boards and committees which dealt with Territory wide matters. I asked him to let me have some suitable names. None except that of Henry ToRobert10 occurred to him readily and ToRobert is already on the University Council.
[NAA: A452, 1968/5429]
1 J. W. Worcester.
2 Details unknown.
3 Dowling was Director of a number of Rabaul-based companies.
4 District Advisory Councils were non-statutory bodies which provided community representatives the opportunity to give advice to government on district affairs. Councils were chaired by the DC; other members were private citizens appointed by the Administrator (Judy Tudor (ed.), Pacific Islands yearbook and who’s who , Sydney, 1968, pp. 392–3).
5 A word or words appear to be missing here.
6 In a handwritten note to Barnes on the covering letter, Warwick Smith commented ‘I think Tobaining’s points support the case for a small Second Chamber’.
7 Presumably, this should read ‘idea’.
8 A.A. Hopper, President, Rabaul Chamber of Commerce.
9 Treasurer, MIF, and member, PNG Copra Industry Stabilization Board.
10 Economic Research Officer, Port Moresby branch, Reserve Bank of Australia.