PAPUA'S DEVELOPMENT.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1435, 9 May 1912, Page 5

PAPUA'S DEVELOPMENT.

PROSPECTS ARE VERY BRIGHT. By Telegraph-Press Ateoolation-Copyrleht / ' Sydney, May 8. The Lieutenant-Governor of Papua (Jud»o Murray) is visiting Sydney._ He states that industrial development in the Possession is proceeding satisfactorily, and that the prospects are very bright. The Administration is introducing Javanese labourers for a term of three years for the purpose of teaching the natives how to tap rubber and cut sisal lemp. There is iplenty of native labour available, but the natives are deficient an skill, which the Javanese will impart. : JAVANESE FOR PAPUA. '•Like the other natives of the Pacific, tho Papuan does not regard work as the chief end of man. Nature has provided him with all ho requires in the way of sustenance. He has feu* wants, and is not worried by tailors' bills or such like ills. So, in spite of the fact that thero aro over a quarter of a million Papuans in the territory over which the Commonwealth flag flies, considerable difficulty is ■experienced in inducing a sufficient number of them to work tho comparatively few plantations that have bcon established there. Some- Javanese labour has therefore to be imported. Japanese and Chinese were talked about,, but.,.it,,was considered that if colonies of them were established so . close to Australia they might some day become a.menace. But pie- Javanese' arc' harmless, and accordiiialy the choice has fallen on them.

Dr. F. Goldsmith, chief medical otflcer 5n Papua, and a member of tho Ptipr.nn Legislative Council, stated recently that as sufficient native labour was not coming forward, it had been decided to bring tout a. certain number of Javanese to do skilled work on plantations. The imported labonr on each plantation vrae .not to exceed 10 per cent, of tho local labour employed.