Community service for teachers, journalists and students

From BRUCE COPELAND

 

Dear friends,

 

It would be useful if Papua New Guinea students and teachers learned the derivation of words based on Latin and Greek roots. Combine these with an understanding of prefixes and suffixes and there is access for all to hundreds of words.

We are long distant members of the Roman Empire that brought Latin to England, France, Italy and Spain. Then Normans came to England and

brought French words based on Latin. So English double-dipped into Latin. Australians brought English to PNG.

Let us explore a selection of Latin roots. We have a new way of looking at English. There are not just thousands of words. There are dozens of word groupings.

It would be good if the roots of words were returned to the class room. Students would enter a new world of language.

 

Ago (actus) – I do.

 

agent, act, actor, react, reagent, agile,

 

Ameas (amat) – Love, happy

 

amorous, amicable, amamas (tok pisin), amour (French) amo (Italian), amiable.

 

Aves –the birds

 

Aviation, aviary,

 

Cado ( cassus) – I fall

 

accident, cadence, cascade, decay, decadent, decadence.

 

Capio (captus) – I take

 

Capture, captive, captivate, escape, captivity

 

Caput – the head.

 

Cap, captain (English), Kapitano (Italian), Kapitain (Spanish)

capital, caption, decapitate, recapitulate.

 

Cedo (cessus)  - I go

 

Proceed, procession, recede, recession, concede, concession

intercede, intercession, cede, cession, precede, precedent.

 

Centum – a hundred

 

Century, cent, centurion,

 

Cor – the heart

 

Cordial, core, Coeur (French), courage, courageous, courtesy,

Sacre Coeur ( French Catholic)  Cor blimey ( English slang)

 

Corpus – the body

 

Corporal, corpse, corpulent, corporation. Corps, Corpus Christi

(Italian)

 

Curro (cursus) – I run

 

Current, incur, incursion, recur, recurrent, course, cursory, cursive

discourse,

 

Decius – ten

 

Decimal, decimate, decade,    

 

Dens (dentis) – a tooth

 

Dentine, dentist, dental, denture, indent, indentation

 

Dico ( dictus) – I say

 

Predict, prediction, indict, indictment, diction, indicate,

indication, dicta-phone, dictionary,

 

Duco (ductus) – I lead

 

Duct, viaduct, oviduct, conduct, conductor, conduction

Duce ( Italian), reduce, reduction, deduce, deduction,

produce, product, production, introduce, introduction.

 

Facio ( factus) – I make

 

Factory, manufacture, facile,  

 

Fero ( latus)  - I bear

 

Refer, transfer, confer, reference, conference, relate,

translate, translation, collate

 

 

Finis – the end

 

Finish, pinis (tok pisin), finite, infinite, final, finality

 

Flecto (flectus) I bend

 

Flexible, inflexible, reflect, reflection, deflect, deflection.

flex, inflexion. reflex

 

Fort (fortus) – strong

 

Fort, fortitude, fortissimo ( Italian),  Codral Forte

 

Frango ( fractus) – I break

 

Fragile, fraction, fracture, fragment

 

Fundo (fundus) – I pour

 

Fund, funnel, profound, refund

 

Ge –the earth

 

Geology, geography, geophysical,

 

Gradior – a slope

 

Grade, gradual, gradient, gradually, degrade,

 

Homeo – the same

 

Homo sapiens, homophobia, homosexual, homogeneous

 

Jacio (jectus) – I throw

 

Inject, injection, project, projection, projector, reject, rejection

eject, ejection, ejaculate, deject, conjecture, interject, interjection,

 

Legis – law

 

Legal, illegal, legislate, legislation, litigation  

 

Lego (lectus) - I gather

 

Lecture, college, religion, lecturn, collect, collection

 

Manus – the hand

 

Manual, manuscript, manage, management

 

Mater – a mother

 

Maternal, matron, ma’am, mama,

 

Pars (partus) – a part

 

Part, particle, particular, partition, participate, apartment, compartment, repartee.

 

Pater – a father

 

Papa, paternal, patron, pastor,

 

Pleo – I fill

 

Complement, implement, implementation, supplement

 

Plico – I fold

 

Application, apply, reply, imply

 

Porto (portus)  - I carry

 

Port, report, transport, transportation, import, importation,

export, exportation, deport, deportation, deportee, important.

 

Premo (pressus) – I press

 

Press, pressure, express, depress, impresario (Italian) supreme,

 

Rex (regis) – a rule

 

Regal, vice-regal,  tyrannosaurus rex

 

Pono (possus)  - I place

 

Postpone, opponent, expose, impose, repose, depose, deposit,

composite, composition,          

 

Scando (scandus) – I climb

 

Ascend, ascent, descend, descend, scandal

 

Secto (cidus)_ - I cut or kill

 

Dissect, dissection, bisect, intersect, intersection, suicide,

genocide, insecticide, spermacide, resection, section, sector,

 

Scribo ( scriptus) – I write

 

Describe, description, inscribe, inscription, conscription, scribe

scripture, scribble, prescribe, prescription,

 

Specio (spectus) I see

 

Special, specialty, inspect, inspection, respect, spectacles, species,

introspect, introspection

 

Tenio (tendus) – I hold

 

Tender, tendon, extend, intend, intention, contend, contention,

pretend, pretension, portend, tension,   

 

Video (vissus) – I see

 

Video player, DVD, vision, visible, invisible,

 

Venio – I come

 

Venture, convene, convention, invent, convent, veni-vidi-vinci

(I came- I saw- I conquered)

 

Verto (versus) – I turn

 

Revert, reverse, inverse, converse, convert, conversion, versus

 

Vinco -_I conquer

 

Convince, vanquish, invincible, HMS Invincible.

 

Volvo (volvus) – I roll

 

Revolve, revolver, Volvo car, involve, revolution, convolution,

convolvulus (flower)

 

If you are interested in words, please keep these on your computer and run your eye down the list from time to time. I learned these words from Grades 7-12 from 1958 to 1963. I will never forget. 

 

Regards,

 

Bruce Copeland BA BEdSt 

Teacher of English in PNG 

 

Papua New Guinea estimates national HIV prevalence at 0.9% in 2009

PORT MORESBY: The PNG Department of Health (NDOH) and National AIDS Council Secretariat (NACS) have estimated that national HIV prevalence in 2010 is 0.92% with an upward trend.

The latest estimate is based on an analysis conducted in 2009 using most recent data available across the country.

The new estimates of HIV prevalence were carried out by a panel of national and international experts using data on HIV tests among pregnant women at Antenatal Clinics (ANCs) in Highlands, Southern, Momase, and New Guinea Islands regions.

The results were collated and finalised during a joint NDOH-NACS workshop in June 2010.

PNG has been using higher estimates of prevalence since 2007 based on data from a relatively small number of rural and urban sites.

Since then there has been a substantial increase in number of health facilities conducting HIV tests among antenatal mothers and this information has provided enough data to get a better picture of the epidemic in 2009 with a revised 0.92 % prevalence of HIV among adults aged 15-49 years.

 The findings also indicate that there might possibly be an initiation of levelling-off in the spread of epidemic which, however, requires further careful investigations.

National AIDS Council chairman Sir Peter Barter, while expressing his views on the 2009 HIV analysis, said: “The latest estimates have provided us an opportunity to understand the dynamics of HIV spread in the country and see how we are responding to the disease.

“We should not become complacent or relaxed as a result of latest prevalence estimates.

“To me the latest figure of 0.9% is just a step forward towards having a better and realistic picture of HIV/AIDS in Papua New Guinea as a result of ten-fold improved surveillance.

“The problem of HIV/AIDS is enormous in our country and we need to invest equally enormous resources to fight it out.

“I do not doubt the spread of HIV in high risk groups remains alarmingly high.”

The new estimate has shown substantial increase in the number of ANC sites providing testing services throughout the country from 17 in 2005 to 178 in 2009 resulting in more information being available to draw from.

The latest estimates imply that there have been improvements in the disease surveillance and access to better HIV-related services; however, all other HIV indicators including number of deaths, number of orphans, new HIV cases, stigma, and discrimination do not provide encouraging signs.

The HIV occurrence has been found to be the highest in Highlands and Southern Region (1.02% and 1.17%, respectively) with lower but increasing estimates in Momase and New Guinea Islands (0.63% and 0.61%, respectively).

The total estimated number of people living with HIV in 2009 is 34,100.

Of these, 31,000 were estimated to be adults aged 15+ and 3,100 were estimated to be children.

Overall, about 3,200 people were estimated to be infected in 2009, while more than 1,300 people were estimated to have died from AIDS in the same year.

This analysis also noted a substantial increase in the number of people who are benefiting from counselling and treatment services.

There has also been an increase in the number of newborns able to benefit from the prevention programmes for parent to child HIV transmission.

The new HIV estimates, while presenting the latest overview of the prevalence, have some limitations also to the accuracy of data.

Although much more data is available, the quality of this data is still variable.

There were only a small number of sites that had consistent data.

The team of experts who conducted these estimates has recommended to (a) strengthen surveillance activities, (b) invest in sustainable prevention and treatment efforts, (c) use behavioural and STI surveillance data for interpretation of prevalence trends, and (d) conduct a national household HIV prevalence survey.

Sir Peter said that regardless of what appeared to be a reduced prevalence rate, the first priority must be given to prevention and the strategy was clearly outlined in the National Prevention Strategy and would be evident in the 2011-2016 National HIV Strategy due to be released in the very near future.

Papua New Guinea estimates national HIV prevalence at 0.9% in 2009

PORT MORESBY: The PNG Department of Health (NDOH) and National AIDS Council Secretariat (NACS) have estimated that national HIV prevalence in 2010 is 0.92% with an upward trend.

The latest estimate is based on an analysis conducted in 2009 using most recent data available across the country.

The new estimates of HIV prevalence were carried out by a panel of national and international experts using data on HIV tests among pregnant women at Antenatal Clinics (ANCs) in Highlands, Southern, Momase, and New Guinea Islands regions.

The results were collated and finalised during a joint NDOH-NACS workshop in June 2010.

PNG has been using higher estimates of prevalence since 2007 based on data from a relatively small number of rural and urban sites.

Since then there has been a substantial increase in number of health facilities conducting HIV tests among antenatal mothers and this information has provided enough data to get a better picture of the epidemic in 2009 with a revised 0.92 % prevalence of HIV among adults aged 15-49 years.

 The findings also indicate that there might possibly be an initiation of levelling-off in the spread of epidemic which, however, requires further careful investigations.

National AIDS Council chairman Sir Peter Barter, while expressing his views on the 2009 HIV analysis, said: “The latest estimates have provided us an opportunity to understand the dynamics of HIV spread in the country and see how we are responding to the disease.

“We should not become complacent or relaxed as a result of latest prevalence estimates.

“To me the latest figure of 0.9% is just a step forward towards having a better and realistic picture of HIV/AIDS in Papua New Guinea as a result of ten-fold improved surveillance.

“The problem of HIV/AIDS is enormous in our country and we need to invest equally enormous resources to fight it out.

“I do not doubt the spread of HIV in high risk groups remains alarmingly high.”

The new estimate has shown substantial increase in the number of ANC sites providing testing services throughout the country from 17 in 2005 to 178 in 2009 resulting in more information being available to draw from.

The latest estimates imply that there have been improvements in the disease surveillance and access to better HIV-related services; however, all other HIV indicators including number of deaths, number of orphans, new HIV cases, stigma, and discrimination do not provide encouraging signs.

The HIV occurrence has been found to be the highest in Highlands and Southern Region (1.02% and 1.17%, respectively) with lower but increasing estimates in Momase and New Guinea Islands (0.63% and 0.61%, respectively).

The total estimated number of people living with HIV in 2009 is 34,100.

Of these, 31,000 were estimated to be adults aged 15+ and 3,100 were estimated to be children.

Overall, about 3,200 people were estimated to be infected in 2009, while more than 1,300 people were estimated to have died from AIDS in the same year.

This analysis also noted a substantial increase in the number of people who are benefiting from counselling and treatment services.

There has also been an increase in the number of newborns able to benefit from the prevention programmes for parent to child HIV transmission.

The new HIV estimates, while presenting the latest overview of the prevalence, have some limitations also to the accuracy of data.

Although much more data is available, the quality of this data is still variable.

There were only a small number of sites that had consistent data.

The team of experts who conducted these estimates has recommended to (a) strengthen surveillance activities, (b) invest in sustainable prevention and treatment efforts, (c) use behavioural and STI surveillance data for interpretation of prevalence trends, and (d) conduct a national household HIV prevalence survey.

Sir Peter said that regardless of what appeared to be a reduced prevalence rate, the first priority must be given to prevention and the strategy was clearly outlined in the National Prevention Strategy and would be evident in the 2011-2016 National HIV Strategy due to be released in the very near future.

More protests at LNG project site

Caption: Local employees at the Kobalu camp outside the Hides gasfield throwing their helmets on the ground and ready to walk off their jobs in protest over poor working conditions and welfare yesterday. They also protested to support demands to the state and ExxonMobil by local landowners and landowner leader Andrew Pulupe (centre with petition paper).-Nationalpic by ANDREW ALPHONSE

 By ANDREW ALPHONSE

CONSTRUCTION work at the Kobalu supply and forward base for the multi-billion-kina PNG LNG project in Tari, Southern Highlands, was yesterday forced to stop by angry landowners as discontent grew at the project site, The National reports.

More than 100 local employees, attached with international contractor Red Seas Housing Services Ltd, also supported the landowners and walked off their jobs.

They complained of poor working condition and unfair treatment.

Kobalu landowner leader Andrew Pulupe forced the gates of the forward base shut at 3.30pm yesterday and ordered expatriate employees of Red Seas to vacate the premises, allowing only the guards to remain behind to look after the property.

Pulupe, who is chairman of Kobalu Joint Venture (JV) Ltd and Hewai Investments Ltd, the two landowners companies from Kobalu, said they supported moves by Hides landowners to force a stop-work until the government and LNG project developer, ExxonMobil, address some of their demands.

Pulupe said Kobalu landowners also wanted to benefit from the government’s business development grants, or seed capital, which other landowners would be getting.

He said they also wanted the state to honour its ministerial commitments made during the umbrella benefits sharing and licensed-based benefits sharing agreements for the LNG project last year.

They also demanded that ExxonMobil restructure the umbrella landowner company, Hides Gas Development Corporation (HGDC), and include landowner companies from each PDL and facility areas as shareholders.

Pulupe had supplied local unskilled labour to Red Seas to construct the forward base which would accommodate more than 200 employees at the site.

The base would also store materials and equipment for the construction of the LNG pipeline, and act as an aviation centre for helicopters.

An expatriate site manager refused to accept a copy of the petition containing the landowner demands when Pulupe attempted to deliver it to him in his makeshift office inside a shipping container yesterday afternoon.

The expatriate told Pulupe and The National to "f***" off and leave his premises and talk to ExxonMobil.

This infuriated Pulupe, who called the local employees together outside for a briefing and asked them to walk off their jobs. In that meeting, the employees complained to Pulupe about their poor working conditions.

They said Red Seas and HGDC had failed to provide proper uniforms and safety gears.

They said they were also told to live out of camp and come to work, and were not provided proper meals daily.

A Red Sea expatriate, when asked to comment on the complaints raised by the local workers, referred The National to HGDC and ExxonMobil.

Apart from Kobalu, work had also stopped at Hides 1 (PDL 1) and Hides 4 (PDL 7) due to landowner protests. Work had stopped since Aug 7.

Polye: I am ready to be Prime Minister

THE National Alliance party’s highlands bloc is rallying behind Deputy Prime Minister Don Polye for the party’s leadership when Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare steps down, The National reports.

In a show of solidarity, members of the Highlands bloc travelled with Polye to Laiagam last Friday to address a huge crowd in the rural township.

Those who travelled included Western Highlands Governor Tom Olga, Tambul-Nebilyer MP and Civil Aviation Minister Benjamin Poponawa, Mul-Baiyer MP and Internal Security Minister Sani Rambi, Wapenamanda MP Miki Kaeok and Lagaip-Porgera MP Philip Kikala.

Polye and his team travelled to Laiagam at the invitation of Kikala to officially close the week-long West Enga tumbuna cultural show.

Polye, who is the highlands deputy NA leader, told the huge crowd that had packed the Laiagam oval that he was ready to take over the party’s leadership when Sir Michael steps down.

Speaking in Engan dialect for maximum impact, Polye explained that the latest political events that saw the sacking of former deputy prime minister Sir Puka Temu was not an attempt to change the government, but an internal leadership issue.

He said the opposition seized the opportunity in creating political instability in pushing for a vote of no-confidence.

Polye said the NA leadership was not restricted to a particular district, province or region, and he would go for it.

 

 

Ministerial committee on Ramu fails to meet

By SINCLAIRE SOLOMON

 

A HIGH-powered ministerial committee, set up four years ago to expedite the K3.2 billion Ramu nickel project in the Bismarck Range of Madang, has never met, The National reports.

The project, Papua New Guinea’s first nickel and cobalt mine, is already 12 months behind schedule and costing developer Ramu NiCo (MCC) more than K7 million a day.

The committee was set up by a special meeting of the national executive council on April 13, 2006, after ministers were given a background brief of the mining at Kurumbukari in Usino-Bundi electorate and refinery operations at Basamuk Bay in Rai Coast electorate.

Its job was to “oversee and expedite the finalisation and implementation of the Ramu nickel-cobalt project” and be led by the mining minister as chairman. The minister at the time was Michael Ogio.

Other ministers in the committee were from works, national planning and monitoring, labour and industrial relations, foreign affairs and immigration, environment and conservation, lands and physical planning and health.

The fact that its existence was not widely known was evident in labour and industrial relations’ moves last year to remove some Chinese workers from Ramu NiCo for failing to fulfil PNG work permit requirements.

Unbeknownst to the department, the special NEC meeting had also directed the foreign affairs and immigration minister to use his powers under relevant legislation “to give appropriate visas to foreign nationals with relevant qualifications and experience required in the construction and development phase of the project”.

The man responsible for all mining and exploration activities in Madang, John Bivi, last week confirmed the formation of the ministerial committee exclusively for the Ramu nickel project but had not received any correspondence and deliberations to date.

“As far as I know, it has never sat,” Bivi, who heads a one-man provincial mines office, said. “It shows clearly the government’s lack of total commitment to the project which the provincial government fully backs.

“It is another case of too much talk, too much promises and no action to back them up,” he said.

Similarly, a spokesman for Ramu NiCo said at the weekend they were not aware that such a ministerial committee existed.

Ramu NiCo is already locked in a court battle with a group of landowners from the Basamuk Bay area who opposed the company’s deep sea tailings placement system.

The latter has been granted an interim injunction stopping work on the tailings system until the substantive issue is heard by Justice David Cannings in Madang this week.

To add to Ramu NiCo’s woes, the acting chief commissioner of the Land Titles Commission Benedict Batata had refused Madang provincial administration’s request for the special land titles commissioners to resume hearing outstanding Ramu nickel project land disputes.

Bivi said they had been informed by the department of justice and attorney-general that the disputes, being heard by the LTC until the death of its chairman, would be listed as an ordinary application for land tenure conversion to be deliberated on at a later date.

“It is obvious that we have not been supportive of this project from day one,” he said.

Bivi said they had noted new Mining Minister John Pundari’s pledge to fast-track the Ramu nickel project, hoping he would revive the ministerial committee and not sit back like his predecessors.

 

Millions 'lost' in cross border trade

By JEFFREY ELAPA

 

MORE than K40 million has been taken across the PNG-Indonesia land border in West Sepik over the years, Customs and PNG Defence Force personnel in Vanimo have revealed, The National reports.

The amount could be higher because of the many illegal trade activities taking place in the border crossing areas, they said.

The government officers estimated that about K1.8 million was transacted between Indonesian vendors and PNG buyers every day around the border town of Wutung and the trading post of Skoow in Indonesia.

Many Papua New Guineans, from Vanimo and surrounding villages, flocked to the trade centre to buy cheap Indonesian food and household goods, clothes and electrical goods.

The trading has resulted in Vanimo running low on cash and many businesses in town were closing because they could not compete with the cheap Indonesian products being sold.

They said in order to plug the leak, the BSP Vanimo branch was only allowing a maximum withdrawal of K100 a day so that the cash flow was maintained.

The officers, who wanted to remain anonymous, said a lot

of people were also entering

the country undetected and many illegal activities also took place undetected.

The officers said the border could be better monitored if they had more manpower and improved living and working conditions.

Meanwhile, Bulolo MP Sam Basil, who was in Vanimo over the weekend, said the free trade on the border should be controlled, adding that the government should regulate the free trade along the border so that such a big flow of cash did not get across the border undetected.

Basil also encouraged the people to study the Asian way of running businesses so that they could be as competitive as their Indonesian counterparts.

Back to the future

From TONY FLYNN in Wau, Morobe province

 

 I made the point that Papua New Guinea had a clean environment when I was trying to promote produce and wild mushroom drying during my election campaign.

I took dried mushroom, bananas and tomatoes as samples to the villages, very acceptable.

Had I won, I would have promoted charcoal production as a precourser of various activities such as produce drying, metal forging and melting local manufacture of

crowbars from car axles, various tools, etc.

 We have here, growing without the benefit of acid rain and windblown pollution, populations of wild mushrooms such as Shiitake, Maitake, Cep or Porchini (fresh on the Kainantu roadside at K4.00 /kilo) and various others.

The mushrooms are in quantity and are freely available to the villagers.

What is not available is the technology to dry them; the marketing can be done through the various exporters.

A million village households with most of them having access to wild mushrooms.

 The world export market is in the billions.

This brings me to the point of this email.

 PNG is training all the experts in mining, intensive (plantation) agriculture, IT, the various professions, these have parallels in developed countries, geologists and

others find employment in developed economies.

There are a lot of proven technologies fit for rural people that, if promoted, would improve life at the village level.

These technologies in the developed countries past were discarded due in part to the wage increases driving improved technology.

Wages in PNG are low leading me to believe that we should go back to find our future.

There is a place for these technologies to be promoted as a part of large organisations' social networking.

Sustainable farming should have a place for local skill development that will enable the communities to be as selfsufficient as possible and obtain only such supplies as are unavailable in the local environment.

·        Charcoal production;

·        Convenient cooking;

·        Forging and repairing simple tools;

·        Drying produce for storage and export to other centres. I previously sold dried rainforest mushrooms to hotels in Lae and Moresby;

·        Building;

·        Lime burning and limestone crushing for building and agriculture respectively;

·        Brick and roof tile making. Brick laying using lime mortar as the Romans did before cement and preferable to cement for this purpose. I have bricks to burn. At present, there are burnt brick building in Goroka that are abour 50 years old. The villagers would have no need to import cement and corrugated iron, especially to remote areas. This could also be a large business close to towns and cities using the deposits of clay present.

Wau/Bulolo is not a poor man’s field

By MALUM NALU

A powerful new book on the history of the famous Wau/Bulolo goldfields of Morobe province, to be launched by renowned Papua New Guinea friend Professor Ross Garnaut at the State Library of New South Wales in Sydney on August 19, promises to tell the story of the goldrush as it has never been told before.

Not A Poor Man’s Field (book cover below), by Australian Michael Waterhouse, explores Australia’s colonial experience in New Guinea before World War 11 – a unique but little-known period in PNG and Australian history.

Back in May 2008, Waterhouse (pictured below) corresponded briefly with me about the book he’d written on the Morobe goldfields pre-war, and although things had moved ever so slowly, it is my pleasure to report that the book has finally become a reality.

It is a big book of 120,000 words plus end notes, 150 photographs and seven maps and has been financially supported by Barrick, Morobe Mining Joint Ventures, Bank South Pacific, Lihir Gold Ltd and PNG Chamber of Mines and Petroleum.

Waterhouse has close family ties to the pre-war goldfields, his grandfather Leslie Waterhouse having been a pivotal player in their development, as a director of the largest gold-mining company, Bulolo Gold Dredging, and the biggest airline, Guinea Airways.

“My relationship with Wau and Bulolo is through my grandfather, who from his Sydney base oversighted the development of BGD’s operations from the time of his first visit in 1929 to his death in 1945, at which time he was planning the resumption of its operations after the war,” he tells The National.

“He travelled there regularly but left day-to-day management in the hands of a general manager.

“He was a director of Placer Development, Bulolo Gold Dredging and Guinea Airways and so was pivotal to much of what happened pre-war.

“I embarked on researching and writing the book after being asked to write an article on him for the Australian Dictionary of Biography.”

First copies of A Poor Man’s Field are expected to arrive in Port Moresby next month for sale at the University of PNG Bookshop, and the PNG launch to will be on October 15 at the Crowne Plaza in Port Moresby.

Waterhouse and his wife are coming to Port Moresby on October 4, overnight, and then travel on to the fabled Morobe gold towns of Lae, Wau, Bulolo and Salamaua – in a historical tour de force - before returning to Port Moresby for the book launch.

He says that Not A Poor Man’s Field is not simply another “white man’s history” as he explores the experience of villagers and indentured labourers as best as he can in the absence of written records.

“For the record,” Waterhouse expounds, “while the sub-title refers to it being an ‘Australian colonial history’, this is because the main market is in Australia and the book has to be positioned as ‘Australian history’ to be commercially-viable.

“However, I’ve gone to considerable lengths to bring a New Guineans perspective to the history.

“This is not simply another ‘white man’s history’.

“I do feel strongly about this – it is your country’s history as well, and I’ll make this point at every opportunity.”

Not A Poor Man’s Field is a dramatic account of small miners, an extraordinarily rich gold discovery, visionaries and the construction of giant dredges, power stations and townships in a remote jungle area

It is also the story of how risk-taking pilots, flying aeroplanes ranging from single-engine plywood biplanes to large Junkers G31 freighters, opened up an otherwise impenetrable country.

New Guinea led the world in commercial aviation throughout the 1930s; world records were often set and as often broken.

The book discusses early encounters between villagers and Europeans from both white and black perspectives, as well as the indentured labour system which drew New Guineans to the goldfields from all over the country.

Other themes include the camaraderie of white settlers in an alien environment, race relations in a colonial society, the ineffectiveness of Australia’s administration of New Guinea under a League of Nations mandate and the Japanese invasion and its consequences.

The book takes a multi-disciplinary approach, analysing the colonial experience from economic, social, ethnographic and political/administrative perspectives.

 It also conveys a compelling sense of time and place by extensively quoting participants, both black and white, and through the judicious selection of old photographs.

The result is a portrait of unforgettable contrasts.

Not A Poor Man’s Field takes its name from the Administrator of New Guinea, Brigadier General Evan Wisdom, who when trying to discourage Australians rushing to the goldfields in 1926, wrote: “A poor man’s field in Australia is understood to be a field to which a man without anything can go with his swag and live by the gold he gets from the field; he is not dependent on anyone helping him. He can go out with a swag and a tin of ‘dog’ and get enough gold to keep him going. But you must have natives here to help you, and money to pay them, money to carry you there, and on when you get there; therefore it is not a poor man’s field.”

The title conveys a sense of why this goldfield was so different to any other and encapsulates a theme that re-emerges throughout the book and prevails to this day.

The author decided to write this book after being asked to write an article about his grandfather, Leslie Waterhouse, for the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

He soon realised that he was uncovering, layer by layer, the dramatic story of a little-known period in Australia’s and PNG’s history, one largely obscured by the passage of time and the destruction of records by the Japanese during WW11.

“Many Australian publishers have a view that ‘books on Papua New Guinea don’t sell’,” Waterhouse elaborates.

“This raised the important question as to how a country such as PNG can develop a sense of its own national identity if no-one will publish its history.

“A second question was how Australians can be expected to engage practically with its nearest neighbour if they know so little of the historical relationship between the two countries.

“A primary objective, therefore, has been to provide Papua New Guineans with a fresh perspective on their own history and Australians with a better appreciation of our historical relationship at a time when political and economic relationships are becoming more complex.

“The book has been written for a general audience, although it breaks new ground in a number of areas and is multi-disciplinary in its approach.”

Waterhouse hopes his book will encourage academics in both countries to embark on further research into, and help develop a broader understanding of the history of the Australia-PNG relationship.

Waterhouse has recreated a period that has been largely obscured by time and the destruction of records during WW11.

In doing so, he has drawn on diverse and often unexpected source, with insights gained from studies in anthropology at Sydney University and in economics and economic history at the Australian National University.

His experience in senior positions with government (the Commonwealth Treasury) and in business (with Westpac and as a consultant) has also enabled him to explore the commercial, financial and government dimensions in depth.

Not A Poor Man’s Field is available through bookshops in Australia and from the UPNG Bookshop in PNG.

In Australia, the recommended retail price is $59.95.

You can also purchase copies through this website http://www.notapoormansfield.com/  for only $50 plus postage and handling.

Please note that the book is unlikely to be available until mid-August in Australia and October in PNG.

One hundred copies of a Special Limited Edition of Not A Poor Man’s Field are also available for purchase.

Each copy contains four Bulolo stamps, showing a Junkers G31 flying over the goldfields flanked by a Spanish galleon and a white miner panning for gold, with a New Guinea villager looking over his shoulder.

The stamps are mounted in a panel on the front of the book, which is bound in maroon reconstituted leather, with headbands and marker ribbon, decorated and lettered on the spine and decorated on the front, all in gilt.

These stamps were used by Bulolo Gold Dredging to post gold bars back to Australia in the 1930s and early 1940s and are therefore genuine artefacts from the pre-war New Guinea goldfields.

The Special Edition also includes a brief statement by the acting chief post master at Rabaul in 1935 on the cost of posting gold bars, together with a first-hand account by one of the pilots of the unusual way the gold was transported.

As the gold was carried in all sorts of conditions by plane from Bulolo to Port Moresby and then by ship to Australia, some of the stamps have minor perforation damage or slight staining.

 In selecting the stamps, preference has been given to those whose image is largely unobscured by the post office cancellation.

The cost of each Special Edition copy is $A300, including postage and handling within Australia.