NEW GUINEA: King Move Um Capital

Last week the Australian Government prepared to move the capital of mandated New Guinea out of the beautiful and terrible town of Rabaul on New Britain Island.

Rabaul has the legendary South Seas beauty of a very blue harbor, of casuarina and golden-fruited paupau trees, of silk-swathed Chinese and darkly graceful natives who dye their woolly hair in vivid colors and call a shower bath “washwash on top.” During World War I, when part of New Guinea was taken over from Ger many, the Australians told them about the change of sovereignty as follows: “Me been talk with you now, now you give three cheers belongina new feller master. No more um Kaiser. God save um King.”

But beautiful Rabaul occupies a terrible perch on the rim of a great undersea volcano. Out of this harbor rise volcanic islands, one sinister cone called Matupi.

In 1878 Matupi shook a whole native village into the bay. In 1937 several volcanic cones, including three called The Mother and Daughters, showered ashes and red hot stones on Rabaul, killed 424 people. Last June Matupi began breathing unhealthy fumes on Rabaul., has been doing so ever since. Despairing of Rabaul, Australia ordered New Guinea’s capital moved to the town of Lae on New Guinea proper.