The District Commissioner
Addendum 3: Districts
Additional information for Chapter 2 New Guinea calls and Chapter 3 A new chum in Papua, and Yodda, gold, rubber and cattle
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The Department of District Administration was formerly called the Department of Native Affairs. The former District Commissioner of Madang and former Director of Native Affairs, John Keith McCarthy, on page 98 in the 1972 edition of his book “New Guinea”, sets out the 1969 statistics for the eighteen Districts (six in Papua and twelve in New Guinea):
He explained that in 1969 almost 104,000 or 4.8% of the native people lived in town areas with the great mass of the people (ie 2.2m) residing in their villages and owning their own land.
“At each District there (was) a District Commissioner appointed and representatives of other Departments (were) posted there. The eighteen Districts in turn (were) divided into sub-districts. Each sub-district (was) in the charge of an Assistant District Commissioner, and he may have (had) a number of District Officers and Patrol Officers posted there to assist him. Within the sub-districts there (were) further divisions, each with its Patrol Post which (had) control over a certain area. The smallest unit of the organisation was the Base Camp”.
TABLE OF APPROXIMATE POPULATION DENSITIES OF THE DISTRICTS OF PAPUA AND NEW GUINEA IN 1969
PER TERRITORY CENSUS OF 1969 AS COMPILED BY THE DIVISION OF DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION AND BUREAU OF STATISTICS​​​​
The Government Stations established in the Territory as at 1969 were :
District Headquarters 18
Sub-District Stations 76
Patrol Posts 70
Base Camps 25
Training Centres 1
Total 190
​​​​​​​​McCarthy explains on pages 95 to 99 that the exploration of New Guinea was a slow process. Patrol Posts would be established and the officers would visit the villages and learn their customs and get to know their leaders. Air strips would sometimes be built so that small aircraft could bring in supplies. The Department of Health would post a medical assistant or a doctor to build a hospital and to care for the people’s health ; a school would follow so that the children of the once hostile tribes would be educated. A Mission would be established and churches built, and at the same time a trader would build a store. The once lonely Patrol Post would now have a small township around it – the outside world had come to New Guinea and the people were learning a new life……Agricultural officers would be posted to the station so that the people might grow coffee, peanuts and other cash crops …. (By this stage) another patrol would be pushing further inland ….. A new land and a new people would be discovered, starting with the building of a government post, and the same procedure would be followed”.
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Immediately before independence on 16 September 1975, Papua New Guinea was divided into nineteen provinces and the National Capital District.
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Today in 2025 PNG is divided into four regions and twenty provinces plus the autonomous region (Bougainville) and the National Capital District :
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Chimbu (Simbu)
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