K700,000 worth of literature lost: Official

 By MARK HAIHUIE
ABOUT K700,000 worth of literature from Papua New Guinea and the Pacific were destroyed when a building inside the University of Papua New Guinea campus was torched last week.
The PNG-Pacific Collection was destroyed when the printery building and other properties were set on fire last Friday.
The collection contained a mammoth compilation of literature from PNG and the Pacific region and was managed by the UPNG Bookshop.
The shelf value of PNG-Pacific Collection is more than K700,000, according to an official. The valuation was done in 2013.
Former UPNG Bookshop officer Greg Bablis said it was a huge loss “to our knowledge base as a nation and the region as a whole”.
“It goes against the whole dynamics of educational institutions for such information to be destroyed by those within it,” he said.
Police are yet to identify those responsible for the damage.
The burnt building housed the PNG-Pacific Collection and the PNG NRL Office.