Rabaul to restore beauty, says Marat

RABAUL town can be rebuilt and restored to its status as the “Pearl of the Pacific”.
The town has lived through two volcanic eruptions; one in 1937 and the recent on Sept 19, 1994.
Rabaul MP Dr Allan Marat echoed these sentiments during the centennial celebrations in Rabaul over the independence weekend.
Marat challenged that if the town was able to be rebuilt after the 1937 eruption, there was no reason why it could not be rebuilt into the Pearl of the Pacific, after the twin eruptions in 1994.
He urged business houses to be prepared to toy around with the risk factors and rebuild the town.
Marat also challenged insurance companies to look favourably at underwriting risks for businesses that wanted to do business in Rabaul town.
Before its declaration as a town, the German government granted a charter to a private business firm, the New Guinea Company of Berlin, to administer New Guinea as a colony and to occupy so-called “ownerless land”.
In June 1885, this New Guinea company of Berlin set out on an expedition to New Guinea and reached Finschhafen six months later.
German New Guinea was, therefore, a company colony from 1885 to 1899.
It was then established as an imperial colony in 1899 when the New Guinea company of Berlin gave up governing the colony and handed it back to the German government.
Peaceful patrols as well as punitive expeditions against natives who fought to defend their land were the order of the German control at that time.
Rabaul finally became a German government station in 1905 and five years later in 1910 declared a town.
Marat said a lot of people had contributed to the development of the town over the years and it was vital that especially children learn about the history over the past 100 years.