SAMARAI, APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE OF. — In the eastern region of Australian New Guinea.
Erected on 13 June 1946 with territory detached from the apostolic vicariate of Papua, which at the same time took the name of Port Moresby (q.v.). It is entrusted to the Australian province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, who had been working there since 1929 in the three civil divisions that compose II.
It has an area of approximately 200,000 sq. km. and a population of approximately 100,000 inhabitants of Papuan and Melanesian race, of whom 1,308 are Catholics and 585 catechumens, served by 9 missionaries, 7 brothers, and 13 sisters. There are 26 primary and secondary stations. Dispensaries, 19 elementary schools, 5 secondary schools, and professional schools. Protestants number 72,000, having begun their activity about fifty years earlier. Pagans number approximately 25,000.