SAMARAI, APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE. – In the eastern region of Australian New Guinea.
Established on 13 June 1946 with territory detached from the apostolic vicariate of Papua, which at the same time Port Moresby (v.). It is entrusted to the Australian province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, who had been working since 1929 in the three civil divisions comprising 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, assisted by 9 missionaries, 7 brothers, and 13 sisters. There are 5 primary and 26 secondary stations. There are 4 dispensaries, 19 elementary schools, 5 middle schools, and 5 vocational schools. The Protestants number 72,000, having begun their activity approximately fifty years earlier. The pagans number approximately 25,000.