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Papua New Guinea (PNG) comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, the second largest island in the world. Size it undoubtedly has, for from the country's western border with the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya to Rossel Island and the Pacific Ocean in the east, the distance is 1,500 kilometers. The patrol system of bringing government to the people, of suppressing inter-village and inter-tribal raiding, and of penetrating the remaining remote restricted areas was continued. Education was encouraged, a national code of laws drafted, and gradually the PNG people were prepared for self-government, which was accorded to them in 1973. PNG is a parliamentary democracy. It is under the nominal rule of a governor general elected by Parliament to represent Queen Elizabeth II of England, the head of state. PNG's adoption of site-value property taxation (or rating as it is called there) had its origin in Australia's pre-independence administration, and the proximity of Australia to PNG. Companies operating major mining projects pay a corporate tax rate of 35 percent, while petroleum companies pay 50 percent. An unusual aspect of PNG's tax system is the concept of prescribed Infrastructure Development. Mining and petroleum companies can devote a portion of the money they would have paid in company tax (currently 2 percent of their assessable income for tax purposes) to infrastructure projects (such as schools, hospitals or roads) designed to benefit residents of the areas in which the companies benefit.