Complex sentence: Immediately before independence (16 September 1975) Papua New Guinea was divided into nineteen provinces and the National Capital District, corresponding to the "Districts" of the pre-Independence administration of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea.
Split into simpler sentences: Immediately before independence 16 September 1975, Papua New Guinea was divided into nineteen provinces and the National Capital District. These provinces corresponded to the "Districts" of the pre-Independence administration of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea.