PAPUA'S PROGRESS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2825, 17 July 1916, Page 8

PAPUA'S PROGRESS

AUSTRALIA'S NEW TERR-ITORT. Judge .Murray, Lieutenant-Governor of Papua, arrived in Sydney from Port Moresby recently. In the course of conversation with a "Sunday Times" representative His Excellency staled that matters in Papua were progressing very favourably, considering the times. Fully a third of the Government staff was serving at the front. He hiipself had volunteered for active service, but the ago limit prevented his acceptance. Plantations of rubber, coconuts,. sisal hemiC* and other products wore now showing returns for the expenditure. Jt may surprise a good many people to bo told that in Papua there is more than twice as much land under cultivating than in-the Solomon Islands. This l'nct was all the more remarkable, as the Solomon Islands had many years start of Papua in the matter of settlement. Referring to Germans/in Papua, His Excellency said:— "There are now 110 unnaturalised Gormans in Papua. Tho last one we had was a man who had escaped from Ge"man New Guinea at tho outbreak of war, and taken refugo in British territory, where lie died a lonely death : r. the bush. There are still one or two naturalised. Germans with us, but if they become a nuisance through frightening the natives, as .they, usually do, they will be deported." Since the war Judge Murray has visaed German New Guinea, Dutch New Guinea, and the Solomons. The future of Get-man New Guinea was still in tho laps of tho gods. On one occasion covered MOO miles in the new Government ho.it which replaced the old ilerric England, which was l&st 011 a reef outside Port Moresby. She is not. nearly as comfortable as the old "Merrie," tbe space 011 board being very contracts 1. Gold-mining is progressing stendil.v, and although tiiere is nothing sensational to report, the prospects for the future n very good. From a miner's viewpoint, Paj'iua is a most, difficulty country to explore, being almost entirely juuglo covered, making prospecting possible only in the beds of creeks and gullies. The iinancinl position ot tho a-Iministratioo is buoyant, tho last financial year aga ; .i ending with a surplus.