NEW GUINEA GOLD.

Hokitika Guardian, 31 December 1927, Page 4

NEW GUINEA GOLD.

EDIE CREEK STORIES. SYDNEY, Dec. 15. The Edie Creek and Bulolo goldfields of New Guinea —the world’s newest great “strike”—have been responsible for many romantic stories of lucky finds, and every now and then some of these trickle through to- Sydney and Melbourne from that outpost of the world. Tangible evidence of the wealtli of the field is given in the consignments of gold which arrive in the strongroom of every steamer which comes here from Salamoa Bay, the nearest port to the goldfields, and in the miners who have “ struck it rich ” and have come south to enjoy henee-

It will lie many a day before the full story of Edie Creek and Bulolo is told, but until it is, the newspapers find good “copy” in the stories of miners who visit the capital cities of Australia. One such miner was Air R. Shaw Moody, who, while on a visit to Melbourne, related tales oi riches, of lucky strikes of from £20,000 to 630,000 clear profit in a few months. This was the lucky experience of one syndicate, but more than a dozen other partnerships have yielded up to £IO,OOO. I “One of the richest leases over there is held h.v the Daydawn Syndicate,” said Mr Moody. “ They struck it very rich. One of the syndicate told me when 1 was along at their claim one night that there was about £20.00!) worth of gold in their dump, hub ol course expenses would have to conns out of that. There was a, tin dish on the (loor of their hut containing gold

worth a lew nunuieo pounus. incie is no fear of crooks operating over there. . . not among the miners. If anybody was caught stealing gold, it would not he healthy for him. Ihe miners would deal with the thiol themselves and I should not like to think what would happen to him. Some of the natives have been caught trying to steal small quantities of gold. All the ‘ boys ’ on the field were mustered and warned what would happen to them if they wore caught thieving.” “There was romance,” said Mr Moody, “in tfie discovery of the chief lease of my syndicate, the Kiandi. It was the finding of a small nugget on the side of a. large boulder in the creek, among a pile of debris washed down the steram, that led the prospectors to locate a rich alluvial claim. This is situated high up on a terrace, which was the old bed of the crock. The Kiamli Syndicate owns 1!) leases on this lode, which is considered to run right through the ground at this place. We spent 62200 before we got a pennyworth of gold. Then I discovered this terrace and we got it all hack in seventeen days. It is remarkable that it is tne new chums at mining, like myself, who have been lucky, and old, experienced miners who have failed. The latter have walked over ground full of gold, which they have rejected, to peg out areas that scarcely paid for their grub. Then the new chums have come along, leased the rejected ground, and struck it rich. That’s how fortunes have been found and lost. But it’s all in the game of gold mining. There's no monotony when any day the lucky stroke of a pick may unearth a nugget worth thousands of pounds. It is a hard lite, hut the lure of gold exercises a great fascination.”

When the field was first opened, the arduous eight-days’ journey over mountains and through jungle and swamps ’sapped the strength of many men and with the necessary ,cirri iers proved a costly business. Now an aeroplane service, conducted by Rav Parker, the second airman to fly from England to Australia, cuts down that journey to less th "•> •••> hour. According t., Air .Moody, tho ’plane does two tries while a man on foot was climbing up the first IOOBIt from the landing place at Salamoa Bay. ’1 he fare is 625 up to the goldfield and 6 i hack, as the ’plane has no cargo t > cany on the way hack. Extension of this service is expei led to solve most of the field’s transport problems. Surely Edie Creek is the first goldfield in the world to he served by an aeroplane service.