THE ROMANCE OF NEW GUINEA

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 191, 2 November 1927, Page 8

THE ROMANCE OF NEW GUINEA

REGENT developments in New Guinea read like a chapter from “Arabian Nights.” Hitherto regarded by the outside world as an inhospitable country, containing a population whose chief industry was head-hunting, and as a fever-trap for the white man, it now presents prospects which will surely be a call to the adventurous. The picture is not painted by the imagination of irresponsibles; it is presented by an official observer, the Warden of the newly-opened New Guinea goldfields, who, having travelled extensively in the interior, declares his belief that there is tremendous mineral wealth available. One line of gold-bearing reef, he says, has been traced for a distance of five miles, and he estimates that the reef system will yield 20ozs. of gold to the ton —“a conservative estimate.” If the New Guinea goldfields are of the character indicated, the famous ivalgoorlie field in Western Australia will have been outdone, and not even the difficulties of transport will prevent a “rush” such as the world has not witnessed for many years. At present, communication between the sea and the fields is maintained by light airplanes, which are inadequate for the purpose, blit heavier machines are to be introduced, capable of carrying parts of batteries with which to crush the quartz which is said to be so fabulously rich in gold. It is not only in gold that New Guinea is rich. Apparently the penetrative airplane has proved it to possess more lasting elaims for settlement. “A country of enormous wealth,” reports the Whrden, containing almost every kind of mineral with strong indications that it is oil-bearing. And “at an altitude of 3,000 ft. there are millions of acres of wonderful eountry, grassed similarly to North and Western Queensland and admirably adaptable to sheep-raising.” We are told, also, that in these parts of New Guinea there are no droughts, flies or pests of any kind, but that the land is well-drained and the climate is dry. It would appear that the world’s wealth is to he very largely swollen by contributions from New Guinea. For the knowledge of this unsuspected treasure there are to be thanked a few daring prospectors who painfully penetrated to the interior, and that modern magic exemplified by the airplane, which laughs at the lack of roads and carries men where they will to seek the hidden stores of the earth.