PAPUA'S PROGRESS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 173, 20 January 1912, Page 8

PAPUA'S PROGRESS.

AUSTRALIA'S RICH DEPENDENCE. Mr. Leonard Murray, the private secretary to the Lieutenant-Governor of Papua, who returned to Sydney a week or two iigo, spoke very enthusiastically of the prospects of the Commonwealth's valuable dependency. Papua contains every variety of cliinate, is rich in minerals, is capable of supplying all tropical products, and is perhaps more beautifully endowed by Nature than any other of the possessions that lie around Australia. Mr. Murray accompanied Mr. Staniforth Smith for three weeks on the latter's famous expedition, but declined to give any information about it, owing to the official communications which are proceeding in reference to various incidents that are said to have occurred.

Regarding the development of the country he talked freely. He said that a prospecting party had set out for the Lake Kamu goldfields, half the expenses having been home by the miners on the fiel dand the other half—about £250 — by the Government. They had made for the head of the Vailala river, where it was ibelieved there were rich deposits of gold. It was very rough country. A coal expert (Mr. Oarne) was.to examine the coal deposits found by Messrs Mackay and Little at the head of the Purari river, and report as to their commercial value.

In January the Lieutenant-Governor was going to open a new station on the Kikori river. It was the centre of a very fertile district, which at present was not wholly under Government control. The new station would provide a large field for the recruiting of labor, and, with the one opened last year, and the others to be opened later, should provide good additional supplies, which would no doubt be largely availed of by planters. The rubber plantations were getting along very well, and altogether solid progress was being made, there having been a substantial increase in both imports and exports. Asked concerning the reported famine, Mr. Murray said that there had not been rain in some districts, andi the famine was rather acute in the eastern end of the territory, where the Government was distributing rice amongst the sufferers gratis. When rain fell the native crops would come along fast, and the trouble would soon be over. The natives at time suffered considerably from dysentery epidemics, and they were very chary about going to any place where there had been many deaths; but for plantations where no deaths had occurred it was not a difficult matter to get labor. In regard to these epidemics, the Government had appointed Dr. Strong to make investigations with a view to stamping them out if possible. Replying to a question as to how the Federal Navigation Bill was viewed in Papua, Mr. Murray said it was a subject that was being much discussed, because if it were passed as it stood the Dutch and German boats would be prevented from calling at Port Moresby or Samarai; while another provision of the Bill seemed to indicate that coastal boats would have to pay the rates existing on the Australian coast. The Legislative Council of Papua had carried a resolution drawing attention to the effect that these clauses would have, and lie

had heard that a petition was , being signed asking that these sections be inoperative as far as Papua was concerned at the present time.