NEW GUINEA.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 241, 12 September 1872, Page 8

NEW GUINEA.

The Rev r A. W. Murray, a missionary at M,are, ; Loyalty Islands, has addressed to the 1 " Sydney Morning Herald " a communication in which he warns the public against certain erroneous statements which have been published concerning New Guinea: — "The' great attraction towards New Guinea at the present time is, I suppose, the belief that is abroad that gold exists on the island in great quantity — to such an extent, indeed, that it may be purchased from the natives for trifles, or picked up almost, if not quite, on the surface of the soil. Now, let it be carefully noted that the tales that have conveyed this impression rest on a very slender foundation — indeed, as regards our visit, on no foundation at all. In the statement to which I have referred it is affirmed that an earthenware vessel of native manufacture was given to the missionaries on board the Surprise, and that grains of gold were discoverable in the clay of which the said vessel was made. Now, I am one of the missionaries who were on board the Surprise, and I have in my possession one of the vessels in question. It is a very brittle affair, and had a chip broken out of one side when I got it, so that the material of which it is made is full) exposed, and the story about grains of gold is utterly false. With reference to Redscar Bay, to which the Maria was bound, and which seem to have the strongest attractions at. present, I may say a word or two. We anchored under a headland at the east side of the bay, and remained three days. So far as we could see, there is no safe anchorage in the bay. It is over twenty miles in breadth, and quite open to the sea, so that vessels anchoring in it during the stormy season would be in constant peril. Had the ill-fated Maria succeeded in reaching it, she would have found no safety, as her voyage was undertaken at the very worst season of the year, and her party, instead of the Eldorado they had pictured to themselves, would have found a great mangrove swamp extending for miles alpng the coast, and how far inland we had not the opportunity of ascertaining; and they would have found the country in possession of its native and rightful owners, with wh«m they could have held no communication. And if they had attempted to take possession of land without an understanding with the natives, quarrels would at once have arisen, loss of life on both sides would have followed, and unless a remnant had escaped to their vessel and fled, the probability is that the whole party would have perished."