Developing Sago and Nipa Palms

New Industries for Papua

From Our Own Correspondent

Port Moresby, Dec. 23.

ANEW company has been formed, called the Pacific Australian De velopment Co., with a capital of £150,000, for the manufacture of sago in the Purari Delta, Western Papua, the home of native sago here.

It is reported that the enterprise is to be on an extensive scale, houses are to be erected near Kikori and machinery to be installed.

Some members of the enterprise have already arrived, and in a short time operations will commence.

Good Opportunities.

Anyone knowing the Delta and the waterways of Purari will realise the opportunities that await this com

pany if operations are carried out in a scientific manner. Sago produced by natives entails considerable waste, their primitive methods being clumsy though picturesque.

It is rumoured that the company also wish to extract spirit from the nipa palm, an idea that was investi gated some eight or nine years ago, but allowed to drop.

It is hoped by all that this under taking will prove a success and will give employment to both whites and natives.

The West of Papua so far has offered few opportunities to settlers, owing to its isolation and to its low swampy areas, though it is in the centre of a good district for native labour.

Nipa palms growing on the banks of a river in the west of Papua