Goldfields Road And Port

Problems for Administration and Gold Companies

THE question of constructing a road from the coast of the mainland of New Guinea to serve the new Morobe Goldfields has been receiving a good deal of attention lately, and it is expected that there will be definite developments during the current year. The question of whether Salamaua should be abandoned is now under consideration.

IT is recognised that, if gold produc tion in New Guinea is to be the important industry that it is expected to prove, it will be necessary sooner or later to build a suitable highway to give communication between the isolated Morobe plateau and the sea. The prob lem divides itself really into three

sections, namely:

1. The route that is to be followed. 2. The total cost and the financing of the work. 3. The question of which is to be the terminal port.

The problem was discussed at length in The Pacific Islands Monthly some time ago, when it was then shown that there are three rival routes.

The Rival Routes

One is called the Sheldon route and runs almost directly from Salamaua to Wau, following the ranges which lie between the Francesco and the Butou Rivers. This is a comparatively short route and will not be very expensive to build, but it will be expensive to maintain and it goes through country that is extremely broken and quite use less for any agricultural or pastoral purpose.

The second is the Buang route, which leaves the coast a few miles north of Salamaua, follows the Buang and Snake rivers, and enters the gold field near the junction of the Bulolo and Watut rivers. Mr. Charles Booth, a pioneer of the locality, declares that this comparatively short route provides the best and easiest grade of all and has been used to take in cattle. It opens up valueless country.

The third route is much longer and is known as the Markham Valley- Wampit route. It follows the Mark ham Valley for some thirty miles and then turns abruptly southwards and follows the valley of the Wampit, en tering the Morobe goldfields at the Watut river, which is a considerable distance northwards of Wau, The direct route from Salamaua to Wau has to provide for a grade which climbs to a height of 9,000 feet. The Buang route has no excessive slopes.

The maximum height which has to be provided on the Markham-Wampit grade is 3,500 feet. It has been cal culated that the Salamaua-Wau route can be constructed at a cost of less than £100,000. The total cost of the Mark ham-Wampit road would be not less than £225,000.

The latter road, although it is longer and more expensive, is officially fav oured because it is believed that it would open up a large area of excel lent agricultural country, which lies on the plateau at the head of the Mark ham and Ramu rivers. Because it has

not to provide such stiff grades it will be comparatively much cheaper to maintain.

All these routes have been surveyed by Mr. E. G. Sheldon, a well known civil engineer, who has been particu larly successful in finding grades for practicable roads through this extra ordinarily difficult country.

Problem Of Finance

However, the main point in connec tion with the construction of this road is that of finance. Although the New Guinea Administration has succeeded in balancing its budget, finance remains a nightmare. Revenue has been very considerably decreased because, owing to the depression, the Administration has had to make substantial reduction in taxation. It is obvious, therefore, that the Administration is not in a position to construct the road.

It became known several months ago that the Administration was quite pre pared to co-operate with the gold pro ducing companies operating on the Morobe Goldfields, if the latter were prepared to come together in a joint scheme, under which they would select a mutually acceptable route and each bear a proportion of the cost of con structing a suitable highway. The com panies have not turned down the scheme but have very wisely decided that it is better that they should in vestigate the value of their holdings and their probable profits before com mitting themselves to a quarter of a million expenditure on a road.

It was for this reason that the Placer group of companies decided to use the expensive aerial transport system to bring in their first dredges. It was calculated that they would thereby get to the point of production at least a year sooner than if they were to await the construction of a road. As soon as the dredges are in operation and have proved the value of the holdings —that point has now almost been reached —it is expected that the Placer Company will be in a position to at tack the road problem—the solution of which is absolutely necessary for the future of the field.

The Placer companies believe that they have 30 years’ productive work ahead of them. There is some doubt about the period but there is no doubt at all that there is at least 20 years’ very profitable work there. New Guinea Goldfields Ltd. are not so close to the point of profitable production, but that company has also brought in a consid erable quantity of machinery and ex pects within a few months to be in a position to thoroughly test its different leases. On the data thus obtained New Guinea Goldfields Ltd. will be able to

say how much it is prepared to spend on the construction of a road when it is prepared to make an allocation.

It is understood that the whole mat ter has been under consideration by the companies and different groups of companies recently, and it is quite probable that before the end of 1932 they will have come together in a co operative scheme for the construction of a suitable highway.

Question Of A Port

The third question—that is, the loca tion of the terminal port—is a really difficult one.

Recent events suggest that, after all, Salamaua may not be regarded as the permanent port of the Goldfields. The little town is built on a low-lying spit of very limited area. It cannot be ex tended, because all the surrounding country is quite unsuitable for building purposes. It is in an exposed position and a recent storm indicated that it is possible that a high sea would wash part of the spit away. The Adminis trator of New Guinea, General Wisdom, has always taken the view that Sala maua is not a suitable place to be built up as a permanent port and, for that reason, the Government buildings which have been placed there are of a temporary and flimsy character.

The Huon Gulf is the only portion of the New Guinea coast that is close to the Goldfield, and —apart from the safe anchorage provided behind the spit at Salamaua, there is not one good port along the length and breadth of the Gulf. Lae, to the north of Sala maua, is not a port at all. Ships can not berth there and may not even lie off the landing place if the weather is at all rough.

Yet, if there is to be a road built from the goldfields to the coast there must be a terminal port. The Admin istrator, before he left Sydney for Rabaul this month, arranged that a Commonwealth Public Works Engineer, Mr. Thornton, should immediately visit the locality and examine the coast very carefully, with a view to making a recommendation to the Government in regard to the location of the future port. He will examine the conditions at Salamaua and will also make a close inspection of the coast at the mouth of the Markham river, with a view to the possible construction of a port there. It is believed that the latter is the point favoured by the Administra tion because it is the obvious starting point for the Markham-Wampit road, and that appears to be the route to the goldfield approved by Administration.

Further along the coast, and lying almost due north of the Morobe Gold fields, is the excellent port of Madang.

A suggestion has been made that it might be possible to construct a road direct from Madang across the head waters of the Ramu and Markham rivers to the Morobe Goldfields, which would be entered in the vicinity of the Watut river. This would be a very much longer road than the route via Markham Valley and Wampit, but it would have the definite advantage that it would provide the goldfields with a first-class port and that it would open up the splendid pastoral and agricul tural lands contained in the high, fer tile plateaus at the head of the Ramu river.