Lakatois Help.

Big Fleet Manoeuvres for Interesting Film.

From Our Own Correspondent.

Pt. Moresby, Dec. 15.

THE American Shackleford-Drumgold Expedition, which arrived from Thursday Island on October 14 by the “Veimauri” to take films of tropical scenery and native life and customs in Papua, are at present very energetically at work on scenes near Port Moresby.

These, later, will be adapted for the set ting and background of a highly spec tacular film of adventure in the tropic seas.

The preparations and performances in connection with the production have stirred both the imagination and the cupidity of the Hanuabada natives —who are ever hawks upon the wing. In their eagerness to act they out-Herod Herod and demand payment for the merest gesture or grimace. Though puzzled at times they enter whole-heartedly and with little prompting into the spirit of the performances.

The quest for hidden treasures in the battered hold of a forsaken wreck on a coral reef, especially pleases them. It is play to their liking.

At times some of the natives are con fused. They find it difficult to follow the drift of the proceedings, but others do not bother; they put it all down to buf foonery, and wonder at the strange ways of some white people. On the whole, they are all alive to the game and are quite useful to the expedition.

On November 28, in connection with the “Search for Hidden Treasures,” a fleet of 150 canoes, under the direction of Mr. Drumgold, left their moorings by Hanuabada and set sail before the early morning breeze. Across the harbour they came, through the entrance, and out to the reef and the wreck, four miles from the shore. Those of the residents of Pt.

Moresby, who were awake, had never before witnessed such a scene, which was unexpectedly beautiful.

Canoes of all shapes and sizes, single canoes and double, with and without outriggers, with crab claw sails and canvas, all joined in, and, after the in evitable jumble and tumble inseparable from any native undertaking had died down, they fell in and set sail. In the faint light of the early morning against the dark outline of the surrounding hills, the soft grey of the sky and the dark grey of the sea, the flotilla appeared visionary and airy in the distance —a phantasy.

Thick as autumn leaves they followed in the wake of the “Veimauri” and, in scattered groups, passed with her out of the harbour to the wreck.

The “Pruth,” a forsaken derelict, stranded on the reef four miles from the harbour, was formerly a vessel of the St. Iver Shipping Co., carrying general cargo and oil to the islands. Eight years ago, while attempting to make the en trance, she struck the reef and all at tempts to dislodge her proved futile.

Ever since, she has been a familiar land mark and a warning to all vessels en tering Port Moresby. £200 was paid to the owners of the canoes at Hanaubada for the day’s work.