Seaplanes For New

Guinea

TWO seaplanes for the use of the Ad ministration in New Guinea are being purchased by the Commonwealth Government, and tenders for their supply have been called.

The machines are intended to replace the Government steamer Franklin, which was very expensive to maintain, and was recently sold. It is proposed that they should be capacious enough to transport several persons, but it is not expected that machines large enough to carry police parties will be needed.

The Australian Civil Aviation Depart ment is co-operating with the Prime Minister’s Department in the preparation of tender forms, and tenderers have been informed of the distances that the machines will be required to cover, and asked to quote their terms on a mileage basis. It is hoped that the tender form will be adopted as a standard for the supply of other machines that might later be needed for Papua and the Northern Territory.

The new machines will greatly facili tate administrative work in New Guinea, and will be available for any emergency which might arise. Whether they will be used on regular patrol work among the pearling grounds has yet to be deter mined.

The Matson liner “Lurline,” which left San Francisco during January on a cruise of the Pacific, will call at Samoa and Fiji before arriving in Sydney on February 15. Four days later she will leave for New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies.