New Anglo-Australian Dominion

In The Making

What Is Happening In Central New Guinea —N.G. Goldfields Ltd.

Provide Awkward Problem

By R. W. Robson

Port Moresby, August 23.

LOOKING back on the Bulolo Valley from the little ’plane in which air wizard Orme Denny flipped me over the mountains to Port Moresby, my dominant feeling was one of irritation against Aus tralian newspapers and Australian poli ticians.

Here is one of the richest undeveloped countries on earth controlled by Australia and simply crying aloud for the white man’s energy and brain; yet the news papers appear usually to describe it as a series of primitive mining camps estab lished in miasmic jungle, while the poli ticians know no more of it than is indi cated by the silly, footling questions they ask in the Federal Parliament.

Wau is a pretty little town built around a large aerodrome, in one of the most beautiful valleys I have ever seen. The gloomy, jungle-clad mountains rise dis tantly to forbidding heights on either side; but 'in this broad, undulating valley, several miles across, there are wide, green pastures, broken in all directions by clear, rushing, tree-fringed streams. Here and there one sees the more intense emeralds

of cultivation, where grow coffee, rice, English oats, maize and, most astonishing of all, lucerne and magnificent English potatoes. This country is only seven de gress from the Equator; but the Bulolo Valley is 3,500 feet above sea-level, the soil is incredibly rich, and the rainfall abundant. The combination is unique, and the result is seen in richly-scented roses growing vigorously under pawpaw trees, in rosy-cheeked European children, and in a cool, invigorating, equable climate that is less suggestive of the tropics than is northern New South Wales.

I came looking for a primitive mining camp, and I found something that may yet be described as an agricultural and pastoral paradise.

From the air, over Wau, the only sign of mining is the muddied Bulolo, flowing through the middle of the verdant valley, and a cluster of buildings up in a moun tain gulch—the Golden Ridges Mill. (The great Bulolo dredges are 15 miles away down the valley.) But up in the gorges, in almost every direction —and especially up among the mass of broken peaks that is called Edie Creek —there are all sorts of “shows,” big and little, which are pouring out a golden stream for the development of this great fertile Territory, and the en richment of Australia.

For that, in my opinion, is how this new, astonishing industry must be regarded— not as something of permanent value, al though probably the field will have 20 or 30 years’ life —but as a means of estab lishing a new and prosperous European population in New Guinea, as a Pacific bulwark for Australia.

It should be made known, wherever the English language is spoken, that this new land is neither tropical isle nor miasmic jungle. Those forbidding mountains of Central New Guinea cease, once they have given form to the Bulolo River, and the upper valley where Wau is; and there stretch away from Wau, northwards and north-west, a series of low ranges, well watered valleys and richly-grassed up lands averaging over 3,000 feet of height, which could carry easily a large European population, and which Queensland pas toralists describe as “the finest cattle country we have ever seen.”

In the Lower Bulolo, Watut, Ramu and Purari (Benna Benna-Mount Hagen) dis tricts there are thousands of square miles thickly covered with a pasture like Mit chell grass, shaded by many trees and watered by innumerable mountain streams, and there is not an animal to be seen on it. There is a large native population in the Ramu-Mt. Hagen section, but from the Upper Bulolo right through to the Lower Watut and beyond, there is scarcely a sign of indigenous human or animal life in all this rich, temperate region.

I am the last man to advocate the dis turbance of an established, happy, in digenous community—l am most heartily in sympathy with those who urge that the newly-discovered Benna-Bennas and Wah gis be left alone, free from trading, and education, and missionaries, and all the other curses of “civilisation.” But, having once seen this country, I know that it never can be kept for the native inhabi tants —it is altogether too rich, too beauti

ful, and too eminently occupiable. While it was unknown, it was safe from invasion, guarded by its fever-ridden coastal belts.

But gold has torn aside the veil which hid its enormous pastoral and agricultural value —just as gold did in Africa, Aus tralia, New Zealand and America —and the result is as certain as the sunrise.

If we British and Australians do not “colonise” the temperate plateau of Cen tral New Guinea, some other nation will.

It is not a question of whether Central New Guinea ought to be developed as a pastoral and agricultural country. It is too late for argument—Central New Guinea already is being developed. The process has started. Big-visioned men from Australia already are here, looking over the plateau’s pastoral possibilities.

Prom the hill above Bulwa I was shown a valley of dream-like beauty, a place of rolling green meadows, tree-embowered river and wooded uplands, where an Aus tralian, Mr. Leslie Simpson, has just selected 12,000 acres, as a cattle-station.

Another man, Mr. Frank Fraser, well known in North Queensland as a land owner, pastoralist and business executive, was there in Wau during my visit, and he was going over those magnificent table lands with Scottish thoroughness, before deciding whether to withdraw his interests from tax-ridden, politician-cursed Aus tralia, to this land where every inducement is held out to initiative, enterprise and courage. I have not learned Mr. Fraser’s decision, but I have no doubt of what it will be. And I think his faith will be justified.

Already, gold is coming out of New Guinea at a rate of over £1,350,000 an nually, and the rate is increasing. But other wealth is awaiting European enter prise and genius. These far-sighted cattle men are no fools. Neither are the men who now are there experimenting with coffee, rice, corn, and a host of other crops.

“But where is the market for these things?”—I heard the question asked many times. Personally, I am not worry ing about it, although it may appear to be a most important matter. I put against that difficulty these fundamental facts — (a) It is a country that is practically free from taxation. (b) It is a country of extraordinary fer tility, with an unlimited supply of good timber. (c) It is a well-watered country with a copious, regular rainfall. (d) It is a country with an almost un limited supply of very cheap, good and tractable labour. (e) It is a country (I am discussing, of course, the central portion of the mainland) with a cool, pleasant, eauable climate, that does not vary more than a few degrees all the year round.

Given the impetus and the energy—and gold is supplying one, and Australian man hood the other —the market difficulty will

solve itself. The market difficulty really resolves itself into a question of transport.

The Transport Problem

Transport is not an easy problem. The rich, fertile central portion of this new country is fenced off hy, first, a swampy coastal strip, and then by chains of high, incredibly broken mountains, which gener

ally form the seaward wall of the central plateaux. Up on the plateaux themselves,, road-making is comparatively easy; but the building of worth-while highways through those natural ramparts, to con nect with the sea-coast, is an undertaking of great magnitude.

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The gold companies solved the problem by using aeroplanes—they carried in everything required by these new, bustling, growing Morobe towns, from 5000-tons dredges to needles; from motor-lorries to medicines. This phase of aviation is a romantic story in itself. It is an extra ordinarily efficient and quick form of transport. The engine and dynamo that are discharged from the ship at Salamaua or Lae to-day are running at Wau or Bulwa, 100 miles away, to-morrow.

But it is expensive transport—or it has been; and only a very rich goldfield could have stood the strain of it. The powerful interests which are now plumping for pas toral and agricultural development demand cheaper freight and are clamouring for a road, from the goldfield—which is the be ginning of the fertile plateaux—out to the coast. But a trafficable road out to the coast cannot be built cheaply—there is much argument about it, but I do not be lieve the cost could be less than £250,000, with heavy annual maintenance.

it is calculated that the Administration, to build the road, would have to put an other 2½ per cent, onto the existing gold royalty of 5 per cent., and that, when everything is balanced one against the other, the freight cost from the coast to the goldfield, under a road system, would not be less than 2d per pound. I am of opinion that, before long, the average freight charged by the well-established aviation companies will not be much more than that.

It is a thorny problem, and it is impos sible to deal with it adequately in this short review. Anyone who wants to see these rich uplands developed pastorally and agriculturally will sympathise with the demand for roads.

Have I made it clear that there is no reading problem on the Morobe table land itself? There are excellent and in creasing roads there now, regularly tra versed by a growing number of cars, trucks and carts of all descriptions. The problem is the connection between the great interior tableland and the coast.

After a brief glance at the country, and

considering all the circumstances, I am inclined to think that the real solution lies in the construction of a road from the coast along the southern bank of the Mark ham, leading directly over to the magnifi cent Ramu and Purari tablelands: and a branch road might be brought up the Wampit or Watut valleys to connect at Bulwa with the well-graded, excellent highways which are now being built to connect Bulwa with Wau, and Wau with Edie Creek. This would give facilities for the movement of slow, heavy cheap freight, both in and out: while quick freight, mails and passengers could be taken care of by the aeroplanes, which have demonstrated to the world the efficiency, dependableness and conveni ence of this new form of transport.

The Wau people do not like this idea — they want a direct road straight over the hopeless, useless ranges to Salamaua; but if a road to the coast is to be built, it can be justified only as a means of developing the country’s agricultural and pastoral possibilities, and that should be done via the Markham and Ramu. The agricultural possibilities of the Wau district are not of themselves sufficient to justify the road — this Bulolo Valley is only the beginning of the rich uplands, and it extends away to the north-west, to join with the Markham.

Ramu and Purari districts.

N.G. Goldfields’ Leases

A subject which agitates Wau much more than the road, at present, is that of the alluvial lands held by “the Company” (New Guinea Goldfields Ltd.).

Practically the whole of the worth-while gold-bearing leases, for miles around Wau, are held by the Co. Very many of those leases would richly repay working. If every lease capable of returning a profit were being worked, there would be em

ployment in and about the Upper Bulolo Valley for thousands of men, the gold pro duction would increase for the general betterment of the Territory, and Wau would prosper exceedingly. But the Co. has held those leases for years—since about 1928 —and, except for the reluctant admis sion to them of a few tributers, it has done nothing with them. I met a score of men in Wau and Edie Creek, hungry for gold bearing land, who always “spit blood” at the name of the Co. They do not question the Co.’s right to own leases; but they do increasingly question the Company’s right to indefinitely do nothing with the land that it holds.

The Co. now has a highly profitable crushing mill and cyaniding plant in oper ation at Golden Ridges, three miles from Wau, and it has several alluvial “shows” at work, and a great deal of deep-level tunnelling going on in the Edie Creek dis

trict; but one is bound to admit that the extent and profit of its activities justify neither the amount of its extraordinary issued capital (over £5,000,000) nor the extent and value of its holdings. There seems to have been a lamentable lack of vision in its early planning, and some very expensive muddling in its early manage ment, which have crippled and retarded its later operations.

The present management has straight ened things up in a remarkable manner; and there are grounds now for a report that the Co.’s operations in the immediate future will be in accordance with a new policy and plan which will vastly increase production.

It is to be hoped so. If there is not an improvement soon, the Co. may have to employ special police to keep the land hungry miners off the rich leases it is squatting on.