New Guinea Boundary

Australia and Holland Agree

AGREEMENT has been reached between Australia and Holland indicating the location of the 141st meridian of east longitude, which forms the boundary be tween Dutch New Guinea and the Man dated Territory of New Guinea.

The agreement provides that the boundary shall continue to be the 141st meridian and that such meridian shall be deemed a line running true north and south from the middle of a monument placed as a result of observations made by Dutch and Australian surveyors in September, 1933.

It is also provided that the cost of the maintenance of the monument shall be shared equally between the Dutch and Commonwealth Governments. It is to be periodically inspected by representatives of the two Governments.

The question was first raised by the Dutch Government in 1933, when the Netherlands Ambassador in London pointed out that the position of the meridian, as shown by a Dutch survey completed in 1930, differed from the posi tion as ascertained and marked by a German survey of 1886-1889.

Mr. J. E. Nixon Westwood, who was for some years interested in South Seas trading, and who latterly has been re siding in London, has now settled down in California. He writes that he is pre pared to represent any Australian or South Seas firm there, and that his ad dress is c/o. Bank of Montreal, San Francisco.