Patrol Vessels For

New Guinea

T>Y the time present plans are com pleted the Administration of New Guinea will be very well supplied with patrol vessels, in contrast with the years during which it was definitely handi capped by a lack of any patrol vessel at all.

Two motor-powered vessels. Sit'ius and Leander . were built in Sydney recently.

They are 70ft. long with beam of 16ft.

There are three single-berth cabins, in addition to accommodation for eight nat ives, and each vessel is equipped with an opposite-rotation pair of two-cycle Petter diesel engines.

It was officially announced in August that these two vessels would leave Sydney early in September for Rabaul— in charge of Captain C. J. R. Webb. But difficulty developed in installing .the en gines, and they did not get away until October 6.

In Brisbane they were to be joined by a small schooner, formerly owned by the Queensland Health Department, which has just been recommissioned for work in the Mandated Territory.

The Administrator of New Guinea an nounced in August that a third patrol vessel was required. He had hoped, he said, that the Commonwealth would supply this., but he had been told that the cost of such a vessel must be borne by the N.G. Administration—a not un reasonable decision in the circumstances.

The Administrator said that the design of this third vessel had been the subject of much discussion. He thought they needed a ship which could be used as a patrol boat by one of the District Officers.

Finally, a design had been sent to Aus tralia for examination by the Ship Con struction Branch of the Defence Depart ment—and the latter in September was engaged in completing the design of a suitable vessel.