Premature Advt.?
p. 80 · Read in the full issue
Tenders for Cutting N. Guinea Timber
THE New Guinea Department of Lands and Forests is inviting lenders, clos ing within ten weeks, for the right to take 50 million super feet of hoop pine and Klinkii pine, and a smaller quantity of cedar and other timber from “an area situated in the Bulolo Valley, Morobe dis trict”.
It seems a curiously premature invi tation. No one can tender until he knows where his market is, and he cannot cal culate his market until he knows what will be the nature of his transport, and the cost of same. Those calculations can not possibly be made until the route of the new Salamaua-Wau road is decided, and an approximate date fixed for the opening of the road.
It has been rumoured that an Austra lian timber syndicate has offered to con tribute liberally towards the road loan, provided it is given an exclusive right to cut timber on the Morobe plateau. Has this apparently premature advertisement anything to do with that rumour?