Country

A Rich New

Tablelands of Central New Guinea

“M Y information is that, after gold iTl mining is finished in New Guinea, the Ramu River district and the hinterland to Mount Hagen and Mount Dixon will be the country for cattle and sheep, and that it will become a great primary producing country”, said Sir Charles Marr in the Australian Parlia ment lately. “Additional communications and roads will be needed.

“An Australian man unshipped 40 head of Australian cattle, swam them ashore, and drove them up to the Ramu River, where he built a bungalow which the na tives burnt out, and then built himself another one. That man is now well es tablished. He is a typical Australian.

Nobody else is allowed into the country —it is not under control—but this man has done good work. Apart from driving the cattle to the goldfields, where he sold them at £4O a head, he has done other things to place himself on a firm foot ing in the Mandated Territory. I take off my hat to him”.

Mr. A. J. Campbell, a Seventh Day Ad ventist missionary who has been station ed in Central New Guinea, in the Ramu- Purari area, for 2J years, told “Sydney Morning Herald” recently:— “There are many people scratching around on arid ground in Australia when there are thousands of square miles of good agricultural territory in Central New Guinea, which is droughtless, We have a splendid possession in New Guinea, but nobody seems to know about it”.