Poor Maps Of N. Guinea

And Papua

IN a recent address on the status of the geographical knowledge of N. Guinea, Mr. G. A. V. Stanley said that for a general survey it was necessary to prepare a map on a scale of not less than 16 miles to the inch. The material for such a map was scattered. Much of it was to be found in scientific periodicals, many of which were not on the shelves of any library in Australia.

At the beginning of 1936 the total un mapped area was estimated at 115,200 sq. miles, which was 37 per cent, of the island as a whole. Since that estimate exploratory work had been proceeding in many parts of the island. Aerial surveys were being carried out in the search for oil, and when the results

of these eventually became available very little of the area would remain un known.

Very little of the results of Govern-, ment officials’ patrols in the Mandated Territory had been published and a great deal of the mapping of Papua had been sketchy. There was no publication in English comparable to those in Dutch and German.

Mrs. V. Weatherall, of Wau, New Guinea, was a passenger on the “Bulolo” which arrived in Sydney on January 30.

Hon. Arthur Jewell and Mrs. Jewell were in Pt. Moresby early in February, en route to Kanosia, from the east end, where Mr. Jewell has been inspecting his Company’s plantations in the Conflicts Group, while Mrs. Jewell paid a visit to her privately-owned rubber plantation at Sagarai.