Timber Rights in New
pp. 35-36 · Read in the full issue
Guinea No Tender Accepted
THE New Guinea Administration has decided not to accept any of the tenders submitted for the lease of timber lands on the Bulolo River in the vicinity of Wau, with exclusive timber cutting rights.
This announcement was made in the Commonwealth Parliament in reply to enquiries by Mr. A. E. Green. The Min ister added that “the Administrator re commended that the question of inviting fresh tenders for the timber permit be deferred until full information could be supplied regarding the date of comple tion of the road from Salamaua to Wau and the cost and conditions of trans port thereon”.
Mr. Green asked a number of questions regarding the original tendering date, and was informed: — Tenders were first called on August 6, 1938. to close on December 2, 1938, but the date w r as extended to March 10, 1939.
The original date was extended so that prospective tenderers should be given a further opportunity to obtain information relating to the cost and conditions of transport from the coast to the timber area over the road that is to be con structed from Salamaua to Wau.
Rev. Dr. C. E. Fox, who has been a member of the Melanesian Mission staff in the Solomon Islands for 25 years, is at present en route to England by the “Rangitane” on furlough.
Rev. P. C. Williams, who has charge of the Melanesian Mission school at Vu reas, New Hebrides, is now in England on furlough.
The many friends of Captain E. Nelson Turner, throughout the British Solomons, where he held the post of District Commissioner and Commandant, and carried out 21 years’ pioneer service for the Colonial Office, will regret to learn of his retirement, on medical grounds, after his long leave has expired.
The University of Hawaii has appointed Dr John Wesley Coulter as its delegate to the Pacific Science Congress, which will be held in Berkeley and Stanford, California, U.S.A., from July 24 to August 12. Dr. Coulter, who is head of the University’s geography department, is a member of the Congress standing committee on land utilisation, and he will present a paper on the land utilisation in American Samoa. He recently spent four months in Samoa and three months in Fiji, New Zealand, and Australia making a land utilisation study.