N.G. Goldfields
p. 14 · Read in the full issue
Road
Likelihood of Hold-up Reported
A Correspondent At Lae, New
Guinea, writing to the editor of the “P.1.M.” says: “We have learned on very good authority that a spanner has been thrown into the machinery in re gard to the Wau-Salamaua road, and we strongly suspect that the whole plan is being held up. We do not know what has happened, but the inclination here is to blame the Administrator for the develop ment.”
There is not much doubt about what has happened.
The problem is entirely one of finance.
When Mr. Hughes promised the road to the residents of the Morobe towns, he said that the cost would be £150,000 and that the money would be raised by a special loan, to which companies trad ing in New Guinea would subscribe. It has been found that £150,000 is not suffi cient. The estimated cost of the road is not less than £200,000. Enquiries show that the amount promised towards the loan by the big firms concerned is about £lOO,OOO. That leaves a gap of £50,000 in the original estimate and of £lOO,OOO in the probable cost of the road.
A year or two ago, it seemed possible to provide £50.000 or £lOO,OOO for a road project out of the accumulated funds of the New Guinea Administration. But, for some reason that no one can explain, the New Guinea Administration has been running at a loss, with the result that the surplus funds have all disappeared. Aus tralia has no money for road work in New Guinea—it wants every penny for its own purposes and for defence—and the only way in which the money could be provided for the cost of the road would be to take anything up to £lOO,OOO out of the trust funds in the hands of the N.G. Administration. That would be a very risky procedure.
Finance is the problem; but unsuspected engineering difficulties may be offered as an excuse for not going on with the road at an early date. The people of the Mor obe goldfields can thank the profligate spending of the N.G. Administration for the present position. The N.G. Admini stration has received hundreds of thou sands of pounds in gold royalties, from the gold industry, during the past ten years —most of which was taken on the plea that it was needed for the building of a road—but none of that money is avail able.
Sir Philip Goldfinch, general manager in Svdney of the Colonial Sugar Refining Co. Ltd., will visit Fiji at the end of July. Accomnanied by Mr. W. Li vie. In specting Engineer, and Mr. L. S. Dal rymnle. Private Secretary, Sir Philip will leave Sydney by the “Mariposa” on July 21.