Huge Boeing Planes For

N. Guinea

Ray Parer in the Air Again

ONE of New Guinea’s veteran pilots, Ray Parer. A.F.C., left Essendon, Victoria, early in July for Sydney, on his way to the Mandated Territory of New Guinea, flying a large single-engined Boeing biplane—claimed to be the biggest

transport freighter in Australia. Mr. Parer announced that, with this machine, and another of the same type, he intends to commence a new aerial transport ser vice between the coast and the Morobe goldfields town of Wau.

The second aeroplane (formerly an ex perimental bomber in the U.S.A. Air Force) has arrived in Sydney. It will be assembled at Mascot aerodrome and flown to New Guinea by Mr. Parer in August.

Before he left Melbourne. Mr. Parer said that for the past four years he had been mining—a 250 acre sluicing job

on the Watut River—with Mr. Dick Glasson one of the original discoverers of Edie Creek. The only flying he had done recently was freighting in his own supplies, in a little Fox Moth. Now, having let his gold claim on tribute, he is going back into the flying business.

“They’re going to start the road in from the coast shortly”, said Mr. Parer, to Meiboume ‘‘Herald’’; “but that’s a big job. It wil! take years and in the mean time, supplies for the road camps will make more flying- My mam freights will be rice, meat and biscuits food for the native labourers.”

Accompanying Mr. Parer was Mr.

Arthur T. Collins, of Salamaua, who came South in June for an examination to obtain his “B” certificate as a commercial pilot. “Arthur’s a Queenslander”,

said Mr. Parer. “Went up to Rabaul with nothing, as a motor mechanic. Bought a crashed aeroplane out of his pay, re built it, got a certificate of airworthiness, taught himself to fly, joined Mandated Airlines as chief engineer, and when he gets his ‘B’ ticket he will fly freight to the out-dromes.”

For 37 years there has been a branch of the New Zealand Post Office at Fan ning Island, 250 miles north of the equator, although it is not a part of New Zealand territory. This arrangement ceased recently and the postal affairs of the island will in future be under the control of the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, who is in charge of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Col ony.

Parer” Boeing transport plane about to leave Essendon Airfield, Victoria, on July 5, for Sydney, en route to New Guinea.

Mr. P. L. Griffiths, M.A.. L 1.8., K.C., of Tasmania, has been appointed a judge of the New Guinea Supreme Court. He ser ved in the Mandated Territory from the middle of 1938 until March last as Act ing Chief Judge, while Mr. F. B. Phillips was on furlough.

Monsieur A. Fouche, chemist, of Noumea, New Caledonia, died in June after a long period of ill-health. He held the Croix de Guerre, the Medaille de Verdun, and the Cross of the Legion of Honour.