Papuan Oil

The New Comp on the Vailala

From Our Own Correspondent

Port Moresby, Mar. 27.

A LARGE camp, on modern lines, is being constructed by the Australa sian Petroleum Co., Pty., Ltd., on the Vailala River, at a point about 30 miles inland in a direct line from the mouth of the river, on the Papuan Gulf.

There are well-bpilt dwellings of sawn timber, equipped with electric light and refrigeration. The point where the £200,000 worth of drilling machinery is being erected, for a bore which is con fidently expected will at last produce Papuan oil, is inland from the camp, at Paku, a well-known spot, near the Vai lala River, considerably above the drill ing site at Upoia.

The country on and around Vailala River is notoriously unhealthy, but the A.P.C. management and engineers have been vigourously at work clearing and draining the site of the little town and taking precautions against malaria.

It is interesting to note that this dis trict, which has been finally selected for the first important drilling operations, is where oil indications were first seri ously examined in Papua—on the Vailala River, below Paku, in 1911.

Rev. D. F. Boorman, L.Th., Methodist missionary in the Lau Group, Fiji, re cently received advice from the Uni versity of Queensland that he had been awarded the Bachelor of Arts degree.

Mr. Frederick Swann, of Apia, West ern Samoa, has joined a branch of the New Zealand military forces.