New Guinea Oil Areas
p. 56 · Read in the full issue
Government Puzzles Enterprise Co.
REMARKING that 41 years have elapsed since the company first applied for a permit to seek oil in a portion of New Guinea, the chairman of the Enterprise of New Guinea Com pany said on June 3 that the Govern ment has still not granted permission to enter the area sought.
“My company has intimated its desire to conform with any reasonable condi tions laid down by the authorities, and can obtain competent men who are capable, by virtue of long experience, of handling any hostile natives.
“The company has expressed its wil lingness to welcome an officer of the Administration to accompany an explora tion party, and to meet all his expenses.
“The company could not lay before the Government any further proof of such evidence as it had about the possibility of oil occurrence unless it received per mission to examine the area.” —Melbourne “Herald”.
Mr. F. W. Platt, CMG, who was Resi dent Commissioner of the Cook Islands from 1915 to 1921, died in New Zealand, on May 24, aged 76.