Eager Eyes on N. Guinea

Timber Interesting Post-war Possibilities

AUSTRALIAN timber concerns, with a shrewd, speculative eye upon post war conditions, are already mani festing a lively interest in those magni ficent stands of hoop-pine, cedar, etc., in the Bulolo Valley, New Guinea, which had attracted attention before the out break of war in 1939.

There is going to be a tremendous general demand for timber after the war.

New Guinea is full of timber—the indus try of lumbering in New Guinea, for the Australian market, was developing rap idly in 1938-39. Even seekers of veneer woods from the United States had found their way there.

The timber stands in the Morobe Val ley—the timber improves as one gets up onto the inland plateaux—have been well-known for years, but no one could solve the transport problem. Many plans were discussed, from back-loading for transport planes to rafting the logs down the Bulolo and the Markham at flood-time.

Now, it is assumed that one or other of the combatant forces will build some sort of motor-road between Wau and the coast —an engineering project that de feated the Administrations and the gold mining companies for a decade prior to 1939. A trafficable road means timber transport; and that means the exploita tion of the great timber wealth in the Morobe district of New Guinea. Timber interests will be after the prize, as soon as the Japs are gone from New Guinea.

It is to be hoped that Canberra will not be stampeded into permitting any thing of the kind. As soon as the war is

gone from New Guinea, there will be a terrific job of re-building to be done in Wau and Bulolo, Salamaua and Lae, and something better than the flimsy build ings of the gold-rush period will be insisted on. In other words, all New Guinea’s timber, for a considerable time, will be needed for New Guinea’s own urgent building operations.