Not Accomplished by Australian
p. 67 · Read in the full issue
Climbing Mt. Balbi
Not Accomplished by Australian Sergeant
“T SHOULD tear a strip of skin off you X for your November Tropicality where you make me say that the Aussie sergeant climbed Balbi (Bougain ville).” writes Mr. F. R. Charlton, of Fiji “This was not so. I was told that he crossed the divide to the south of Balbi where it is comparatively low—about 2,700 feet I think—and he followed the mean dering native paths.
“In mv own attack on the mountain, which was made from Oisimakoia village, I disregarded the paths and followed up a major mountain spur because I was in terested in charting the topography of the region. The attempt on Balbi was of secondary importance and was not pressed because of the time factor and the discomfort to my boys. My main object was to obtain ■ a bird’s-eye view of the valleys leading down to Numa Numa and to locate the main features of the villages in them.
“I was accompanied by a Captain
Richardson, who subsequently became a planter in New Britain, and an NCO named Millthorpe, from NSW.”