High Cost Of Mt. Lamington Toa's New Solent

Eruption

From Our Own Correspondent.

Port Moresby, April 9.

RATIONS and other essential supplies for the feeding of Mt. Lamington evacuees is costing the Administra tion approximately £4,000 a week. There are around 3,500 natives receiving either full or partial rations, including villagers in the Lower Amboga River area, and at Buna, whose gardens were destroyed by the heavy floods which occurred some weeks after the January eruption.

All rivers originating on the Mt. Lam ington slopes are now subject to heavy flooding, as the complete destruction of timber has left nothing to hold the rain, which immediately sweeps down the silt clogged valleys to the lower levels.

Several acres of land have been cleared and ploughed by the Agricultural De partment in the Ilimo area, where new villages are being built for the re-settle ment of the evacuees. Food crops are being planted, and the first sweet potato harvest should be ready in three months’ time.

Oro Bay camp evacuees are being moved by stages to Wasita and Awala district, with temporary villages at Popen detta. Families will move from Oro Bay to Popendetta, and when permanent villages are built around Wasita and Awala, the final stage of the transfer will be completed. This will take the evacuees back to the same general area as the original villages, but outside the closed zone around Mt. Lamington