Getting Back to Work

in Lamington Area

[T was reported from Port Moresby, in Aoril, that planters and others with business interests in the Mt. Laming on “closed” area were waiting for the lext eruption of the volcano (scheduled or early May according to the vulcan logist) before they moved back.

The biggest commercial undertakings n the 10-mile radius danger area are he Sangara Rubber Company, the San ara Cocoa Company, the sawmilling and eneral construction comnany of the ■amington Development Co., and the tokoda-Buna Tourist Company, which fas just about to commence building a lotel near Lamington to cater for tour -sts wishing to see the wild country of he Kokoda trail and for American rub er buyers. There is also some coffee rowing in the district and rice was a rejected industry.

The Mt. Lamington area, due no doubt o past eruptions, is exceptionally fertile, nd the products already produced there re today worth real money. Rubber rings something like 7/- per pound and offee and cocoa between £350 and £4OO er ton. The frustration of the Europeans ager to get back to their work can be nagined. There are a lot of mountains i Papua-New Guinea and a great many Id volcanic peaks; it is doubtful if the ruption of any of them could have aused as much disruption as the erup on of Mt. Lamington. Missions, natives, nd commercial enterprise have all iffered.

The plantations in the area were not amaged by blast and are reported to 5 recovering from their showers of vol mic ash—agricultural experts seem to

think that this, in the long view, will be beneficial. But communication and labour will be a big problem. The eruption has wiped out most of the jeep roads and river crossings formerly a few yards wide are now 200 yards across. The Adminis tration is not preventing the return of Europeans but they will not permit natives to live within 10 miles of the mountain. This means that plantation labour would have to be removed from the danger zone each night—a consider able undertaking in view of the condition of roads.