Speeding Civilisation

To Last Of NG’s Stone-age Men

AN area of 7,000 square miles in the New Guinea Western Highlands was recently sur veyed with a view to bringing it under Administration control. This is evidently part of the Australian plan to bring the whole of New Guinea into contact with civilisa tion within the next few years.

This survey was done by air, however, and it accomplished in a matter of hours what once would have taken several years of foot patrolling.

The hard work of establishing patrol posts has yet to be done, of course, but this method of patrol ling gives valuable information about concentration of population, terrain, best routes for ground patrols, the best places to establish airstrips, the existence of timber stands, and areas of unoccupied land.

The survey was carried out by the Department of District Services in co-operation with the Depart

ment of Civil Aviation and the area charted covered the Shrader and Bismarck Ranges, north of the Baiyer River, the Jimmi Valley, and the country between Jimmi and Maramuni Rivers.

Presumably by counting villages and native houses, it was possible to estimate that the whole of the 7.000 square miles carries a popu lation of about 100,000. There were good stands of pine in some areas, and large areas of unoccupied land; although population groups not known to exist were seen.

During the survey, sites for four airstrips were picked out and numerous errors corrected in exist ing maps of the area. Some of the peaks in the Shrader Range, for example, marked at just over 7.000 feet were found to be over 10.000 feet, and some of the ranges were miles from the places in which they were marked in the maps.

It is expected that the first ground patrols will move into the area before Christmas. An air port inspector will go along with the District Services team to lay out airstrips. Air routes from the proposed patrol posts to Madang, and to Mt. Hagen (the District HQ) have already been plotted.