Just Doodling—

The Editors' Maillag

Papua's "One

and Only", Wasn't

Two readers have had something to say about Papua’s “one and only” steam train at Misima (September PIM, p. 27). Both say that it was only one of two, the second being in the Bootless Inlet area, a few miles east of Port Moresby.

Mr. P. R. Osborne, now of Elizabeth Bay, Sydney, gave these details: “A short railway was constructed by New Guinea Copper Mines Ltd. about 1920-21 for conveyance of ore from the Laloki and Dubuna Mines to their smelter at Bootless Inlet.

“The system of transportation comprised an aerial ropeway, length approx. 3 h miles, capacity 200/250 tons daily, connecting the Laloki mine with the railway at Wai Wai.

The line from Bootless Inlet to Wai Wai —about miles —continued to Dubuna—a further 3 miles of lighter rails to cope with the light haulage on that section. The ropeway anti railway were in opera tion for five or six years.

“The railway from Bootless differed from that on Misima mainly in that it was built for heavier traffic and ran through dry, comparatively level country, while the country between Bwagaoia and Block 10 mine was wet and mountainous. Also, if I remember rightly, the Misima loco was mainly wood-fired and carried passengers while that at Bootless was fired by coal, and hauled copper ore or supplies only. I know both places well having lived at each for many frears.”

And There were

Hordes of Cars

Our other correspondent was Mr.

W. Brian Molloy, now a solicitor of Sydney, but formerly of Papua.

Not only does he slay us with this railway at Bootless, but takes us to task for our allegation that the number of cars in pre-war Moresby could be “counted on two hands”. , To the contrary, there were ‘hordes of cars and many interest ing stories, too, about some of them”.

That’s what he says—although we seem to remember somewhere m the mid-thirties trying to hire a car for a day in Moresby, finally acquiring an early model Chev or Overland, and then finding there were, comparatively speaking, no roads to use it on, anyway.

I Mandated people always despised old Port Moresby, he says—and hints that PIM does too . . . “PIM is the main source of historical

data for the South Seas but very little appears about old Moresby and old Papua, with the result that frequently remarks are made which probably contribute to the early end of old residents through accelerated hypertension. . . .”

He’s dead wrong, of course; we have an affection for old Papua and if Mr. Molloy is harbouring any stories about the Territory, before or between the wars, he should dust them off and let us have them.

The Boyds of

Boydtown, BSI and London

It was interesting to learn from recent correspondence that the famous Benjamin Boyd, who left his mark prominently in the New South Wales and Pacific Islands of ever 100 years ago was a great uncle of the Right Hon. Lennox Boyd, the present British Secretary of State for the Colonies.

Benjamin Boyd was a shipowner and trader, with a bold imagination and boundless energy. It was he who selected Twofold Bay (Eden) as the ideal place for a major port on the Australian coast between Sydney and Melbourne, and it was he who there built Boydtown (now a fascinating relic). How right he was in planning that new State and port! He lost his life when he went into the South Pacific Islands in his armed yacht, the Wanderer. He went ashore on Guadalcanal, in the Solomon Islands, on October 15, 1851, to shoot pigeons, and the natives seized and murdered him.

Articles about Boyd and the Wanderer appeared in PIM in May and July, 1957, and April, 1958; and we learned of the relationship when requests came from London for copies of the journal for Mr. Lennox Boyd (who, incidentally, now is the Minister in charge of the British Solomon Islands, where his kinsman was murdered).

The Massacre That

Didn't Come Off

Sydney H. Chance, of Brisbane, Q’ld., would like to hear from any reader who knows anything about an abortive native plot to murder all the Australians in Madang, NG, in 1916.

As he heard the story, some scores of native servants plotted cunningly to descend on their masters before dawn on a Sunday morning—when said masters could reasonably be expected to be suffer ing from the usual hangovers—and spear them. However, the thing fell through because one house monkey thought so well of his

master that he got cold feet and blew the gaff. The plot was supposed to have been German inspired.

Does anyone know any more about this incident?

Just Doodling—

Or Antiquities?

A New Zealand correspondent re minds us that the ancient Fiji rock carvings, which have lately caught the eye of the tourist promoters (October PIM, p. 123) were very fully discussed, with many photos, way back in PlM’s issues of June and July, 1934, and in February and July of 1935.

At that time, it w r as suggested by some that they might be of Chinese origin and at least 2,000 years old.

Others thought this idea impossible.

Since then a good deal of new evidence of very lengthy Chinese voyages has been brought to light, which suggests that, from a purely navigational point of view, these cave drawings could be of such origin.

But our correspondent seems to take a rather sour view of tourists, and human-nature generally. He points out the habit of 20th century humans who write on lavatory walls and goes on to say that it would be a frightful sell if some one went to the trouble of disciphering that ancient writing only to find it was just doodling on the walls of a well-preserved Hsiu Dynasty Chinese seamen’s con venience.

Tonga Says Thanks

For Trees, Copra Board

Here is a sincere tribute, if you like, it comes from a Roman Catholic missionary in Tonga, who, in beholding Tonga’s new flagship, “Aoniu”, remembers the work of a man who now lives in Papua. The man he remembers is Mr. W.

Cottrell-Dormer, first Director of Agriculture in Papua-New Guinea after the war, who later retired from that position and is now an agri cultural officer somewhere in Papua.

Our Tonga friend writes: The people of Tonga are rejoicing.

Their flag is on the sea. Pigs are killed, “katoangas” are going on.

It would be just, therefore, to re member, on this occasion, the man who, with Vilami Tungi, then Premier, was responsible for the Copra Board, which owns the new ship. That man was Mr. Cottrell- Dormer, Tonga’s Director of Agri culture.

He trusted the Tongan people and believed that they could dry their copra properly and have the profit.

He introduced peanuts also in Tonga, some even now are growing in the kingdom. Nice trees in Vaiola hospital, Atele and all over Tonga will remind us of him for a long time.