The Editors' Mailbag

w Australia Went Out

TU dad Tr-ftrla me DUr iraae r. Jack West, of Rabaul, who has JS™

von Halm

I™ thP last also told us about M y of Bird-of-Paradise skins. e says that abput the only thing did during his initial stay at adjim in 1921, when he was sup- 3d to be learning how to be a itation manager, was to pack i-of-Paradise skins the final ,n-up, made necessary by the ent of Civil Administration and ew humanitarian outlook on the ? industry in general. rhe skins were to be shipped on MV Edith” he says, “with irkshop’ McDonald, the skipper, Jack Francies, Plantation In- •tor in charge of operations and i eight of us budding Plantation lagers aboard, to be dropped ig the coast and at Karkar. An r out we ran into a ‘stinko N. >t’ and nearly everybody aboard sea-sick. We limped into Sek 11+ . a ui p.m.

By the time the Edith got past tsdam, only Francies and Donald were aboard and the idea to run to Hollandia with the is. However, they foolishly ran i Aitape, and while there Francies foul of the Kiap, resulting in Edith being raided and the is confiscated. \.fter District Court proceedings, Birds were taken to Rabaul and re they remained for many ms in the Customs House. One it a Yankee ship that had called Rabaul left, and the next aun. that remained of the BOP was in the pocket of Featherstone bbs’ dust coat, which was hangon the wall of the office. Tolala remember this incident.” ,

igO DogS and

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my Deer in Papua

„'„ , . ■he following is part of a para- P£ °?7 Pa P uan ’ in \ific Islands Year Book.

There is a wild pig, which is imon and well distributed. It bably was introduced from laya at a very early date, since now forms a distinct species, jre is also a wild dog, or dingo, . There are no indigenous deer, a number of years ago a number e introduced and liberated near t Moresby, where they seem to r e become acclimatised—although

heard of them 1,1 In relation to these notes, Mr. V, T. Sanders sends the following in comment from Port “I have not yet heard of a species of wild d °S’ or d ingo-nor have I met anybody who has seen one.

“! can assure y° u tha t there are numerous herds of deer, scattered from Port Moresb y t 0 the Dutch border. Deer are being shot regu larly by hunters in the Brown River and Laioki areas. Four sets of antlers are mounted in my lounge, where I write this note, “Only last week I saw a magni ficent stag, only an hour’s drive from Port Moresby.”

Papua (as distinct from Port Moresby and it environs) still has wild dogs of course, although they are not now seen in as many areas as they were once. A couple of years ago there was a lot of publicity when Sir Eklward Hall strom brought two of these dogs down from Papua’s Southern High lands and installed them at Taronga Park Zoo. Sir Edward described them as very like the Australian man y respects; he said that theywere seldom seen during the day but hunted their food at night. p/ m published a picture of the dogs in the j ssue 0 f February, 1957. & J M

KOUndaDOUT Voyage

t l n ij n UT me UIO UayS photo of the old BP skippers, taken about 1920. and published in April and June “PlM’s”, has inspired a great deal of correspondence, in eluding something from old Terri torian, Mr. A. P. Lyons, now living in retirement in Surfers Paradise, Queensland, about one Skipper of that period who did not appear in the photo. He was Captain P.

Bayldon, who eventually left the BP service to establish a Navigation School in Sydney.

He was in command of the old “Moresby” when Mr. Lyons first went to Port Moresby in 1906, arid it was one of those roundabout voyages of the time—from Sydney to Java, via the Solomons, Samarai and Port Moresby. But before Mr. Lyons reached his destination, they had ftad enoug h excitement for several voyages. ..

He wntes - Soon after sighting Wreck Reef we encountered a cyclone, which made things uncomfortable for a couple of days. In due course we reached Marau Sound, southern end of Guadalcanal, and from there, proceeded towards Malaita.

Between two islets called Aola and

Neale Islands, we grounded on a reef and had to jettison a lot of cargo to get the vessel off.

Passengers were landed on Neale, where a trader, named Newman, put us up. Aola Islet was the head quarters of another trader, named Weldon. Two other traders, named Harding and Darbyshire, owned a plantation (Penduffryn) nearby on Guadalcanal. They were two well to-do Englishmen to whom the romantic life on tropical islands appealed.

After getting off the reef, we pro ceeded to Gavutu, the headquarters of Lever Bros., who had recently acquired it and all his other in terests in the Solomons from Cap tain Svensen. Gavutu, at that time, was a naval supply station having a reservoir in the high ground covered by a galvanised iron roof, from which pipes carried water to the jetty below. Near the jetty was a large coal bunker, and a large two storied house and some store sheds and workshops completed the estab lishment.

There was a diving outfit at Gavutu, and it was placed at the disposal of Captain Bayldon. Claude Bernays, of Lever Bros., volunteered to act as diver. He had seen diving done in Torres Strait, but had never before ventured below.

He donned the suit, stepped into the water intending to go alongside the Moresby. But he “blew up” and came up when the air pressure was applied. It looked very funny, with his scared face seen through the front window of the helmet.

In getting him out of the suit, the front window of the helmet was mislaid and next morning it could not be found. The ship’s carpenter made a flanged wood plug for the aperture, and in this gear the 2nd officer (Richardson) went below, located the holes in the ship’s plates (presumably by feel), and patched them up. Cement was poured on top of the patches inside the hold.

We then proceeded slowly on our way to Samari, arriving nearly a month overdue. There was no wire less in those days, and, in view of the cyclone we had come through, and nothing having been heard of the steamer for so long, there was some anxiety on her account.

The Goverment steamer Merrie England was at Samarai when we arrived. She left for Port Moresby next day, and I was a passenger.

The Moresby returned to Australia.

IN THE MAILBAG: This note from a Port Moresby bank officer whose name we’ve withheld for his own protection; “This evening the Hon. Paul Hasluck spoke to us over the air, at a time normally devoted to a programme called Listeners’"

Choice—a quaint conceit. I recog nised his speech. It was No. 2A/4-B, Speeches, Impromptu Ministers, Apprehension Lulling, Vote 1 e s s Areas.”