NEW GUINEA GOLD

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 102, 4 May 1929, Page 20

NEW GUINEA GOLD

| "Mountains, Gold, and Cannibals." ■ By Doria E. Booth. Sydney: The Cornstalk Publishing Company. Mrs. Booth's splendid efforts in the cause of humanity on tho goldlields of New Guinea, are but recent history, and have been fully recognised. During the rush to Edie Creek she rendered valuable service in attending to tho sick, both native and European, caring for over a hundred patients. Besides drugs and dressings, she supplied tho miners with fresh vegetables from her own garden, becoming known as the "Angel of Bulolo." Tho Administration of New Guinea publicly thanked her for her work, and the miners presented her with a testimonial. All of which is to her credit, but it does not necessarily mean that she is capable; of writing a really good book about her experiences. She has tried, "Moun-I tains, Gold; and Cannibals," being the result, but, whilst always interesting and at times vivid, it is not a literary production of especial merit. When one reads of a native boy who, when given a wild animal to skin, brought it back with the remark that he did not know where to begin tho operation as there were no buttons, one cannot help wondering how much else of the narrative is padding for effect. For all that the narrative conveys a clear picture of a certain aspect of life in Now Guinea and of life on the gold fields, and it is interesting to look upon the latter from a woman's point of view, "the only white woman gold prospector in the uori/i. —j-[,\\ .M.