PLATINUM IN PAPUA.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20756, 17 January 1933, Page 9

PLATINUM IN PAPUA.

EXPLORERS' DIFFICULTIES.

BRISBANE, January 3. Behind the story of the discovery of gold and platinum in Papua by Messrs Cutlack and Baker, who reached. Brisbane to-day by the Montbro, on the way to Sydney, there is a tale of adventure. Hearing rumours that gold had been found in Eastern Papua, Mr Cutlack, with Mr Baker, who is a practical miner, set off into territory which, they claim, had never before been entered by white men. They climbed mountain * ranges and crossed plains, neck high in grass, and they faced savage tribes, eventually winning through to their destination. Mr Cutlack said to-day that members of the party started off with 12 bearers and a guide, but before they reached their goal they lost, one carrier .from fever and pneumonia. He, himaelf, suffered from lever. For six days of the journey it rained in torrents, and after he and his- companions had traversed flooded creeks they arrived at the place where the gold and platinum were found. The natives were, hostile, but Mr Cutlack, who has a slight knowledge i of medicine, was able, by treating two ! native women, to win a certain amount of confidence, from the other natives. The party was able to stay only a short time, but it followed traces of platinum for about five miles. Specimens of gold and platinum were washed. Samples shown by Mr Cutlack to-day included pieces of platinum as large as a small grain of corn. Mr Cutlack said that it was impossible to make an authoritative statement about the purity of the gold, but from a preliminary survey made by Mr Baker it was believed to be 90 per .cent, pure, and was of about 22 carats. Traces were also found of another metal, but it would be necessary to have an assay made in Sydney to prove whether it was really theTe. How a cinema manager at Stirling, Scotland, ran the risk of losing bis head and haying his theatre confiscated under an ancient law was revealed recentlv. When his cinema, The Regal, was opened recently the manager, Mr Georgp Guthrie, flew from the flagpole the Royal Banner of Scotland, the, lion rampant, which, being the personal flag of the Sovereign, no subject has the right to hoist unless the King is present in the building. An expert in heraldic law who saw the flag raised the matter in the proper quarter, with the result that Mr Guthrie was told he was guilty of an offence, the penalty for which is death. By a Royal Warrant issued by Mary Queen of Scots the Lion King-at-Arais i*s ordered to put to death all persons who illegally display th»> Sag and to confiscate the property above which the flJi is flown. • ■