NEW GUINEA GOLD.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20788, 23 February 1933, Page 6

NEW GUINEA GOLD.

FIELDS OF ROMANCE. RELIANCE ON AEROPLANES. (fROU OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) SYDNEY, February 16. An interesting picture of life on the Bulolo goldfields in New Guinea, where air travel has become universal, was drawn on licr arrival in Australia by Mrs Leslie V. Waterhotise, wile of a director of Bulolo Gold Ltd. She said there were few women on the goldlields, bqcause men were not encouraged to bring their wives unless they were able to provide comfortable accommodation. Owing to tho isolation of the liclds that was extremely difficult, but houses were gradually being erected for married employees, and social life was developing with the advent of wireless, a phonograph, and a library. All food supplies were taken front Australia in refrigerators and transported by air from the coast to three huge cool storage rooms owned by the company. In oue was placed all tho meat for the settlement, in another the butter, eggs, and cheese, and in the third tho fresh fruit and vegetables. Mrs Waterhouse said that in most parts of the world the aerodromes were situated right outside the cities, but in New Guinea the. aerodromes were the centre ol : all life for those engaged in the goldfields. Daily they stepped in and out of the aeroplanes without a thought. Sometimes the aeroplanes were giant Junlters, capable of carrying many passengers or a section of a huge dredge weighing perhaps 90031b; sometimes they were little Moths. But never pnee did the people have any sensation of fear. They wcro just' as accustomed to travelling to and fro by aeroplane as the people of a city were accustomed to using trams. It was amazing to. see how little interest the natives showed in aeroplanes. They regarded the machines as just another of tho white man's creations. "Big pigeons" was the name they gave them, and tho unconcerned manner in which a Kanaka stepped into an aeroplane for the first time in his life was astounding. They had infinite faith in the pilot, in the machine, and in the white man's powers over sea, air, and land. Men work incredibly hard on the Bulolo goldfields. according to Mrs Waterhouse. The dredges operated throughout seven days in each week, and were silent on two days of the year only— Christmas Day " and Easter Sunday, which were indeed red letter days on the fields. The climate was quite bearable. but malaria waa a menace to all white settlers. Frequent doses of quinine were a nccc«sitv. Moncv was never seen.jit Bulolo and all payments were macle by cheque.

' A nightmare mosquito. 47,000 times as largfc as a genuine one, was lately made in the Durban Museum for a health show in that South African eitv. It, is a model of the malaria mosquito. The minute hairs on the mosquito, which can only be seen with a microscope, are. over an iong on the model, and hare beer, tiiade from the coars® hair of a cair?-i~t. Tho giant's stomach if large to drain sufficient blood at a to weaken and even kill a humC.n being.