EXPEDITION TO NEW GUINEA

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22108, 2 June 1937, Page 10

EXPEDITION TO NEW GUINEA

! SUPPOSED SEARCH FOR OIL INTEREST OF AUSTRALIAN COMPANY LXHE PRESS Special Service.] AUCKLAND, June 1. A proof of Australian interest in the intensive search for oil now being made by various parties and individuals in New Guinea is provided by the arrival in Auckland of two geologists from Mexico and the United States, who are on their way to Australia by the Aorangi to join an expedition to the mandated territory. Both geologists are under contract to the Island Exploration Company, which has its headquarters in Melbourne, but they declined to discuss its business or the purpose of the expedition. It is evident, however, that the expedition will carry out oil prospecting, for the American geologist, Mr W. G. Argabrite, has spent 10 years mapping the geological conditions of Colombia and Venezuela for different oil companies, including the Shell organisation and the group controlled by Lord Cowdray. His German colleague, Dr. F. K. G. Mullerried, of the University of Mexico, was invited to I join the expedition by Mr John Muir, the well-known English petroleum geologist, who is an authority on the oil-bearing regions of Mexico. Although Dr. Mullerried indicated that he was forbidden by his contract with the company to talk about his future work in New Guinea, he was quite willing to discuss his adventures as an explorer in the jungles of Guatemala and lesser-known parts of Mexico. This exploring work has been carried out for the University of Mexico, where he is professor of geology and paleontology, and the PanAmerican Institute of Geography and History. Dr. Mullerried, who speaks English, Spanish, French, Dutch, and Maya, a dialect of Central America, studied before the Great War in Holland, 3t the University of Utrecht, as assistant to Professor Wichmann, the wellknown authority en the geolcgy of the Pacific Islands. He served for four years in France as a lieutenrnt in the regiment of Lorraine, and then completed his studies at the University of Heidelberg, where he gained his doctorate. In 1921 Dr. Mullerried went to Mexico, and since then has taught at the university in Mexico City, spending his vacations exploring the littleknown or unknown regions of Mexico and Guatemala. He has discovered an active volcano in south-east Mexico and two extinct volcanoes in another part of the country, and one in Central America. His last geographical and geological exploration work was carried out between November and April of this year. The geologist who invited Dr. Mullerried to join the expedition to New Guinea. Mr John Muir, has worked in Mexico and the United States for the last 15 years, and recently wrote a book on the geology of the Tampico region in Mexico, where a part of the | country's oil is produced. He is a I member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and of the Institute of Petroleum Technologists. Even less inclined to talk of the expedition's work was the American geologist, Mr Argabrite. He revealed,' | however, that he had been a geologist for the last 25 years, and had spent 10 years in South America prcspecting and mapping geological conditions in unknown territory.