WILD NEW GUINEA

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 266, 6 August 1931, Page 11

WILD NEW GUINEA

Adventures With Natives GOLD PROSPECTORS Rich in Potentialities FABULOUS EARLY DAYS 1 Well-seasoned with 15 years’ experience in New Guinea, Mr. J. A. Miller, interested in gold mining, arrived in Wellington on Tuesday by the Ulimaroa to make arrangements with a New Zealand syndicate to lead a party of prospectors to some previously unexplored territory in New Guinea. Mr. Miller and his party will gain access to the interior from the south so as to avoid crossing a very high mountain range that has to be crossed travelling from the north.

Interviewed on his arrival, Mr. Miller told a “Dominion” reporter that the possibilities for gold in New Guinea were “absolutely wonderful.” The surfaces of former German New Guinea, now administered by Australia under mandate from the League of Nations, and of the southern portion, Papua, had barely been scratched. At present gold was the staple commodity of New Guinea, for the prices of copra and rubber had fallen to such an extent as to make them scarcely worth growing. Two years ago the ruling rate for rubber was 3/- per lb, and copra £4O a ton; now they were 3Jd and £l2 a ton respectively. Fortunes Made. Transport difficulties were very acute in New Guinea, he said, and in consequence aeroplanes carried the majority of the goods from the coast to the various places inland. Almost everywhere one looked—in the river-

beds and on the hills—there were evidence of the presence of gold, but the overburden, that is the earth and undergrowth, made it very difficult to make a proper inspection of what really was there. Some of the early miners had made fabulous sums, Capt. Harry Darby, who died in Calcutta some weeks ago, left the place with £75,000 to his credit—all gained with crude mining implements in about five months. .. New. Guinea could, not be compared with the Klondyke, inasmuch as none of the lawlessness present in that place existed, he continued. Of ail the thousands of ounces carried out by the natives, not one ounce has ever been stolen. Two very big concerns were now commencing operations, he said—the Placer Company, an Canadian organisation with a capital of about five million pounds, and the Bulolo Gold Mining Co. Both had acquired large areas of land, and were installing the most modern plant and equipment. ; Warlike Natives. Mr. Miller spoke about the dangers from the warlike natives which the prospectors had had to face. Only within the past five or six months five or six men had lost their lives, some of them being the two Lehu brothers. Trist, an aviatoi who was forced down, and two prospectors named Alf Belfield and Herbert Swanson. While camped near the headwaters of the Tauri River some ten months ago. Mr. Miller had rathe - an exciting though unenviable experience. It appears that the fiercest natives are called the Kuku Kuku tribe, nomads, who live in the interior. and they are the sworn enemies of the coastal natives. Wanting to secure steel implements, knives and axes, a party of the Kuku Kuku warriors attacked Mr. Miller’s camp pt dead of night. .The natives were beaten off. but only with the loss of two of their number. The next morning quite 300 arrows were I found round about. The natives had shot the arrows into the a[r hoping that some would penetrate the '‘tents and kill the sleepers inside. Of course, they had no, chance against modern firearms, but nevertheless-it was not an experience to be relished. / Backward Race. Apart from gold-mining. Mr. Miller did not see any great potentialities in the country, with perhaps the exception of cattle-grazing, which had been carried on with marked success at some of the mission stations. The natives themselveir were very backward, and those in the inferior had in manv cases never seen a white man or his commodities before. They were especially frightened at the sight of matches. Missionaries of the various denominations were well-established all along the coast, but it seemed almost futile trying to instruct such a backward race. As to the climate, Mr. Miller added that malaria was extremelv prevalent around the coastal regions, but inland, on the higher altitudes, quite a pleasant climate was enjoyed.