JUNGLE GOLD

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 108, 10 May 1933, Page 9

JUNGLE GOLD

ROMANCE OF NEW GUINEA

AEROPLANE'S PART

(From "The Post's" Representative.) I SYDNEY, May 4. During February last gold valued at £147,000 was exported from New Guinea, a record output for the Mbrobe field. New fields in hitherto unknown and unexplored country in the Mandated Territory are rapidly being opened up. A few years ago the Morobo district*in New Guinea was a blank space on the map. No one had ever been there, and it was merely regarded as an inaccessible, jungle-in-festedarea, inhabited by a dense population of savage and primitive tribes. Thero was, in short, no call 4o_ go there, and to do so was to risk privation and possible death at the hand of the savages. Suddenly a whisper went round that there was gold at Edie Creek. However, only a dozen brave spirits who were prepared to risk anything for reward answered the:call. To reach the place where wealth awaited they had to climb, crawl, and wade over; a terrible track that led from the coast. They had to cross a mountain range that was thousands of feet high. And yet the creek was only thirty-five miles from the coast. But that thirty-five miles was almost impassable, and the Administraton had to send out urgent warnings to the many who were anxious to engage in a, gold rush.\ . Twenty years ago Edie Creek would hare petered out for sheer lack of ability .to exploit' it. The resources of civilisation would have been exhausted. But in 1926 aviation made the impossible not only possible but profitable. Today the Morobe fields are humming hives of industry. Five years ago Wav, the centre," was a natiye village m the iiingle; today it is a thriving settlement with a population of 700 whites, with hospital, hotels, schools, post oifice-, and shops. Prospecting for gold has done more to open up this territory than anything else could have done. According to a recent report neither the Government nor the missions, whicn. are working feverishly, are able to keep pace with tho progress, i Aeroplanes have reduced the time from the coast to the fields to a matter of minutes. In recent years enormous supplies of everything have been taken to the goldfields by the giant aeroplanes that are employee!. In_ IWO the material and stores carried totalled nearly 3000 tons. All the refrigerated foods are shipped from Australia and wives and families are beginning to make their appearance. There is a wonderful future before New Guinea.