GOLD

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 May 1931, Page 9

GOLD

NEW GUINEA DREDGING CAMP The whirr o£ an aeroplane engine is heard above the strains of our “Lilac Time’’ record. The storeman and mail clerk rise from lunch with polite excuses on their lips, and bitter mental maledictions on the head of the aviator who arrives at such an inopportune moment, and make their way down 'the . hill to the aerodrome with a dozen kanaka carriers. This is the first trip of the Junker to-day. Besides 1800 odd pounds of stores and machinery, mail is expected, and also a new hand for the sawmill, for the Marsina is due at Salamoa. A ’plane passed a short .time ago, heading tor the township of Wau, and now it is our turn (writes “Jonathan” in the “Sydney Morning Herald”). It is interesting to reflect the important part the most modern means of transport is playing in the opening up of the Gold Coast of New Guinea, the wildest and least known country on this globe, where the restlessness and intrepidity of man have left little of mystery and danger. Three days ago a traVel-worn expedition passed through this camp. Two patrol officers with a half a dozen native policemen, in their red-bordered navy blue uniforms, and twice as many naked carriers, convicts bowed beneath tbeii loads of camp equipment and depleted stores. The officers made known that they had come right across the island, from Port Moresby on the Papuan side, by way of the Tauri and the Watit rivers, through hostile country, where tribes numbering some hundreds strong still lived in the old savage state of inter-tribal warfare and cannibalism. . The journey had occupied about six weeks. On the way, trade goods, tobacco, bush knives, blankets, red cloth, beads, etc., had given out, and, no longer z able barter for peaceful passage, a con'stant watch had to be kept, night ana day, against attack. And the perils of that savage jungle country are not confined solely to its cannibals and head* hunters; plant life is treacherous, wasting fevers lurk and deadly snakes abound. It is but a day’s journey from here to the fringe of that savage country. Hereabouts, the natives are comparatively civilised, speak pidgin English,^and work under contract to companies and individuals.

The discovery of gold has made a vast difference in this particular district of New Guinea.. Salamoa, the sea port, formerly a copra loading centre, a fever-ridden settlement comprising a couple of stores and a few huts, has grown to be a town of great importance in New Guinea affairs. Built upon a narrow strip of sand, jutting out from the mainland to join what would otherwise be a lumpy atoll, the site of Salamoa betrays a sad lack of optimism and ambition on the part of its founders. Occasionally a tidal wave will wash right over the sand spit, much to the disgust of its inhabitants.

Thirty miles to the north of Salamoa, on the coast ,is the air port of Lae. Here is the headquarters of Guinea Airways, Ltd., who operate a fleet of four Junkers and two Moths, carrying passengers and freight to the goldfields. Very shortly the fleet will be augmented by a mighty threeengined Junker, carrying 70001 b per flight. At present, passengers are carried at £5 a head and freight at sixpence the pound. In the early days, passengers paid £25 per flight, and freight was at a shilling the pound, so that, by the time it reached its destination, such produce as flour, butter, and tinned meats might almost be classed with the precious metal freighted out. BULOLO Bulolo Gold Dredging Camp is situated on the Bulolo River, a shallow stream, swift running over its bed of quartz and stones, beneath which lies a fortune. The camp is 40 miles from the coast. Forty miles does not seem a long way and certainly is not on a southern road in a mtor car; the matter of an hour’s run maybe, or a trained athlete might walk the distance in a day. But to travel the 40 miles that lie between Bulolo and the coast you will need to traverse some of the roughest country imaginable; Country where the timber is dense and the undergrowth so thick and tangled that it is necessary to hack a passage through every yard of it; country of lofty mountains, hills covered with tall koouai grass, and elsewhere broken up in ridges, with gorges and gullies between; country presenting every obstacle nature can conceive, so that to traverse the 40 miles on foot takes six to eight days. Compare this with the flight of the aeroplane, which occupies on average 40 minutes, including the time to gain the necessary altitude to cross the mountain range at 8000 feet.

The camp is 12 miles from Wau, the goldfields township; 12 formidable miles, so that the trip is usually made by ’plane. Away back and above at an altitude of 8000 feet is the famous Edie Creek, where New Guinea gold was first discovered and where several big companies hold leases and are commencing operations. The days of staked claims and handwashing in this Territory are. passing. Most of the chance fortunes have been made and a large part df them spent. These are the days of big companies, employing skilled mining engineers tnd artisans, with a host of kanaka labourers, backed up by big capita and able to command modern machinery and up-to-date methods. The struggle against the force of nature goes on on a grand scale. Where formerly the lone prospector hewed bis way through the tropical undergrowth and washed a few ounces of gold from the bed of a creek, comfortable camps are being erected, scores of acres cleared and drained, dredging machinery, assembled, tunnels driven through mountain sides, and all the panoply of modern mining engineering brought into play to make mother earth yield up its golden store. The engine, which has been ticking ever since the landing of the ’plane, now quickens and fills the air with its whirring. The big Junker speeds along the ground, rises into the air. doubles back along the ’drome, rising ever higher, soars above the lofty cedars, and then away over the mountain range to the coast. The camp settles down again to the affairs.of the day.