WESTERN PAPUA.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 10 September 1927, Page 6

WESTERN PAPUA.

LITTLE-KNOWN TERRITORY. OIL COMPANY’S EXPEDITION. The Western Division of Papua is the least civilised part of that territory, and in .places head-hunting is still rife there. To Dairu, in this Western Division, Oriorno Oil, Limited, has recently sent out an expedition to open up the oilfield known to exist in that neighbourhood. The secretary of the expedite is a New Zealander, and in a letter to. relatives in Auckland he gives interesting particulars of the country. Darn is the western port of entry to Papua and is about 150 miles from Port Moresby. It is a picturesque little island, but the rain and the mosquitoes are its unpleasing features. In the first 16 days after the arrival of tli)3 expedition 19in of rain fell, yet the white residents, to the number of four men and two women, told the newcomers that they had fortunately arrived in the dry .season. Six men from the river country were sentenced last April to terms of imprisonment np to seven years for the murder of six black women. _ The skulls were exhibited at the trial. They were weirdly decorated. The oil company has abont 150 native labourers, of whom the _ writer speaks well, but the trouble is that among 'them they speak isome eight different languages. The actual oil field is reached byway of Wooroi, a spot 40 miles up the Oriomo River. From Wooroi the field i-a separated by 12 miles of tropical jungle through which a road is being constructed. Wooroi possesses, a. good climate, and the spot 12 miles inland, which the. company has chosen for headquarters is also high and healthy. Although the Western Division of Papua is twice the size of Victoria, it contains, only 12 white residents apart from the members of this expedition. Copra plantations are few and far between. .and rubber thrives none too well, but the development of oil should lead to the opening up of this littleknown area.