GOLD IN NEW GUINEA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19416, 26 August 1926, Page 13

GOLD IN NEW GUINEA.

DIGGERS RUSHING TO FIELD. MINERS AND THEIR RIGHTS. A PREDICTION OF TROUBLE. [fro.u our own correspondent, j SYDNEY, Aus. 19. Gold hunters bound for New Guinea took all the available accommodation on the steamer Montoro,' which sailed this week. These fields promise to become) among the most remarkable iu the world. Big quantities of gold' are now being produced. The Marsina brought 5000 ounces to Sydney last week, and it is predicted that between now and Christmas about 50.000 ounces will reach Australia from New Guinea. It is 35 years since gold was discovered in New Guinea. At that time, Sir William McGregor was Governor of New Guinea, and he lifted the Queensland Mining Act, practically unaltered, and applied it to New Guinea. This Act, like those of other Australian States and of New Zealand, makes all new fields " diggers' ground." That is, the ground can only be pegged out by individual diggers, whose holdings are limited in extent. In recent years the Now Guinea Act has been altered to allow syndicates or companies to hold large areas. Already some land has been taken up under these conditions.

A Prosnect of Trouble. When the individual .diggers arrive on field and find the wholo bed of a river, or other ltrrge areas, in the hands of big companies, it is claimed that there will be trouble. It is an unwritten minets' law that all new fields are diggers' fields. That there lias been no trouble so far is attributed to the fact that very few miners have been able to reach the diggings owing to tho scarcity of carriers.

The New Guinea gold deposits are considered by experts to ,be the most extraordinary in the world. The . gold is not in the sand or earth in small quantities which have to bo washed t.o get the gold. It is found in large flat slugs in the beds of the rivers and creeks. Some of these slugs are as large as a man's hand, and in parts they literally pave the beds of the streams. At such places a man with a sugar bag could pick them up, and soon fill the bag, experts say. The presence of a considerable proportion of silver makes the slugs pale in colour ,and the gold is only worth about £2 15s an ounce,' but its abundance and the ease of winning make up for the low. value , .-.. ... /' "

Evidently there are enormous deposits in the wild hills and gorges, which the heavy timber and dense jungle'mak'e it difficult to get at. In the meantime, the dredges and other plant will win it from the streams. And when adequate means for transporting men to the field are provided, the output of gold is expected to be a world's record.

Suggested Use of Aeroplanes.

Owing to the fact that two mountain ranges and a vast swamp have to be crossed on the trail from Morobe,- on the coast, to Salamoa and Bulolo. which are situated at an elevation of 4000 feet, : it ; appears ; that,'.the only feasible, way would be to make the trip, by air. :.-... vWheii the Yukon., rush took place . a railway had to be built over the terrible White Horse Pass. In the New Guinea rush no such laborious means is v required. With proper landing/places, aeroplanes could carry scores of men an hour to the fields, which are less than 100 miles from the coast, while tho gold too could be brought to the coast by the same means. : That would get'over the difficulty of transportation. Then may arise the more serious trouble of the miners' rights and the holdings- of the large companies.