A NEW GUINEA RUSH.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 3436, 18 May 1898, Page 2

A NEW GUINEA RUSH.

Two forward movements are taking place in connection with British New Guinea, that immense slice of territory which so far has been anything but profitable to either Groat Britain or those colonies which also contribute toward the cost of its government. One of these movements is religious, the other commercial. A lesser movement which need not now be taken into consideration is the revival in goldmining, a pursuit which in Papua is risky to health and life, and one not at all certain of reward. The religious movement is represented by the departure of Bishop Stone-Wigg and his staff of clerical and lay assistants to do the work long ago undertaken by the Anglican Church, but until now, for various reasons, by no means adequately attacked by that body. The new Bishop compares the task that lays before the English race in British New Guinea to that which it put its hands to in Now Z island. Lot us hope that the carrying out of the task will prove less arduous. There is something of uncertainty about the commercial movement, a phase of which was reported in yesterday’s cable news. The reports that have got into circulation chronicle land sales of such magnitude that it will be well to await what the Lieutenant-Governor has to say on the subject before forming an opinion in that connection. If there have been large sales of land, it must be remembered that laud in British New Guinea has been open for purchase for years, with a demand so small that it might almost be said that there was none. The fact is that tropical land is a drng on the world’s market. However muchjthey may squabble about it, all the Great Powers have a great deal more of it than they have any possible use for. And Papua is not the most attractive of the tropical countries awaiting civilisation and settlement. It has a large native race who will require a continuance of most careful handling if trouble is to bo avoided. In the interior there is an abundance of fertile land, high enough to be healthy, and generally accessible by rivers, bat so far quite untouched by settlement.