LUCKY MR STANIFORTH SMITH

Otago Witness, Issue 3005, 18 October 1911, Page 8

LUCKY MR STANIFORTH SMITH

BACK FROM PAPUAN WILDS.

Mr Staniforth Smith, of Papuan exploration fame, arrived in Sydney on Octooor 2. He looks well, (reports the Telegraph), and says he feels fit; indeed, he is a great i improvement on what he must have ap- ' peared seven months ago, when he reached i the seashore after tramping 300 miles bara- ! footed in the wilds of Papua, while people '■ in Australia said it was a pity that such ! a brave explorer should have been eaten by cannibals, and that more missionaries I should be sent" out at once. j Six months' .leave of absence has been granted Mr Smith from his office of Administrator of Papua, and with this knowfledge in his mintt* he treats the story of j his expedition lightly. "We were fortu- ! nate in avoiding fighting," he says, "and ! the only other difficulty we met with was I an occasional forced application of the fast j cure, though ever in that respect there j are many little ragamuffins in London and | gamins in Paris who have had similar ex- ! periences -without anything being said ! about it." All the same the memory of 40 days on bark and fag ends of next-to--1 nothing brought back a , ruminative look into Mr Smith's faoe for a moment. Then, he remarked: "We were all very much touched with the generous and kindly.feeling displayed by our fellow - Australians j when they believed we had come to grief,"

A DISCOVERY AND A PROBLEM. "The great upraised plateau, that we travelled for over 200 miles after passing Mount Murray," said tho administrator, " is, generally speaking, useless as far as industrial enterprises are concerned. Here and there are rich patches along the river banks. On the whole, the native population is sparse. But between this country and the sea is a wide belt of comparatively low-lying, alluvial country, which, so far as we could see, carried a much heavier population, and provided millions of acres suitable for plantations. A great deal of the land is low-lying and swampy, bat there is a considerable area suitable for rubber and cocoariut growing. Indeed, the good agricultural land in the territory is unlimited. At any rate, the labour supply will certainly give out long before the suitable agricultural land is exhausted, and, although the supply of indentured labourers has so far fairly kept up to the. calls made by the increased development of the country, it is impossible to say whether it will be sufficient for our requirements during the next 10 years."

COUNTRY COMING ON WELL. Papua, says Mr Smith, is developing satisfactorily. Fortunately, there had been no booms, but during the financial year ended on June 30 a larger area of land had been planted than in any previous year. The gold yield was the best for the past five veais; the export of copper ore and timber was also a record. The difficulty in regard to the distinction of the boundaries of plantations, which hod been the of a good deal of complaint in the past owing to the Government's inability to get surveyors, was not now so acute. Until last year the arrears of surveying were continually increasing, but last year, for the first time, the unsurveyed leases were considerably reduced, and there w*"ve now more surveyors at work, than ever before. M;r Smith explained how delay sometimes arose before intending planters could get on their land. Lease applications for Crown lands were granted with despatch, but when a planter wanted a piece of land owned by the natives the application could not be dealt with so speedily. '• A Government land buyer bad first to visit the district and buy the land from the natives, provided they were willing to sell, and he was satisfied that they did not require it for their own use. As the distances to be travelled were considerable, and other difficulties arose, delay sometimes occurred. When the land had been purchased by the Government the planter could secure it on lease. The Government has about 1,000,000 acres of Crown lands on hand, .Mr Smith stated, and about 300,000 or 400,000 acres more was leased out to planters. WANTED AT ONCE. " The most urgent want of territory," said Mr Smith, "is wireless communication. If wireless stations were established at Port Moresby, Siama.rai, and Woodlark Islands, the administration of Papua would be immensely facilitated, and industrial development stimulated. We aire so isolated, having only a fortnightly moil service with Australia, that after we had read in the papers that a European war was threatening we had no further news for over 10 days. In that time anything might happen. As regards the industrial side of the question, we know that a large number of investors refuse to embark-on enterprises unless the projects are at tne end of a telegraph line. "The idea of a party of Federal members visiting tlhe territory was excellent, as the"

destinies of Papua really rest in the hands of the Commonwealth Parliament. I have no doubt that the large amount of information, collected by the members of that party laist June and July will be of great value to Australia and Papua." . Mr Smith is proceeding to India. Thence he goes to England and the Continent, and if time permits he will return via Siberia, Japan, and the Philippines.