DARING EXPLORERS

Taranaki Daily News, 24 July 1930, Page 15

DARING EXPLORERS

NEW GUINEA OPERATIONS DANGER AND STARVATION. HOSTILE TRIBES MET WITH. After a recuperative trip abroad, following what has been described as “the greatest feat of exploration that has over been accomplished in New Guinea,” Mr. C.‘ H, Karius is returning to Sydney by the Niagara to resume his magisterial duties in Papua. Ills expedition conducted during 1926 and 1927, excited great attention among explorers and scientists and as a reward for his discoveries he was decorated with the Royal Geographical Society’s patron’s medal, presented by the King—the highest honour the society.can bestow. With one white companion, Mr. I. T. Champion, six native policemen and 30 native carriers, Mr. Karins penetrated into the rugged fastnesses of Papua through heavily bush-clad territory inhabited by hostile native tribes, among, whom cannibalism is still believed to be rife. The expedition was fraught with treinendotis difficulty and continual danger, every conceivable obstacle barring the way, but indomitable pluck and almost" superhuman powers of endurance won' through in the end. Although the twta whitfc men lost the majority of. their native carriers through desertion, tliey managed to cross the mighty Victor Emmanuel Ranges that divide the north aiid south watersheds and. they traced the Sources of the Ely, Strickland, White, Black, Sepik and Palmer Rivers. POOR QUALITY OF FOOD. ■

Mr.' KariuS stated at Auckland oh "Alondily that''for weeks'on end the party' liad' td fendiire a starvation diet and the continual physical strain and ravages of ‘disease completely broke his health. “1 developed pneumonia, pleurisy and chronic malaria and I have been trying to recuperate ever since 1 got back,” 'he said. “1 do riot know-whether I shall ever try any more exploration; my magisterial duties occupy all my time.” Describing the litile-kriown tribes of New Guinea, Mr. Karins said many of the-natives he encountered had never seen a' white man before. “It is fatal trying to enter that country if you do not know something of the natives and their customs,” he said. ‘Each, tribe has fixed boundaries and it is death to anyone who dares to cross them. When we came up against such tribes all we could do was to sit down arid smoke a cigarette until the excitement subsided. “To take a step forward while they were ill a suspicious and warlike mood would have meant death. They are armed with bows and arrows, which they can use with deadly effect, and on more than one occasion we found ourselves facing hundreds of native warriors brandishing bows and arrows fitted and iirawn to full length. In such moments, it is only infinite tact that saves .the situation. I am glad tb say that by, adopting an absolutely peaceful attitude we did not have to fire a single shot; bn the contrary we made friends with practically every tribe we came across.”

PRECIPITOUS COUNTRY. The expedition tried to make an ascent cf Mount Blucher, a huge, precipitous wall of limestone 5009 feet high, situated in the centre of the country, but the country was so broken and rough arid the coral limestone was so severe on the barefooted carriers that the attempt had to be abandoned. Sheer walls of almost bare limestone afforded no foothold/. Landslides were continually occurring, and whenever it was necessary to navigate the rivers, capsizes occurred, rafts were smashed and gear was lost. Eventually, after’ the sources of the Palmer and the Strickland Rivers had been located and two new rivers, the Lcn and the Murray, discovered, the expedition was compelled to return to. the coast. The next year a second expedition was fitted out in an endeavour to cross the great dividing range to the north coast. The party climbed to a height of 8900 feet, crossing limestone ridges with knife-like edges and crevasses Ifiu feet deep, until the source of the Sepik was located. Describing the reception the party met in the villages in this region, Mr, Karius said: “A most pecu; liar call, or war-cry, was constantly being given and armed men came from all directions. The call consists of two notes 'aiid resembles the croak of a frog. The first person to raise'' the rilarm keeps repeating the one note until answered by a second person. These two then take up the call and keep it going, one on one note and one on the other. Every one within hearing takes up the call and in almost no time the district is resounding to what sounds like the croaking of gigantic frogs.”

When the expedition reached the north coast, a remnant of its former self, the men were semi-starved and nervebroken. THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. ' “Wonderful gold-bearing diluvial land exists in Northern Papua,” said Mr, Karius. ‘‘The biggest possibility of the northern watershed is undoubtedly mining, and in saying that 1 am not speaking as a novice;, there was;a. very interesting disclosure at the beginning of thc'wai’, which shows how near the Germans were to making a big thing out of gold in Papua. They had sent an exploring party up the Warria River and when that party came out the whole of that part of the interior was officially closed and no one was allowed to go into it from tho coast, “The mystery was never divulged, but soon after war broke out a German steamer, en route from Hamburg to Tapir, was interned at a iSouth African port and when British officers went on board they found it full of mine machineiy consigned to Jiabaul. Jt was some years before we were able to follow up the hint, but when prospecting parties eventually did go up the Warria they discovered the remarkable goldfield of Bulolo and Edie Creek.”