NEW GUINEN.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 14324, 14 October 1910, Page 3

NEW GUINEN.

THE COMMERCIAL VISITING- MIS£IONAE.Y'S IMPRESSIONS. Interesting impitessnoiii of British New Guinea, particularly m regard to its commercial development. were given hy the Rev. H. P. Schlencker to a. 4 'Hornid'' reporter yesterday afternoon in the course of a brief interview. Mr Schlencker, who is touring New Zealand as a. member of the London Missionary Society, spent 14 years in thu-.e islands and is quite convinced lirai New Guinea is moving a.he;id. Tilings generally, lie said, were booming, and Moresby, the capital, was experiencing a period oi prosperity, in tact so quickly iiad tlie population increased that- ma 113* people were unable to Jind accommodation. One sign oi' development- was the format ion -of n big planting company with, a capital ol ime and a hall million pounds, which would be 'Kpended in planting rubber, ci n-uaiiuts, and sisal lu'inp. In New Guinea huwr-ver, there wu-j not a great. population, some, indeed many, of the- naliv«-s d-d not care to work tor any length or tune, and Mr Schleurker es{ KM-ts that the company will iind lack *«l* labour a great drawback. Id wmild ceriainly be a great problem il : they intended -opening out to any very largo extent. Some months ago a new gold field was opened up o.n the Williams river, which empties itself into the Gulf of Papua", and at first ihere was quite a gold rush, many people coming over from Australia, a lot of them without a penny in their pockets. In the early stages an attack of dysentery broke out. and there wns quite a lot. of distress, the Government having to provide food and shelter until it could send some of them hack.

'•New Guinea is not a poor man's country" said Mr Sclilencker, "any man who goes there intending; to take up plantation work shou.d ho hacked up hy some capital. To open up either a rubber plantation or a cocoami t -plantation 0110 needs a considerable outlay,, and it would bp about ton years before you could got a decent return." ■ Proceeding, lie said that a great deal was new country, and people who went there would tind neither the climate nor the land what they expected. The conditions were altogether different from those of Australia for besides the tropical heat there was the malarial fever to contend against. The Government wore doing all thoy could to make Xew Guinea more attractive and had established nurseries. for which many new trees had been introduced. N'ow there was also a. fairly convenient steamer service, vessels from Brisbane calling every six weeks with mails, passengers and cargo. Missionary work, said Mr Sclilencker. was proceeding 011 satisfactory lines and districts had been allocated to the various "Missionary Societies. The Church ,of "England Mission had taken the north-east coast, and the AYcsleyans had the islands on the east coast. The London Missionary Society. with which he was connected, occupied about three or four hundred, miles on the south const. It had fourteen European missionaries, and some scores of native teachers, including South Sea Islanders and Xew Guineans.