SUGAR RESEARCH EXPEDITION ATTACKED BY CANNIBALS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18644, 22 December 1928, Page 25 (Supplement)

SUGAR RESEARCH EXPEDITION ATTACKED BY CANNIBALS.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 19. mented with coloured clay, and others were in their natural state, although distorted. The disease known as sugarcane mosaic has in recent years brought ruin to thousands of planters, and it was the ravages of this disease that provided the incentive for the expedition. The undertaking was sponsored by the Department of Agriculture and various commercial organisations. Fuel bases for the Fairchild cabin seaplane used by the expedition were established in Sydney, the party arriving there in June. Food and fuel were dispatched to Everill Junction on the Fly River in Papua, on an auxiliary ketch. The craft also carried fourteen policemen detailed by the Government to accompanv the party to New Guinea and Papua. Flying over the Kemp Welch River and Kikori River, the party reached the Everill Junction in five and a half hours, the trip requiring three weeks by boat. By seaplane and double native canoes fitted with high-speed outboard motors, the party visited virtually the whole of western Papua accessible by water, to a point more than 500 miles from the Gulf of Papua. Strickland, Alice and Palmer Rivers, Lake Murray, and numerous unnamed lakes were explored. A sketch map was prepared, showing the contour and location of fourteen lakes in the vast valley of the Fly River, observed from elevations up to 14,000 feet. During the latter part of August the explorers, with seventy-five native carriers, made a walking trip to the mountains at the back of Kappa Kappa and Hula. Dr Brandes flew to the Musa and Markham Rivers, and as far as the Sepik River, inspecting a number of native gardens. From Marienberg as a base, the Sepik River and its tributaries were explored. A hundred and eighty-one varieties of sugar cane were collected and sent to Washington and Sydney in duplicate. These included twenty varieties of wild cane and one new species tentatively named Saccharum Robustum, the tallest and most vigorous species yet discovered. (Copyright by the “Star” and the North American Newspaper Alliance. All rights reserved.)