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A USTRALASIA ILL USTRA TED. 



arrows, although these are not used east of Port Moresby. Nets of various kinds are 

 made by the men, who use a mesh and needle like those of Europeans, but do not 

 hold the needle in the same way. They are made all sizes, from a small hair net to 

 the heavy dugong or kangaroo net. At the east end of New Guinea the natives show 

 great taste in carving. Everything upon which a design can be cut is ornamented by 

 a graceful and pretty device. The figure-heads of their canoes, the tops of their paddles, 

 the lloats of their nets, the gourds for holding lime, the spatulas used for the lime, and 

 most other suitable articles are all beautifully carved. 



The products of New Guinea available for a foreign market are very few. It is 

 only in the west of the Island that an export trade is maintained with the civilized 



world. A considerable commerce has been 

 carried on by the Dutch for some years past, 

 principally with the islands off the main-land, 

 and is worth about twenty thousand pounds per 

 annum. The exports are sago, nutmegs, massoi 

 bark, bird-skins, trepang, tortoise and pearl shell. 

 But on the south-east peninsula the products 

 of the land are few and small. A considerable 

 quantity of trepang is gathered by European 

 and Chinese fishermen on the outlying reefs. 

 Pearl-shell is obtained off the east end of the 

 Island. Large quantities of cocoa-nuts are found 

 at Maiva, Hood Bay, and the east end of New 

 Guinea. Copra might be prepared, but the cocoa- 

 nuts are too valuable to the natives to admit 

 of large quantities being exported. Cedar, and 

 a similar wood called at Hood Bay malara, 



abounds in some districts. Ebony and sandal-wood are both indigenous, but do not 

 seem to be plentiful on the coast. The sago-palm flourishes in New Guinea at 

 many places. The natives prepare large quantities for barter with other districts, but 

 it has not been found worth exporting to a foreign market. Tobacco is grown for 

 home use, and for trade with other places, but is now being superseded by the 

 foreign tobacco. In the Gulf of Papua, and as far east as Port Moresby, the 

 natives smoked before the arrival of white men. New Guinea is probably rich in 

 minerals, but none have been utilized, and only a few really discovered. Various tradi- 

 tions of gold have been current for many years. In 1877, tne urst specimens of gold- 

 bearing quartz were found, but not in sufficient quantities to pay. Since that time 

 several parties have prospected in 'various directions, but without much success. In Sep- 

 tember, 1888, gold was discovered at Sud Est Island in the Louisiade Archipelago, and 

 subsequently at Rossel Island and St. Aignan's. The finds were alluvial, and a number 

 of miners came from North Queensland to work them, the largest number at any one time 

 was probably seven hundred, but the gold was soon exhausted, and at date (1891) only 

 eighty men remain. The total amount of gold reported at the Customs from these 

 New Guinea gold-fields from discovery to June, 1890, was seven thousand three hundred 



DR. SIR WILLIAM MACGREGOR. 



