. The new New Guinea. stricts, by minersand prospectors, and by a few of the missionaries ofthe Sacred Heart, who have the true pioneering so much remains quite unknown, that one maysafely prophesy it will be very many years yet beforePapua loses the greatest of its charms—mystery. The continent, or island, of New Guinea is nearly1500 miles long, its greatest width being 430 entire area is estimated at 235,000 square spite of the huge piece claimed by the Dutch andthe goodly section belonging to Germany, Englandhas no reason to complain of her share, since itamoun
. The new New Guinea. stricts, by minersand prospectors, and by a few of the missionaries ofthe Sacred Heart, who have the true pioneering so much remains quite unknown, that one maysafely prophesy it will be very many years yet beforePapua loses the greatest of its charms—mystery. The continent, or island, of New Guinea is nearly1500 miles long, its greatest width being 430 entire area is estimated at 235,000 square spite of the huge piece claimed by the Dutch andthe goodly section belonging to Germany, Englandhas no reason to complain of her share, since itamounts to 90,540 square miles, nearly 88,000 ofwhich are on the mainland, the rest being made upof islands. The British-owned section is in manyways superior to German New Guinea. It is longand narrow—800 miles from east to west, and from200 to 50 in width, its coastline being proportionatelyvery great—3664 miles. It is easy to understand, from a glance at the map,that Papua must be much more readily accessible, and. THE HISTORY OF PAPUA 23 less troublesome and expensive to open up, than eitherof the foreign-owned sections. This impression iscarried out by the actual facts. Both Dutch and GermanNew Guinea are less known, less developed, lesseffectively controlled than Papua. Our share is, in-deed, more valuable in many ways. To mention oneor two only—the mineral resources of the country arericher, the pearl fisheries are more valuable, and thegreat extent of seaboard offers perfect facilities forcultivating the cocoanut, which, in the form of copra or dried kernel, is one of the most importantproducts of Australasia. It must be confessed that the name—the newname—of the English-owned section is a little confus-ing. In our childish days we were taught to thinkof the largest island of the world as Papua, or NewGuinea. It is indeed marked as such on most when the part known as British New Guineawas taken over by the Commonwealth Governmentin 1906 it became necessa
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublisherphila, bookyear1911
