year by year in malaria and heat, the land wherein the heart
aches for the severed ties of wife and home; its history has
hardly yet begun, but the reward of generations of heroism will
be the conquest of another empire where England's high
standards of freedom are to he raised anew. A victory of peace
it is to be, as noble as any yet achieved in war; and great
through its death roll, and forgotten though the workers be,
the fruits of their labors will bless that better world Great
Britain is preparing for those of ages yet to come.

There are great resources in Papua with its area of 90,500
square miles. Untrodden forests where the dark soil moulders
beneath the everlasting shade; swamps bearing a harvest of
thousands of sago and nipa palms, and mountains in a riot of
contorted peaks rising to a height of 13,200 feet in the Owen
Stanley range.

It is still a country of surprises, as when petroleum fields,
probably 1,000 square miles in area, were discovered only about
four years ago along the Vailala River, the natives having
concealed their knowledge of the bubbling gas springs through
fear of offending the evil spirits of the place. It is evident
that although the country has been merely glanced over, there
are both agricultural and mineral resources of a promising
nature in Papua. It remains but for modern medicine to
over-come the infections of the tropics for the region to rise
into prominence as one of the self-supporting colonies of the
British empire.

The early history of British occupation centers around the