Eastern Highlands and Western Highlands 17 stopped, at a creek which had water too deep to be passable by a conventional motor vehicle, and too turbid for the bottom to be seen, I found, growing among rocks which must have been under water at high flood, two examples of one of the rarest known plants of New Guinea, namely, Coriaria sp., first found by Cuthbertson on Mt. Obree about 1875, I think, and sought by me, unsuccessfully, for over 30 years in New Guinea. I also saw there, ripped out and carried down by a flood, Equisetum, known from New Guinea but never collected by me, and in this example sterile. Kotuni sawmill is owned by the Collins Bros. of whom our John is a junior member. Roderick, clad in tattered white shorts and shirt, and doing something with greasy machinery, met us when we stopped. Later, Michael, youngest of five or six brothers, drove up with a load of sweet potatoes bought somewhere down in the populated zone for the feeding of native labor. The mill, roofless, is expensively equipped with a Pelton water turbine fed with a fall of 180 feet. About 20 small, barked logs were on a gravity feed slope above the mills. These mostly Libocedrus. The timber lease has been nearly worked out in 7 years of operation. Tractor roads for logging have been put in up to about 9000 ft. The steep, unstable slopes make road maintenance difficult and expensive, and now a big tractor lies idle close above the mill, and logs are being manhandled down to the saw. Mostly Mt. Hagen boys employed. One of four of them who went down the mountain for diversion last night is missing and presumed murdered either by local natives or his fellow Mt. Hagens. The Hagens have been stealing pigs from the locals, according to our John. One of them may have met his desserts in native law. The Kotuni locality on Mt. Otto looks promising as a working place for us. Much primary forest remains, and the extensive road system would facilitate our getting about. Got back to Goroka at dusk -- 6:45 pm., tired, sunburned, and with nothing to eat but chocolate bars and morning tea at Chimbu since a 6:30 breakfast. Goroka Hotel, where we stayed the night, is in the usual crude Australian style as regards 2-person bedrooms provided with one glaring overhead electric light, no sink, inadequate closet space, coathangers made of baling wire, common bath- rooms with hot water at night only. Food is poor. The Goroka coffee featured on the menu is probably made with salt and is without suggestion of freshness. Town now has a white population of about 500; the Eastern Highlands District has 340,000 natives. Electric power is from a hydro plant. The hotel bathroom water is muddy. I did not care to clean my teeth with it. Rain water for drinking. Wednesday, April 1. Visited the Bunting store and bought woollen sweaters and surplus Australian Air Force jackets for our boys to wear later on. Warm clothing was ordered months ago from Buntings of Lae but nothing was done about it. Russ Webster, formerly of Samarai, is merchandise manager for Goroka Buntings; Ken James is overall manager. Called on DC Seale in his office. Big, forceful man who has done great tings in road building and otherwise opening up the district in three years here. About to be transferred to Rabaul to clean up a mess which has developed under DC Foldi, and some months ago involved the shooting of two Tolai natives of a crowd who were demonstrating against paying taxes. Seale now planning a motor or jeep road around Mt. Michael. Promises up maps of his district, after they are brought up to date.