George Le Hunte to Atlee Hunt

Abstract

Many thanks for your letter and the copy of Monckton’s. He is the best/authority on the geography of the country in that part. I only know the coast. It was a most unfortunate thing that the boundary line was arbitrarily fixed at a purely mathematical line without any reference to its geographical features which could only have been ascertained by sending someone to the spot beforehand. If the mouth of the Gira river (or Ikore as it was at first known) had been fixed and from there in a straight line to the 147 meridian it would have been practically the same thing and would have saved all this trouble. I quite concur with Monckton that it would be quite wrong to make the Gira river throughout its course the boundary for it takes a turn southwards just after above its mouth and runs right into our own territory. I cannot say anything about the Waria river as I have never seen it nor have I any map shewing it. I do not seem to have the sketch map Monckton refers to in the 1906 Report, there is one of the Albert Edward range but it does not shew the rivers — or at least not in any way that would guide me sufficiently for this purpose. If you have a loose one of it would you send it to me. It is impossible to speculate on the chance of finding a natural boundary which would prove acceptable to both sides. The spurs which run from the Great Dividing ranges run at all sorts of angles to the coast and in such a tangle that it would be very difficult to find one that would carry the line anywhere near straight from whatever point you started on the coast.

Commonwealth Archives Office. A 1, 14/4329. Sir George R. Le Hunte was a former Lieutenant-Governor of British New Guinea who at this time was Governor of South Australia (July 1903-end of 1908); Arthur Atlee Hunt was at this time Secretary of the Deparment of External Affairs.