Solomon Islands

Government Finance —Who Are Getting Benefit of Low Copra Prices ?

From Our Own Correspondent

Tulagi, Nov. 2.

Our annual Advisory Council meet ing was held earlier in the month, and it is hoped and thought that the ad vice of our Councillors will be of service to the Government in striving to keep our heads above water finan cially.

At present, we still have a surplus, but it is going to be increasingly hard to maintain it unless little short of a miracle happens in the near future, and miracles are unreliable things to trust to at best.

Our Councillors are chosen by the Government. Some little time ago, we petitioned for “Elective Representa tion,” but, so long as we have a good man at the head of affairs, and he chooses his councillors as wisely as the present lot have been chosen, then “Elective Representation” would only be as big a failure (proportionately) as it is in Australia, or any other country which embraces universal suffrage.

We all extend a vote of thanks to the Government for deciding to lay up the Ranadi (Government steamer), which was a most unnecessarily big ex pense these hard times; but we were somewhat astonished to learn that the budgeted expenditure for the coming year (in spite of the saving over the Ranadi) was somewhat greater than last year. Possibly, there is a point of view not apparent to the average out sider.

It seems little short of a certainty that, with copra prices so low, many plantations must go out of production, and, assuming that the same will ap ply to other parts and to other oil producing industries, it seems reason able to expect a somewhat better price, say, next year.

What planters would like to know is: “To what extent is the big Margarine Combine to blame for present low prices?” and “Are they giving con sumers of their products the full and fair benefit of the “good times?” If not, is there no way of forcing them to realise their responsibilities in the matter of bringing down the cost of living?

Land which cost about £60 per acre to bring into bearing will possibly be selling shortly for around £15. One can see this octupus reaching out its tentacles and gathering in ready-made plantations, what time the trail-blazing pioneers grimly and helplessly stand by and see the product of their life work evaporate into thin air.

If it meant that the necessities of life were brought more within reach of the workless and poor multitude, then there might be some ironical compen sation in the loss of one’s all; but, if it only means the fattening of the bank balances of a comparative few ghoulish money-spinners, then it*is high time the British and other Governments took a hand to show them where they get off.”