Copra Slump

Relief For Planters

Moratorium

Continues

Other Measures Under Consideration

OWING to the very serious fall in the price of copra—referred to on page 15 special steps have been taken to give relief to New Guinea coconut planters.

The Federal Government (according to a special message which has reached us from Canberra) has decided to ex tend, for another year from June 30, the Moratorium on payments for “ex propriated” plantations in New Guinea.

It is probable that, during this period of relief, the authorities will give seri ous consideration to the question of re valuing the plantations, in the light of their reduced earning power.

Meanwhile, a meeting of New Guinea planters, held early in the month, has urgently asked the New Guinea Ad ministration to reduce or suspend the export tax on copra of 15/- per ton.

They suggested that the Administra tion, to make up the loss of revenue, should impose, instead, a further Cus toms duty on “luxury” articles, so that the burden of the reduced copra price may be spread more equally over the community. It has been pointed out, in support of the application, that other Pacific Administrations have vir tually removed all export charges on copra. Papua has charged practically nothing since copra fell below £20 per ton; and Solomon Islands and Fiji maintain a merely nominal 1 per cent.

The matter is now receiving the close attention of the Federal authorities.

The position is a serious one, not only for the planters, but also for the various commercial houses which de pend more or less on the huge copra trade. There cannot be much holding of stocks and storage of copra—it de teriorates too quickly. Generally speak ing, copra, as it is produced must go forward promptly to the markets and the crushers, whatever the price, other wise the percentage of acidity grows and depreciates its value very serious ly. Therefore, the value of the copra available to-day—on the plantations, on the wharves and in transit —is the cur rent market price.

There is only one thing to do, and that is, reduce production. Our ad vices are that, all over the world, copra production is falling rapidly. So also is the production of other oil-seeds and of whale oil. The law of supply and demand is operating. The position will remedy itself.

In the meantime, the Administra tions and the big trading firms must co-operate fully with the planters and the smaller traders in helping them

over a lean time. There is plenty of evidence that this is being done, and in the right spirit.

In connection with this matter, strong representations have been made to the Australian-New Guinea authorities, concerning the provision in the Transfer of Land Control Ordin ance that no person or firm may have an interest in land in New Guinea “which land is, in the opinion of the Administrator, of a value of more than £250,000.” The effect of this is that the total value of the properties con cerned is taken into consideration, in stead of the total value of the firm’s actual interest. The result is that some of the big firms operating in the Terri tory are finding it difficult to make further advances to New Guinea pro perty-owners, just at a time when those advances are more urgently needed than ever before in the Territory’s his tory. The whole subject has been re cently before Mr. Chifley, the Federal Minister who attends to Islands affairs; and he is considering a met hod of making the operation of the Ordinance somewhat less burdensome.

Strong representations have also been made at Canberra and Rabaul con cerning the operations of the German steamer Bremerhaven. It is possible that such foreign ships may be asked to conform to regulations similar to those in vogue in the Solomons, and restrict their calls to the main Cus toms ports onlv. But the out-ports competition of the Bremerhaven. as a source of anxiety to the Australian trading firms, is likely to disappear now, owing to the severe handicap im posed upon the Bremerhaven’s meth ods by the new copra situation.