Resentful

Natives

Boycotting the Trader

Effect Of Copra

Slump

Written for The Pacific Islands Monthly hy Gordon Thomas “The quantity of copra exported was 4,850 tons less than in 1927-1928. The decrease was due mainly to the fact that the quantity of trade copra offered by the natives was consid erably less than in the previous year. The price of copra fell during the year; and the natives were disinclined to sell their produce at the reduced price that was offered to them.”

THUS the wording of paragraph 203 in the Annual Report of the Mandated Territory of New Guinea for 1928-29. And, although the report for the following period has not yet been put into public circulation, the betting is a pound to a peanut that a further decrease in trade copra will be reported for that period for, in the Buka district alone, there are scores of native-owned coconut groves from which not a pound of copra is, or has been, produced for the past nine months.

The reason is apparent. When copra prices ranged from £12 to £15 per ton on the beach, competition was so keen amongst the traders that absurdly high prices were paid to the native produc ers; as high, in seme cases, as 10-121b. of smoke-dried copra for 1/-. The mar gin of profit was negligible, the argu ment being that a one-way profit on turnover of goods was sufficient, and that copra shipments must be made to satisfy the big firms.

The Puzzled Natives.

Came the depression, however, with the drop in copra and the increased price on trade lines; such as 5/10 per lb. for trade tobacco that used to be 5/3, which naturally compelled the trader to reduce his buying price from the native. Such things as world de pression, over-production and under consumption are merely figures of speech, past the comprehension of the stolid and one-time affluent Buka. He can put but one construction on the decreased value of his product and that is: The white man has launched an intensive campaign of exploitation; and no argument or explanation by the trader will induce him to think otherwise.

The result is that in his determina tion to avoid “exploitation” he has re fused to make copra; allowing the nuts to mature on the ground where they fall; planting up small areas of native tobacco as a substitute for the trade article and depending on “casual lab our” payments and the wages from “time-finished” labourers to furnish him with the few necessities of life.

And it is surprising how few these “necessities” can be amongst natives whom Nature has so generously en dowed.

From an agricultural point of view the situation presents the danger of the neighbouring European plantations becoming infested with pests and dis eases, which are allowed to develop in the native groves ad lib.

Should The Administration

Explain?

From an economic viewpoint it is altogether disastrous, both for the Ad ministration and the individual plan ter and trader. For the former, it means a considerable decrease in re venue from export duties, and also in the revenue derived from trading licences. For the latter, it is a direct loss of revenue which, in many cases, spells ruin, where the individual’s activities are alone confined to trad ing. It curtails his purchasing power for trade goods and that, incidentally reflects a decrease in the turnover arid the imports of the larger firms.

What better step, therefore, could the Administration take than to ex plain the existence of the world depres sion to the natives, through its district and patrol officers, and the need for co-operation amongst all sections of the community in order that the effects of this world depression may be combated as much as possible?

Such a step surely could not be in terpreted, by even the most conscien tious member of the Permanent Man dates Commission, as being a desecra tion of the “sacred trust” towards “peoples not yet able by themselves to stand under the strenuous condi tions of the modern world.” Rather would it be putting into practice the

ultimate paragraph of Article 2 of the Terms of Mandate by promoting “to the utmost the material and moral well-being and social progress of the inhabitants of the territory.”