Copra Profit.

Does a Well-managed N.G. Plan

tation Pay with Copra at £10

per ton, Rabaul?

WE have received, from a gentleman interested in copra production in New Guinea, figures to show that a planter can do reasonably well on copra returning £10 per ton, at Rabaul.

These calculations are based on a plantation of 200 hectares, with 100 palms to the hectare, in fairly full bearing. It is reckoned that such a plantation will give 20 tons of copra per month, and that actual production costs should not exceed the follow ing:—

* Includes labour’s food cost.

To this, of course, must be added the cost of management and a return on the capital cost of the plantation.

If coconuts are bought directly from the natives, the plantation costs are eliminated, and production of copra goes about as follows:

Our correspondent says that some of his figures may be challenged; but he has proved them personally. Much, of course, depends on the supervision of the plantation and proper management of the labour. A plantation of 200 hec tares, producing as above, would re quire about 40 boys; and, if well man aged, carrying cattle, pigs, goats and fowls, growing vegetables, etc., and em ploying a pigeon-boy, the feeding cost of the labour can be cut down materi ally. In fact, the provision of native “kaikai” is one of the main things in plantation management. Most of the adjacent waters teem with fish—and a stick of dynamite costs 6d.

There are planters and planters. Most of the men who are really “on the job” to-day are making money out of copra;

although a few really are unfortunately situated. Many who cry out loudly against hard times are “verandah bosses,” who are too lazy to properly control their labour. Others consume half-a-dozen bottles of beer or a half bottle of whisky every day; and that procedure, apart from its economic as pect, has only one result.

EDITORIAL NOTE: We have tried to carry on our friend’s calculations, on the basis he provides, to see how the plantation-owner fares.

The capital value, on a conservative basis, is as follows: —

With copra at £10 per ton. Rabaul, our friend is making a profit of £6/15/- per ton, on his own figures—which is £135 per month, or £1,620 per annum. That profit must take care of —

Which means that the planter, if he is his own manager, is living well, and making a very modest £400 per annum.

However, no two men will agree concerning plantation costs, and we should be glad to have the opinions of other South Sea planters.

Per ton. f s. d.

Freight to Rabaul .. . . 15 0 Bags (14 at 1/3) .. . . . . 0 17 6 Cutting copra* . . . 0 12 0 Drying copra* ..080 Carting . . . . 0 2 6 £3 5 0

£ s. d.

Buying 160 coconuts for 1/- (6.000 to 1 ton of copra) 1 18 0 Other costs as above 3 5 0 £5 3 0

Plantation, at 5/- per palm, and worth £5,000 100 palms to hectare, is Other improvements, say . . . . 1.000 Capital value, say . . . . £6,000

Per annum Interest on total investment of £6,000. at 8 per cent £480 Cost of running plantation, apart from labour, say 750 £1,230