Other Crops

Copra-growers Seeking an Alternative

NOW that it is practically impossible to produce copra at a profit, planters throughout the South Seas are urgently asking whether there are any other crops which they may profitably handle, and so assist themselves over this bad period.

Coffee is receiving a good deal of atten tion in Papua and the Mandated Territory of New Guinea. A good many people already are growing the low country coffee (Robusta) in both Territories and there is a market —though not a very eager one—for the product in Australia.

We have heard recently that a coffee has been grown on the high country near Wau in the goldfields area of New Guinea.

Samples which have reached Sydney have pleased buyers very much. They say that it is equal to the Blue Mountain coffee of Jamaica, which is worth to the planter 1/- per lb. It is worth remembering that coffee entering Australia from countries other than Australian Territories is sub ject to a duty of 4d per lb. That is to say, that the coffee producer in Papua and New Guinea should receive for his product in Australia a price that will return him at least 3d per lb more than is received by the producer in other countries.

Other planters have been giving atten tion to cocoa, and there is some produc tion of this commodity at present in New Guinea, and, in varying degrees, in the other groups. The world price of cocoa is low but so far as New Guinea is con cerned there is a bounty of 4d per lb, paid directly by the Commonwealth Government to the producer, and this helps the planter considerably. The cocoa bounty will last until 1938, at least.

There has been attention given recently in Papua and New Guinea to rice-grow ing. Large quantities of rice are now imported to both Territories —mostly for feeding native labour. The Papuan A.R.M. (Mr. Austin) in the Trobriand Islands re cently introduced rice-growing among the natives—mainly to provide them with an article to export which would enable them to pay their taxes. The natives have taken up the new crop with some enthu

siasm, and it appears likely that they will grow rice presently as a means of aug menting their own food supply.

The District Officer in the Talasea dis trict of New Britain (T.N.G.), Mr. Ellis, appears to have been very successful in his long-cherished scheme of inducing the natives there to grow rice. The industry is growing and it is reported that there is now a likelihood that the Government there will establish a rice-mill at an early date. This may become an important industry in New Guinea, which in a nor mal year imports rice of the value of £90,000, from India, Burma, and China. it is worth noting that rice-growing has become an important industry in Fiji in recent years, having been taken up on a large scale by the Indian peasants.

Another industry recently promoted in New Guinea is that of tobacco-growing for the local manufacture of native twist.

In a normal year New Guinea imports from £30,000 to £40,000 worth of trade tobacco, and twist tobacco is practically a currency item in the Territory. The Territory grows large quantities of native leaf and a small manufacturing company has now been formed, and has established a factory near Rabaul, where twist is being made. The main difficulty, prob ably, will be an adequate supply of suit able leaf. Some of the planters in that end of New Britain are now giving atten tion to tobacco production, with a view to keeping the factory supplied.