Economies In Fr.

Oceania

Governor Comments on Budget Plans and Taxation

From Our Own Correspondent.

Papeete, Nov. 1.

DISCUSSING the Administrative Bud get for 1935 during the second ses sion of the Financial and Economic Dele gation, which was held recently in Pa peete, His Excellency Governor Montagne said that the estimated expenditure for 1935 of 12,900,000 francs (as compared with 15,400,000 francs for 1934) repre sented a considerable step towards the re-adjustment of expenses to diminished revenue, and that the present figures were only 3.79 times greater than in 1919 (when the franc was five times its value to day). Thus the Colony of French Oceania had achieved a reduction in Administra tive expenditure which was greater than in any other part of the French Empire.

Among other economies effected during the past year, His Excellency drew atten tion to the following items: The reduc tion by two-tenths of the “Supplement Coloniale” (extra Colonial pay for offi cials); Declassment of the Superior Court of Appeal and other economies in the Judicial Service; reduction by one-third of the effective strength of the Colonial Gendarmerie; and the suppression of the Service of Ostreaculture and its replace ment by a simple laboratory. It was also noted that the number of Home officials in the Colony at present amount to 57 (of which seven are magistrates) as com pared with 61 in 1885.

Communications

Dealing with the question of communi cations, His Excellency said that these had been maintained and vigilantly de veloped to the extent permitted by the modest credits at his disposal. He looked upon Tahiti’s circular road as an all important factor in the economic and social life of the people, for the transport of the sick to hospital, and the facilita tion of medical tours to the outlying dis tricts, and also for the development of the tourist traffic. In this connection it was considered that the proposed tax on gasoline—which had been previously dis cussed and rejected—was a matter worthy of renewed examination, as it was calcu lated to yield an additional revenue of 160,000 francs.

Public Health Plans

If the proposed tax on gasoline were adopted the Administration would be able to give serious study to the important question of extending the public health service in the country districts, the plans for which would ultimately be completed by a Sanitarium on the West Coast, where debilitated infants and young people could recover health and vigour.

Public instruction would also be benefited by the innovations he had in mind; these would comprise a school for apprentices, an agricultural farm, and an open air school for infants equipped with free transportation facilities for children at a distance.

Taxation Rate

Commenting upon the per capita rate of taxation in the Colony, His Excellency drew an interesting comparison between the present time and the year 1913, when

the rate was 109.85 francs per head on a population of 31,000, while to-day it works out at 64.50 francs per head on a popu lation of 40,000. Undoubtedly the system of taxation applied in French Oceania was one of very great merit, but a system which could count upon only 17.18 per cent, of direct revenue while the balance of 82.82 per cent, was raised by indirect (and therefore uncertain) means was not without its risks from an Administra tive standpoint.

It had not been found possible to carry out in their entirety all the improvements in agriculture and stockbreeding fore cast in 1933, nevertheless some ameliora tions had been accomplished. During the year 1934 the veterinary service had created hygienic slaughter houses where all meat destined for human consumption was subjected to a rigorous inspection.

Certain measures had also been taken which would ensure an improvement in the quality of fruits and vegetables placed on sale in the Papeete market. A matter of great interest to agriculturists was the liquidation of the old Caisse Agricole and its reorganisation on a new basis as the “Credit Agricole Mutuel.”

His Excellency concluded with a brief resume of his visits to the outlying archi pelagoes of the Colony, some of which were so remote from Papeete that in at least one island the outbreak of the war was not known till 1916. On these tours he had been obliged to travel some 5000 kilometres in order to visit merely a small portion of the French possessions in the South Seas.

Rev. J. W. Raton Gillan, principal of the Presbyterian Mission Teachers’ Train ing Institute at Tangoa, New Hebrides, arrived in Sydney from the Condominium by the Morinda on December 12.