N. Guinea Trade

Protection of Australian Interests

HAVING spent two years in the Man dated Territory of New Guinea, the Administrator, Brigadier-General W. R.

McNicoll, is now enjoying a few weeks’ rest in Australia, The Administrator has been interro gated by newspapers and various or ganisations with reference to the condi tion of the Territory, but he has had com paratively little to say. He has made a report personally in Canberra; and the information which he has given to the public suggests that the Mandated Terri tory is in a very good position. Summed up, the claims of the Administrator are as follows;

Revenue last year was, in round figures, £400,000, and was the largest on record.

New Guinea’s imports were worth £948,000, of which £430,000 worth came from Australia. Exports were worth £2,350,000, of which £1,725,000 was gold.

New Guinea’s shipping is nearly all British. Last year 450,000 tons entered was British, 50,000 was German, and 60,000 was miscellaneous.

The gold industry is flourishing, and a determined, carefully planned effort is now being made to locate an oilfield.

Government control is being steadily extended over the large, newly-discovered population in Central New Guinea. Es pecially good work has been done in the Chimbu-Wahgi valley.

The Administrator said that a great success is being made of the Government experimental farm, where coffee and cocoa are being produced for export. He especially praised the work of Messrs.

Clive Green and Colin Marr.

Timber Resources

The Federal Government has under consideration a request made by the Aus tralian timber industry that the duty on timber imported from New Guinea should be reduced from the general rate of 30 per cent, to the preferential rate of 10 per cent. It was pointed out that maho gany and cedar logs from North Borneo and the Solomon Islands were allowed in at the preferential rate, and that the local trade would benefit if the same concession applied to New Guinea.

New Guinea’S Imports

Several questions asked in the Com monwealth Parliament apparently indi cate a belief that too large a quantity of foreign goods is being imported into the Mandated Territory of New Guinea at the expense of Australian trade. Reference has been made especially to canned meats, rice, cement, etc.

In each case ministerial replies have been defensive. It is said that wherever possible Australian goods are used by the Administration, and that local firms are encouraged to import Australian products.

There is little doubt, however, that con stant prodding is necessary to maintain this position. There is evidence that both the Administration and the merchants re quire encouragement from official sources in Australia —otherwise they will take the goods that are so frequently being offered to them at “dumping” rates.

It was well-known, for instance, that only a few weeks ago a large quantity of Argentine canned meat was lying at a Chinese port, and had been offered to New Guinea interests at rates with which Australian canners could not possibly compete. The Australian merchants took drastic action; with the result that Can berra officialdom moved, and the Argen tine product was kept out of the lian Territory.

The Administrator has been questioned in Australia about the rice trade. He has explained that native-grown rice is ac ceptable to the natives but not to the Chinese. The latter do not even like Australian-grown rice—they insist on the Indo-Chinese product.

Rev. Harold Chambers, principal of the group of educational institutions main tained by the Methodist Missionary Society at Davuilevu, Fiji, has forwarded a request to the Board of Missions in Sydney for permission to return to Aus tralia at the end of the year for family reasons. He will seek an appointment in the Victoria and Tasmania Conference in 1937.

Colonel J. Walstab, Superintendent of Police at Rabaul, arrived in Sydney from New Guinea on furlough by the Tanda on September 23.

Mr. J. A. G rim wood, manager of the Union Steam Ship Company’s trans pacific and Islands services, returned to Auckland, New Zealand, by the Matua on September 8, after a visit to Central Pacific. He was accompanied by Mrs.

Grimwood.