Valuable Official Compilation
pp. 38-39 · Read in the full issue
Future Of N.S. Copra
Industry
\ BROCHURE which we are inclined to describe as the most valuable com pilation ever made in connection with the copra industry was published in the October issue of the New Guinea Agri cultural Gazette. It is entitled “A Sur vey of the Coconut Industry in New Guinea” and it is by Mr. R. E. P. Dwyer, H.D.A., H.D.D., B.Sc., who is the Eco nomic Botanist employed by the Depart ment of Agriculture in N.G.
Mr. Dwyer has not confined his com pilation to New Guinea. He has rightly taken the view that in order that he may write authoritatively about the future of the N.G. copra industry, he must make a survey of the copra industry of the world —and this has involved researches re garding the present and possible future use of coconut oil, the prospects of in creased production, the method of world distribution, and the possibility of coco nut oil being supplanted by other vege table and mineral oils.
As well as the world aspect, Mr. Dwyer has dealt very fully with the local as pects under the sub-titles of ‘‘lmportance of the Copra Industry as Affected by the rise in Gold Production,” ‘‘Production of Shredded and Desiccated Coconut,” ‘‘Quality of N.G. Copra,” “Fluctuations in Average Values of N.G. Copra,” “Effect of Copra Inspection on the Premium ob tained for Rabaul Hot-Air Dried,”
“Manufacturers’ Requirements,” “Copra Driers,” “Accounting Methods on Planta tions,” “Administration Ordinances.”
In his conclusions, Mr. Dwyer says that coconut production is likely to be the main feature of the planting industry in New Guinea for many years. The industry has not received the attention in various directions which its economic importance merits—especially as the pro duction per acre has a tendency to dec line. He apparently takes the view—ex pressed many times in the P.I.M. —that the gold industry has been permitted to overshadow New Guinea copra in dustry and that the authorities have not used the rich revenues derived from gold sources as they might have done to build up and stimulate the planting industry.
Mr. Dwyer points out that the older planting areas in N.G. are definitely be yond their stage of maximum production and there has not been a sufficient co ordinated effort to establish new coconut plantations. He acknowledges, however, that conditions during the depression period, with its calamitously low copra prices, may have been largely responsible for this.
“The need for an organised scheme of research dealing with copra and coconut production in this territory is very evi dent,” says Mr. Dwyer. It is very evi dent in every coconut growing territory in the South Seas. The amazing thing is that all these self-centred and com-
placent Administrations do not recognise the fact and then take the next logical step—namely, that of establishing a cen tral bureau of economic research where the services of such men as Mr. Dwyer could be properly and profitably employed.
As it is, we presume that this most useful brochure of 72 large pages, carry ing an extraordinary amount of valuable information, will be duly pigeon-holed somewhere in the New Guinea Adminis tration and that all of the other Pacific Administrations, which are just as inter ested as New Guinea, will never even see it. However, the fact may be published that copies of this brochure (No. 2, Vol. 2, of the New Guinea Agricultural Gaz ette) can be obtained from the Depart ment of Agriculture, Rabaul, at a cost of 1/- each.