Solomons

Aid Needed In

ALL over the Pacific, copra planters are facing one of the most difficult periods in the industry’s history.

Fortunately, the majority of the terri tories are not wholly dependent upon copra and have alternative industries to help tide them over.

Not so with the Solomon Islands; and this is what one planter, who arrived in Sydney in August from Tulagi, had to say; “The outlook for copra planters in the Solomon Islands is very black; so serious in fact, that unless we get assist ance in some way, very soon we shall have to let 9m* plantations go.”

“Planters in the Protectorate have not made a profit for at least two years. The London market was fixed at £l3/10/sterling, soon after the outbreak of war, yet in the Solomons earlv in this August we were receiving £3/-/6 Australian per ton, on the beach. Against that, the cost of production alone on the average plan tation is in the vicinity of £6 a ton.

Of course, we cannot blame the big trading companies for the wide margin between the London and Islands price— they are up against it, too. Not only are they finding it difficult to get a market, but they are having a great deal 01 trouble in getting boats to take the copra away; and sheds are chock full.

Alternative Industries And

Labour Problem

“The Solomon Islands have no alter native industries like other territories in the Pacific”, he continued. “We cannot plant cocoa and coffee or dig gold, like New Guinea, or the New Hebrides; we haven’t got the rubber industry of Papua, or the sugar industry of Fiji— but not because we don’t want to. Our trouble is labour.

“In the Solomons you can get labour only on a strict indenture system for periods of two years. The recruiting of each labourer costs at least £lO. How are you going to plant cocoa or coffee under those conditions! When these crops come into bearing, they have to be picked quickly, and to do this you need a large number of natives; but you cannot just go out and get ‘boys’ for a short time.

You have to indenture them for two years. For instance, on a plantation of 500 acres, about 25 to 30 natives would be all that one would need to plant copra. With nuts dropping all the year round, these boys are kept busy. But if you planted coffee on that plantation, you would need about 200 boys, at only one or two periods in the year. What then, are you going to do with them for the rest of the time? There would be nothing for them to do, and you cannot get rid of them because they are inden tured for two years.”

Position In Samoa

IT was reported from Western Samoa in August that Burns, Philp and Co., Ltd., and Morris, Hedstrom, Ltd., would continue to purchase copra on a barter basis as in Fiji and at a reduced rate—they will not take copra from other than their regular customers and they will not pay cash for it.

The American Samoan Islands (Tutuila, Manua, etc.) still have a market in U.S.A., where their copra is allowed in duty free, and they have direct and cheap transportation by the Matson liners. For the past 18 months, their copra has been shipped on consignment, after only one bid was received for the territory’s 1939 output. The selling price during 1939 averaged 44.8 dollars (about £ll/14/- N.Z.) per ton and during 1940 38 dollars (about £9/10/- N.Z.) per ton.

Producers were paid 80 cents (4/- N.Z.) per 100 lb.