Produce Anounced

Papua Planters

Return

Provisional Rates for Produce Anounced

rE Australian New Guinea Produc tion Control Board—which, as a subsidiary of ANGAU, was brought into being to control the production of rubber and copra on the privately-owned plantations in the Territories—com menced to function on July 1.

The chairman of the Board is Brigadier D. M. Cleland, who is second in com mand (under Major-General Morris) of ANGAU. The Board members are Mr.

W. Kirkthorpe (finance) and Mr. E. J.

Frame (commerce).

Mr. G. A. Loudon, who was one of Papua’s best-known planters before the war, and who recently was in the service 'of ANGAU, has been appointed secretary of the Board.

It has been announced that, as from July 1, for three months —apparently as a period of trial —the Board will pay the planters the following rates: — Rubber: 1/5 per pound, on the plan tation.

Copra: £l5/10/- per ton, f.o.b. at the nearest port to the plantation.

It is reported that the Commonwealth authorities recently have increased the “sustenance allowance’’ which, since the evacuation, they have been paying, under certain conditions, to Territories people who had been compelled to leave their homes, and were without adequate means. The allowance to adults has been increased from £2 to £2/10/- per week, and there is also some slight increase in the allowance for children.

As pointed out in the article on pages 3 and 4, the conditions under which this allowance is granted have been made so humiliating that only those people who have no other recourse will accept it.

Planters Returned To Papua

The following are the names of plant ers who have been allowed to return from Australia to Papua, under the Production Control Board, to operate their planta tions. About 50 more men have been released from the forces already in Papua, for the same purpose:— T. L. Sefton. W. A. Gray.

F, D. Ross, T. J. Ryan.

F. B. Godson. E. T. Ward.

T. Miller. A. S. Fitch.

W. D. Voysey. E. V. Crisp.

A. O. Pollard. T. Nevitt.