Post-War Conditions In Bsi.

Huge Expenditure Planned —Nothing Yet For Evacuees

riTHE first post-war session of the X British Solomon Islands Protectorate Advisory Council opened at Honiara, Guadalcanal, on Monday, October 22.

His Honor, the Resident Commissioner, presided.

Members present were: Official — Colonel Noel (Resident Commissioner), Major Sinclair (legal adviser), Major Rutter (acting senior medical officer).

Non-official—Mr. D. Mackinnon, MBE, his Lordship the Bishop of Melanesia, and Wing-Commander Widdy.

The Resident Commissioner, in his address, said that the last meeting of the Advisory Council had taken place in November, 1941, prior to the Jap inva sion. He then made sympathetic refer ence to those former .residents of the Protectorate whose deaths had occurred since that date, and members of the Council paid tribute to their memory by observing a minute’s silence. The official list was as follows: Killed in Protectorate: Lieut.-Colonel C. N. F. Bengough, MBE, Lieut. G. H. C.

Train, Captain R. S. Taylor.

Roman Catholic personnel murdered by the Japanese: Father Arthur Duhamel, Father Henry Oude-Engberink, Sister Mary Sylvia, Sister Mary Odilia.

Missing: Hugh Wheatley, Johannes Klaucke.

Killed in action outside Protectorate: R. Chapman (at sea), P. Kneen (in New Guinea). Captain J. McEachran, and H.

Beck (at sea), J. Carey (in Middle East).

Died in Protectorate: W. Wilmott,

Father Tiggler, F. J. Hickie, S. C. Ashley.

Died outside Protectorate: G, Wilson, C. Beck, J. Webster, Agnew, H. L.

Freshwater. P. H. Mulvey, R. L. Threl fall, Father John Coicaud, Miss C. Deck.

It is feared that when complete records are available the list may be added to.

Training Of Natives

OTHER points of interest in the address related to native affairs.

The RC said native councils have been established wherever practicable.

These councils represent and offer native opinion. Local Rural Tax (formerly called Poll Tax) is now to be collected by the councils, and then proceeds are to be spent in each council area on essen tial village services and requirements.

Native Courts have been established, and are working satisfactorily. In this man ner the elders and people are being grad ually taught the art and responsibility of local rural administration.

The policy of Government is to develop agriculture so that the people shall have ample food and a well-bal anced diet. To assist in this direction, the services of an experienced agricul tural officer from Uganda have been ob tained, and he is now carefully survey ing the position. Several hundred acres of rice have been planted at an experi mental farm, and an effort is being made to popularise rice-growing at native villages.

Native Labour

fIIHE turnout of Solomon Islanders as X recruits for the Labour Corps has been magnificent; but this is a military unit, and is now being gradually demobilised. It seems reasonable to expect that most of the personnel will feel inclined to enjoy a rest. It must also be remembered that much work is necessary in the rebuilding of their vil lages and in cultivating their food gardens. In these circumstances a rush to recruit for employment is most un likely.

There is also the question of wages.

When prices dropped, during the lean years for the copra industry before the war, the Solomon Islander realised the position and accepted a fall in wages.

He is likely to adopt an equally realis tic view now when the prices are high, and will expect a rise in wages before he will offer his services.

Return Of Civilians—Shipping

Position

INQUIRIES are naturally being made as to the return of those people who were formerly employed in the Pro tectorate or owned their own businesses there. This, to a large extent, is bound up with the shipping question.

The Government has been able to secure the use of the Levers Pacific Plantations’ vessel “Kurimarau,” which is being operated on charter terms. Until business concerns can undertake to run ships to and from the Protectorate the supply link will depend entirely on the “Kurimarau,” and imports will neces sarily be limited accordingly. This, there fore, is the deciding factor for the present in regard to the number of Europeans who can reside in the Pro tectorate.

The difficulties in the way of re

settlement are very great, and must be given serious thought by those former residents who, naturally, wish to return at the earliest possible moment, fITHE business before the Council X was set out in the following papers:— • Draft Labour Regulation. • New site for Protectorate capital. • Draft Estimates for the financial year 1946-47. • Collection of Customs Duties on articles admitted duty free as .military stores and offered for sale to civilians. • Resumption of trade. • Draft Native Tax Regulation. • Draft Native Administration Regu lation. • Draft War Gratuities (SI Labour Corps Regulation). • Shipping position.

Labour Regulations

npHE draft. Regulation came in X for close examination and discus sion, and certain amendments were recommended.

Points of immediate interest concern recruiting and wages. The old system of recruiting labour is abolished, and in its place the Government has set up a Labour Exchange, through which requi sitions for labourers are passed to native councils, with whom are registered the names of natives who desire to offer for work. This method, which is designed to comply with the requirements of an International Convention, is generally regarded as cumbersome, and many con sider that it will prove unworkable in practice. Experience alone will show whether it will be adequate.

The minimum wage proposed was 25/per month, as against 10/- pre-war.

Members expressed agreement with the

heed to increase the minimum wage, but that it be fixed at 20/- if tobacco were continued as a free issue, or 25/- if such issue were discontinued.

New Site For Capital

AFTER careful consideration of several possible sites, a majority of the members favoured the choice of Honiara, Point Cruz, on Guadalcanal.

His Lordship the Bishop of Melanesia dissented from this decision, and argued the claims of Tulagi, the old capital.

It was felt by his colleagues, however, that Honiara, while lacking a satisfac tory all-weather anchorage for ships, possessed advantages over Tulagi in that it provides ample scope for expansion of administrative and business areas, has an adequate water supply, and is situated within easy distance of land on which native foodstuffs can be grown.

Making Use Of Military Stores

ON the subject of the collection of Customs duties on articles which were admitted duty-free as military stores, and are now offered for sale to civilians, non-official members were unanimously of opinion, ,and recom mended, that Customs duty on goods pur chased locally from the United States military authorities should be remitted, provided they are used by the purchasers in a manner that will aid in the general scheme of rehabilitation.

Huge Expenditure Proposed

rE Draft Estimates for 1946-47, sub mitted to Council, received tren chant criticism, and all three non official members availed themselves of the opportunity presented to express freely and forcefully their disagreement with many of the proposals.

The estimated revenue was shown as £76,515, and expenditure at £379,522, leav

ing a prospective deficit of £303,007, to be borne, apparently, by the British tax payer—who has quite a few financial headaches of his own at the moment.

It was indicated that expenditure of hitherto undreamed-of proportions was to be expected, for years to come, and the official hope is that nature will con tribute with an outpouring of gold from a' (so far) undiscovered El Dorado, and that a timber industry, not yet in being, will combine to provide the sinews of administration.

The value of gold won in the Solo mons during the last year of account ing was approximately £17,000; and, while it is true that timber resources are virtually untapped, it has yet to be proved whether the Solomon Islands product is marketable on an economic commercial basis.

Expenditure on vessels provided for district administration was criticised as extravagant and unwarranted.

But, generally speaking, members were moved to state the view that pruning in dividual items in the estimates would not meet the situation. There should be, they claimed, a complete recasting of the policy of Government in respect of the method of carrying on the administra tive service. This could be, and pre viously was over many years, effective on simple but adequate lines, and no ambi tious administrative scheme should be attempted.

The need to assist former residents to re-establish themselves in profitable occupations, to the benefit of trade and the public revenue, was stressed as being so potentially important as to de serve a prominent place in Government policy; and regret was expressed that apparently no form of assistance was contemplated when the Estimates were drafted.