£1,000,000 Damage on Ocean

Ocean and Nauru But Phosphate Exports Expected by July

INFORMATION given in Victoria in April by Mr. A. H. Gaze, general manager of the British Phosphate Commission, indicates that shipments of phosphate from Nauru and Ocean Island are expected to begin in July. The out put for 1946-47 is estimated at from 200,000 to 275,000 tons. As mechanical loading equipment is restored, it is hoped to increase output to between 500,000 and 650,000 tons in 1947-48, to between 700,000 and 850,000 tons in 1948-49, and between 1,000,000 and 1,200,000 tons in 1949-50.

Mr. Gaze said that about £1,000,000 worth of war damage had been done to the Commission’s property on the two islands. Good progress, however, was being made with reconstruction.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Nauru, although administered by Australia (Department of External Territories) on behalf of her other two partners in the Mandate, Great Britain and New Zealand, does not come within the scope of the Australian War Damage compensation scheme. The War Damage Commission has, however, con ducted, on behalf of the Commonwealth, a survey of war damage to Government and Government employees’ property, and the employees have been compen sated by the Commonwealth—although not from War Damage funds. Employees of the BPC will, it is understood, be re habilitated by the BPC and probably some proportion of the cost of the re construction work on mining and loading equipment, on both Nauru and Ocean Island, will be paid by the Governments of Great Britain, Australia and New Zea land. The administration of Ocean Island, of course, is not the province of Australia, but of the British Western Pacific High Commission.

The Rev. Fathers Tonjes, Schlieker, and Muller, sailed by the “Ormiston” from Sydney in May to resume their mission work in the Toraklna .area of Bougainville (Northern Solomons, but part of the Mandated Territory of New Guinea).