Copra Stabilisation Is
p. 11 · Read in the full issue
"Out" In Fiji
Prom Our Own Correspondent SUVA, Mrch 1. rE Government of Fiji has decided to drop the Copra Bill, which embraces the proposed stabilisation fund, and which has been under fire by planters for many months.
A stabilisation fund, financed by levies on copra of anything from £2 to £lO per ton, was proposed, to cushion the industry against any future recession. Most Fiji planters have been against the creation of such a fund, some on the grounds that a similar fund, which was created years ago by the Government and financed by the planters for the repatria tion of Indian indentured labourers, was unsatisfactory. Few of the Indians were ever repatriated, but the fund was not refunded to the planters, and ultimately found its way into consolidated revenue.
When the Government’s Economic Ad visor, Mr. R. M. Taylor, visited Taveuni (Fiji’s chief copra producing area) re cently he suggested that the price of Fiji copra should be tied to the British price index figure. Some elements of this scheme are obscure, but it appears that one immediate result would be that Fiji copra wou4d rise about £B. to £5O (Fijian) per ton, FOB Suva. The price would thereafter fluctuate with the index figure, but would not be permitted to fall below a certain price—about £22 or £25 per ton.
The planters agreed to this scheme, provided that Mr. Taylor advised his Gov ernment to drop the Copra Bill first. (The Fiji Government may have been trying to pattern its copra stabilisation fund on the Australian government model. Under the appropriate Australian regulation, an amount of something like £6 per ton is arbitrarily levied on Papua- New Guinea producers of copra. The fund was first introduced in February, 1947; the levy was then £1 per ton. Since then it has been raised to £6. The Papua-New Guinea planters were allowed no say in the matter. The Australian government makes the rules, through the Department of External Territories, and holds the money, and the planters obey—or get out.)
Copra Rise
IT has been announced in Suva that as from March 15, the price of copra will be £46 per ton FMS and £46/5/6 plan tation grade (Fijian currency) fob Suva.