New Governor, However, Emphasises Colony's

Cold Water On Fiji's Ten-Year Plan

New Governor, However, Emphasises Colony's Boundless Possibilities

From Our Own Correspondent

SUVA, March 22. rE Legislative Council of Fiji to-day completed one of its shortest sit tings for years. The council was in session for only five hours, spread over two days. If the European member for the Southern Division (Mr. A. A. Ragg) had not come to light with a motion about forestry and reafforestation, the sitting would have been complete in the three hours of the opening day, March 19.

There was little controversial material in this, the first sitting presided over by the new Governor, Sir Brian Free ston.

No Financial Splashes

The Governor’s opening address was not calculated to encourage the cus tomary clamour for increased expendi ture on social and other services very much the reverse.

In a speech of admirable terseness, which contained some diplomatically presented plain speaking, His Excellency told Fiji that its cherished Ten-Years Plan has to be remodelled to meet the

exigencies of the economic situation, “with more emphasis on projects which are likely to provide an early return, and less emphasis on unproductive works.”

It came as something of a jolt to a good many people when the Governor reminded them that the plan, drawn up in 1946 and adopted by the Legislative Council at the November session in that year, still awaited the final go-ahead signal from the Secretary of State for the Colonies.

“Very Cold Water”

Since his arrival in Fiji in January, the Governor said, he had inquired about the progress of the plan at the Colonial Office and had received in return what he described as a dash of cold water — “very cold but very salutary.”

“We are reminded that there hangs over our financial heads an unresolved commitment of £3,096,000 on account of war advances,” the Governor continued.

“There is ground for hoping that much, if not all, of this paper indebtedness will in due course be written off; but there is no certainty of so favourable an outcome. . . .

“Secondly. I am informed that there is virtually no prospect of our receiving permission to raise a £3,000,000 loan on the London market for some years to come. ...”

The Colonial Office also pointed out that the Colony’s plan contemplated heavy capital expenditure on public works which would produce relatively little annual return to revenue; and, lastly, that there would be “extraordinary difficulties” in getting steel and other es sential materials for building schemes envisaged in the plan.

Temporarily Shelved

In short, the Colony’s Ten-Year De velopment and Welfare Plan is “dished,” at least temporarily.

In its final form it covered an expen diture of nearly £4,500,000, of which £1,110,000 was to be provided by the British taxpayer under the Colonial De velopment and Welfare Fund, £3,000,000 by a loan on the London market, and the balance from local surpluses and revenues.

In the meantime, said the Governor, the Government will look round in the hope of raising part if not all the £3,000,000 from sources other than Lon don, and will revise the whole plan to push up some priorities and push down others.

As a sort of sugar coating to the Colonial Office pill, the Governor men tioned two important proposals which have gone to the Colonial Development Corporation in London (which has no thing to do with the Development and

Welfare Fund).

Electricity And Beef

These are: A hydro-electric plant a few miles from the mouth of the Navua River, as recommended in the report of the New Zealand experts called in to make an investigation; and, secondly, a large-scale beef cattle-raising project on 60,000 acres of Fijian-owned lands in Ra Province, Viti Levu. (Earlier this year a committee was appointed to in vestigate the nossibilities of a Fijian sug gestion that Fijians might profitably be encouraged to become pastoralists on their own lands).

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In conclusion, the Governor admin istered a sharp rap to the Colony, as a whole, for its tardiness in reducing the gap between what Fiji is producing and what it might produce.

What Fiji Could Do

The Governor emphasised the develop mental possibilities of Fiji. Considering the natural advantages of Fiji and the fact that hungry markets overseas are eager to accept practically everything the islands can produce, a newcomer may well be pardoned if he feels he has en tered upon a potential island paradise, he said.

Sir Brian said that on his first hurried tour round the main island of Viti Levu he had noted its fertile soil, abundant rainfall, extensive forest cover, includ ing much valauble timber, and freedom from nearly all of the major pests and diseases whether of mankind, animals or plants. He also noted that the over-all density of population was only 27 to the square mile, compared with about 500 in the United Kingdom, and 250 in the sub-continent of India.

“But,” remarked His Excellency, “the newcomer’s second impression will not be so complacent or so comforting,” He proceeded to point out that the colony was still driven to import a large part of its timber requirements, that thous ands of acres were lying virtually idle or were covered with useless vegetation, and that state of affairs was by no means limited to native occupation.

There was a wide gulf, he said, between what Fiji could produce and what Fiji was in fact producing. The immediate aim was to reduce that gulf.