Copra Crushing Planned For New Guinea

No Sign of World Parity For Australian Territory Planters

From a Special Correspondent

Canberra, July 27.

PROPOSALS are being prepared in Canberra for expanded treatment of copra grown in New Guinea. If the plans reach fruition they may have far reaching effects on Australian manufac ture of margarine, confectionery, biscuits and other vegetable oil products.

It is at present proposed to erect a big copra crushing plant in New Guinea to treat copra at the source instead of its having to be shipped to Australia. Apart from effecting large savings in treatment costs and shipping, by enabling oil to be extracted and shipped in drums, the big gest effect of the scheme will be greatly to increase supplies of vegetable oils available to Australian industry.

At present all copra has to be brought to Australia from New Guinea or else where, for crushing. Most of the crush ing plant in Australia is under the con trol of one firm, and the maximum crush ing capacity is only 44,000 tons a year.

Only in July 44,000 tons of copra sent from New Guinea to Sydney for crush ing. were exported to England because Australian crushing plants could not handle it.

The plans for New Guinea have not reached official levels yet, and because of international considerations (especially the attitude of UNO to Australia’s New Guinea trusteeship) some time may elapse before they do.

Editorial Note: The foregoing message from Canberra is fairly authoritative and very interesting—because of what it does not say. The outstanding question for New Guinea planters is not what Aus tralia or any other country will do with

their copra, but what they will pay for it. At present, Australia is compulsorily acquiring their copra, and paying them for it at rates very substantially under world parity. This system has been fol lowed since the inauguration of Mr.

Ward’s Socialist Administration. All the copra thus acquired has been consumed in Australia.

In other words, Australia —where prices are kept low by Government edicts—has been getting the benefit of the cheap copra; and getting it at the expense of the New Guinea planters, who live in a country which has to pay top world prices for everything. If the planters got world parity for their produce, they could not object to paying world parity for their supplies. As it is, they are being robbed by Australia in a really shocking way.

We may be sure that, while Socialism rules Australia, the Government will continue to purchase the bulk of New Guinea’s copra at rates substantially under world parity, (See article elsewhere in this issue on Copra’s value in different markets.) Mr. F. R. J. Davies, who has been Act ing Director of Education in Fiji, has resigned that office in order to become Officer in Charge of Islands Education in the Education Department of New Zealand. He expects to leave Suva in October, and his future duties will in clude supervision of education in NZ Territories in the Pacific and of all NZ teachers appointed to positions under the Fiji Government.

The Rev. A. Lidbetter and Misses N.

White and M. Kekwick left Brisbane reqently by the “Malaita” for New Guinea Miere they will join the Anglican Mission.