Fish, Flesh And Costly

Shipping

Planters’ Grievances in New Guinea

1 NOTICE that Mr. Pennefather hgs had something to say about the enormous cost of shipping stock to New Guinea” said a veteran Territories planter in Syd ney, recently.

“It is about time someone made a pro test. The Japs destroyed practically all our livestock: and when we claimed war damage compensation we were allowed around £5 per head. Yet in 1946, when I brought a bull and two heifers in from Australia, the shipping charges alone were £54. They have increased considerably since then.

“If there is to be real European rehab ilitation in New Guinea, we must have livestock; and we cannot afford these ehormous transport charges. The Govern ment does not hesitate to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on the natives, who are not asking for it. Yet it will not spend anything in subsidising the transportation of suitable stock from Aus tralia to New Guinea, which it well could do.

“The Administration policy towards the European planter is hard to understand.

We are supposed to provide each of our native labourers with three pounds' of meat per week. But Australia cannot supply the meat—we have great difficulty in getting it, even at the high prices ruling. So we sought permission to dynamite fish. We have thousands of miles of coasts, swarming with edible fish, and a plug of dynamite will give our labour lines an ample supply of food. But the only reply we can get is that dyna miting of fish is forbidden. Why? No one knows. There is so much coastline, and so many fish, that if every European spent all his time dynamiting, it would have no effect on the fish supply.”