Private Enterprise”
p. 62 · Read in the full issue
High Costs “Will Kill Ng
Prom Our Brisbane Correspondent MRS. DORIS BOOTH, New Guinea pioneer, who recently arrived in Brisbane, claims that the formula for successful New Guinea development should be more power for local officials, and minimum control from Canberra.
Business interests, she said, hoped for great things from the Menzies Govern ment. ■ ■ * Describing post-war New Guinea, Mrs.
Booth said that private enterprise, despite restrictions, and astoundingly high costs was going ahead by leaps and bounds, but that high costs must eventually kill the efforts of private enterprise. On most goods from Australia, consumers had to pay indirectly for a high export levy, heavy freight charges, and 10 per cent import duty. She quoted one essential item—rice—the pre-war cost of which was £ll a ton. To-day, costs have risen to £69 a ton.
Mrs. Booth, who has been associated with New Guinea goldfield development since about 1921, owns the Cliffside gold mine, on the Bulolo River.
The BGD gold industry, she said, had been so rehabilitated that it was hard to realise there had been a war. Sawmills had speedily supplied timber for build ing in that area. General rehabilitation, however, was slow, and except at BGU, the main hold-up was in building.