Jute Growing
p. 18 · Read in the full issue
Experiment in NG
IT was announced from Canberra in mid-March that the possibility of growing jute commercially in New Guinea was being investigated.
Experimental plantings had already been made and “results are encouraging.”
Jute, the raw material for sacks and bags, has been in short supply for years —with periods of acute shortage. This is due to a large extent to the cold war between India and Pakistan —Pakistan grows the jute and India processes it, normally, taut apart from the general touchiness between the two countries since partition, some added dispute over jute prices arose last year.
Various substitutes for jute have been tried from time to time but it still seems to be the best medium for certain sacks and bags. If New Guinea could grow the fibre commercially (it is a quick growing crop, reaching maturity in about a year) it would help to solve not only the Ter ritory’s own copra-sack difficulties but find a ready market in Australia for all the fibre it could produce.