Problem : What To Do With £29,000

From Our Own Correspondent

Honiara, July 24

BSIP Copra Board met on July 19 to discuss various matters, including the use to be made of a balance of £29,704/19 8, standing to the credit of the Board at December 31, 1949.

It is not the Board’s policy to make profits. Last year’s surplus arose partly from the uncertainty of the price to be paid for copra shipped to Australia— which led to the BSIP price not being increased till late in 1949—and partly from the shrinkage on copra shipped overseas being less than the 3 per cent which had been allowed for in fixing the BSIP prices.

Majority of Copra Board members con sidered it would be impossible to distri bute the £29,704 fairly among all 1949 producers, including native producers.

After energetic discussion it was de cided that £3,000 should be used in em ploying an entomologist to investigate

Pi^ s^ s .? diseases in coconut palms, and that the rest of the surplus be retained for the present and the matter raised again at the end of the year.

The Chairman estimated that a mini mum of 20 per cent, of production per year was lost through nutfall, Brontispa Froggatti and other plant diseases.

Last year’s production having been about 10 000 tons, at the Ministry of Food’s price of £6O 12/6 per ton the Pro tectorate as a whole lost £151,562 be cause these diseases could not be con trolled.

A Dutch botanist. Dr. C. G. van Stennis, has gone to Australia to enlist the aid of fellow botanists in compiling the first authoritative work on the flora of Malaya, Philippines, Indonesia and New Guinea. He expects that the task will take 30 years.