Scope Of South Pacific

Plan

Aims of the Research Council

WE have received, from a prominent re sident of a South Pacific Territory, a private letter, in which he strongly criticises the activities of the South Pacific Commission. He questions the practical value of the plan, and sees it mostly as “an opportunity of providing well-paid jobs for a group of academic dreamers, who are spending a great deal of public money which could be more ad vantageously used in other directions.”

This is typical of a good deal of com ment: and it is the result of the failure of the Commission to effectively publicise its aims, objects and activities. A very good outline of the South Pacific Com mission plan was published in the April issue of the Crown Colonist; and we re print the article in full, so that the general idea will be better understood in the South Pacific. It will serve as an ex planatory background to the report of the recent Sydney meeting of the Com mission’s Research Council.

THE members of the six Powers who met at the Fifth Session of the South Pacific Commission in Suva, early in May, can look back on a year of solid preparatory work and forward to a period of steadily expanding activity.

Under the guidance of the Commission’s Secretary-General, Mr. W. D. Forsyth, and his collaborators a new era of pro gress is being planned for the scattered area comprising all the non-self-govern ing territories in the South Pacific which are administered by the participating Governments —Australia, France, Nether lands, New Zealand, United Kingdom and United States.

The Commission was established in 1947 as a consultative and advisory body to “encourage and strengthen international co-operation in promoting the economic and social welfare and advancement” of the peoples of these territories.

To this end the Commission was re commended at the time of inception to give early consideration to a wide range of projects deemed to be of particular importance to the social welfare of the inhabitants. These projects are now arranged under the three general head ings of Health, Economic Development (including agriculture) and Social De

velopment (including education).

Five projects were allocated to the field of Health, thirteen to Economic Develop ment and ten to Social Welfare. On the Research Council (which is responsible to the Commission itself for the orderly development of these projects) there is a specialist member in charge of each of the three groups.

A survey of the twenty-eight projects reveals the care with which the schemes of work have been devised.

The Member for Health, for example, has the following projects under con sideration:— Epidemiological information and quarantine; Maternal and infant welfare; Tuberculosis: filariasis and elephan tiasis; Diet and nutrition. . A standard system of epidemiological information and stringent quarantine re gulations has become necessary as a re sult of the wider use of aviation in the area, which has increased the risk of infection. Such a standard procedure has been evolved under which member Gov ernments can supply information on

thirty-six infectious diseases to headquarters, for transmission to appropriate authorities throughout the area.

In regard to maternal and child welfare, member Governments have already for some years been engaged in valuable research into weaning foods and their preparation under local conditions.

A particularly wide field of research lies open in the case of diet and nutrition, Here the main object of the Member for Health on the Research Council has been to concentrate on the collection and study of existing data, including statistics of imported foodstuffs, individual and communal diets and alcoholism.

The most urgent of South Pacific health problems are tuberculosis, filariasis and elephantiasis. A detailed plan has been prepared in the case of tuberculosis, under which simple techniques suitable for

use under actual field conditions can be developed and implemented.

Economic questions naturally loom large in the Commission’s system of priorities, and in selecting its thirteen projects the Research Council bore in mind the wide diversity of peoples in the area, ranging as they do from isolated atoll-dwellers to “westernised” urban communities accus tomed to a money economy. The selected projects are: Introduction and distribution of econo mic plants; Cash crops; tropical pasture and ani mals; Land use surveys; fruit and vegetables; Economic development of coral islands; fisheries: subsistence of indigenous peoples; Control of pests; commercial relations;

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Work on behalf of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation: Work on behalf of the Fiji and Western Pacific Research Council (financed from United Kingdom Colonial De velopment and Welfare funds); General co-ordination of existing re search facilities.

Only a few of these projects may be referred to here. Recognising the small number of economic plants indigenous to the area, an attempt is being made to experiment with the introduction of such non-native subsistence crops as pulses, cereals, root-crops and fruits. Experi ments are also to be conducted with pas

ture grasses, fodder plants, latex-bearers, beverage plants and those yielding oils resins, gums, waxes and dyes.

In connection with copra, which rep resents some 75 per cent, of total ex ports in the area, attention will be con centrated on marketing and productior problems.

In its efforts to improve animal hus bandry, the Research Council intends tc take as a model the research already ir hand in Fiji. Projects there include the selection and propagation of grasses anc legumes, nutrition and parasitological control of pigs and poultry, and the con trol of weeds in pastures.

For its land-use survey the Research Council takes note of the thin layer oi top soil in the Pacific Islands and the consequent danger of soil erosion due tc faulty techniques of agriculture. It h accordingly proposed to employ an ex perienced forester, a soil scientist and £ land surveyor on a pilot project.

One final example of the work of the economic section may be cited —the worl envisaged under the head of biologica control. In this connection the Counci is undertaking a study of mosquito con' trol and ways of combating insect pest (especially those attacking the coconu palm), rodents and such weeds as the guava and lantana. For this aspect o its work the Council can count on the active co-operation of the Institut Fran cais d’Oceanie, in Noumea, and the En tomology Division, Department of Agri culture, Fiji.

The Member for Social Developmen has to spread his resources over tei projects:— Vocational training; visual aids in edu cation; Mass literacy; the planning of an arej educational conference; Anthropological research; linguistic re search;

J The role of co-operative societies; Building; community development; Preservation of archaeological sites of historical and scientific importance.

Indicative of the general line to be fol lowed is the work suggested under com munity development. It is proposed that pilot projects should be instituted in Fiji and Netherlands New Guinea. A selected community will participate in its own de velopment under the leadership of a trained native team, including a teacher, agricultural instructor, carpenter and house builder, a leader trained in sani tation and hygiene, a co-operative leader and a woman experienced in child wefare.

A village on the island of Moturiki has been chosen for the Fiji experiment.

Should this method prove successful the team will then move on to another com munity.

Allied to this is the plan proposed for combating mass illiteracy. One particular method is already being tried out as a pilot project in New Guinea, and the Research Council will consider the ade quacy of this method in the light of ex periments taking place elsewhere, notably in Jamaica, Northern Rhodesia, Nyasa land, Pakistan, India and China. Since both these lines of experiment involve the use of educational techniques, a study will be made of the use of such visual aids as films and film strips.