Huge Deficit In

Tahiti

Assembly Rejects Government’s New Taxation Plans

From a Special Correspondent

Papeete. Jan. 17.

BEHIND the refusal of the Representa tive Assembly to confirm the Govern ment’s plan to impose new and heavy taxation, to provide for a deficit of 19 million francs (about £135,000 Australian), there is a strong local feeling and a bitterness that goes back to the local differences of World War 11.

One of the main causes of the huge deficit is the payment of higher salaries and of back-pay to fonctionnaires (public servants).

The Tahitian citizens especially resent the French Government’s decision to give back-pay to the fonctionnaires who were deprived of their posts in 1940 when, after France surrendered to Germany, the people of Tahiti decided to rally' to De Gaulle and the Western Allies, and fight on.

A certain proportion of fonctionnaires adhered to the Vichy Government; and, as the Vichy Government collaborated with the enemy, these officials were dangerous. Some were sent away to Indo-China, which was generally pro- Vichy; and the remainder were gathered together by Governor Orselli, and placed for safety on the island of Motu-Uta, near Papeete.

To the outspoken disgust of the Tahi tians (that is, the French and Tahitian people who remained loyal to De Gaulle and the Allies) most of these fonction naires not only got their jobs back with out loss of seniority, but they also are getting back-pay as if they had been in

receipt of full salary during their period of incarceration. Officials who rallied to De Gaulle particularly resent the appearance of these gentry as their superiors in rank.

All non-official classes in Tahiti object strongly to the official proposal to impose new and heavy taxation, to take care of a deficit that is caused partly by the muddling of incompetent officials appointed from Paris, and partly by the decision of Prance to give back-pay to the pro-Vichy officials referred to.

Tahitian public opinion was sharply re flected in scenes when the Governor called together the Representative Assembly in an extraordinary meeting, to consider the Government’s proposal to impose new taxes —especially 'in the shape of income tax —to provide for the Treasury deficit of 19 million francs.

The Representatives would not have it.

The rebellion was led by Monsieur Alfred Poroi, Mayor of Papeete and Vice president of the Assembly. He declared publicly, and emphatically, that he and his Councillors of Papeete were opposed to the taxation proposals. The citizens of Tahiti had had no benefit from the expenditure of the 19 million francs; it was a Governmental matter, so let the Government make its own arrangements for dealing with the debt.

M. Poroi is a good speaker, and he put the case against the taxation plans very effectively. He said that Tahiti had two plagues—the influenza plague of 1918, and the post-war Governmental plague of the present time —and he did not know which was the worst.

The Assembly warmly acclaimed M.

Poroi’s speech and rejected the Govern ment’s proposals.

The Treasurer is understood to be now seeking some other way of bridging the financial gap. (The situation in Tahiti is discussed in a special article on page 6).

Dr. Lawrie Ncwnham, of Suva, has re ceived an award of the Anti-Gambia Memorial Medal from the Government of Egypt, for the part he played in the campaign against the Gambia mosquito during the 1939-45 War. The medal is awarded annually for meritorious anti malarial work in Egypt. During the war, Dr. Newnham was appointed malariol ogist to Egypt for the RAF. The Gambia mosquito, a dangerous West African spe cies, began to appear along the Nile and if it had gained a hold in Egypt would have caused havoc among the peasant population. The RAF, in collaboration with the local authorities, waged war on the mosquito and succeeded in eradicating it.