New Fund For Fiji Natives’
p. 10 · Read in the full issue
Development
To Be Created By Compulsory Deductions From Copra Payments
Prom Our Own Correspondent
SUVA, April 4 IMPORTANT steps to strengthen the conection between the Fijian native communities, and the effective use of the soil thev own, are being taken by the Fijian governmental authorities. What is being done, the way it is being done, and the results of it all will be of interest to all Pacific Islands Administrations, and the South Pacific Commission.
Latest develonments are based on the high market value of copra. The general plan—for which Sir Lala Sukuna, the very able Fijian who is in charge of that section of the administration which con trols native affairs, is largely responsible —provides that a proportion of receipts from the sale of copra shall go into a fund "for the economic and social development of the Fijian people.”
As soon as the Legislative Council assembles this month, it will receive the Fijian Development Fund Bill. The Bill almost certainly will be passed. It will authorise the deduction, from monies paid for native-grown copra, of a sum not ex ceeding £lO per ton, which will go into a fund for the benefit of the Fijians generally .
The Fijian Affairs Board will hold and administer the Fund, and will be respon sible for seeing that the Fund is used in a suitable and proper way.
The growers will lose the money thus deducted from payments due to them for copra. They are credited with the full amount deducted, and they will receive interest at the rate of 2 per cent, per annum during the full period it is with held from them. In certain circumstances, the Board may release the money from the Fund and hand it over to the owner; but these circumstances will be quite ex ceptional. It may be described as a com pulsory loan, held at the pleasure of the Fijian Affairs Board.
The Fiji Copra Board, which receives and sells all copra produced in Fiji, is responsible for deducting, from sums due to native growers, the rate per ton fixed by the Government, and for handing the sums so accumulated over to the Fijian Affairs Board for addition to the Fund.
Already, before the Bill is law, Fijian Provincial Councils have put under way, in Macuata, Bua, and Cakaudrove Provinces and in the Yasawas, schemes for saving money from copra payments for development. They will be absorbed into the bigger plan when the Bill is law.
Tying in with this organisation is an earlier announcement, to the effect that the Secretary for Fijian Affairs (Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna) has launched in collabora tion with the Department of Agriculture, a scheme for increasing the area of Fijian coconut plantations in the Provinces of Cakaudrove, Macuata, Bua, Lomaiviti, Lau, Ba, Kadavu, Serua, Nadroga and Ra.
It is proposed that every Fijian able bodied man belonging to a mataqali (land-owning unit), which has suitable vacant land, should plant 50 coconut trees a year on that land, and should afterwards be responsible for keeping the new plantations clean. The Department of Agriculture will advise on the choice of planting material and on methods of planting. It will also help Fijian growers to improve the quality of the copra pro duced from existing plantations.