Another Morsel for BSI Planters

BSI Planters

From Our Own Correspondent

Honiara, May 7.

THE BSIP copra price has been raised to £AS3 at Yandina and £52/15/- at Honiara, as from May 14. (Formerly it was £ASI.) Fees of the Copra Board’s agents have been assessed at £2/10/- per ton at Yandina and £2/15 - at Honiara, and these figures have been accepted by the agents.

In the past, the fees paid to the Board’s Agents at Yandina and Honiara have contained percentages covering insurance and loss from shrinkage. These commit ments will in future be undertaken by the Board.

The Chairman of the Copra Board (Mr. V. J. Andersen) announcing the new prices, said; “The new purchase prices at Yandina and Honiara may be argued by some copra producers and traders to reveal that the Board has been making excessive profits on its transactions, but I would ask you to bear in mind that the Board is committed to an average monthly expenditure of approximately £43,000 and that as the Banks Line ships do not call here every month the Board may have to make an outlay approaching £BO,OOO before being reimbursed by the Ministry of Food. I mean, of course, that this will happen when the present system ceases—at present the Ministry of Food advances 75 per cent, of the value of each month’s purchases. It will then be neces sary to obtain an overdraft: Interest on a Bank overdraft is an expensive item, and the Protectorate copra industry will benefit from the fact that the Board has accumulated assets which can be em ployed to lessen the amount of overdraft required thus saving expenditure on in terest.” (BSI planters who are forced to jump through the hoops which bureaucracy provides and who have no redress, will no doubt be thankful for small mercies, even to the extent of a pound or two.

However, they are scarcely likely to be impressed with this rigmarole about bank overdraft interest, if and when the MOF changes its buying tactics. In the New Hebrides planters are receiving £9O per ton for very ordinary copra and the world parity price is over twice what the MOF is paying British colonies on con tract. The BSI planters did not want a contract with the MOF. If they had been permitted to sell their copra themselves the BSI Copra Board would be relieved of its anticipatory trembling over bank interest—indeed, there would be no Board at all.)